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Neo-Nazi group linked to fatal Charlottesville car crash spread hate fliers in Houston – Chron.com

Posted By on August 14, 2017

Keep going for a closer look at hate groups in Texas.

Keep going for a closer look at hate groups in Texas.

Group:League of the South

Type: Neo-confederate

Located in:La Porte,Conroe,Waxahachie

Group:League of the South

Type: Neo-confederate

Located in:La Porte,Conroe,Waxahachie

Group: New Black Panther Party

Type:Blackseparatist, Anti-Semitic

Located in:Tomball,Dallas, Houston.

Group: New Black Panther Party

Type:Blackseparatist, Anti-Semitic

Located in:Tomball,Dallas, Houston.

Group:Nation of Islam

Type:Black separatist, Anti-Semitic, Anti-LGBT

Located in:Houston,Dallas,Austin,Fort Worth,Texarkana

Group:Nation of Islam

Type:Black separatist, Anti-Semitic, Anti-LGBT

Located in:Houston,Dallas,Austin,Fort Worth,Texarkana

Group: Klu Klux Klan

Type: Anti-black, Anti-Semitic

Located in:NewBoston,Gladewater,Quinlan,Flint,Venus,Fort Worth, Gatesville.

Group: Klu Klux Klan

Type: Anti-black, Anti-Semitic

Located in:NewBoston,Gladewater,Quinlan,Flint,Venus,Fort Worth, Gatesville.

Group:Stedfast Baptist Church

Type:Holocaust denial

Located in:Fort Worth

Group:Stedfast Baptist Church

Type:Holocaust denial

Located in:Fort Worth

Group:Bureau on American Islamic Relations

Type: Anti-Muslim

Located in:Irving

Group:Bureau on American Islamic Relations

Type: Anti-Muslim

Located in:Irving

Group:The Daily Stormer

Type:Neo-Nazi

Located in:Austin,Dallas, Wichita Falls

Group:The Daily Stormer

Type:Neo-Nazi

Located in:Austin,Dallas, Wichita Falls

Group:Atomwaffen Division

Type: Neo-Nazi

Located in:San Antonio

Group:Atomwaffen Division

Type: Neo-Nazi

Located in:San Antonio

Group:Probe Ministries

Type:Anti-LGBT

Located in:Plano

Group:Probe Ministries

Type:Anti-LGBT

Located in:Plano

Group:Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge

Type:Black Separtists

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge

Type:Black Separtists

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Soldiers of Odin

Type: Anti-Muslim

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Soldiers of Odin

Type: Anti-Muslim

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Vinlanders Social Club

Type:Racist skinhead

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Vinlanders Social Club

Type:Racist skinhead

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Gallows Tree Wotansvolk Alliance

Type: Neo-Nazi

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Gallows Tree Wotansvolk Alliance

Type: Neo-Nazi

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:National Socialist Movement

Type:Neo-Nazi

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:National Socialist Movement

Type:Neo-Nazi

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Aryan Renaissance Society

Type:Neo-Nazi

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Aryan Renaissance Society

Type:Neo-Nazi

Located in:Texas (statewide)

Group:Israel United In Christ

Type: Black separatists Located in:Corpus Christi,Houston,Dallas, Austin, San Antonio.

Source:Southern Poverty Law Center

Group:Israel United In Christ

Type: Black separatists Located in:Corpus Christi,Houston,Dallas, Austin, San Antonio.

Source:Southern Poverty Law Center

Act for America

Type: Anti-Muslim Located in: Dallas, San Antonio, Houston

Link:
Neo-Nazi group linked to fatal Charlottesville car crash spread hate fliers in Houston - Chron.com

ADL Calls on President Trump to Denounce White Supremacy … – NBC 29 News

Posted By on August 14, 2017

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) -

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is calling for president Trump to name the hate on display in Charlottesville during the Unite the Right rally. They are also requesting that he devise an action plan to confront white supremacy issues in our country.

The league has been tracking extremism and believes the suspect involved in the death of a counterprotestor may have ties to a white supremacy group.

ADL is also calling for president Trump to clearly denounce white supremacy in all forms.

The president has to use his bully pulpit, he has the moral leadership, he has to be quite clear and direct about the unacceptability of white supremacist action and call it what it was, which was a violations of principle and law in this country, said Washington D.C. Regional Director of Anti-Defamation League Doron Ezickson.

The ADL believes the government should focus on monitoring these groups like they have in the past.

Read the rest here:
ADL Calls on President Trump to Denounce White Supremacy ... - NBC 29 News

Christian Zionism – Wikipedia

Posted By on August 13, 2017

For Christians who belong to Zionist denominations in southern Africa, see Zionist Churches.

Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, is in accordance with Biblical prophecy. The term began to be used in the mid-20th century, superseding Christian Restorationism.[1][2]

Traditional Catholic thought did not consider Zionism in any form.[3]Christian advocacy of the restoration of the Jews arose following the Protestant Reformation. A contemporary Israeli historian suggests that evangelical Christian Zionists of the 1840s "passed this notion on to Jewish circles",[4] while Jewish nationalism in the early 19th century was widely regarded with hostility by British Jews.[5]

Some Christian Zionists believe that the gathering of the Jews in Israel is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus. The idea that Christians should actively support a Jewish return to the Land of Israel, along with the parallel idea that the Jews ought to be encouraged to become Christians as a means of fulfilling a Biblical prophecy, has been common in Protestant circles since the Reformation.[6][7][8][9]

Christian advocacy of the restoration of the Jews in Palestine, was first heard following the Protestant reformation, particularly in the English-speaking world among the Puritans. It was common practice among Puritans to anticipate and frequently pray for a Jewish return to their homeland.[10]John Owen, a prominent 17th century English Covenant theologian, for example, wrote: "Moreover, it is granted that there shall be a time and season, during the continuance of the kingdom of the Messiah in this world, wherein the generality of the nation of the Jews, all the world over, shall be called and effectually brought unto the knowledge of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ; with which mercy they shall also receive deliverance from their captivity, restoration unto their own land, with a blessed, flourishing, and happy condition therein."[11]John Gill took a similar position.[12]

Samuel Rutherford, a seventeenth-century Scottish theologian, expressed the ardent spirit of prayer of many of his contemporaries: "O to see the sight, next to Christ's coming in the clouds the most joyful! Our elder brethren the Jews and Christ fall upon each other's necks and kiss each other! They have long been assunder, they will be kind to one another when they meet. O day! O longed-for and lovely day-dawn!"[13]

In 1762, Charles Wesley wrote:[14]

O that the chosen band

Might now their brethren bring, And gather'd out of every land Present to Sion's King; Of all the ancient race Not one be left behind, But each impell'd by secret grace His way to Canaan find!

Christian support for Jewish restoration was brought to America by the Puritans who fled England. In colonial times, Increase Mather and John Cotton, among many others, favored Jewish restoration.[10] Later Jonathan Edwards also anticipated a future return of Jews to their homeland.[15] However it was not until the early 19th century that the idea gathered political impetus.

