Antisemitism in The United States - Antisemitic Organizations

Antisemitic Organizations

There are a number of antisemitic organizations in the United States, some of them violent, that emphasize Aryan white supremacy. These include the Christian Identity Churches, the Aryan-White Resistance, the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazis, and gangs of skinheads. Several fundamentalist churches, such as the Westboro Baptist Church, also preach antisemitic messages. The biggest Neo Nazis are the National Nazi Party, and the National Socialist Movement. Many of these antisemitic groups shave their heads and tattoo themselves with Nazi signs like swastikas, SS, and "Heil Hitler". Antisemitic groups march and preach antisemitic messages all over America.

The 1998 ADL survey also found a correlation between antisemitism and sympathy for right-wing antigovernment groups. Although antisemitism has declined over the past 35 years, the activities of some antisemitic groups have intensified, possibly a result of increasing marginalization of antisemitic viewpoints. From 1974 to 1979, membership in the Ku Klux Klan rose from a historic all-time low of 1,500 to 11,500, and throughout the 1980s various Klan factions allied themselves with more explicitly neo-Nazi groups like the Aryan Nations (see neo-Nazi movements).

The founding (1979) of the California-based Institute for Holocaust Review helped popularize the antisemitic notion that the Holocaust was a hoax. During the mid-1980s, groups like the Posse Comitatus (organization) espoused antisemitic rhetoric. From 1986 to 1991 the numbers of neo-Nazi skinheads grew tenfold, reaching approximately 3,500 distributed among more than 35 cities. And the mid-1990s saw the formation of paramilitary citizens' "militias" (see militia movement), many of which were accused of circulating antisemitic conspiracy theories and preaching religious bigotry.

Organized hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazi organizations remain unremitting sources of anti-Jewish hostility and significant factors in assessing the intensity of antisemitism in America today.

There are instances in which hate group members and associates engage in violence or vandalism to fulfill the aims of the hate groups themselves. Relative to the total number of incidents committed in America, such examples are rare. In addition, there is the potential for hate group propaganda-particularly the most vicious and incendiary examples-to inspire unaffiliated individuals to commit acts of terror in pursuit of their own aims. Such acts are also relatively rare. However, the propaganda produced by the myriad of American hate groups can potentially affect the impressionable young, the disaffected, and those looking for a scapegoat to explain away their problems. Thus, a culture of hate, shielded by First Amendment protections, exists on the fringes of American society.