PD Editorial: Hate flyers must not be ignored

Our initial reaction to Saturday’s article about antisemitic flyers littering Napa neighborhoods was disgust.

As Staff Writer Phil Barber reported, one handbill linked Jews to “the COVID agenda,” and another insinuated something sinister about the presence of Jewish officials in the Biden administration.

Only a bigot could fail to recognize these scurrilous tropes for what they are.

Indeed, it was tempting to allow this to pass without comment. But that would be a mistake, because this desecration of Napa homes wasn’t an isolated incident.

According to news accounts, similar incidents have occurred in San Francisco, Berkeley, Danville, Novato, Palo Alto and Tiburon — in just the past five weeks.

They aren’t limited to the Bay Area, either. An online search turned up recent incidents in Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Florida, Texas and Wisconsin.

The FBI opened an investigation last week after someone left antisemitic flyers at homes in Coleyville, Texas. Some recipients are members of Congregation Beth Israel, where a rabbi and three congregants were taken hostage on Jan. 15.

In Napa, it appears that the perpetrators specifically sought out some Jewish residents.

“We felt really targeted, because we’re a Jewish family,” Lowell Downey told Barber. “We were the only ones on our block that got hit.” Flyers also were left at Congregation Beth Shalom.

These far-flung incidents have something in common besides spreading hatred and racism. According to news accounts, they were facilitated by a Petaluma-based fringe group that calls itself Goyim TV and the Goyim Defense League, co-opting a disparaging Yiddish word for non-Jews.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group was responsible for at least 74 antisemitic propaganda incidents in 2021.

The leader is Jon Minadeo Jr. of Petaluma, according to the Jewish News of Northern California. Minadeo incorporated Goyim TV, LLC last year. The group distributes flyers over an encrypted messaging app, stages stunts such as hanging banners from highway overpasses and posts videos online. There’s no mistaking their antisemitic, homophobic and neo-Nazi themes.

Antisemitism, like other forms of racism, is an endemic problem in this country. But there has been a sharp increase over the past few years, accompanied by a rise in hate-related violence, including a slashing attack at a Hanukkah celebration in New York and mass shootings at synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway.

While it’s true that these groups seek out attention, there’s no evidence that ignoring them will make them go away or smother hateful messages intended to sow fear and intimidation. As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote a century ago, the remedy for falsehood and fallacies “is more speech, not enforced silence.”

It’s also true that the despicable stereotypes and fabrications promoted by hate groups are generally protected speech, so long as they don’t foment violence. But the First Amendment restricts the government’s response to hate speech, not what individuals and businesses are allowed to do.

Social media outlets can and should deny a platform to hate groups, and everyone can combat racism and antisemitism by calling it out when it happens, insisting on inclusion in education, employment and leadership and practicing inclusion in their daily lives.

Before the incident in Napa last week, Petaluma leaders didn’t know an antisemitic hate group was operating out of their community. As the spotlight grew brighter, Minadeo shrank out of sight. If he reappears, we all should be ready to send a clear message that hate speech is not welcome here.

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