The rise in animosity toward government and authority among extremist right-wing groups continued in 1997. Anti-Semitic incidents in the US declined for the third year in a row. In 1997 1,571 anti-Semitic incidents were reported, an 8.8 percent decrease from 1996. The increase in anti-Semitic propaganda on campus was partly due to the renewed efforts of Bradley Smith to place Holocaust denial advertisements in college newspapers. The number of hate groups on the Internet more than doubled from 1996.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The bulk of American Jewry live in several large cities and their environs, including New York (1.9 million), Los Angeles (almost 600,000) Miami (500,000), and Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore-Washington (about 250,000 each), San Francisco (200,000) and Detroit (100,000).

Leading national Jewish organizations include the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), B'nai B'rith, Council of Jewish Federations, Hadassah, Jewish War Veterans and many religious and Zionist groups. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Organizations acts as the foreign policy umbrella group for 48 leading associations. The primary fund-raising/social service group, and one of the leading philanthropic organizations in America generally, is the United Jewish Appeal.

There is an active Jewish press and almost every community with a large Jewish population supports its own English-language weekly newspaper. Three Yiddish weeklies also continue to be published, as well as a Russian-language Jewish newspaper.

EXTREMIST MOVEMENTS AND HATE GROUPS

Later in the year, on December 23, McVeigh's accomplice Terry Nichols was convicted on the count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, and was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Like McVeigh, Nichols was violently anti-government. He reportedly attended several militia meetings and was also an adherent of "common law court" ideology.

While militia numbers have been static over the past year, "common law court" activity has increased. This is the attempt to defy the legitimate institutions of government, especially the judicial and law enforcement branches, by replacing them with parallel structures. "Common law courts" issue phony legal documents to intimidate and defraud their enemies. Recent estimates place the number of active "common law court" and militia members at around 20,000. "Common law court" adherents use outlandish versions of American history and bizarre conspiracy theories to justify their activities. Many groups promote anti-Semitic views, including the notorious claim that Jewish banking families own the Federal Reserve.

The year 1997 witnessed an ever-increasing cross-fertilization between various strands of the anti-government extremist movement. The Republic of Texas, a San Antonio-based group that considers itself to be the true state of Texas, represents the most comprehensive form of this trend. The Republic of Texas has set up a "provisional government" which operates its own judicial system, with two "common law courts" that meet regularly, and has assembled small militia-type cells which it calls "defense forces." From April 27 through May 3, 1997, Fort Davis, Texas, was the site of an armed standoff between law enforcement officials and members of the Republic of Texas, headed by Richard McLaren. The standoff ended peacefully, with group members surrendering to authorities.

The stagnating numbers in the militia movement and the rise of "common law court" ideology have not been accompanied by a reduction in militia violence or criminal activity. In fact, during 1997, several militia members were arrested on weapons charges and conspiracy to bomb government facilities. Groups have acquired illegal ammunition and bomb-making materials, and planned or committed criminal acts of violence. For example, seven men and one woman were arrested in July 1997 for planning to use anti-personnel bombs and other weapons at US military installations. In addition, in early December in New York City, nearly one hundred municipal employees were arrested for allegedly failing to pay city, state, and federal taxes. Some of those accused were members of an anti-government movement called the Moorish Nation, which claims not to recognize the authority of the US government and whose adherents believe they are exempt from paying taxes because they are descendants of the Lost City of Atlantis and thus the true owners of North America. This ideology is reminiscent of the Freemen of Montana (see ASW 1996/7).

Ultimately, these, and other right-wing extremists depend on conspiracy theories to generate enthusiasm among their supporters. Propaganda materials that are passed around at meetings, conventions, gun shows and over the Internet often promote the view that Jews or Jewish institutions are co-conspirators in the "new world order." One phenomenon which helps to highlight this point is the burgeoning number of gatherings known as "Preparedness Expos." These weapons-oriented trade shows have turned, in some cases, into recruiting grounds for anti-government extremists. Additionally, there has been an increase in the availability of anti-Semitic and other hate related materials at these shows. At expos in Denver and Orlando, Fl., Christian Identity literature was freely available. Anti-Semitic tracts by longtime conspiracy propagandist Eustace Mullins also appeared and pro-militia and pro-"common law court" literature distributed at expos was extremely anti-Semitic.

