On the election trail has been forced to take a back seat will the president ial candidates ever hit the road and so very brand of politics to americans before the vote follow the us elections on a. Very. Hot track law anti semitism may not be new to the United States it is us this story this week. But in recent years the american consciousness has been pierced by anti semitic threats and violence was. Played up in 2017 the u. S. Saw an unprecedented surge and antisemitic incidents. The same year hundreds of neo nazis converged in the streets of Charlottesville Virginia one of my maryam pointed anything there now or. Never far right here in. The following year a white supremacist stormed pittsburghs tree alive synagogue in what became the deadliest anti semitic attack and u. S. History. And in 2001006 people were killed and nearly a dozen wounded in a spate of high profile anti semitic attacks across the country. In this episode of the violence week salman this trending violence against Jewish Americans. And the anti semitic conspiracy theories that often inspired the. Morning feinberg is the founder of 2 for center an interfaith addition to the combats anti semitism and hate speech so this is my. Mother in laws body now and look at you and you know obviously if i knew her but she didnt want to for seder was pounded to memory a martys mother in law joyce mind burke. Joyce was one of the trio 5 congregants murdered at the synagogue that day and these are her parents and this is her brother. And hes the one that spoke you know what role did the tree of life in the cup play in her life so the tree of life that actually they had been members of it for at least 25 years it was a real center of life my father in law died in 2060 and theres a prayer to say a prayer every day for someone that theyve lost she went for a whole year she missed him so much and she went and for single day and thats why we knew when the shooting happened we knew she was there because that was part of how she took care of people at the tree of life tina know what she was doing there that day. Gunshots on my own on october 27th 2018 a white supremacist armed with an arsenal but this opened fire on the tree of life synagogue. Within 12 minutes swat teams arrived at the synagogue for what became an hour long standoff as the gunman stopped the 3 congregations trapped inside. A man and women in total the gunman murdered 11 people including 75 year old choice my burke. It was a very difficult day of course its the initial thought was that joyce is helping somebody instructor phone or shes not allowed to touch her you know and she got out pushing that. Joyce was so good about keeping people in touch she didnt want you to worry about anything the idea that she would not have contacted us was impossible so as we didnt hear from her you couldnt you couldnt escape the idea that that happened. At the summit a kick. Times reached a 5 year high in 2016 only to be eclipsed in 2017. The attacks are becoming unfortunately more deadly and grady frequents. We reached out to experts on hate groups and extremism in the u. S. Weve seen a growth in in the number of white supremacist hate groups in the United States we have more of these people and more of these organizations than we did say 5 years ago we have had a political situation in which the president now President Trump has mainstreamed extreme ideas and extreme thoughts in a way that i certainly didnt think was possible for the most vocal constituencies that starts from selection is a loser them were people with antisemitic. Theyre insured patients of the 2016 election why is that their viewpoints to benefit. Over the past decade the majority of attacks have been at the hands of right wing assailants and according to the new America FoundationWhite Supremacists have committed more frequent and deadly violence than any other group over the last 3 years its been one mass attack after another after another after another and a lot of times the targets have specifically been facets of jewish life synagogues and other facilities where these attacks have been targeted american White Supremacists are best known for their history of violence against africanamericans but in their world view anti semitism also plays a unique role and there is no White Supremacy without anti semitism. And jews are always portrayed as the nefarious crafty characters or bringing white people down they often describe it as jews pulling the strings of the other populations of people of color because they play this role in hate narratives that for those who are included in those ideas radicalized White Supremacy and its what makes choose the target right because if theyre the masterminds destroying white power white control over their countries then theyre the ones that need to be taken out. In the tree like protect this anti semitic Conspiracy Theory reared its head with devastating consequences but then his story unraveled that the shooter had been ginned up by all this material on the internet i think brought to life how dangerous st semitism is what it can result in but also that somebody could do you know be on the internet seconds before they decide to commit this act if there is really a connection between online radicalism this kind of violence. As details emerged about the tree of life suspect the social media revealed a string of white power references to these anti semitic conspiracy theories his post suggested that he targeted the synagogue because one of his congregations had hosted a service in support of immigrants and refugees person who committed the tree of life shooting was pretty clearly enraged about i had Jewish Organization that was helping with Refugee Resettlement and he posted repeatedly about