Ezra Stiles at Yale was a prominent supporter of Jewish restoration. In 1808, Asa McFarland, a Presbyterian, voiced the opinion of many that the fall of the Ottoman Empire was imminent and would bring about Jewish restoration. One David Austin of New Haven spent his fortune building docks and inns from which the Jews could embark to the Holy Land. In 1825, Mordecai Manuel Noah, a Jew who wanted to found a national home for the Jews on Grand Island in New York as a way station on the way to the Holy Land, won widespread Christian backing for his project. Likewise, restorationist theology was among the inspirations for the first American missionary activity in the Middle East[16] and for mapping the Holy Land.[17]

Many Christians believed that the return of the Jews to Judea, as prophesied in the Bible, was a necessary preliminary step towards the Second Coming. In this particular interpretation, after the Jews returned they would both accept Jesus as their savior and rebuild the Temple, which would usher in the Second Coming of Christ.[18]

Most early 19th century British Restorationists, like Charles Simeon, were Postmillennial in eschatology.[6] With the rise of James Frere, James Haldane Stewart and Edward Irving a major shift in the 1820s towards Premillennialism occurred, with a similar focus on advocacy for the restoration of the Jews to Israel.[6][19] As the demise of the Ottoman Empire appeared to be approaching, the advocacy of restorationism increased. At the same time, the visit of John Nelson Darby, the founder of a variant of Premillennialism called Dispensationalism to the United States catalyzed a new movement. This was expressed at the Niagara Bible Conference in 1878, which issued a 14-point proclamation, including the following text:

"that the Lord Jesus will come in person to introduce the millennial age, when Israel shall be restored to their own land, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; and that this personal and premillennial advent is the blessed hope set before us in the Gospel for which we should be constantly looking." (Luke 12:3540; 17:2630; 18:8 Acts 15:1417; 2 Thess. 2:38; 2 Tim. 3:15; Titus 1:1115)

The dispensationalist theology of John Nelson Darby which motivates one stream of American Christian Zionism is often claimed to be a significant awakener of American Christian Zionism.[citation needed] He first distinguished the hopes of the Jews and that of the church and gentiles in a series of 11 evening lectures in Geneva in 1840. His lectures were immediately published in French (L'Attente Actuelle de l'Eglise), English (1841), German and Dutch (1847) and so his teachings began their global journey. Some dispensationalists, like Arno Gabelein, whilst philo-semitic, opposed Zionism as a movement born in self-confidence and unbelief.[20] While Dispensationalism had considerable influence through the Scofield Bible, Christian lobbying for the restoration of the Jews preceded the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible (first published by OUP, 1909) for over a century,[6] and many prominent Christian Zionists and Christian Zionist organizations such as the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem do not subscribe to dispensationalism. Many non dispensationalist Protestants were also strong advocates of a Jewish return to their homeland, C H Spurgeon,[21] both Horatius[22] and Andrew Bonar, Robert Murray M'Chyene,[23] and J C Ryle[24] were among a number of prominent proponents of both the importance and significance of a Jewish return to Israel. However Spurgeon averred of Dispensationalism, 'It is a mercy that these absurdities are revealed one at a time, in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity without dying of amazement'.[25]

Charles Haddon Spurgeon The Restoration And Conversion Of The Jews. Ezekiel 37.1-10, June 16th, 1864[21]

The crumbling of the Ottoman Empire threatened the British route to India via the Suez Canal as well as sundry French, German and American economic interests. In 1831 the Ottomans were driven from Greater Syria (including Palestine) by an expansionist Egypt, in the First Turko-Egyptian War. Although Britain forced Muhammad Ali to withdraw to Egypt, the Levant was left for a brief time without a government. The ongoing weakness of the Ottoman Empire made some in the west consider the potential of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. A number of important figures within the British government advocated such a plan.[26][27] Again during the lead-up to the Crimean War (1854), there was an opportunity for political rearrangements in the Near East. In July 1853, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, who was President of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, wrote to Prime Minister Aberdeen urging Jewish restoration as a means of stabilizing the region.[6][28][29]

Late 19th century, non-Messianic Restorationism was largely driven by concern over the fate of the Jews of the Russian Empire, beset by poverty and by deadly, government-inspired pogroms. It was widely accepted that western nations did not wish to receive Jewish immigrants. Restorationism was a way for charitable individuals to assist oppressed Jews without actually accepting them as neighbors and fellow-citizens.[30][31][32] In this, Restorationism was not unlike the efforts of the American Colonization Society to send blacks to Liberia and the efforts of British abolitionists to create Sierra Leone.[citation needed]Winston Churchill endorsed Restoration because he recognized that Jews fleeing Russian pogroms required a refuge, and preferred Palestine for sentimental reasons.[33]

In 1818, President John Adams wrote, "I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation", and believed that they would gradually become Unitarian Christians.[34]

In 1844, George Bush, a professor of Hebrew at New York University and the cousin of an ancestor of the Presidents Bush, published a book titled The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived. In it he denounced "the thralldom and oppression which has so long ground them (the Jews) to the dust," and called for "elevating" the Jews "to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth" by allowing restoring the Jews to the land of Israel where the bulk would be converted to Christianity.[35] This, according to Bush, would benefit not only the Jews, but all of mankind, forming a "link of communication" between humanity and God. "It will blaze in notoriety ...". "It will flash a splendid demonstration upon all kindreds and tongues of the truth."[7]

Herman Melville expressed the idea in a poem, Clarel; A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land

the Hebrew seers announce in time

the return of Judah to her prime; Some Christians deemed it then at hand Here was an object. Up and On. With seed and tillage help renew -

The tycoon William Eugene Blackstone was inspired by the conference to publish the book Jesus is Coming, which took up the restorationist cause, and also absolved the Jews of the need to convert to Christianity either before or after the return of the Messiah. His book was translated and published in Yiddish. On November 2425, 1890, Blackstone organized the Conference on the Past, Present and Future of Israel at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago where participants included leaders of many Christian communities. Resolutions of sympathy for the oppressed Jews living in Russia were passed, but Blackstone was convinced that such resolutionseven though passed by prominent menwere insufficient. He advocated strongly for the resettlement of Jewish people in Palestine. In 1891 he lobbied President Benjamin Harrison for the restoration of the Jews, in a petition signed by 413 prominent Americans, that became known as the Blackstone Memorial.[36] The names included the US Chief Justice, Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, and several other congressmen, Rockefeller, Morgan and famous industrialists.[36] It read, in part: "Why shall not the powers which under the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, gave Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Servia to the Servians now give Palestine back to the Jews? These provinces, as well as Romania, Montenegro, and Greece, were wrested from the Turks and given to their natural owners. Does not Palestine as rightfully belong to the Jews?"[37]

Ideas favoring the restoration of the Jews in Palestine or the Land of Israel entered the British public discourse in the 1830s, though British reformationists had written about the restoration of the Jews as early as the 16th century, and the idea had strong support among Puritans.[38] Not all such attitudes were favorable towards the Jews; they were shaped in part by a variety of Protestant beliefs,[6][39] or by a streak of philo-Semitism among the classically educated British elite,[40] or by hopes to extend the Empire.[citation needed](See The Great Game)

