‘We are not intimidated.’ Neo-Nazi group gets pushback from Lexington rabbi
A Lexington rabbi is responding to messages of hate found in Central Kentucky by reaching out to help people better understand Judaism.
Last week, fliers that included the phrases “white power” and the Nazi slogan “blood and soil” were distributed in Central Kentucky. The fliers said Jews, Black people and Mexicans “will not replace us” and called on “Aryan men and women” to “stand up.”
Rabbi Shlomo Litvin said he knows both Jewish and non-Jewish people in Versailles and Scott County who received and were upset by the fliers, which included a phone number based in Washington state.
After Litvin, director of Chabad of the Bluegrass, spoke out on social media and in news stories over the weekend, he said he received a threatening, profanity-laced phone call on Monday from a man who took credit for the fliers.
“He then went just on a rant,” Litvin said. “He told me my Jewish privilege is not going to protect me.”
Litvin said he has been in contact with the Lexington Police Department and FBI.
“We are not intimidated,” Litvin said.
What is 14 First The Foundation & what’s it trying to do?
The Washington-based neo-Nazi organization that says it distributed the fliers is called 14 First The Foundation. A man who identified himself as Ronald Murray answered the phone at the number listed on the fliers Tuesday night. Murray said he is the vice president of the organization.
“We are a pro-white organization that is dedicated to the improvement, advancement and continuation of the western white civilization that the white race has built,” he said, adding later that “the white race is truly under attack.”
He said the organization has more than 400 members throughout the country, including 40 to 60 in Kentucky. He said the organization received at least 20 voicemails in response to the fliers distributed here, so membership from Kentucky may grow.
Murray took issue with claims that the fliers were placed in mailboxes, saying they were instead placed inside ziplock bags with a rock and thrown onto people’s property since placing them in mailboxes would be illegal. He said 150 to 250 were distributed. Two videos shared on YouTube purport to show the distribution.
Kentucky is not the only state where the organization has been trying to recruit members. Last week, a similar story was reported in Austin, Texas.
Lexington rabbi’s steps to defeat antisemitism, bigotry
Litvin, who serves on the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights and Mayor Linda Gorton’s Commission for Racial Justice & Equality, has drafted some fliers of his own in hopes of countering the group’s message with one of love.
“It said, you matter, you are irreplaceable, and we’re glad that you are part of our community,” he said.
Litvin said his fliers have already been placed on doorsteps in the area around the Chabad Center, and the plan is to share them in Central Kentucky neighborhoods where the other fliers were left last week.
Litvin said he’s also planning online education initiatives to help people better understand Judaism and to debunk antisemitism.
“The greatest weapon against hate is education,” he said. “It’s much harder to hate someone when you know one.”
More information about the initiatives will be available soon through the Chabad of the Bluegrass Facebook page and website, Litvin said. He’s also willing to speak to groups that want to learn more about Judaism.
“Bigotry is not limited to any one background or life experience but is always rooted in, and always leads to further ignorance,” Litvin wrote in a Facebook post. “Blood and Soil was the desperate cry of a dying and backward ideology. Hate can never truly unite anyone. Books and study are the keys to both unity and to the growth and continuation of our nation.”
Litvin said he took courage and inspiration from two leaders of his faith. They are Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, who he called “a leader of Soviet Jewry who knew no fear and stood proudly in the face of hatred,” and Schneerson’s son, “the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, my personal mentor and the foremost Jewish leader of our generation.”
Chabad is open and continuing to serve the community, he said.
“We have a responsibility to watch out, not only for our own community but care for others as well,” he said. “It all comes back, in my opinion, to education.”
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 7:37 AM.
