Charlottesville, Va.- The mayor of the Virginia college
town of Charlottesville was the target of antisemitic tweets on Sunday after
speaking out against white nationalists who converged on a local park carrying
blazing torches on Saturday night.
Mayor Mike Signer said two protests led on Saturday by
Richard Spencer, a leader of the “alt-right” movement, came on the
same day the city held its annual Festival of Cultures event, which celebrates
diversity in the home of the University of Virginia.
“You’re seeing antisemitism in these crazy tweets I’m
getting and you’re seeing a display of torches at night, which is reminiscent
of the KKK,” Signer, who is Jewish, said in a phone interview.
“They’re sort of a last gasp of the bigotry that this
country has systematically overcome.”
Signer issued a statement on Saturday criticising the
torch-carrying marchers as either “profoundly ignorant” or aiming to
instil fear.
“I smell Jew,” posted an anonymous Twitter user
with the handle “Great Patriot Trump”.
@RichardBSpencer This garbage white supremacy won’t even be a footnote in our history. #leave #resistance#welcomingcity.
@MikeSigner @RichardBSpencer I smell Jew. If so, you are going back to Israel. But you will not stay in power here. Not for long.
“If
so, you are going back to Israel. But you will not stay in power here. Not for
long.”
The protesters converged on Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee
Park, where a statue of the Confederate general that the city council voted to
remove is located.
The city also voted to remove a statue of Confederate
General Stonewall Jackson, located in another park. Both changes have been put
on hold amid ongoing litigation.
