In 1968, Rabbi Meir Kahane founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL) whose motto was, “To protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary.” The organization might have started as a noble cause, necessary for the safety of Jewish people; but it quickly became a violent group responsible for attacks, bombings and even a few deaths. The founder himself was assassinated in 1990. The JDL still exists today and has been classified as a right-wing terrorist group by the FBI since 2001. Originally, the JDL claimed that they were there to do the job that the ADL wasn’t doing.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is an international Jewish NGO based in the United States that was founded in 1913. While the JDL is inactive for the most part, the ADL has become a voice for civil rights and against antisemitism.
The Goyim Defense League (GDL), using its name as the counterpart to the JDL, is a completely different animal. The word goyim is plural for goy, which in Hebrew means “nation” or “nations”, another name for the Gentiles. Their logo is some sort of parody of the ADL logo, using the colors red, black and white–subliminally or not–similar to the Nazi logo. The GDL was founded in California in 2018 by Jon Minadeo II. They are a very antisemitic/conspiracy theory group that targets Jews in whatever way they can. They used to be a fringe group that no one really took too seriously, but lately, they have been present and vocal in 17 states.
Their recent activity includes antisemitic flyers about age-old Jewish world domination. The flyers are printed, stuffed in plastic bags with pebbles or beans and thrown in neighborhoods on people’s driveways or placed on car windshields.
Additionally, some of their members have been spotted in California, Texas and Florida, displaying banners on highway overpasses with messages such as “Kanye is right about the Jews” referring to Kanye West’s recent rant against Jewish people.
Jon Minadeo was also spotted recently in Florida where he was insulting Jewish people on the street with a bullhorn, accompanied by a few other of his GDL cronies. He yelled “should we put you in an oven” to a passerby and insulted a Jewish man in his car, calling him “Jew Horse” and telling him to go back to his country, Israel where “they kill Palestinian kids”. The whole episode took place while he was laughing and insulting people as the police watched silently, and no passersby said a word.
Additionally, some of their members have been spotted in California, Texas and Florida, displaying banners on highway overpasses with messages such as “Kanye is right about the Jews” referring to Kanye West’s recent rant against Jewish people.
Jon Minadeo was also spotted recently in Florida where he was insulting Jewish people on the street with a bullhorn, accompanied by a few other of his GDL cronies. He yelled “should we put you in an oven” to a passerby and insulted a Jewish man in his car, calling him “Jew Horse” and telling him to go back to his country, Israel where “they kill Palestinian kids”. The whole episode took place while he was laughing and insulting people as the police watched silently, and no passersby said a word.
Groups like GDL/GoyimTV used to be on the fringe of the antisemitic circle, and not taken very seriously. Why are they suddenly becoming more vocal? It is part of what I have identified as the normalization of antisemitism. Normal is the opposite of abnormal, so normalization is a process that takes an abnormal belief or behavior and manages to change it or its perception so that it will be perceived as normal. It can refer to data, diplomatic relations, economics, biology or sociology. The sociological aspect of normalization is the one that affects antisemitism.
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