At the urging of Lord Shaftesbury, Britain established a consulate in Jerusalem in 1838, the first diplomatic appointment to Palestine.[6]

In 1839, the Church of Scotland sent Andrew Bonar, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Alexander Black and Alexander Keith on a mission to report on the condition of the Jews in Palestine. Their report was widely published.[41] They traveled through France, Greece, and Egypt and, from Egypt, overland to Gaza. On the way home they visited Syria, the Austrian Empire and some of the German principalities. They sought out Jewish communities and inquired about their readiness to accept Christ and, separately, their preparedness to return to Israel as prophesied in the Bible. Alexander Keith recounted the journey in his 1844 book The Land of Israel According to the Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. It was also in that book that Keith used the slogan that became popular with other Christian Restorationists, a land without a people for a people without a land. In 1844 he revisited Palestine with his son, Dr George Skene Keith (18191910), who was the first person to photograph the land.[42]

In August 1840, The Times reported that the British government was considering Jewish restoration.[38] An important, though often neglected, figure in British support of the restoration of the Jews was William Hechler (18451931), an English clergyman of German descent who was Chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna and became a close friend of Theodor Herzl.[43] Hechler was instrumental in aiding Herzl through his diplomatic activities, and may, in that sense, be called the founder of modern Christian Zionism. When it came to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Theodor Herzl, it was noted by the editors of the English-language memorial volume that William Hechler would prove "not only the first, but the most constant and the most indefatigable of Herzls followers".[36]

Hal Lindsey, one of the most popular American promoters of dispensationalism, has written in The Late Great Planet Earth that per Ezekiel 39:68, after Jews fight off a "Russian" invasion, Jews will see this as a miracle and convert to Christianity. Their lives will be spared the great fire that God will put upon Russia and people of the "coastlands." And, per Zechariah 13:89, one third of Jews alive who have converted will be spared.[45] Lindsay has been critiqued for highly specific, failed predictions even by those who share his eschatology, like John MacArthur.[46]

Sociologically, Christian Zionism can be seen as a product of the peculiar circumstances of the United States, in which the world's largest community of diaspora Jews lives side by side with the world's largest community of evangelical Protestants.[citation needed]

Examples of Protestant leaders combining political conservatism with Christian Zionism are Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, leading figures of the Christian Right in the 1980s and 1990s. Falwell said in 1981: "To stand against Israel is to stand against God. We believe that history and scripture prove that God deals with nations in relation to how they deal with Israel." They cite part of the blessing of Isaac at Genesis 27:29, "Those who curse you will be cursed, and those who bless you will be blessed." Martin Luther King, Jr. was a notable Christian supporter of Israel and Zionism.[47]

The government of Israel has given official encouragement to Christian Zionism, allowing the establishment in 1980 of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.[citation needed] The main function of the embassy is to enlist worldwide Protestant support for Israel.[citation needed] The embassy has raised funds to help finance Jewish immigration to Israel from the former Soviet Union, and has assisted Zionist groups in establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank.[citation needed]

The Third International Christian Zionist Congress, held in Jerusalem in February 1996, issued a proclamation which said:

God the Father, Almighty, chose the ancient nation and people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to reveal His plan of redemption for the world. They remain elect of God, and without the Jewish nation His redemptive purposes for the world will not be completed.

Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and has promised to return to Jerusalem, to Israel and to the world.

It is reprehensible that generations of Jewish peoples have been killed and persecuted in the name of our Lord, and we challenge the Church to repent of any sins of commission or omission against them.

The modern Ingathering of the Jewish People to Eretz Israel and the rebirth of the nation of Israel are in fulfilment of biblical prophecies, as written in both Old and New Testaments.

Christian believers are instructed by Scripture to acknowledge the Hebraic roots of their faith and to actively assist and participate in the plan of God for the Ingathering of the Jewish People and the Restoration of the nation of Israel in our day.[48]

Popular interest in Christian Zionism was given a boost around the year 2000 in the form of the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.[49] The novels are built around the prophetic role of Israel in the apocalyptic End Times.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (Catholic), the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, in 2006 published the Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism, which rejects Christian Zionism as substituting, in its view, a political-military program in place of the teachings of Jesus Christ.[50] It criticizes Christian Zionism as an obstacle to peace and understanding in Israel-Palestine.

The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches in November 2007 approved a resolution for further study which stated that the "theological stance of Christian Zionism adversely affects:

The Reformed Church in America at its 2004 General Synod found "the ideology of Christian Zionism and the extreme form of dispensationalism that undergirds it to be a distortion of the biblical message noting the impediment it represents to achieving a just peace in Israel/Palestine."[52] The Mennonite Church published an article that referenced what is called the ongoing illegal seizure of additional Palestinian lands by Israeli militants,[53][54] noting that in some churches under the influence of Christian Zionism the "congregations 'adopt' illegal Israeli settlements, sending funds to bolster the defense of these armed colonies." As of September 2007, churches in the USA that have criticized Christian Zionism include the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA),[55] and the United Church of Christ.[56]

The film With God On Our Side, by Porter Speakman Jr. and Kevin Miller (the latter of whom also co-created the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed), criticizes both the underlying theology behind Christian Zionism as well as its negative influence on the church.[57]

The Church of Scotland, despite its Restorationist history,[58] has recently been critical of Zionism in general, and in turn has received strong criticism over the perceived injustice of its report, "The Inheritance of Abraham: A Report on the Promised Land",[59] which resulted in its republication in a briefer form.[60]

On the 9th July 2012, the Anglican General Synod passed a motion affirming support for the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).[61] This was criticised by the Board of Deputies claiming the Synod 'has chosen to promote an inflammatory and partisan programme'.[62] The advocated group was simultaneously criticised for its publication of a call for sit-ins at Israeli Embassies, the hacking of government websites to promote its message, and support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.[62][63] The Church has been consequently criticised for its advocacy of a body that selectively ignores terror attacks against Israelis and solely blames Israel for the conflict, along with the 'demonisation and delegitimisation of Israel'.[64]

Some Christian Zionists interpret the prophetic texts as describing inevitable future events, and these events primarily involve Israel (taken to mean the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob) or Judah (taken to mean the remaining faithful adherents of Judaism). These prophecies are seen as requiring the presence of a Jewish state in the Holy Land, the central part of the lands promised to the Biblical patriarch Abraham in the Covenant of the pieces. This requirement is sometimes interpreted as being fulfilled by the contemporary state of Israel.[65][66]

Among the principal relevant prophetic texts are those found in the Jewish Bible or Old Testament in the Book of Daniel, the book of Isaiah and the Book of Ezekiel, and those found in the New Testament in the Book of Revelation.

