As a Jew, i belong to a fair number of neo-Nazi forum sites. Yeah, call me insane, call me stupid even. But, i think it’s vitally important to engage these people. I believe, with every ounce of my heart, that our lives as Jews demands it. So, i’ve followed this whole googlebomb tactic with some, well, anxiety and a certain amount of disappointment.
You see, as you all know my name doesn’t exactly shout “Jew!” And, like wise, nor do my looks. My whole life, from a tot to a teenager, i’ve dealt with “You don’t look like a Jew” comments – mostly from Jews. And, as a wee-rob-activist i, somehow, instinctively began to ask “And just what does a Jew look like ???” If I had a photo of every Jewish person’s face when I said that. One word describes each: shame. We’re our own worst racists, sometimes.
Anyway, this lack of superficial Jewish-credentials has allowed me to operate fairly openly not only in forums that i would be otherwise unwelcome, but also things like “Nordic Fest” in Kentucky, or other gatherings and meetings where i get opposite comments: “G-d, you are a perfect example of untainted Aryan stock man!”
Even though i have it “easy” among neo-Nazi’s and other White racists, i certainly don’t have it easy ideologically. When i engage in discussions (physically to electronically) i am extremely careful never to lie, never to misrepresent my views, and never to negate my living oath as a Jew (unless somehow expressly called for (like life/death related issues – and I’ve been there, believe me)). That said, you would be astonished just how many of these racists can actually be reasoned with — reasoned away from this dark, dark world of hate. And dark it is, I know intimately. Sometimes I go home or leave the computer wanting to take a shower (no joke). Sometimes I do, cause it psychologically helps.
As a by-product of a German and German-Jew (yes, off the boat after the war), my concern of just how the Holocaust happened rests in BOTH being Jewish and German. Make no mistake, I am first a Jew. It a matter of truth, and truth’s propagation in our souls – a gathering of each unique puzzle-piece to that final Great Jigsaw puzzle of the universe. Every piece is sacred, you know; We can’t finish the puzzle without these people. That’s a simple, enduring fact, no matter your fear and hate for them.
And, here’s the truth i have learned, from a wee-tot of a Jew to a Jewish man living in this ever darkening hour of our new century: We have failed to engage that Other Side (be they racist, neo-nazi, terrorist, etc.).
I am reminded of the black-n-white newsreels of pre-WW2 Germany; A bunch of brown-shirts harassing Jewish pedestrians, which (in justified fear) walked faster and faster away from their insults and threats. They ran, in a time when the notion of a Strong Jew was antithetical, in a day when the Jew Soldier was oxymoronic. No more? Are we sure? Is our collective strength now our moral weakness? This is my point.
Fear or no fear, it is our DUTY to stop, engage, no matter the personal or collective consequence. Our oath to the Truth demands it. Enact your ideals in every corner of your life, no matter how hard or deadly.
.rob adams

well..the reporter approximated what i said. it seems like awkward wording.

Well, the publicity is great… I’m not Jewish, but as soon as I got home after reading the NY Post over my morning coffee at my local Greek diner, I blogged about it on my page (link above) and even got another blog to list it too ( http://tootalltodd.blogspot.com/ )… so if more people follow your lead, and link the word Jew to the definition site, then the Google Bomb Raid will have been hugely successful! I thought the writer of the article was trying to skew against Google… But, Google’s algorythm is their algorythm and it’s very fair as a purely scientific principle. By raising consciousness, however, as you have in this NYPost article, the racists will lose out by the sheer numbers of supporters. You done good… misquoted, or not!

lol, “his chosen site”

Steve, I have no regrets about what was said, but quite frankly, you were jotting what I was saying down on a notepad as I was saying it. Clearly, when you typed it up, you didn’t quote me precisely. You had to reimagine and approximate what I said–you were reading from shorthand. It’s fine, I’ve had to do the same thing when writing articles. But those aren’t my -exact- quotes, and I do have a pretty good recollection of my exact words, as I’ve repeated them to a number of reporters over the past few days. More than anything else, I just wasn’t fond of the contextualization of the quotes. The line about abusing Google’s alogrithm seems incredibly out of context. There were several sentences proceeding and following that precise sentence that would have assuredly helped the reader to better understand what was meant by that. Most people with whom I shared the article had no idea what that meant and stopped to ask me while they were reading the piece. Your explaination didn’t come until some paragraphs later. Further, I find it’s not helpful to say I’m “abusing their algorithm” without also clarifying that doing so is legal and that people both intentionally and inadvertantly do it all the time. Otherwise I tend to look a tad suspicious. I do appreciate the press however, honestly, and I thank you for it. You seem like a good guy, and I’m going to change the language of this writeup because I don’t want you to feel hurt by my assessment.