Nashville Residents Show Jewish Solidarity After Neo-Nazis Converge on City

Nashville residents are showing solidarity with the city’s Jewish community, spreading a message of peace in the face of harassment from neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups descending on the city to spew anti-Semitic hate.

Several instances of these groups gathering and spreading anti-Jewish leaflets prompted action by the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, prompting hundreds of people to gather Sunday in Nashville’s Bicentennial Park, Deborah Oleshansky said.

“We don’t want to react to them, but we also can’t do anything,” said Oleshansky, director of community relations for the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville. “We have to do something, and that was also part of the motivation yesterday: to do something that was positive and not a direct reaction to them, but rather a positive message.”

As early as July 6, a group of Patriot Front members marched down Nashville’s popular Broadway thoroughfare waving Confederate flags and chanting a Nazi slogan, according to NBC News affiliate WSMV from Nashville. A week later another group converged and caused disturbances in and around the city. according to the season.

Authorities and local leaders urged residents not to engage with the group, which authorities said came from outside the city. But community members communicated to the Jewish Federation that they were beginning to feel “under siege,” Oleshansky said.

“That’s when we decided we needed to give people something else to feel good about,” Oleshansky said. “Because we know as a city that these groups come from outside…and it felt really important for us as Nashvillens to stand up and say that this is not who we are and we don’t welcome them here.”

Several hate groups arrive in Nashville

The disturbances began when the Patriotic Front identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist hate group, marched down Broadway and gathered in the plaza in front of the Tennessee State Capitol.

The Tennessee Democratic Party issued a statement condemning the event, noting that citizens cannot “grant a civil and inclusive society” to “white supremacist Nazis.” According to the statement, the group’s chants included the phrase “deportation saves the nation,” as well as a victory slogan. adopted by the Nazi Party of Germany.

“The hate and division that white supremacists and right-wing groups seek to demonstrate should never be acceptable to any citizen,” the Tennessee Democratic Party said in its statement.

On July 14, about a week later, another group marched down Broadway and started a fight. The group was identified by WSMV as the Goyim Defense League, which is described by the Anti-Defamation League as a “loose network of individuals connected by their virulent anti-Semitism”.

According to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, a member of a “neo-Nazi protest group” carrying a Nazi flag got into an argument with a local bartender. That man, identified as Canadian citizen Ryan McCann, was seen hitting the bartender “in the face and ribs with the flagpole.”

McCann’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, and jail records show he is not eligible for release due to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement order. The 29-year-old was charged with felony aggravated assault and disorderly conduct.

The next day, the same group demonstrated on Interstate 65 with Nazi flags. WSMV reported. The following day, the group’s interruption of a Metro Council meeting led President Pro Tempore Zulfat Suara to order the gallery to be cleaned.

Suara opened the July 16 meeting with a statement condemning the days of intolerance provoked by external actors. She noted incidents including the distribution of anti-Semitic leaflets, the destruction of an LGBTQ+ mural, and the holding of parades with anti-Semitic chants.

“People in Nashville are very welcoming,” Suara said. “It’s a city where a Muslim councilor is friends with a Jewish councilor and an LGBTQ councilman. It is the city that welcomes immigrants, and it is a city that preaches love to all of us. There is no room for hate here.”

In a broadcast of the meeting posted on the council’s YouTube account, some interruptions could be heard, although microphones did not pick up what was said in the gallery. However, the commotion caused Suara to order the gallery to be emptied after the public failed to stop.

Oleshansky told NBC News that members of the hate group signed up to speak at the board meeting but were “so disruptive and rude” that they were kicked out.

Several of them also attempted to demonstrate outside the West End Synagogue in Nashville that same day, but dispersed after about 15 minutes, according to WSMV.

Community deals with a ‘very uncomfortable problem’

Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake sent a letter to community leaders Wednesday after days of incidents caused tension and fear among residents.

He said he shared their concerns about the presence of the neo-Nazi group and that officers tried to prevent clashes with them.

“Please resist the temptation to engage with them,” Drake wrote. “The group is equipped with video cameras to spread its messages across internet platforms.”

He added that police had information that the group was traveling to Nashville from a short-term rental about 65 miles north in Scottsville, Kentucky.

Drake also said that while the group’s actions are “disturbing,” they are permitted by the right to free speech protected by the First Amendment.

Oleshansky said the idea for the solidarity event came about the same day, as Jewish Federation leadership continued to listen to people struggling with what was happening. The aim was to find a way to react to the situation without giving in to the group’s incitement to confrontation and potential violence, he added.

It’s a “very vexing problem,” Oleshansky said.

“You want to respect the rights to free speech, but you also want to protect the public,” she said. “And with groups like these, that can be so volatile and that are really inciting you to react that then brings violence… you need to proceed very cautiously.”