Although many Christian Zionists believe that conversion of the Jews to Christianity is a necessary adjunct of the Second Coming or the End of Days, conversion of the Jews is not part of the theology of prominent Christian Zionists such as John Hagee and was not thought to be required by the nineteenth century restoration advocate William Eugene Blackstone.[citation needed]

Christian schools of doctrine which consider other teachings to counterbalance these doctrines, or which interpret them in terms of distinct eschatological theories, are less conducive to Christian Zionism. Among the many texts which address this subject in counterbalance are the words of Jesus, as for example in Matthew, "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it", and the writer of Hebrews's discussion (echoed in 1 Peter) of the Christian church as fulfilling the role previously fulfilled by the faithful Jews and the Temple, and the doctrine of Paul, expressed in Galatians, that "in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek".

In Defending Christian Zionism, David Pawson, a prominent Christian Zionist in the United Kingdom, puts forward the case that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land is a fulfilment of scriptural prophecy, and that Christians should support the existence of the Jewish State (although not unconditionally its actions) on theological grounds. He also argues that prophecies spoken about Israel relate specifically to Israel (not to the church, as in "replacement theology"). However, he criticises Dispensationalism, which he says is a largely American movement holding similar views. Pawson was spurred to write this book by the work of Stephen Sizer, an evangelical Christian who rejects Christian Zionism.

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Christian Zionism - Wikipedia

Is Zionism creepy? The question at the heart of a social-media controversy deserves an answer – Salon

Posted By on August 13, 2017

Is Zionism creepy? It is a strange question, prompted by the recent controversy surrounding Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York.In early July, Sarsour addressed the annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America, during which she is alleged to have advocated violentjihad.She did not, but her many online detractors nevertheless used the speech to reiterate their claims that Sarsour sympathizes with terrorists, is an anti-Semite, and is hostile to Israel. Among the evidence for the latter is a tweet by Sarsour dating back to Oct. 31, 2012, in which she declared, Nothing is creepier than Zionism.

One can understand Sarsours anti-Zionism. She is Palestinian-American. Given Palestinians history of loss and dispossession as well as the way in which the Arab-Israeli conflict is framed in the United States to favor Israels narrative, it should not come as a shock that Sarsour is hostile to Israel. She also has a lot of followers. A quick check of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram reveals about 227,000, 186,000, and 74,000 followers on those social media platforms respectively.It stands to reason that not all are supporters, but it is clear that Sarsour is an influential voice.

So when she declares that Zionism is creepy, it no doubt has an effect on how people think about Israel and its legitimacy. Because creepy connotes something strange and unnatural, her tweet has the practical consequence of making it easier to boycott Israelis and Israel (likely her intention, given her support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS) or to use Zionism and Zionist as epithets. To subscribe to the notion that Zionism is somehow abnormal, however, reflects a basic illiteracy in the history of the development of nationalism.

As Shlomo Avineri wrote in the introduction to his edited volume The Making of Modern Zionism: The Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State, Zionism is the product of a complex interaction of European Jewry, Enlightenment ideals, and nationalism in the late-18th and 19th centuries. It was a milieu in which identity was being forged by the dialectical relationship between values that were alleged to be universal and the particularity of geography, culture and historical context. In France, for instance, in conjunction withlibert,egalit etfraternit,there was also an emphasis on what it meant to be French, which was inextricably linked with land, language and Frances contributions to Western civilization.

Similar developments were happening all over Europe, which were instilling people with ideas about being French or German or Polish, for example. Jews, who prior to the Enlightenment had been outcasts in European societies because they were not Christian, were not immune to the effects of the Enlightenment and nationalism. As they became more accepted in European lands, Jewish identity crystalized in response to the same sets of issues and stimuli as the people around them.

As Avineri explains, there remained practical problems for Jews becoming integrated in secularizing societies, though over time many did and thought of themselves primarily as French or German, though their neighbors clearly did not. More enlightened secularizing societies did not bring an end to the persecution of European Jewry. More important to Zionisms development, however, were Jewish efforts parallel to those of Germans, Poles, the French and others to discover and understand their roots. Given the history of the Jewish kingdoms defeat, and exile, the search for identity led naturally to Palestine, the revival of Hebrew as a secular language, and the restoration of the Jewish nation (in contrast to Judaism as a religious sect). These are the basic tenets of Zionism. At a level of abstraction, they and their origins fit neatly within the general trajectory and history of the development of nationalism, self-determination and identity pretty much anywhere.

Now, of course people may disapprove of Israeli conduct, whether it is the measures the Israel Defense Forces take to control Palestinian access to Israel that theWashington PostsWilliam Booth and Sufia Tahadescribed so vividlyin late May; the subtle but unmistakable efforts to push Palestinians out of Jerusalem; or the Panopticon-like security measures applied to Palestinians (which are genuinely creepy), to name just a few.Whether misguided, extreme or unnecessary, they fall within the realm of what many Israelis consider to be legitimate security measures and thus an obligation of their leaders. Security can, of course, be used to justify anything. The Israelis are as guilty of this as their neighbors and, increasingly, the United States, where a 5-year-old can be separated from his Syrian mother and handcuffed at Dulles International Airport as part of the supposed effort to protect the American people.

This is neither to excuse Israeli conduct nor dismiss the genuine outrage at the circumstances of Palestinians, though they themselves are hardly innocent. How have different Palestinian groups burnished their nationalist credentials over many years? Often by spilling Israeli blood. There is a dark underbelly of racism and violence in Palestinian nationalism, just as there is within French nationalism, German nationalism, Chinese nationalism and American nationalism. Zionism is no different, so why single it out?Sarsours old tweet would be more accurate if she had stated Nothing is creepier than nationalism.

Link:
Is Zionism creepy? The question at the heart of a social-media controversy deserves an answer - Salon

According to Zioness organizer Amanda Berman, who had flown in from New York specifically to attend Chicago … – Tablet Magazine

Posted By on August 13, 2017

Traditionally, the villains of the Chicago Slutwalk have been the citys police officers, who organizers accuse of being part of the institutional rape culture and the misogyny driving it. This year, however, the march had a different focus: Israel and Palestine.

Which, coming just a few months after the expulsion of three Jewish women from the Chicago Dyke Marchan event which sparked an international backlash and united left and right in condemnations of anti-Semitismshouldnt come as much of a surprise. About 300 people showed up Saturday at the downtown Chicago park that served as the rally point for the walk, among them a contingent of about a dozen individuals who were part of a movement called Zioness, whose signs depicted a woman dressed in a red t-shirt and proudly displaying the Magen David.

According to Zioness organizer Amanda Berman, who had flown in from New York specifically to attend Chicago Slutwalk, representatives of the movement were there in solidarity, not protest.

This conversation has been going on for quite a long time I think between the whole Jewish progressive community, Berman told Tablet. It took a turn after the [Dyke] March and the messaging that Zionists cant be feminists, progressives or activists in social justice causes. Zionists and Jews have always been on the forefront of social justice issues, and to be alienated and marginalized because of who we are is unacceptable, hurtful, and bad for the people that we all want to fight for.

Fighting was on everyones mind: Before rally speakers stepped up, a Slutwalk organizer stepped up and told participants not to engage in antagonism from anyone in this march or in this rally.

