Last month, Virginia Beach neighborhoods were again littered with antisemitic propaganda on fliers dropped by a national neo-Nazi hate group, the Goyim Defense League. These flyers, though not signaling a violent threat, are designed to harass, incite fear and outrage, and undermine community security.
To learn more about this organization, go to adl.org/resources/backgrounder/goyim-defense-league.
Followers of the national group have been printing these flyers at home, placing them in Ziplock bags along with rocks, birdseed, or corn, and scattering them in residential areas on public streets – just shy of private property – across the country for a few years.
Despite pending laws to criminalize this activity, it will likely continue sporadically across different locations.
If someone discovers antisemitic flyers, stickers, or other materials – focused on hate against any group – the following steps should be taken:
1. If there’s a physical threat, call 911.
2. Do NOT touch the evidence, leave it where it was found and report the incident to the local police department’s non-emergency number.
- Virginia Beach 757-385-5000
- Norfolk 757-441-5610
- Chesapeake 757-382-6161
- Portsmouth 757-393-5300
- Suffolk 757-923-2350
3. Complete an Incident Reporting Form to alert Mike Goldsmith, Tidewater’s SCN Regional Security Advisor (RSA), Secure Community Network (SCN) national Duty Desk, and Robin Mancoll, JCRC senior director, at JewishVA.org/incidentreporting. If possible and safe to do so, please take a photograph of the material and submit it with the report.
Goldsmith is actively responding to these incidents, monitoring, and coordinating with SCN nationally, as well as with local, state, and federal law enforcement, to assist in investigating incidents of hate. The Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, in coordination with Tidewater’s SCN RSA, works with community leaders and lawmakers to educate about antisemitism and combat its spread.
The JCRC’s advocacy during past Virginia General Assembly sessions led to the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances Working Definition of Antisemitism to be used as a tool and guide to identify instances of antisemitism and train first responders, educators, and other public servants on how to respond to antisemitism and prevent hate crimes from happening; and most recently, adding ethnicity to the protected classes in the hate crimes code of Virginia. The JCRC will continue to advocate for policies that combat antisemitism.
Contact Mike Goldsmith at MGoldsmith@securecommunitynetwork.org or Robin Mancoll at RMancoll@ujft.org with questions.
Robin Mancoll is senior director, Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.