Most Read on the Web

Each month, the JN will let 
you know the stories that were 
read most often online. If you 
missed any, you can go to 
thejewishnews.com and 
search for them by title. Here’
s 
what was most popular in 
October.

TOP 10 ON THE WEB
1. Michigan State Hillel 
 Sukkah Destroyed
2. Swastikas Found in 
 West Bloomfield Linear 
 Park
3. Three Cats Restaurant 
 Premieres in Clawson
4. Siggy Flicker of Real 
 Housewives Speaks Out
5. Val’
s Delicatessen 
 Coming Soon 
6. Diverse Group of Rabbis 
 Call Huntington Woods 
 Home
7. Those On the Front Lines 
 of Cancer to Air on PBS
8. Remembering Stephanie 
 Kroot Steinberg
9. The Blum Legacy
10. Best Break Fast Recipes

TOPS ON FACEBOOK
1. Michigan State Hillel 
 Sukkah Vandalized
2. Bubbie’
s Kitchen Episode 
 2: Making Mandelbread 
 with DeDe 
3. Two Anti-Semitic Flyers 
 at Temple Jacob
4. Val’
s Delicatessen 
 Coming Soon
5. Meet the Experts at 
 Star Laser 

TOP INSTAGRAM POSTS
1. Grace and Frankie 
 Giveaway
2. Grodman Brothers
3. Val’
s Delicatessen
4. Louie Kemp’
s “Dylan 
 & Me”
5. Jewish Federation’
s 
 Scott Kaufman 

T

he year since the syn-
agogue shooting in 
Pittsburgh has been 
a time of reflection, grief 
and increased anxiety within 
the American 
Jewish commu-
nity.
It has also 
been an incred-
ibly demanding 
time at the Anti-
Defamation 
League, and 
the Center on Extremism in 
particular, where our team 
of researchers investigates 
and responds to extremism, 
anti-Semitism and all forms of 
hate in real time — sometimes 
thwarting violence before it 
happens.
While the shooting in 
Pittsburgh — the deadli-
est anti-Semitic attack in 
American history — was 
shocking, it did not surprise 
those of us who spend most of 
our waking hours tracking hate 
because we know hate, online 
and off, can move extremists to 
violence.
In the years prior to the 
shooting in Pittsburgh, the 
team of researchers I lead 
witnessed and documented a 
resurgence of white suprem-
acy. This was evident in the 
record number of propaganda 
distributions nationwide and 
in countless online spaces, 
where violence is glorified and 
hate is half-masked in “ironic” 
memes. Even as we saw the 

evidence building, we hoped 
the worst was behind us.
Americans are no strangers 
to white supremacist carnage 
— the vicious attacks in Oak 
Creek and Charleston speak to 
its long history in this country. 
But the shooting in Pittsburgh 
spoke to a different type of 
violence: one that was cele-
brated in plain sight on online 
platforms and forums, but was, 
paradoxically, more difficult to 
detect and root out.
In the year since then, a 
pattern has emerged, garnering 
increased attention to certain 
hateful online repositories: 
white men, radicalized by rac-
ism, anti-Semitism and xeno-
phobia, act violently on their 
beliefs, which they amplify via 
a final post to their toxic online 
communities, often including 
urgent calls to action and blue-
prints for deadly violence.
There is some solace in 
knowing that we are not help-
less in the face of such overt, 
pervasive hatred and violence. 
For every Pittsburgh or Poway, 
several murderous plots have 
been foiled by law enforce-
ment.
Our ultimate goal, of course, 
is to stop violence before it 
happens. This isn’
t always pos-
sible, but sometimes it is: Three 
times in the last year, our anal-
ysis and actionable intelligence 
has led directly to arrests and 
criminal charges.
In March 2019, ADL
’
s 
Center on Extremism iden-

tified a white supremacist 
espousing anti-Semitism and 
racial violence on the social 
media platform Minds.com. 
His screen name was “King 
Shekels.
” We shared the infor-
mation with federal and local 
law enforcement, highlighting 
his radical ideology, calls for 
violence, weapon possession, 
criminal activity and evidence 
of his location. He has since 
been charged by federal prose-
cutors with posting online hate 
messages and threats, includ-
ing interstate transmission of 
threats to injure the person of 
another, based in part on a dig-
ital image that appears to show 
himself pointing an AR-15 rifle 
at a congregation of Jewish 
men.
On Aug. 8, the FBI arrested 
Conor Climo, a Las Vegas-
based security guard, on 
weapons charges for possession 
of an unregistered firearm. 
He was allegedly plotting to 
attack LGBTQ and Jewish 
community targets, including a 
synagogue and a regional ADL 
office. Months earlier, in June 
2019, my colleagues provided 
law enforcement officials with 
warnings about Climo’
s threats 
against synagogues and online 
links to white supremacists and 
threats against synagogues.
These were just two of at 
least 12 white supremacists 
who have been arrested for 
their alleged roles in terrorist 
plots, attacks or threats against 
American Jews since the 

Oren Segal
JTA

6 | NOVEMBER 14 • 2019 

Views

Violent White Supremacy Is on the Rise. 
Here’s How We Stop It.

commentary

continued on page 10