And yet, tempers flared.

While a series of speakers addressed issues that included sex worker rights and solidarity with transgender women of color, a series of vitriolic pro-Palestine, anti-Israel speeches set the events tone. Among participants, too, a battle between signs was waged in the background: While the Zioness representatives were not expelled, every time they held up one of their placards, a group of Slutwalk participants raised red umbrellasthe international symbol of solidarity with sex workersin order to cover them.

I was holding up my sign, and two or three people at a time would walk in front of me and pushed my sign out of the way, a Zioness participant named Judy said. Whenever I moved my sign, they would follow me to block me. They didnt say anything. They just assumed I was a hateful person who could not be a feminist because I am a Zionist.

They dont want us to participate and it is unfortunate that we are being targeted because we are Jews, Berman asserted. I just asked someone, who said Jews were welcomed but Zionists were not, what is a Zionist? She didnt answer. I asked her why I was not welcome and she replied Im done engaging.

A more detailed explanation was provided by an invited Palestinian speaker named Leilah.

You cannot be a Zionist and a feminist! Leilah insisted to raucous agreement. If you believe Zionism and feminism are compatible then you believe feminism has the room to accept the genocide, racism and displacement of indigenous people. Not today. Whether you like it or not, we refuse to allow feminism to be a safe space for any form of hate including Zionism.

Slutwalker organizers responded by leading a prolonged chant of free Palestine.

It was an adequate summary of the organizations inflammatory behavior in the months leading up to Saturdays event. In late July, the Slutwalk released a statement of solidarity with the Dyke March Collective, asserting they would not allow Zionist displays at their event. Once again, international condemnation swiftly followed, and, in their own display of defiance, Jewish feminists made their intentions clear to show up at the Slutwalk waving whatever they chose.

Then, in an interview on July 25, the events organizer, Red S.her preferred pseudonymtried to deescalate an increasingly tense situation by asserting that the Slutwalk solidarity statement came from a sense of urgency because of a lot of the backlash that [Dyke March] organizers weve worked with in the past, know and love were falling under.

I must emphasize that flags are not banned from Slutwalk, she added. What is banned is bigoted behavior or things that threaten other people or make them feel unsafe. We always have had some counter-protestors and we do what we can to distance ourselves from them and the things that they yell at us.

Five days later, however, Red announced on her social media that she was stepping down from organizing this years Chicago Slutwalk. She would not comment to Tablet as to why.

A subsequent statement from the Slutwalk Collective quoted Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. In a nutshell, womens rights are human rights.

Gretchen Rachel Hammond is an award-winning journalist and a full-time writer for Tablet Magazine.

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According to Zioness organizer Amanda Berman, who had flown in from New York specifically to attend Chicago ... - Tablet Magazine

Zionist Activists Shunned At SlutWalk Chicago – Forward

Posted By on August 13, 2017

Getty

A marcher at the Chicago Slutwalk in 2013.

(JTA) About a dozen activists from the Zioness initiative attempted to participate in SlutWalk Chicago.

The group, which calls itself progressive and Zionist, had announced prior to Saturdays demonstration that they would join in the annual demonstration against sexual violence to promote the idea that Zionism and liberal values are compatible.

SlutWalk Chicago organizers said prior to the march that they did not support the participation of the new Zioness initiative.

SlutWalk Chicago does not support the Zioness progressives planning on coming to the walk Saturday. We at SlutWalk Chicago stand with Jewish people, just as we stand for Palestinian human rights. Those two ideologies can exist in the same realm, and taking a stance against anti-Semitism is not an affirmation of support for the state of Israel and its occupation of Palestine, the group wrote on its Facebook page.

The women joined the initial rally in a local park, carrying signs depicting a woman wearing a Star of David necklace and some wearing rainbow-colored T-shirts emblazoned with a Star of David, according to reports. During the rally, when the Zioness women waved their signs, SlutWalk participants would block them from view with the red umbrellas they were carrying, the symbol of solidarity with sex workers.

At the end of the speeches, which concluded with a Palestinian activist telling the crowd you cannot be a Zionist and feminist, the crowd began chanting Free Palestine, the Windy City Times reported.

Organizers of the SlutWalk initially said thatthey would ban Stars of David from the event, but lateraltered their policyto allowreligious symbols but not national flags.

The SlutWalk policy came in the wake of a controversy over the Chicago Dyke March in June, when three Jewish participants at the LGBTQ demonstration were ejected for carrying LGBTQ Pride flags adorned with the Star of David. Dyke March organizers said the women were advocating for Israel at an anti-Zionist event.

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Zionist Activists Shunned At SlutWalk Chicago - Forward

Young Jews find spirituality outside the synagogue – The Jerusalem Post

Posted By on August 13, 2017

NEW YORK Michelle Reyf isnt really a synagogue-goer. Until recently, the 28-year-old, who works for a Jewish nonprofit, was perfectly happy to get her spiritual fulfillment at Buddhist prayer services and meditation retreats.

Synagogue did not appeal to her for a variety of reasons she found the crowd to be older and the atmosphere to be impersonal. And as someone who identifies as queer, she felt distanced from the traditional values she encountered in many Jewish spaces.

But in January, a friend invited her to attend Shir HaMaalot, an independent minyan, or prayer community, in Brooklyn. There, Reyf found a place that had some of the very same qualities as the Buddhist community she was a part of and that she had not found in traditional Jewish settings.

It feels like finding a home, and it feels like Im not a bad Jew for wanting different things than were being offered in most synagogues and Jewish communities, said Reyf, a senior digital organizer for the Jewish social justice organization Bend the Arc.

I thought maybe Judaism isnt for me or maybe Im just not doing it right or maybe Im different or theres something wrong with me that I dont feel like I fit in wherever I go. And then I came to Shir HaMaalot and I was like, These are my people,' she told JTA.

Shir HaMaalot a volunteer-led, nondenominational minyan that defines itself as a traditional-egalitarian havurah meets once a month in Prospect Heights and Crown Heights in Brooklyn, often in space rented and subsidized by a local Reform synagogue, Union Temple of Brooklyn. Following a musical Shabbat service, participants join together for a vegetarian potluck meal. There is no rabbi, and community members take turns leading the services.

Reyf is part of a cohort of millennial Jews finding spiritual fulfillment at independent minyanim rather than in the traditional synagogue. Though the groups vary in prayer style, customs and demographics, many are egalitarian or support increased womens participation in services. They tend to draw a younger crowd than the average synagogue.

Independent minyanim appeal to people looking for a type of religious experience, said Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, the author of a book on independent minyanim and president of Mechon Hadar, a co-educational, egalitarian institution of Jewish learning based in New York.

In my experience the people who are not going to synagogue its not because theyre anti-synagogue its more that theyre looking for something and if the synagogue has it theyll go there, and if the synagogue doesnt they wont. And I think thats where Shir HaMaalot comes in, Kaunfer said.

Kaunfer said Shir HaMaalot, which was founded in 2011, has a reputation for its use of music. In addition, I think also a place gets its own reputation just by who starts going there, so when people think about Where am I going to go on Friday night? now they know they have an option thats appealing to people in their age demographic, and that can also build on itself.