Among the more familiar hate groups in America, the Ku Klux Klan has declined markedly in membership over the past few years, with fewer attending rallies. There is, however, still a notable Klan presence in the United States with approximately 3,000 members nationwide. Individual Klan cells continue to operate on a local level -- in some cases still engaging in illegal acts of violence and intimidation - while Klan recruitment and propagandizing continues. David Duke, former Grand Dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, continued to demonstrate his staying power by being elected chairman of the Republican Party of St. Tammany Parish [County] in Louisiana. Duke has also grown closer to former American Nazi Party (ANP) officer William Pierce and his National Alliance organization. In 1997, the National Alliance sponsored several of David Duke's speaking engagements and has increased its visibility, especially over the Internet.

Recent estimates indicate that the number of neo-Nazi skinheads in the United States stands at roughly 3,500, and that their numbers did not seem to increase over the course of the last year. There was an increase in violence on the part of neo-Nazis during the latter part of 1997. In Denver, Colorado, a 25-year-old skinhead shot and killed a police officer. Less than a week later, a West African refugee was shot and killed after being confronted by two white men, allegedly white supremacists. The following day, a dead pig, with the slain police officer's name on its side and a drawing of a badge on its belly, was found in the parking lot of the police station where the officer was based.

As the above episodes suggest, several major incidents of the past year were not committed by groups or individuals primarily motivated by anti-Semitic beliefs. The key trend continues to be a considerable rise in extremist animosity toward government and authority. While it is certain that most elements within the extremist world take much of their inspiration from conspiracy theories and ago-old racist and anti-Semitic ideas, overall, anti-Semitism does not seem to be playing a direct part in their more violent actions.

America's non-violent extremist groups have managed to maintain a consistent, though generally unremarkable, presence in America. One of the older and better organized operations in the US, the conspiracy-oriented Lyndon LaRouche cult, attempted to insert its ideas into the nation's mainstream political debate via organized labor and members of the clergy. For the most part, however, the LaRouchites have met with little success. The biggest issue for LaRouche in 1997 was the establishment of "Britain's puppet-government in Zaire," and its hand in the "genocide" occurring in Central Africa. This particular campaign has been of concern since it is framed in the same language used to discuss the Holocaust, and thus serves to trivialize it.

More troubling, however, are the links being formed between LaRouche's cult and Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam. Many of the forums sponsored by LaRouche's group over the last year have included speakers from the NOI. Abdul Alim Muhammad, the NOI's "minister of health," for example, has appeared at more than one LaRouche event. The two groups share various anti-Semitic beliefs, as well as conspiracy-laden views about the US government and its "role" in bringing drugs into America's inner-cities.

No extremist group in America today has received greater visibility or more encouragement from within the mainstream than the Nation of Islam (NOI) and its leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan's bigotry is undeniable; his long-time record of attacks on Jews, whites, Catholics, gays, and others is well-documented and widely known. His organization embraces racist and separatist doctrines and disseminates them through speeches, books, and other publications. Farrakhan and the NOI have never repudiated or renounced this racism and anti-Semitism; on the contrary, Farrakhan has frequently reaffirmed these views and accusations as the "truth."

October 16, 1997, marked the two-year anniversary of the Million Man March which Farrakhan and the NOI organized in 1995. Despite Farrakhan's 90-city (actually only 51) National Revival Tour in July to garner support for this Day of Atonement, his call not to attend school or work that day was only partially answered and there was a much more modest attendance at the various rallies than was expected. At the end of 1997 Farrakhan left the US for a 50-nation Friendship Tour much like the 1996 World Friendship Tour (see also Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam).

The Internet: Over the past year the number of hate sites on the World Wide Web (WWW) has more than doubled. By 1997, a number of well-known extremists, with long histories of anti-Semitic activities were exploiting its technological innovations.

The WWW has also helped create a network of militia and "common law court" related web pages. Many sites link to other web pages that are filled with gun-related, survival, paramilitary, and pseudo-judicial information. In short, these sites provide the standard conspiracy theory materials on which the anti-government extremist movement thrives. Some sites are run by functioning militias and others are operated by individuals who sympathize with the movement but are merely "cyberspace warriors."

