federal and local authorities are
investigating a bomb threat made against
the cats jewish community center in
cherry hill
the threat was received yesterday but
police said they found nothing
suspicious
it was condemned by leaders in south
jersey's jewish community who say they
are concerned about the anti-semitism
behind these threats
meanwhile a new report from the
anti-defamation league finds a sharp
jump in the number of propaganda
incidents from white supremacist groups
around the country including a major
push from a group based in our state the
new jersey european heritage association
melissa rose cooper reports on the
danger that's presenting as part of
exploring hate our ongoing series of
reports on anti-semitism racism and
extremism what we had seen
is that
across the country we're at nearly 5 000
incidents of white supremacist
propaganda in 2021 so this is not a
small number and of those 5 000 the
anti-defamation league counted 179
incidents here in new jersey last year
alone we look back at 2017 when we
started this
we counted 12.
so the the jump from 12 to 179 is
enormous and it speaks to a general
emboldening of white supremacists in the
state of new jersey so the adl is hoping
to put people on alerts and raise the
alarm with their recently released
annual report tracking what they say are
incidents of white supremacist
propaganda extremist groups spreading
messages of hate on stickers flyers and
banners we believe that people are not
aware that white supremacists have
become so visible in this way and when
we educate the community when we we make
them aware of these issues
they they will be
they will be vigilant about it and
hopefully do something about it the adl
blaming the patriot front the focus
resistance movement and the new jersey
european heritage association for 91
percent of white supremacist propaganda
incidents they've documented in the case
of
the patriot front they were involved
with the rally in charlottesville the
new jersey european heritage association
was one of only six groups
that have been publicly identified as
being involved in the january 6th
insurrection at the capitol so
we're always concerned about extremism
uh and what that may lead to and whether
that creates a threat of violence to the
folks that reside here in our community
but nowadays social media seems to be
the most popular platform to get their
message of hate out so even though we
talk new jersey specific
there's no borders anymore on how these
groups
radicalize or
or how they recruit
the majority of it is done online paul
goldenberg is the senior advisor to the
rutgers university miller center for
community protection and resilience he
says incidents of domestic terrorism and
extremism are nothing new but their
ability to share their agendas online
allows them to reach thousands of people
instantly people say
sticks and stones
you know will break your bones but words
will never harm you and i would like
any of those folks that truly believe
that to take a look at just a couple of
the websites
that are and were run by some of these
white supremist groups these violent
white supremacist groups
where over a hundred people a hundred
people
have have been murdered massacred in
their synagogues and their mosques in
their churches in their in their s in
some cases sikh temples
and
and the common denominator between them
all
has been
social media legally no criminal action
can be taken against anyone for being a
part of an extremist group are having or
spreading hateful views thanks to the
first amendment but anti-hate advocates
say one of the main goals of extremist
groups is to be visible so if you come
across a disturbing message in your
community advocates are asking you to
avoid sharing it so you don't feed into
their agenda for nj spotlight news i'm
melissa rose cooper
major funding for exploring hate has
been provided by the sylvia a and simon
b poiter programming endowment to fight
anti-semitism
sue and edgar wachenheim iii
charlotte and david ackert
the peter g peterson and joan gance
cooney fund
patty asquith kenner
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