this subject and used that as israels knew why he needed to kill Jewish Americans. The congregations of the refugees was part of a National Project spearheaded by hyas a global jewish nonprofit that its refugees just before the attack dequeue shooter posted online highest likes to bring invaders and the kill our people i cant sit by and watch my people just. Watered screw your optics im going to go mostly talking about screw your optics there isnt a debate of in with white supremacist circles about optics how you should portray how you should look what is the best way for you to get more people to convinced of your idea he was paying attention to a larger conversation taking place among White Nationalist about whether violence was the correct. Whether the optics. Be in violence why is worth being back and so what he was saying is no violence is the way i dont care about this debate about optics are going it ringback. Our social activism which has always been part of our congregation is a fury important part of our sealing process and thats fair is unique to us and that. Carolyn and donna are leaders of the door who touch one of the jewish congregations targeted at the tree of life synagogue and the host of the refugee so that takes us back to the refuge in the interests unfortunate ringback from has this website because we were listed as a congregation that was participating in the National Refuge and i found that out. Talk about my heart say it. Was in comprehensible and still in comprehensible and something will carry with us yesterday but doing something that you thought was at night and totally harmless activity likely in hashem refute that it would infer that the lead this man to the door is correct before this attack happened. What was your and gauge whether youre aware no sort of anti semitism and didnt seem to be on the uptick recently i had been conscious of antisemitism i had been in spaces where i had seen swastikas and you know been concerned but never sort of a dinner really realize it was growing as much as it is its an undercurrent that is that is bubbling up then internet is how. People find each other in. What i would consider fringe Belief Systems and they start sharing information and they feed each other antisemitism is it something Conspiracy Theory the idea that all of these people are all working together to hurt you in the world the White Supremacists the simba tism is often coded into terms like White Genocide and replacement which tim from the Conspiracy Theory that jews are trying to change the demographics of the United States to some extent anti semitism polls are in the same old tropes right the jews are somehow manipulating societies to harm white people but the narratives that are most popular today among white supremacist revolve around the idea of White Genocide that is the great replacement theory of the idea that if there are more nonwhite people than white people that constitutes a genocide against white people i mean what happened in pittsburgh was an acting out of the fantasy of how you could stop White Genocide and thats not the only case most people will remember at charlottesville and this looks like right out of hitler germany right with the torch light in the dark or chanting jews will not replace us what they meant by that is not the jews are replacing white people but that there were placing white people with people of color in the United States you will not reply no no no you are implying. You will not. That of course was good for 2017 americans watched as the night the wright rally important in Charlottesville Virginia. To turn on the t. V. That danged charlottesville and see confederate flags nazi memorabilia racist signs it really did look like either a klan rally or a nazi rally or both at the same time but once he was there that we can covering the story. This is a 1st step towards making a realisation of something that trump alluded to earlier in the campaign which is this is the 1st step toward taking america. So it was recorded lee about the confederate statues but there were many people who came to that event few likely had no idea of the involvement of this statue and were coming with the intention of marching on behalf of interests that interests demonstrators claim that their travel charles failed to protest the removal of a confederate statue which is considered an offensive relic of american slavery. This was advertised and even in just a minute route they made posters that involved smashing the star of david with a hammer. The statue is a canard like if all it had almost nothing to do with you know the writers started giving a rally in a location that was. The entire week that was punctuated with harlots which came to a head when a new nazi drove into a crowd killing 32 year old antiracist protester of the heart. Those images and then of course the violence that took place that the following day i think seared something into americans minds that made them realize that White Supremacy anti semitism was alive and well and maybe thriving in the. United states but you also had people that were. Very fied people on both sides in the wake of charlottesville President Trump made a series of public statements that seemed to sympathize with the white supremacist protesters all of us had witnessed clearly a bunch of raving anti semite and she submitted lunatics for 2 days saying the most vile things how could you come to that conclusion you need to write that was demarcation only especially for people who werent sure what White Nationalism really was a weird White Nationalism was going to show that this movement was a real danger and a real concerns of the safety of all americans. Last fall we arrived in pittsburgh just before the jewish