NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In a world where hate has become a powerful force in American society, one group of Middle Tennesseans may know as much as anyone about dealing with that hate.
As part of NewsChannel 5’s ongoing “Confronting Hate” investigation, we recently went to Nashville’s Gordon Jewish Community Center for a conversation with a group that had been assembled for us by the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville.
TUESDAY AT 6PM: For American Jews, antisemitism isn't just coming from the Right. They also see it from the Left.
I wanted to know what it is like to walk in their shoes, to have lives where heavily armed security teams are needed when they head to their houses of worship — or when their children and grandchildren go to school.
For them, it is unfortunately just a part of life.
"Even though we want to be joyous, right now we're scared, and we are worried,” said Felicia Anchor, whose parents both lost their entire families in the Holocaust.
Anchor herself was born in a displaced persons camp.
"In our souls, in every person's soul sitting here, we know how bad it can get – and it can get to our life."
In the past year or so, Nashville’s Jewish community has found itself targeted by out-of-state neo-Nazis.
We wanted to hear their reactions, not only to the neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League who stirred up trouble last summer, but also to the white Christian nationalists trying to create a haven in Jackson County, who want to make Jews second-class citizens, and to the Christian Nazi out of East Tennessee who has gained a substantial online following among young Christian men.
" I think that a lot of the things we're seeing in the world today are giving the perfect platform for these hatemongers to gain a following and get traction,” said Rachel Goodrich.
Former Metro Council member Fabian Bedne told me that, prior to that night, he had not been able to watch video from our hate investigation. Bedne immigrated from Argentina after his brother was disappeared by the Argentinian military.
“I haven't been able to watch Schindler's List, for example,” he added. “I mean, the whole thing about this history that we share here, it gives me PTSD. It's very hard for me to deal with."
Like Bedne, others could barely contain their disgust.
“It feels ridiculous that we're even being pulled into the conversation because it doesn't really warrant a response,” said Ayelet Berger. “But, unfortunately, without a response, violence happens.”
“What was the emotion that you were experiencing?” I asked.
“It's horrific, you know, it's anger inducing and it is, I mean, it's obviously disgusting.”
Delilah Cohn’s reaction: "Their hatred is so deep and so irrational. It's not a matter of saying, oh no, that's not actually true, you know? You have to confront the hate itself."
Cohn's parents were both Holocaust survivors.
More recently, incidents like the 2018 mass murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh give these Jews pause about the future.
I asked Rachel Goodrich if she worries about where that hate could lead.
"Absolutely,” she said. “I have children. Their names immediately would mark them as Jewish."
She was particularly appalled by the arrogance of Corey Mahler, the Christian Nazi who falsely claimed that Jews are taught to curse Christians in their prayers.
“I wouldn't go into a church and say ‘this is how you're all praying.’ Why would you do that?” Goodrich argued. “How about ask me, what do you pray for? And for them, I pray for understanding and I pray that they can open their hearts and minds because they are so misguided."
Miriam Leibowitz said it was “hard to take that guy seriously.”
“I mean, he dresses like a cross between Foghorn Leghorn, Colonel Sanders and, you know, the plantation owner from the Carol Burnett Show,” she added.
"Do we dismiss him because of that?" I asked.
"No, of course not," Leibowitz answered. "As absurd as that guy is, he clearly has an audience – and we can't give up. We can't be silent. You can't be silent."
Rabbi Joshua Kullock, from the West End Synagogue, said his “first reaction was a lot of pain because, as bizarre as it sounds, whatever these people are saying resonates with somebody."
Kullock’s synagogue was targeted for protest by the neo-Nazis.
"It might be due to ignorance, due to, you know, so much frustration with their lives that they need to look for somebody to put the blame on whatever is happening – and one way or the other, these extreme discourses find a niche of people," Kullock said.
For some, the activities of the Goyim Defense League were a troubling reminder of where hate can lead.
When the neo-Nazis came to the West End Synagogue, Sharon Paz was inside.
"It's very scary, and we are all sort of like, we're going inward,” Paz told me. “I run the school. How do we protect our students? How do we make them feel good during this time, feel proud to be Jewish?"
Retired Nashville Judge Dan Eisenstein said that when he was on the bench, he “received death threats in letters every week."
He remembers, as a child, the bombing of the Jewish Community Center in 1958 and the attempted bombing of The Temple in 1981.
So, when he recently sat through the trial of GDL member Ryan McCann for his assault on a young Jewish man, Eisenstein felt the chill of the past.
“He was asked point blank whether he wanted to kill Jews — and under oath he had to admit that that was part of his philosophy," Eisenstein said.
“Chills went up my spine,” Eisenstein added. “I'd never heard in my entire career somebody under oath actually admit that that's what they wanted to do."
Also feeding the current environment is the fallout from the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and a war that has also divided the Jewish community.
Jews now also face antisemitism from the left. The murder of a young Jewish couple in Washington seems to have been triggered by the shooter's views on Gaza.
“ I feel like the last few years have given people the confidence to just be antisemitic,” said Jennie Zagnoev. “And it has given people the confidence to say whatever they want at any time, at any place, no matter who it hurts."
For Zagnoev, that has led to some conversations with her family that she never had to face as a young Jewish girl growing up in Nashville.
"We are now having to have conversations about me not being able to wear my star of David that was given to me as a birthday present or my kids having to be careful who they tell they're Jewish,” Zagnoev explained.
Goodrich’s reaction was to remember some of the darker days of the Jewish experience.
"People like that are trying to shut us down. It's like being forced back into a ghetto,” she explained.
Others around the table nodded in agreement.
“We need to be hidden and pushed away and ‘don't listen to us.’ And I can't believe, to even make that comparison, but to me it feels so real," Goodrich continued.
Metro Council member Sheri Weiner, a former vice mayor, said “that kind of stuff, you know, it eats at you."
She also knows the fear.
"When I get a phone call from my son-in-law that The Temple has had a bomb threat and don't take Braden to school, that's chilling," Weiner said.
For me, a White Christian man who has never had those worries, it was a lot to take in.
" I'm not sure exactly how to process everything that I've heard tonight at this point,” I told the group. “But I think it was an important beginning of a conversation."
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Do you have information that would help me with my investigation? Send me your tips: phil.williams@newschannel5.com
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