{"id":15378,"date":"2016-12-19T09:12:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T16:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=15378"},"modified":"2016-12-19T09:12:38","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T16:12:38","slug":"missoula-groups-push-back-against-nazi-inspired-leaflets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/12\/missoula-groups-push-back-against-nazi-inspired-leaflets\/","title":{"rendered":"Missoula groups push back against Nazi-inspired leaflets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rabbi\"<\/a>

Martin Kidston\/Missoula Current<\/p>

Laurie Franklin, the spiritual leader at Har Shalom and a student rabbi, says that while recent Nazi-inspired leaflets being distributed in Missoula are benign on their own, they have caused concern among members of her congregation.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s a\u00a0Thursday\u00a0morning at Har Shalom and the children are gathered for play. But the synagogue\u2019s spiritual leader has taken to the library, where she\u2019s thinking of ways to counter the emergence of Nazi-inspired literature in Missoula.<\/p>\n

Over the past few months, hate-filled leaflets with Nazi propaganda have appeared at area homes. While the drops have been sparse and seemingly random, they are nonetheless troubling in a community that prides itself on tolerance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be subject to people with a distorted point of view thinking they can control my life,\u201d said Laurie Franklin, the spiritual leader and a student rabbi at Har Shalom. \u201cI\u2019ve been spending a lot of time on this issue when I\u2019d rather be studying the Torah, feeding people and housing people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past few months, the leaflets began appearing in some neighborhoods around Missoula. Several members of Har Shalom have received them at their homes. The fliers are crudely printed and draw their material from the \u201cProtocols of The Elders of Zion,\u201d an antisemitic and fabricated text that outlines a Jewish plan for global domination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jews\u2019 purpose is to destroy us and our families from the inside out, slowly and gradually perverting us with their own special kind of poison,\u201d Franklin says, reading from one of the recent leaflets. \u201cYou can help stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the fliers asks for a $5 donation in exchange for an American Nazi Party \u201cinfo pack.\u201d The mailing address includes a post office box in Westland, Michigan, but fails to include the name of any individual.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to hide behind propaganda, Franklin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeafleting is relatively benign, but it creates a climate of intimidation and a climate of fear,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cEven if it\u2019s a single person operating alone, it still has a negative effect. This has no place in a free society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Rachel Carroll Rivas, co-director of the Montana Human Rights Network in Helena, said hate activity has risen across the state over the past year, though it reached a crescendo six weeks ago.<\/p>\n

The materials have included leaflets, harassment of certain minorities, and Nazi-inspired graffiti, including swastikas and references to \u201c88.\u201d Rivas said the latter is code for the eighth letter of the alphabet, or H, and references the phrase “Heil Hitler.”<\/p>\n

\u201cRight after the election in Bozeman, there were swastikas and graffiti that were written in German, referencing Nazism and supporting it,\u201d said Rivas. \u201cThere was a swastika spray painted on the Rimrocks in Billings. We\u2019ve seen some specific references to cases saying people will be deported. That\u2019s just in relation to the color of their skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the messaging isn\u2019t new, it has reached new heights and it has community members concerned. Missoula has been subject to leafleting from time to time over the years, though Rivas said the more recent cases are different.<\/p>\n

So is the fact that it has continued with some consistency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, when we had white supremacist leafleting in Missoula, it stood alone as a case of extremism,\u201d Rivas said. \u201cThe leafleting from the American Nazi Party has been concentrated specifically in Missoula. There has been white supremacist leafleting in the Flathead too, but it\u2019s not specific to the American Nazi Party. We\u2019re not sure if we\u2019re talking about a group in Missoula, but in the Flathead, it\u2019s one person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Leaflet\"<\/a>

This and similar leaflets have been distributed in Missoula.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rivas said the perpetrators in Missoula remain unknown, though the individual in the Flathead has been identified. Rivas said the Montana Human Rights Network is working with local law enforcement there, though it\u2019s still looking at the cases in Missoula and asking the police to track the fliers\u2019 distribution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could be talking about someone who has a relationship with the American Nazi Party, or someone who\u2019s using their website to get the materials and doesn\u2019t necessarily have a strong organizational affiliation with them,\u201d said Rivas. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter either way in terms of the impact. Leafleting is a tool for intimidation and perpetrating hate that makes people afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Montana Human Rights Network, along with local spiritual leaders and members of the local media, has questioned whether reporting such instances serves to inspire the perpetrators. But Rivas, like Franklin, believes it\u2019s best to call them out for what they are, and work to generate a community response.<\/p>\n

Staying silent, they believe, would serve to condone hate.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy calling it out, we\u2019re saying it\u2019s harmful to people and hurtful, and it makes our communities not function in an inclusive way where everyone can participate,\u201d said Rivas. \u201cIt\u2019s not giving them a microphone. It\u2019s exposing what they\u2019re doing as damaging and problematic. There\u2019s definitely a reason the Ku Klux Klan wore a hood. It\u2019s important we call them out and expose them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent incidents follow the anti-refugee rhetoric that gained momentum as President-elect Donald Trump made his run for the White House. Anonymous letters were sent to local government leaders, including one that urged local citizens to \u201clock your daughters up when the refugees are brought to Missoula.\u201d<\/p>\n

The anonymity of the perpetrators behind such letters and leaflet drops has made it impossible for local community and spiritual leaders to engage the individuals in direct dialogue. Instead, the Montana Human Rights Network has launched a new portal on its website, asking individuals to report any cases of leafleting or hate-inspired activity.<\/p>\n

Har Shalom is also working toward community solutions, from standing in solidarity with other faith groups to programs to help members of their congregation respond to incidents of bias as it happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some people who are never going to agree with you, and don\u2019t have any kind of dialogue,\u201d said Franklin. \u201cEven if you\u2019re talking with each other, you\u2019re debating, and you\u2019re not really exchanging anything. But there are some people who are willing to think about their ideas differently, and there\u2019s a lot of conversation to be had.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Missoula Current<\/a>, an independent online newspaper, of which\u00a0Martin Kidston is the founding editor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a\u00a0Thursday\u00a0morning at Har Shalom and the children are gathered for play. But the synagogue\u2019s spiritual leader has taken to the library, where she\u2019s thinking of ways to counter the emergence of Nazi-inspired literature in Missoula. Over the past few months, hate-filled leaflets with Nazi propaganda have appeared at area homes. While the drops have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":15379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[5283,5282,5284,4045,391,5285],"class_list":["post-15378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-american-nazi-party","tag-har-shalom","tag-laurie-franklin","tag-missoula-current","tag-montana-human-rights-network","tag-rachel-carroll-rivas","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}