A neo-Nazi group this weekend posted flyers declaring “Hitler was right” and “unity of our blood” among other anti-Semitic messages across the Arizona State University (ASU) campus for the second time in less than year.
Student leaders of the Jewish community discovered the posters at around 11:30 am Sunday, according to second-year ASU law student Danny Goldberg. Debbie Yunker Kail, executive director of the ASU Hillel Jewish Student Center helped students report the flyers, according to a report in Homeland Security Today and the AZCentral local news outlet. Campus police immediately removed the posters.
The group responsible for disseminating the flyers – Folksfront, or the Folkish Resistance Movement — has posted such flyers before; last November similar flyers were found on the ASU campus, including one that said “Love not hate” with a swastika replacing the “o” in “love” and a Star of David replacing the “a” in “hate.”
Chabad-Lubavitch emissary and director of Chabad at ASU, Rabbi Shmuel Tiechtel, wrote in a Facebook post early Tuesday that a number of students had reached out to him for support after the flyers had appeared.
“Many students have asked what should our response to such hateful words be. The answer is twofold,” the rabbi wrote in his post.
“Words of bigotry can never be ignored. When condemnable words go unanswered, it emboldens the evil, and leads to negative actions.
We appreciate all those who have spoken out against these flyers I encourage everyone to take a moment and publicly reject such language.
“The second response is a practical one. While these flyers do not reflect the ASU leadership and campus community in any way, actions such as these darken our campus somewhat, and call for a renewed expression of light since this happened here. As such, we are asking everyone to do an extra good deed to bring more light to our community.”
Arizona State University tweeted a comment saying ASU Police were “aware” of the flyers and “ensuring the safety and security of our students is a top priority, and ASU undertakes extensive efforts to ensure student safety is not compromised.”
Thank you for taking action and ensuring these horrible flyers are taken down. and hate are not welcome in our community. Proud to be an employee of this institution! https://t.co/FMG2dJ2THH
— (((Rep.Alma Hernandez MPH)))??? (@almaforarizona)
“Activists” from the Folksfront group wrote in a separate report on their website that early last month they had conducted a banner drop in Queen Creek, Arizona, hanging a banner with a huge picture of Adolf Hitler with massive letters that proclaimed, “HITLER was right” and at the bottom, also listed the group’s website.
The banner, said the group, was “meant to signify to the world our position,” referring to the recent “violent left-wing mobs staging riots across the country.”
(Folksfront runs a website hosted by Los Angeles-based company DreamHost, with privacy services enabled that shield the registrant’s information.)
According to the group’s report about their banner drop, their activists “conducted themselves greatly, despite the police presence which appeared on the scene only minutes after the banner was displayed.” The banner activity “went well,” and the activists were “only cited for trespassing” over a “simple misunderstanding” that the bridge from which the group hung their banner apparently did not actually belong to the town, but rather belonged to the local railway company.
Everything was “kept peaceful” and after it was over the activists were “free to leave,” which then freed them to have a “bite to eat.”
Folks, antisemitism is real hard work and it sure can make one work up quite an appetite. . .