Despite media attention and his success in Louisiana politics, David Duke has not managed to appeal to a wider audience. Consequently, he has turned to the Internet, using his website, the David Duke Report Online, to spread his message. In his article "The Coming White Revolution -- Born on the Internet," featured on his site, Duke argued that the Internet will facilitate a worldwide revolution of "white awareness," which will shatter the control of "the minority minds" of the "alien anti-white" media who enforce the doctrine of the "politically correct" and who have been "my unrelenting enemy" and "yours as well, because it supports every pernicious liberal program you can imagine."

William Pierce's neo-Nazi National Alliance maintains two of the most technically sophisticated hate sites on the WWW. Constantly updated, these sites effectively use the idea of "Internet radio." The National Alliance's weekly half-hour American Dissident Voices radio broadcasts are placed on the web and can be listened to at any time, anywhere in the world. The National Alliance site also includes a series of policy statements explaining its ideology, which mirrors that of Nazi Germany. Biological determinism, hierarchical organization, and an emphasis on will and sacrifice, all echo the ideas of Adolf Hitler.

The Christian Identity movement, which is best characterized as a pernicious blend of racism, anti-Semitism, and pseudo-Christianity, has also started to use the Internet as a forum for spreading its views and supplementing its traditional propaganda tools. Among the Identity or Identity-influenced groups or individuals already on the web are Aryan Nations (with two sites), Pete Peters' Scriptures for America, Dave Barley's America's Promise Ministries, Kingdom Identity Ministries of Harrison, Arkansas, as well as James Wickstrom, erstwhile leader of the violent, vigilante-style Posse Comitatus (Power of the Country). In addition, a number of online activists, including those sympathizing with the Ku Klux Klan, publish Identity-related materials.

Jews are the special object of the Identity movement's "theologically" based hatred. As Wickstrom's site reveals, "Most that call themselves Jews today are in fact of the race of Lucifer through his son Cain." The Aryan Nations' site describes Jews as, "…the natural enemy of our Aryan (White) Race. This is attested by scripture and all secular history. The Jew is like a destroying virus that attacks our racial body to destroy our Aryan culture and the purity of our Race."

By the middle of 1997 there were at least six Ku Klux Klan sites and a number of other sites operated by Klan sympathizers. Such wide-ranging web activity conceals the diminished power and importance of the Klan and is meant to give the casual observer the impression of a revived, vital and active Klan reaching out for members everywhere.

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES

Violence and Vandalism

Acts of anti-Semitic vandalism dropped in 1997 after a small increase in 1996. A total of 673 incidents of vandalism were recorded, compared to 781 in 1996, a decrease of 14 percent. About half of the incidents in this category were public acts of anti-Semitic vandalism, including swastikas and anti-Jewish graffiti on sides of buildings, on street signs and in schools.

New York, the state with the largest Jewish population, once again recorded the highest number of anti-Semitic acts of vandalism. There were 228 such incidents in 1997, the highest on ADL record. This marks a 3.5 percent increase over 1996, when there were 219 incidents. New York is one of a handful of states that saw a rise in anti-Semitic vandalism. New Jersey registered the second highest number of anti-Semitic incidents of vandalism with 133, a decrease of 20 percent from 166 such acts last year. California had 56, compared to 58 in 1996. Maryland recorded 53, an increase of 49 percent over last year's total of 27; Massachusetts, 42 incidents, a decline of 9 (18 percent); Florida 26 incidents, down 4 (13 percent) and Ohio reported 20 incidents, an increase of 4 (20 percent).

Propaganda

There were 104 incidents of anti-Semitic propaganda on campuses across the country in 1997, up 14 from 1996. This increase followed a decline in the past two years of anti-Semitic campus activity, and can be attributed in part to Bradley Smith and the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (see below).

One incident of note was an anonymous document entitled "Anti-Semitism - Found" which was mailed to professors at 16 colleges and universities around the country. The eight-page document, written in a polished academic style, presented stereotypes of Jews who controlled the government, the media and academia, as well as the white supremacist thesis that white Americans were in danger of losing their identity in the face of the large numbers of Jews, blacks and other minorities in the country.

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA

One of the more significant anti-Semitic developments of the past year was the renewed effort by Bradley Smith of the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH) to place advertisements in college campus newspapers questioning the established history of the Holocaust. Smith's campaign to place Holocaust denial materials in campus papers represents his most ambitious effort since the 1993-1994 academic year. An op-ed piece was submitted under the name Samuel Cromwell, with the same San Diego, California, address and telephone number as that of Bradley Smith. The piece was an attempt to deny the existence of mass gassings at Nazi death camps. It argued that the doors leading into the gas chambers were really standard issue doors made for use in bomb shelters. The author used this "evidence" to assert that these structures were really bomb shelters, and not gas chambers.

