JERUSALEM (JTA) — White supremacists and anti-Semites are charging that Jewish control of the government is behind a Supreme Court nomination, the Anti-Defamation League said.
President Obama’s pick of Judge Sonia Sotomayor has unleashed an eruption of anti-Semitic and anti-Hispanic vitriol by white supremacists and racists angry at the nomination of the first Hispanic to the high court, the ADL said in a statement released Tuesday.
Hatemongers have flooded Internet sites with messages charging that the Sotomayor nomination is the result of "Jewish power" and conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the government and media. The level of hatred and numerous conspiracy theories generated by the choice is particularly intense, according to the ADL.
In their online writings, white supremacists argue that "Jewish power" was responsible for Sotomayor’s nomination and her previous career success; that Sotomayor is herself Jewish, or a "cryptojew"; and that Sotomayor was handpicked by Jews because of her Latino heritage in an effort to "destroy the white race."
"While such sentiments are far from the mainstream, they come at a time where white supremacist groups are agitated over a number of domestic developments, including the election of the first African-American president, and eagerly looking for scapegoats," said Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director. "As we witnessed with the recent white supremacist shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, such views are dangerous and can have real world consequences."
