One chilly morning last January, residents of Blackstone, an upscale neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island, woke up to find Ziplock bags scattered on their front lawns. Inside the bags were recruitment pamphlets calling for men “of European descent”, who aspire for a “better world”. The pamphlets were distributed by an organization called NSC-131 – a neo-Nazi group based in New England. This distribution of the pamphlets in Blackstone was not coincidental – this is the largest Jewish population in Rhod Island.
This incident is yet another in a growing trend wherein white supremist groups are moving their online activity to the public domain.
Is antisemitism at its peak in the United States?
Cases of vandalism, verbal harassment and violence against Jews recorded a steep rise in the US in 2021-2022, with the highest occurrence in New England, home to Massachusetts (in the center of which resides the city of Boston), Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine.
Last March, during the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston, a group of young people over the age of 20 wearing black masks marked with neo-Nazi symbols held up a sign that read “Keeping Boston Irish”. Later it was determined that they are members of NSC-131.
The group’s demonstration during St. Patrick’s Day was just one of numerous demonstrations on part of white supremacists across New England in the past year. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), just last year, there was a 96% increase in white supremacist propaganda activity, which included marches, speeches, antisemitic proclamations, racism, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBT remarks.
Among the New England states, New Hampshire saw an almost 400% increase in hate speech, with 183 incidents reported, including anti-immigrant and anti-minority protests – particularly against Jews and African-Americans. Massachusetts recorded the largest number of incidents with over 450 cases – a 72% increase as compared with the year before. Notably, a 38% increase in such incidences has been recorded across the US – an alarming figure albeit considerably lower than the increase in reported incidences throughout New England, a region with a dominant progressive liberal demographic, but also with a long history of white supremacy.
New England is home to some leading white supremacist groups in the United States: NSC-131, the National Gentile League, and Patriotic Front. The latter group is the most dominant of the three, and although based in Texas, it was responsible for 909 of the 951 incidents in this area.
Both the NSC-131 and the Patriotic Front operate mainly in the New England region, possibly due to the fact that it is home to many colleges and universities, making it easier to recruit young ideological activists motivated by the desire to make an impact. In addition, Boston is an especially coveted arena since it carries a symbolic value to American nationalism.
These groups also take advantage of the media’s coverage of their activities to amplify their message and increase their member base. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that they have decided to make a public appearance, with a sign and Nazi symbols, precisely on such a popular holiday as St. Patrick’s Day. More so as the holiday traditionally attracts tourists and celebrators from around the world.
Despite online monitoring of neo-Nazi groups across the web, the phenomenon is gaining momentum
When hate groups such as these decide to emerge from the dark anonymity of the web and step out into the public domain, it indicates an intention to up the ante on their part and poses a risk in particular to the Jewish community, but also to others. In a recent survey by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), it was found that one in every six Jewish residents of north-east America has been a target of some form of antisemitism in 2021-2022. Nearly half of the Jewish population in New England feel at risk of suffering antisemitic hate crimes. This sense of insecurity is prevalent among the region’s Jewish communities, as evident in the armed security guards in the Jewish community centers and synagogues, wherein every public event of prayer service is heavily secured.
Coupled with the souring antisemitism against the New England Jews is the propagation of malicious conspiracy theories that stoke the violence against the community. An example of this are the conspiracy theories according to which it was Jewish bankers who caused the fires in California last year, and that Jews are attempting to oust white people from the US.
The explicit mission of these neo-Nazi organizations is to make New England a “white ethnostate”, i.e. the restriction of the region to a single ethnic group – whites. They call for a “peaceful separation” from the rest of the United States and the ban on other ethnic groups moving to New England.
How do these groups promote their messages?
Neo-Nazi groups frequently use printed propaganda to spread their messages.
If in 2017 a relatively small number of groups distributed antisemitic booklets in 20 states across the United States a few dozen times – last year that number rose to more than 30 groups that distributed antisemitic materials in printed content in a total of 852 cases in every state in the US with the exception of Hawaii and New Mexico.
Oftentimes, these groups operate under cover of the night, thus allowing the culprits to remain anonymous. However, now some legal bodies are trying to fight this phenomenon. The New Hampshire Department of Justice recently filed civil charges against two NSC-131 members who hung a banner from an overpass in the area, which read, “Keep New England White.” The Department is basing its actions on the claim that the two offenders illegally used government property to intimidate people through racial hate. If the claim wins in court, it can set a precedent for prosecutors to bring criminal charges against the group for future violations.
The use of printed booklets is a common method among neo-Nazi groups, with the Texas Patriotic Front being the most prolific among them in this regard, distributing booklets on a weekly basis. There are also several groups that have even joined forces and begun to distribute each other’s propaganda materials. Similarly to typical behavior of Nazi organizations in the past, the Patriotic Front somewhat tempers its messages in its leaflets to obscure its racist ideology. For example, it uses slogans such as “Protect American work” or “Strong families make strong nations.”
Anti-Semitism is indeed rearing its head, and it is taking itself out of the confines of the virtual world into the real world. Whereas up to this point expressions of anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism on the part of the Muslim population have become routine, now, we should be paying close attention to far-right, neo-Nazis, who espouse white supremacy and racial segregation. This phenomenon is gaining momentum across the United States and poses a danger to the many Jewish communities in the country. In particular, it is rapidly increasing in New England. When online antisemitism goes “offline” into the real world, and tweets become banners and signs – keyboards can become weapons that feed hate crimes.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the movement