There are over 100 independent minyanim across the country, and they are especially accessible to millennials who often have yet to make commitments to Jewish institutions, Kaunfer said.

What it boils down to in large part is people in their 20s and early 30s have more flexibility in terms of their social groups and commitments, he said.

The young crowd at Shir HaMaalot was a draw for Gabriela Geselowitz, a 26-year-old journalist and part time Hebrew school teacher. Geselowitz knew she wanted to be involved in a Jewish community after college but had assumed she would be the only young person there.

When I moved to Brooklyn, I said I wanted to be near a Conservative shul, because that is generally traditional egalitarian, and I was sort of prepared to be the only young person at things. I did go to local synagogue a couple of times, and I was the only young person, said Geselowitz, who started attending Shir HaMaalot three and a half years ago.

At Shir HaMaalot, Geselowitz found both an age-appropriate crowd and an atmosphere that she enjoys.

This was even better than Hillel in college in terms of enthusiasm and volume of people and what Im looking for. I didnt really expect to find a space that would hit all of my buttons in the way that Shir HaMaalot does, said Geselowitz, who lives in Brooklyn.

The mood described by Geselowitz was evident at a recent Friday evening service, which she attended with her husband Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, a 27-year-old working to launch a media startup.

Around 75 people, mostly young professionals with a few older people and young families sprinkled in, sat in chairs set up in concentric circles around the prayer leader, who alternated between singing slow, soulful melodies and faster, more upbeat ones. At various points throughout the service, when the tempo quickened, a young man started playing a djembe drum and people clapped along to the beat. Afterward they gathered around tables in an adjacent room as they ate the buffet-style potluck and talked.

The majority of Shir HaMaalot attendees are young, said Russ Agdern, one of the minyans founders and a member of its organizing team.

It skews towards 20s and 30s, but its certainly not exclusively that, and thats certainly not our intention, said Agdern, 39, who works as director of recruitment and outreach for the Jewish social justice group Avodah.

Before the minyan was founded in 2011, there were not really any egalitarian spaces with full Hebrew liturgy in this part of Brooklyn, said Agdern, adding that the founders wanted to create a community-driven davening space.

The founders were active participants in the National Havurah Committee, a network of nondenominational grassroots Jewish communities. The organization has its roots in the havurah, or fellowship, movement, of the late 1960s and 1970s, when an earlier wave of young people sought to create Jewish prayer experiences outside of traditional synagogue settings.

Tobin Belzer, a sociologist of American Jewry at the University of Southern California, believes that the difference between the havurah movement and the independent minyanim is their attitude toward the Jewish mainstream. Because it was purposely positioned outside of mainstream institutions, the havurah phenomenon was often referred to as the Jewish counterculture. Participants published books and articles criticizing American Judaism, she wrote in a study of the two movements.

By contrast, minyanim represent a subculture, not a counterculture. Independent minyanim are not outside of the Jewish mainstream; they are on the margins of it, writes Belzer. In fact, many independent minyanim have strong ties with Jewish institutions. Some receive funding from Jewish foundations, others gather in borrowed spaces in synagogues, and still others use Torah scrolls loaned from area congregations.

Though communities affiliated with the havurah movement vary in terms of practice and affiliation, they are united in the fact that they are egalitarian, mostly volunteer-run and promote wide participation by community members.

Spitzer-Rubenstein likened Shir HaMaalots atmosphere to that of services at Jewish summer camps.

I went to Reform summer camp in California, and it was a similar sort of joy and celebration in praying, he said. I feel like there are a lot of Jewish spaces where praying isnt seen as something that should be fun, and one of the things that I really like about Shir HaMaalot is that people care about and make it something significant.

For Geselowitz, Shir HaMaalots energy reminded me a little bit of teenage Jewish youth group.

The participatory aspect of the minyan appeals to Andrea Birnbaum, a 27-year-old medical student who has been attending Shir HaMaalot for four years.

Its not performative in the sense that sometimes you go to synagogue and theres someone on the bimah [podium] who has the most energy, and theyre trying to get the crowd moving but the crowd has a low energy, said Birnbaum. Its not like that. This is participatory we rotate every time someone leads the davening, the prayer.

For now, Geselowitz and Spitzer-Rubenstein, who attend other independent minyanim in Brooklyn when Shir HaMaalot doesnt meet, dont feel like they are missing anything by not belonging to a synagogue.

Shir HaMaalot is free were happy to donate to it, but there arent synagogue dues. At this point in my life I actually like having a lay-led community rather than a single rabbinic authority, Geselowitz said. Participants are also attracted to Shir HaMaalots progressive values.

What also was really cool was that there were a lot of different gender expression, people who werent necessary [conforming to the gender] binary, and for me as a queer person that was really important to see that it isnt a heteronormative place where the gender binary was being enforced, Reyf said.

On its website, Shir HaMaalot encourages people to add your preferred pronouns to your name tag.

Pluralism is an important goal for the minyan, said Gregory Frumin, a 35-year-old social worker who serves on the minyans organizing team.

One of Shir HaMaalots core values is inclusive pluralism. We want to create an accessible and welcoming space for people of diverse backgrounds, identities, accessibility needs, he said.

At the potluck dinner after services, food is served on three different tables vegetarian, vegan and vegetarian cooked in a strictly kosher kitchen. Participants are also asked to list allergens on a spreadsheet prior to services.

I think its also important that Shir HaMaalot takes their religious observance seriously while still being welcoming to basically everyone, said Spitzer-Rubenstein.

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Young Jews find spirituality outside the synagogue - The Jerusalem Post

Newport congregation seeks rehearing in fight over Touro … – Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Posted By on August 13, 2017

A view inside the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. (Wikimedia Commons)

(JTA) The congregation that worships in Americas oldest synagogue building will ask for a rehearing of the case that gave control of its pricey artifacts to the buildings historic trustees.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Bostonlast week ruledin favor of Manhattans Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the country, giving it control of the 250-year-old Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, the religious home of Congregation Jeshuat Israel.

The decision also gave the Manhattan synagogue ownership of $7.4 million silver Torah ornaments called rimonim that the congregation in Newport had hoped to sell to build an endowment.

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who occasionally sits in on cases in the First Circuit and wrote last weeks decision, this week gave the Newport congregation an extension until Sept. 5 to file a rehearing petition at the congregations request, the Associated Press reported.

The case concerns the continued vitality of the congregation that has prayed in that synagogue for well over a hundred years, read the Jeshuat Israel filing, according to the AP.

The New York congregation called the litigation meritless.

We think the petition to be filed by CJI wholly lacks merit, Shearith Israel said in a statement shared with JTA. Shearith Israel believes any more protraction of this meritless litigation would be unfortunate. With the Court of Appeals being as clear as words can be, now is the time for the parties to be moving back to the harmonious cooperation that characterized their relationship for over 100 years.

