MANHATTAN – ‘Disgusting.’ That simple, powerful word from the young Jewish professional who spotted a group of men spreading antisemitic propaganda featuring Nazi imagery on Fifth Avenue, reflects the sentiment most New Yorkers have after seeing the men’s table set up on the sidewalk, a poster hanging from it bearing three large swastikas.
“I was honestly shocked,” Lance Yasinky told Upper East Site of the unnerving experience Monday afternoon on Fifth Avenue near East 50th Street— across from Sak’s by Rockefeller Center.
“Definitely a pinch me moment,” he added.
The poster bearing three large swastikas reads ‘Green Energy: More efficient than Auschwitz,’ the infamous Nazi concentration camp in Poland known for the staggering volume of atrocities within its barbed-wire perimeter fences— 1.1 million Jewish lives taken— one-sixth of all Holocaust deaths. In the middle of the sign sits the swastikas, incorporated into windmill silhouettes.
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“I just see these guys on the street and I started telling them this is blatantly anti-semitic,” Lance said as he confronted the men.
“I’m jewish this is just absolutely disgusting and blatantly antisemitic.”
Next, one of the men announced he was jewish, Lance says, in an apparent attempt to legitimize their display of a swastika in Midtown.
A closer examination of the phrases on the group’s signs reveal the swastika and hurtful antisemitic messages they’re using it as part of an attempt to draw a false comparison to themselves being victims of their own Holocaust, caused by global elites who planned and managed the Covid-19, the Green New Deal and the ‘Great Reset’— a group of proposals involving sustainability and renewable policies that conspiracy theorists believe— without evidence— bring about the collapse of the economy and give birth to the rise of a socialist New World Order.
Back here on Earth One, the impacts of the ranting and ravings of lunatics who see themselves as victims of their own Holocaust cause real damage.
The Jewish community is forced re-live the pain and trauma of relatives and ancestors who survived and those who perished from the so-called ‘Final Solution.’
The Final Solution— Adolf Hitler’s unrelenting mass murder machine targeting Jews in Europe that executed six-million men, women and children in an effort to exterminate judaism— has no historical equivalent in terms of the scale, cruelty and heinousness of the atrocities perpetrated by Nazi Germany.
Despite this, an increasing number of unhinged, ignorant New Yorkers have invoked the Nazi and antisemitic imagery in their mission to spread disinformation about everything from green energy policy to public health and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are seeing a drastic and intense rise in antisemitism globally,” Yoav Davis told us.
Davis, founder of the popular instagram page @Jews_of_NY and Davis Media, says the jewish community “is definitely feeling this terrible behavior in levels that we can’t remember in New York.”
A community page meant to inspire the faithful in New York City, Yoav says “it used to be out of the ordinary for us to post this type of disturbing content, now it has become a weekly occurrence.”
In fact, Upper East Site has documented two recent instances in of antisemitic imagery and messages being used to legitimize conspiracy theorists’ unfounded feelings of persecution for choosing not to get vaccinated for Covid-19, which disregards their own safety, the health of others and potentially prolongs the pandemic.
On August 6th, we reported on fliers taped up in two locations on the Upper East Side drawing a false equivalency between proof-of-vaccination requirements at bars and restaurants and the yellow Star of David patches used by the Nazi’s to identify jewish people in Germany.
“I just saw the yellow star and I’m a Jew and was very upset,” Emily told Upper East Site last month after discovering the fliers taped-up on buildings in the neighborhood
“It was just sort of stunning to see.”
On June 24th, hundreds of anti-vaccination activists descended upon Central Park to spread their message of lies— one woman’s sign was riddled with swastika’s and the insignia of the Schutzstaffel—better known as the SS— Hitler’s private army and administrators of his death camps during World War II.
“As frustrating, sad and scary this behavior is, we as a community cannot allow it to become normalized— we must speak up,” Davis told Upper East Site.
“We must let the world know that antisemitism in any form or way, it’s something we must bring to an end.”
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According to FBI hate crime statistics released Monday, Jews were the target of 58% of religiously motivated hate crimes despite representing a miniscule 2% of the total population.
“We stand together, a united community to battle racism and hate,” said Davis.
“We refused to walk around in fear, we will keep our heads up and never stop bringing attention to this disgusting phenomena.”
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