In the past year the number of websites dedicated to Holocaust denial has more than tripled. Moreover, many traditional anti-Semitic groups have also begun to echo this revisionist line on their sites. By masking their hatred of Jews in "historical scholarship," deniers hope to make anti-Semitism respectable and reasonable. This is also a contributing factor to making Holocaust denial sites the fastest growing anti-Semitic propaganda line on the WWW.

At the CODOH website, Bradley Smith states that "something is wrong with how the story of Jewish is being promoted." In order to remedy this situation, his site contains a couple of hundred documents, some by Smith and many by other deniers, such as British writer David Irving and French former university lecturer Robert Faurrison.

The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) remains the world's pre-eminent outlet for Holocaust denial propaganda. While IHR has no website, Greg Raven, the associate editor of its house organ, The Journal for Historical Review, does. Though not officially tied to IHR, this site includes hundreds of republished articles pertaining to Holocaust denial. Browsers on Raven's site will find titles such as "Auschwitz: Myths and Facts, 'Gas Chamber' Fraud Acknowledged," "The Holocaust and the Myth of the Past as History," "In France - No Evidence of Nazi Gas Chambers," among others.

Canadian pro-Nazi, Holocaust-denier Ernst Zündel has also been active on the WWW. Canada's more stringent laws restricting hate-speech have forced Zündel to use a California-based web service provider to run his Zundelsite. By mid-1997, however, Zündel asserted that he was connected to this site only through his name. The reason for this denial may be the fact that he is facing a civil complaint before the Canadian Human Rights Commission (see Canada).

Holocaust Commemoration

On May 2, the ADL and the New York City Council held a Holocaust commemoration service, with a banner reading "Learn the Lessons of History, Stop Hate Now," flying over City Hall. Two weeks later, the FBI held its first Holocaust commemoration. In Georgia on August 7, the state's Commission on the Holocaust held its teachers conference promoting greater understanding and awareness of the Holocaust. Moreover, 1997 witnessed the opening and expansion of Holocaust museums and centers throughout the US.

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM

The year 1997 saw a marked increase in endeavors to fight hate crimes on a national level. At an all-day White House conference on hate crimes in November, President Bill Clinton announced a series of law enforcement and prevention efforts to counter hate crimes. He directed the Justice Department to utilize its recently established regional hate crimes task force to vigorously investigate and prosecute violent hate groups; authorized FBI agents and prosecutors to work on enforcement against hate crimes; and mandated the National Crime Victimization Survey to include questions about hate crimes. The president also urged the expansion of federal hate crimes laws to include stiffer penalties, and endorsed legislation to give federal prosecutors additional authority to prosecute racial violence and other hate crimes.

Court Cases

In a well-publicized case in 1997, two former members of the US army's élite 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, James N. Burmeister 2nd and Malcolm Wright Jr., were convicted of killing a black couple in North Carolina in 1995. The prosecutors maintained that the attack was racially motivated and that the two perpetrators were neo-Nazi skinheads. According to The New York Times of May 3, 1997, the "killings led Army Secretary Togo D. West Jr. to initiate a worldwide inquiry into extremist activity in the [army's] ranks." The piece went on to report that the "inquiry found little evidence of overt racism, but it led to discharges of 22 soldiers…who were found to have participated actively in extremist activity."

Public Activity

A public debate arose when the ADL asked America Online (AOL) to remove the website the Realm of Texas of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan led by Thom Robb. The ADL believed that the Realm of Texas pages specifically violated AOL's terms of service forbidding "hateful language." The company declined to take any action, indicating that, in its judgment, the site did not violate the guidelines of its terms of service. Indeed, the company representative said, the ideas expressed on the site "may be repugnant" but they were only "historical in character." However, AOL subsequently indicated that it would limit the ability of subscribers to post web pages on the Internet using its name.

In the past year there have been several instances in which citizens have taken the initiative in the fight against anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry. One such initiative occurred in Denver, after a spate of neo-Nazi skinhead violence. Community leaders banded together to organize anti-hate marches and rallies across the city. Some citizens joined forces and formed a group called Citizens United Against Hate.