The historic Touro Synagogue was founded in the 18th century by a Sephardic Jewish community whose numbers declined over the years. Shearith Israel, a Sephardic congregation that was established in 1654 and has worshipped at various sites in Manhattan, has served as trustee of the Touro Synagogue since the early 19thcentury. Jeshuat Israel, founded in 1881 as Ashkenazi immigrants began flooding America from Eastern Europe, has worshipped at Touro for more than a century.

The current dispute began in 2012, when Jeshuat, which still holds regular services at Touro, attempted to sell the silver ornaments to establish an endowment to maintain a rabbi and care for the building, which was designated a national historic site in 1946. Shearith Israel sued to stop the sale and threatened to replace Jeshuat with another tenant who would respect the rule of law and Shearith Israels rights, an attorney for Shearith told JTA in an email.

The rimonim have been on loan from the Touro Synagogue to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which had made an offer to purchase them. The museum has since rescinded its offer.

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Newport congregation seeks rehearing in fight over Touro ... - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

‘Menashe’ offers a rare look at the lives and laws of Hasidic Jews – Washington Post

Posted By on August 13, 2017

People love to be transported somewhere else, says Joshua Z Weinstein, director and co-writer of Menashe. Its exciting to be transported to somewhere new thats just around the corner.

For his first feature film, Weinsteins somewhere else is an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community in Brooklyn. The film is loosely based on the real life of star Menashe Lustig, who plays a widower (also named Menashe) who is forbidden from taking custody of his son unless he remarries, as Hasidic law dictates that a child must be raised by a mother and a father. Complicating matters is a rule that prohibits Hasidim from touching people of the opposite sex unless they are blood relations; one of Menashes concerns is that even if he remarries, his new wife could not even give his son a hug.

As the one-year anniversary of his wifes death approaches and Menashe is allowed a few days with his son, the pressure for him to marry gets even stronger as does Menashes resistance.

To secular people, theres a sense that these people must be evil, must be hateful, must be spiteful, Weinstein says. But really its just a complete misunderstanding of unknowing.

Weinstein and Lustig hope Menashe gives outsiders a glimpse into an often-closed world so they can learn not just about its rules, but also about its joy and humanity.

Usually, movies about religious people are about them having awful lives, and then leaving, Weinstein says. As secular people, we assume if life is bad, you move on. But for me I was more interested in why people chose to stay. In the film, Menashe has his reasons to stay faithful, even though it means his son is forced to live with his brother- and sister-in-law.

I love the place where I am, Lustig says of his Hasidic faith. First of all, I grew up there. Second of all, I am a deep believer about the spiritual, the mystic I connect to that. I couldnt find it other places. And I should be alone in other places, not be connected to my community? It would be for me very hard.

There is irony, of course, in making a movie about a community that usually doesnt go to movies (Lustig says he had seen only one film Fiddler on the Roof before shooting). Lustig, though, thinks members of his community would like Menashe. Its not negative and its very decent, he says.

He even has an idea about how to entice the Hasidic community to go see movies. You can never have cinema for Orthodox people, he says. A lot of times I say for a joke, OK, change the name. Call it a nice name. Make it Congregation of Jacob. Then they will go.

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'Menashe' offers a rare look at the lives and laws of Hasidic Jews - Washington Post

Alleged driver of car that plowed into Charlottesville crowd was a Nazi sympathizer, former teacher says – Washington Post

Posted By on August 13, 2017

(Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)

CHARLOTTESVILLE A man accused of plowing a car into a crowd of protesters here killing one person and leaving 19injured long sympathized with Nazi views and had stood with a group of white supremacists hours before Saturdays bloody crash.

The alleged driver, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, had espoused extremist ideals at least since high school, according to Derek Weimer, a history teacher.

Weimer said that he taught Fields during his junior and senior years at Randall K. Cooper High School in Kentucky. In a class called Americas Modern Wars, Weimer said that Fields wrote a deeply researched paper about the Nazi military during World War II.

It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler, Weimer said. He had white supremacist views. He really believed in that stuff.

Fieldss research project into the Nazi military was well written, Weimer said, but it appeared to be a big lovefest for the German military and the Waffen-SS.

As a teacher, Weimer highlighted historical facts, not just opinion, in an unsuccessful attempt to steer Fields away from his infatuation with the Nazis.

This was something that was growing in him, Weimer said. I admit I failed. I tried my best. But this is definitely a teachable moment and something we need to be vigilant about, because this stuff is tearing up our country.

Video recorded at the scene of the crash captured a horrifying scene. A sedan and a minivan had rolled to a stop in a road packed with activists opposed to the white nationalists, who had come to town bearing Confederate flags and hurling racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic epithets. Then, suddenly, police said, Fieldss 2010 Dodge Challenger smashed into the back of the sedan, shoving tons of metal into the crowd as bodies were launched through the air. The Dodge then reversed at high speed, hitting yet more people.

Fields was arrested shortly after and charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and another count related to the hit-and-run, police said. He is being held without bail and is scheduled for arraignment Monday, Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Superintendent Martin Kumer said.

Brian Moran, Virginia secretary of public safety, said this of Fields: He was a terrorist to do what he did.

The FBI field office in Richmond and the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Western District of Virginia said late Saturday that they have opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car crash.

The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.

Records show Fields last lived in Maumee, Ohio, about 15 miles southwest of Toledo.

His father was killed by a drunk driver a few months before the boys birth, according to an uncle who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Fieldss dad left him money that the uncle kept in a trust until Fields reached adulthood.

When he turned 18, he demanded his money, and that was the last I had any contact with him, the uncle said.

Fields, he said, grew up mostly in Northern Kentucky, where hed been raised by a single mother who was a paraplegic. The uncle, who saw Fields mostly at family gatherings, described his nephew as not really friendly, more subdued.

The what-ifs, the uncle said. What couldve been you cant answer questions like that. Theres no way of knowing if his life would have been different if his father had been around.

Richard B. Spencer, a leader in the white supremacist movement who coined the term alt-right, said he didnt know Fields but had been told he was a member of Vanguard America, which bills itself as the Face of American Fascism. In a statement tweeted Saturday night, the group denied any connection to Fields.

In several photographs that circulated online, he was seen with the group while sporting its unofficial uniform. Like members, he wore a white polo, baggy khakis and sunglasses, while holding a black shield that features a common Vanguard symbol.

The shields seen do not denote membership, nor does the white shirt, the group said in its statement. The shields were freely handed out to anyone in attendance.

Vanguard members did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

As of Saturday evening, the crash had left five people in critical condition and another 14 injured, according to a spokeswoman at the University of Virginia Medical Center, where all of the wounded were being treated. City officials said an additional 14 had been hurt in street brawls.

Also on Saturday, two state police officers died when their helicopter crashed on the outskirts of town. Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Va., was the pilot, and H. Jay Cullen of Midlothian, Va., was a passenger, according to officials. State police said their Bell407 helicopter was assisting with the unrest in Charlottesville. Bates died one day before his 41st birthday; Cullen was 48.

On Sunday morning, one day after Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, he and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam attended a service at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church. The governor brought the predominantly African American congregation to its feet as he stood at the pulpit and condemned the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who came to our state yesterday.