holidays as the community prepared for the one year commemoration of the trail like the tech if you were to speak to your goal before when happened did you get a sense that there is a danger there is an increasing and dissonances and there is something that is changing that that thats regretfully a very easy question to answer it can happen. And i think the 1st reaction that everyone had was its perfect the threat is ever present and so as the holidays are coming what are you telling your congregations about Safety Security is paramount and you must have a ticket to get in and somebody will be in the lobby with a list to make sure that you are an appropriate person to come in. We have to be concerned. I will tell you that synagogues across the country are moving in that direction and its. Nobody will be turned away from from worship. A but there will be there will be security screens in place we dont want to militarize of religious life and we have to right now but were not satisfied and we dont want to lose our. Well can mean open way of shoes. And just by viewers the u. S. Has seen a nearly 35 percent increase in attacks on places of worship as religious communities of all faiths have come under fire there have been so many attacks on houses of worship in recent years that theres actually a find that the department of Homeland Security gives to and including to churches to beef up security and try to harden those targets as anti semitism has evolved so have its methods and targets according to the f. B. I. Anti semitic attacks consistently account for more than half of all religion based hate crimes even though jews make up roughly 2 percent of the u. S. Population you know the United States is founded on the idea of religious freedom protecting the right to worship and this space that we hold sacred right whether youre jewish or muslim or christian is now becoming a side of of Mass Violence and that could increase right with the demonization of jewish people that is going on right now. Bottom line is october 27th 2019 is just the 1st of many years where were going to come back and remember this because it will be with us forever the people we lost we loved. And they were family Stephen Cohens congregation lost 3 members in the tree a life attack i mean the phrases we all belong to a club that nobody wants to belong to its trite but its true. And every time one of these events happen they look to the preceding ones to learn in search of answers his congregation traveled to mother emanuel a. M. E. Church in South Carolina the site of the countrys last major white supremacist attack on a house of worship where we visited a in the reform congregation we visit we visited an orthodox congregation and we visit mother emmanuel church. Mother yvette manual church had plain clothes men in the choir in the pews as well as police in uniform and there are quite a few of them they did it because somebody could walk in the door. Theres a trending hashtag with White Supremacy called their 2nd every shot but that should happen every survive do you feel safe now do you feel unsafe. I have to answer so that i personally feel safe yes. Because thats where ive always lived as a congregation absolutely weve had to take security absolutely serious i mean if theres one thing that i would recommend to any organization is do an activist active Shooter Training people do not know what a bullet sounds like one of the people died because he thought it was breaking glass. One of the people survived and saved others because he recognized what a bullet sounds like. The conversation were going to have today might seem scary talk about that and think about that brett orsini was the security of visor for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh including the tree of life synagogue we all know and i have to tell you all that our community has been targeted right thats why semitism is on the rise its been on the rise for the last couple years he now provides active Shooter Trainings to religious institutions across the country like this one at a nearby Jewish School would you present the true life synagogue. Yes has he ever seen anything like that. Ive been in many crime scenes in my my my career in the f. B. I. That one was so hard to. Witness. Because its so personal its in a house of worship its people praying. When theyre the most vulnerable by the time of the attack the tree of life synagogue already had enhanced security measures in place we did training 8 weeks prior to the shooting on september 5th 2018. We had rabbi jeff myers who never carried his cell phone prior to that who started caring enough to the it was a conservative show he didnt carry his cell phone he started carrying his cell phone he was the 1st one to call mine what does it say that an aide to traditionally that has to be broken just so you can worship or in a sad state of affairs. That we have to train people so they can be safe in a way its a sad commentary that we have to do that we have to. So this this actual bag was found at one of our center in december 2018 and what happened the ku klux klan came to town and threw about pride about 40 of these bags in the area in Squirrel Hill and around we just put that in context youre talking. 6 weeks after the shooting 6 weeks right after the shooting this is a picture that was found on october 28th the day after. Nationwide the distribution of this kind of white supremacist propaganda at an all time high last year more than doubling the previous 2018 record. Producer community. So a family came home from a High Holiday Service in a neighborhood outside of pittsburgh so this is a porch like someones home someones home. Now all the groups you mentioned are they always here or do they come out