East Cobb synagogue target of Nazi flags, anti-Semitic signs
A small handful of people stood in front of the Chabad of Cobb synagogue in East Cobb on Saturday, waving Nazi swastika flags and holding up signs with anti-Semitic messages.
A Facebook user named Tamara Stevens was collecting photos, videos and other information from passers-by as the incident unfolded late Saturday afternoon and into early Saturday evening.
This appears to be the second protest in recent days in Georgia by a group calling itself the Goyim Defense League, which conducted a similar event at a Macon synagogue.
Chabad of Cobb is located on Lower Roswell Road, next to the East Cobb Government Services Center and across from Mt. Bethel Church and a branch of the U.S. Postal Office.
Police officers were on either side of the road and directing traffic. A group of counter-protestors across the road shot videos and yelled, shouting at the pro-Nazi group to “go home!” and threatening to tell their employers.
But the pro-Nazi protestors were undeterred, and made gestures in return.
Their signs said “Every Single Aspect of [a particular topic] is Jewish,” with the topics including abortion, the media, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank and elected officials.
At the bottom of the signs was a Web address to the Goyim group’s YouTube page, with videos including a program called “Saturday White Live.”
One of those shooting videos confronted the protestors directly, including a man holding up a sign saying “Every Single Aspect of Abortion is Jewish,” and called him “an idiot.”
He retorted that “we shouldn’t lie to our children” as he shot a selfie video of himself.
She later went up to a protestor holding a sign saying “Every Aspect of the Federal Reserve” is Jewish. It included photos of past chairs, with the Star of David marked on the foreheads of some of them.
“You’re a Nazi and you’re an idiot,” she told him.
Another protestor held a sign vilifying the Anti-Defamation League, saying it was established to “Protect a Jewish Child Murdering Pedophile Leo Frank.”
The sign included a photo of Frank, who was found guilty in 1913 of raping and murdering Mary Phagan, a Marietta girl, at an Atlanta pencil factory. When his death sentence was commuted in 1915, Frank was abducted from a south Georgia prison and hanged from a tree in Marietta, near Roswell Road and Interstate 75.
It was the first known lynching of a Jew in American history, and local Jewish leaders are still working to get Frank full exoneration.
Updated, Sunday 12:56 AM:
Chabad of Cobb just issued this statement:
We are extremely appreciative and thankful for the outpouring of support and concern from all segments of the community. We have been in communication with Cobb County officials, who have identified these individuals as part of a small group that travel around the country in order to spread their hateful message.
East Cobb has been a wonderful home to a flourishing Jewish community for many years. These individuals do not represent the sentiments of the citizens of East Cobb .
We are working closely with Cobb County officials and the Police Department to ensure the security and safety of our campus. There is no threat whatsoever at this time.
Ultimately, we must remember that the most potent response to darkness is to increase in light. Let’s use this unfortunate incident to increase in acts of goodness and kindness, Jewish pride, and greater Jewish engagement.
Original report continues:
On Saturday, citizens in Macon gathered to to respond to the anti-Semitic incident at Temple Beth Israel.
Temple Beth Israel Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar told the Macon Telegraph that “I’m obviously saddened to find Macon being the unexpected target of these extremists. This organization, they’re interested in air time and attention, but on the flip side, I feel that I must confront antisemitism when it rears its ugly head.”
Chabad of Cobb is one of three synagogues in East Cobb, where anti-Semitic incidents in recent years have prompted a strong response in the Jewish community.
Swastika graffiti was found in bathrooms at Pope and Lassiter high schools, and a neighborhood off Holly Springs Road and Post Oak Tritt Road.
The Anti-Defamation League said the Goyim Defense League—containing the Yiddish term for non-Jews—is a “small network of virulently antisemitic provocateurs” whose “most zealous and visible actors” include some in Georgia.
“GDL’s overarching goal is to cast aspersions on Jews and spread antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories,” the ADL says on its website.
“This includes frequent references to Jews having undue power through their ‘control’ of major institutions such as media networks, the economy or the government, or disparaging Jews as degenerates who molest children and advocate for pornography, abortion and LGBTQ+ communities.”
(c) 2023, East Cobb News