You pretend youre patriots. You are not patriots. You are dividers, he said, then later, his voice roaring: Shame on you!

Police identified the woman killed by the car as Heather D. Heyer, 32, a Charlottesville resident.

As a child, said a longtime friend, Heyer, who was white, had stood up for people being picked on at school or on the bus. She never feared fighting for what she believed in.

She died for a reason, said Felicia Correa, who is biracial. I dont see any difference in her or a soldier who died in war. She, in a sense, died for her country. She was there standing up for what was right.

At the church service, McAuliffe said he was close to both of the officers who had died.

Jay Cullen had been flying me around for 3 years, he said. Berke was part of my executive protection unit. He was part of my family. The man lived with me 24-7.

Their deaths, he said, had enraged him, but hed tried to move beyond that emotion and asked the congregation to do the same.

Let us use today to reach out to our fellow citizens, put your hand out to help them, he said. Let us show these people that we are bigger than them, we are stronger than them.

Asked about the troopers later, McAuliffe said Berke had called him the day before his death about sending a care package to the governors son, a Marine stationed overseas.

He called me up and wanted to send my son a care package overseas, McAuliffe said. Its senseless.

On Saturday, police had evacuated a downtown park as rallygoers and counterprotesters traded blows and hurled bottles and chemical irritants at one another, putting an end to the noon rally before it officially began.

Despite the decision to quash the rally, clashes continued on side streets and throughout downtown, including the pedestrian mall at Water and Fourth streets where the Challenger slammed into counterprotesters and two other cars in the early afternoon, sending bystanders running and screaming.

I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer (D) said in a tweet. I urge all people of good will go home.

Elected leaders in Virginia and elsewhere urged peace, blasting the white supremacist views on display in Charlottesville as ugly.

But President Trump, known for his rapid-fire tweets, remained silent throughout the morning. It was after 1p.m. when he weighed in, writing on Twitter: We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

In brief remarks at a late-afternoon news conference in New Jersey to discuss veterans health care, Trump said he was following the events in Charlottesville closely. The hate and the division must stop and must stop right now, Trump said, without specifically mentioning white nationalists or their views. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, a Trump supporter who was in Charlottesville on Saturday, quickly replied. I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists, he wrote.

Asked by a reporter in New Jersey whether he wanted the support of white nationalists, dozens of whom wore red Make America Great Again hats during the Charlottesville riots, Trump did not respond.

Even as crowds began to thin Saturday afternoon, the town remained unsettled and on edge. Onlookers were deeply shaken at the pedestrian mall, where ambulances had arrived to treat those injured by the car.

Chan Williams, 22, was among the counterprotesters in the street, chanting Black Lives Matter and Whose streets? Our streets! The marchers blocked traffic, but Williams said drivers werent annoyed. Instead, she said, they waved or honked in support.

So when she heard a car engine rev up and saw the people in front of her dodging a moving car, she didnt know what to think.

I saw the car hit bodies, legs in the air, she said. You try to grab the people closest to you and take shelter.

Williams and friend George Halliday ducked into a shop with an open door and called their mothers. An hour later, the two were still visibly upset.

I just saw shoes on the road, Halliday, 20, said. It all happened in two seconds.

Saturdays Unite the Right rally was meant to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The city of Charlottesville voted to remove the statue earlier this year, but it remains in Emancipation Park, formerly known as Lee Park, pending a judges ruling expected later this month.

Tensions began to escalate Friday night as hundreds of white nationalists marched through the U-Va. s campus, chanting White lives matter, You will not replace us and Jews will not replace us.

They were met by counterprotesters at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, who founded the university. One counterprotester apparently deployed a chemical spray, which sent about a dozen rallygoers seeking medical assistance.

On Saturday morning, people in combat gear some wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets and carrying clubs, sticks and makeshift shields fought one another on downtown streets, with little apparent police interference. Both sides sprayed chemical irritants and hurled plastic bottles through the air.

A large contingent of Charlottesville police officers and Virginia State Police troopers in riot gear were stationed on side streets and at nearby barricades but did nothing to break up the melee until about 11:40a.m. Using megaphones, police then declared an unlawful assembly and gave a five-minute warning to leave Emancipation Park.

The worst part is that people got hurt and the police stood by and didnt do a g------ thing, said David Copper, 70, of Staunton, Va.

State Del. David Toscano (D-Charlottesville), minority leader of Virginias House, praised the response by Charlottesville and state police.

Asked why police did not act sooner to intervene as violence unfolded, Toscano said he could not comment. But they trained very hard for this, and it might have been that they were waiting for a more effective time to get people out of Emancipation Park, he said.

By early afternoon, hundreds of rallygoers had made their way to a larger park two miles to the north. Duke, speaking to the crowd, said that European Americans are being ethnically cleansed within our own nation and called Saturdays events the first step toward taking America back.

[Decades before Charlottesville, the Ku Klux Klan was dead. The first Hollywood blockbuster revived it.]

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer also addressed the group, urging people to disperse. But he promised they would return for a future demonstration, blaming Saturdays violence on counterprotesters.

In an interview, Spencer said he was beyond outraged the police had declared the planned rally an unlawful assembly.

I never before thought that I would have my country cracking down on me and on free speech, he said. We were lawfully and peacefully assembled. We came in peace, and the state cracked down.

He said that counterprotesters attacked rallygoers but also acknowledged that maybe someone threw a first punch on our side. Maybe that happened. I obviously didnt see everything.

By 11a.m., several fully armed militias and hundreds of right-wing rallygoers had poured into the small downtown park that was to be the site of the rally.

Counterprotesters held Black Lives Matter signs and placards expressing support for equality and love as they faced rallygoers who waved Confederate flags and posters that said the Goyim know, referring to non-Jewish people, and the Jewish media is going down.

No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA! the counterprotesters chanted.

Too late, f-----s! a man yelled back at them.

Michael Von Kotch, a Pennsylvania resident who called himself a Nazi, said the rally made him proud to be white.

He said that hes long held white supremacist views and that Trumps election has emboldened him and the members of his own Nazi group.

We are assembled to defend our history, our heritage and to protect our race to the last man, Von Kotch said, wearing a protective helmet and sporting a wooden shield and a broken pool cue. We came here to stand up for the white race.

Naundi Cook, 23, who is black, said that she came to Saturdays counterprotests to support my people but that shes never seen something like this before.

When violence broke out, she started shaking and got goose bumps.

Ive seen people walking around with tear gas all over their face, all over their clothes. People getting Maced, fighting, she said. I didnt want to be next.

Cook said she couldnt sit back and watch white nationalists descend on her town. She has a 3-year-old daughter to stand up for, she said.

Right now, Im not sad, she said once the protests dispersed. Im a little more empowered. All these people and support, I feel like were on top right now because of all the support that we have.

Alice Crites, Joe Heim and Jack Gillum contributed to this report.

Original post:
Alleged driver of car that plowed into Charlottesville crowd was a Nazi sympathizer, former teacher says - Washington Post


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