Our Dark Year of Antisemitism
We see you.
Your orange idol has given you a license to be more public about it, and people are starting to notice. It's not a good look for you, the state, or Anchorage. Yet, you insist on wearing your hate like a badge of pride on your antisemitic T-shirts, your antisemitic social media groups, and antisemitic stickers. All the while, we have been watching this play out with growing horror and disgust. People are taking note of your disgusting behavior, as is the media.
Coronavirus lockdowns last year shifted antisemitic hatred online, where conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic's medical and economic devastation abounded. It's easy to see how the coronavirus pandemic has sparked antisemitic conspiracy theories—each time there was a flu or other epidemic in past centuries, Jews were referred to as "plague spreaders."
Conspiracy theories have widely circulated online over the past year, attempting to link Jews and Israel with the Coronavirus. Those conspiracy theories combine several familiar antisemitic tropes, including 'dirty Jews spreading infection' and 'Jews getting rich by exploiting a defenseless public' — near-identical to allegations made last year by members of Save Anchorage that former Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz was attempting to profit off of shutdowns because he owned a small stake in Snow City Cafe which was able to adapt and remain largely open through Coronavirus related shutdowns and restrictions.
In Alaska, as the Coronavirus surged, we watched hate take root in Save Anchorage — spreading across its affiliated network of groups as far-right blogs, perhaps not so coincidentally, launched a barrage of ceaseless and baseless attacks against Berkowitz.
Group members verbally assaulted Berkowitz, calling him a "ruthless Jew, Mayor Hitler, Hitler son of a bitch, tyrant, Lord Farquaad, Pedowitz, Bagoshitz," hardly hiding their antisemitism.
You may remember former Save Anchorage member Maria Athens, whose award-winning death threat made international headlines when the Alaska Landmine revealed a voicemail in which Athens told Berkowitz that she would personally kill him and his wife — but only after she first called him a "Jewish piece of living fucking shit."
Athens left her hate-laced voicemail after fellow former Save Anchorage member Molly Blakely told Athens something that led her to believe Berkowitz had posted his "male genitalia" to an "underage girl's website." The allegation was false.
One year later, Save Anchorage remains a haven for antisemitism, and older hateful comments still exist in the group.
In the last month, Save Anchorage members have posted pictures of tattoos associated with the Holocaust to the group — comparing Covid-19 contact tracing efforts to the genocide of millions of Jews by Hitler during World War II.
Save Anchorage member and Eagle River Assemblywoman Jamie Allard made international headlines in January when she defended Nazi terminology on Alaska vanity license plates bearing the words "FUHRER" and "3REICH." As a result of statewide outrage by Allard's comments, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy removed Allard from the State Human Rights Commission he appointed her to in 2019.
In the months following Berkowitz's takedown, far-right social media groups and individuals turned their attention to Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar, who was running for Mayor against Save Anchorage-backed candidate — David Bronson.
Dunbar, like Berkowitz, faced unprecedented hate in the months before the April Mayoral Election. Dunbar's campaign incurred thousands of dollars in damages after campaign signs were trashed around the Municipality. Save Anchorage members suggested Dunbar was destroying his own campaign signs, and antisemitic comments were left on his Facebook page and sent to his campaign PO Box.
In Save Anchorage, group members wrote that if Dunbar were to win the April election, the city would be "under a socialist-communist tyrannical rule" and that he would "legalize all drugs."
Former Anchorage Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson, Assemblyman Felix Rivera, and Christopher Constant have all been compared to Hitler by Save Anchorage members as Anchorage's city leadership sought only to keep Alaskans safe from a global pandemic.
Last week, the Peninsula Clarion reported that Save Anchorage member Alaska House Rep. Ron Gillham, R-Kenai/Soldotna shared a sensitive image on his Facebook, which likened members of the media and medical professionals who provide information about COVID-19 vaccines to Nazis executed for war crimes. The Clarion's reporting reached The Times of Israel.
Other Alaska politicians who are members of Save Anchorage are State Senator Shelly Hughes, State Senator Lora Reinbold, failed mayoral candidate Mike Robbins, the Facebook page of Alaska State Senator Mike Shower, and House Rep. Tom McKay.
The group also has, in its midst, candidates intending to run for political office and political appointees of Mayor David Bronson. Save Anchorage membership seems an unholy (potentially embarrassing) alignment for those with political aspirations.
In May, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Anchorage Police Department partnered to investigate who placed stickers showing swastikas and the words "We are everywhere" at Mad Myrna's, a local gay bar, and the Alaska Jewish Museum in Midtown.
Let us also not forget the people in our state that, in nearly all of these documented vile antisemitic 'occurrences,' defended individuals, groups, and elected officials who have refused to apologize for their words and behavior — words that make international headlines and which shame our city, our state, and our country.
Jewish organizations have been more aggressive in recent years about calling out offenders—from professional athletes to government officials, and we should collectively be no different—not hesitating for a moment to call out those who continue to slander the memory of the six million Jews executed at the hands of the planet's most horrific mass murderer.
