Nashville residents show Jewish solidarity after neo-Nazis converge on city

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

Residents of Nashville, Tennessee, are showing solidarity with the city's Jewish community, pushing a message of peace in the face of harassment from neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups descending on the city to spew antisemitic hate.

Multiple instances of such groups gathering and spreading anti-Jewish flyers prompted action from the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, leading hundreds of people to gather Sunday in Nashville's Bicentennial Park, said Deborah Oleshansky, the federation's community relations director.

"We don't want to react to them, but we also can't do nothing," Oleshansky said. "We have to do something, and that was also part of the motivation of yesterday: to do something that was positive and not a direct reaction to them but rather a positive message out of it."

People attend the Nashville Together event Sunday.Courtesy Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville

As early as July 6, a group of Patriot Front members marched down Nashville's popular Broadway with Confederate flags and chanting a Nazi slogan, NBC affiliate WSMV reported. A week later, another group converged and caused disruptions in and around the city, according to the station.

Law enforcement officials and local leaders urged residents not to engage with the group, which authorities said was coming in from outside the city. But community members communicated to the Jewish Federation that they were beginning to feel "under siege," Oleshansky said.

"It was from that that we decided we had to give people something else to feel good about," she said. "Because we know as a city that these groups are coming in from outside ... and it felt really important for us as Nashvillians to stand up and say this is not who we are and that we do not welcome them here."

Multiple hate groups descend on Nashville

The disruptions began when Patriot Front, identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist hate group, marched down Broadway and gathered at the plaza across from the State Capitol.

The state Democratic Party condemned the event, saying in a statement that people cannot "concede an inclusive and civil society" to "White Supremacists Nazis." According to the statement, the group's chants included the phrase "deportation saves the nation," as well as a victory slogan adopted by Germany's Nazi Party.

"The hatred and division that white supremacists and right wing groups seek to show should never be acceptable to any citizen," the party said in its statement.

On July 14, roughly a week later, another group marched down Broadway and sparked a fight. WSMV identified the group as the Goyim Defense League, which the Anti-Defamation League describes as a "loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism."

According to Nashville police, a member of a "Neo Nazi protest group" carrying a Nazi flag got into an argument with a bartender. That man, identified as Ryan McCann, a Canadian citizen, was seen hitting the bartender "in the face and in the ribs with the flagpole," police said.

McCann's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, and jail records show he is not eligible for release because of an order from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. McCann, 29, has been charged with felony aggravated assault and disorderly conduct.

Antisemitic instances around Nashville this month

• Patriot Front marches downtown to the State Capitol on July 6.
• The Goyim Defense League marches down Broadway, sparking a fight, on July 14.
• The Goyim Defense League demonstrates at an Interstate 65 overpass on July 15.
• The Goyim Defense League disrupts a Nashville-Davidson County Metro Council meeting on July 16.
• The Goyim Defense League tries to demonstrate outside the West End Synagogue on July 16.

The next day, the group demonstrated at Interstate 65 with Nazi flags, WSMV reported. The day after that, the group's disruption of a Nashville-Davidson County Metro Council meeting prompted President Pro Tempore Zulfat Suara to order the gallery cleared.

Suara opened the July 16 meeting with a statement condemning the days of bigotry brought on by outside actors. She noted incidents including antisemitic flyers' being spread, an LGBTQ mural's being destroyed and parades with antisemitic chants being held.

"The people in Nashville are very welcoming," Suara said. "It is a city where a Muslim councilperson is friends with a Jewish councilperson and an LGBTQ councilperson. It is the city that welcomes immigrants, and it is a city that preaches love for all of us. So you have the right to march, but there's no room for hate here."

In a stream of the meeting on the council's YouTube account, some disruptions could be heard, though microphones did not pick up what was said in the gallery. The commotion caused Suara to order that the gallery be cleared after the audience members would not stop.

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

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

Community deals with a 'very vexing problem'

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

He said that he shared their concerns about the neo-Nazi group's presence and that officers have tried to deter confrontations with it.

"Please resist the temptation to engage with them," Drake wrote. "The group is equipped with video cameras to further its messaging on 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 "unsettling," they are permitted under the right to free speech protected by the First Amendment.

Oleshansky said the idea for the solidarity event came together that day, as Jewish Federation leaders continued to hear people struggling with what was happening. The goal was to find a way to react to the situation without giving in to the group's goading for confrontation and potential violence, she added.

It's a "very vexing problem," she 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, who can be so volatile and who are really goading you into reaction that then brings violence ... you need to tread really lightly."

Hundreds of people across the community showed up for the solidarity event Sunday, Oleshansky said. They included Mayor Freddie O'Connell, faith leaders from around the city and Gnash, the mascot of the Nashville Predators of the NHL.

The Jewish Federation said that it has heard that the hate group left the area as of Monday but that it is concerned more may come to Nashville in the coming weeks and months.

Oleshansky urged leaders all over to be careful, warning that such groups can twist rhetoric to suit their needs.

"We need to really be careful in how we use our rhetoric so that we are making it clear that we are not supportive of this sort of harassment and intimidation and that we want to build a community that is inclusive and respectful," she said.