The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a stark warning about the growing presence in the United States of the hate group Goyim Defense League (GDL), led by white supremacist and former rapper Jon Minadeo.
The group has been behind numerous distributions of vile antisemitic flyers across the United States in recent years.
They were also recently called out by the sheriff of Volusia County, Florida for organizing antisemitic and racist incidents in his county, including distributing antisemitic flyers on doorsteps and driveways, and hanging antisemitic banners from bridges during the Daytona 500 race.
This week, a New Jersey supporter of the group was arrested for issuing a death threat against the sheriff, who admitted in February that in going after the group he would become a target and was now on their “hit list.”
Carla Hill, director of investigative research at the ADL”s Center for Extremism, described the GDL as “a sprawling network of antisemites.”
“This includes organized white supremacist groups such as NatSoc Florida, the National Socialist Movement and the National Justice Party,” she told WBUR. “It also includes individuals with no particular group affiliation, just that united feeling of antisemitism that they feel represents their ideology.”
Hill explained that GDL’s goal is to “expel Jews from America.”
“So to that end, their propaganda casts aspersions on Jews and spreads all kinds of antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories in the hopes of turning Americans against Jewish people,” Hill said. “They spin any issue to blame Jews for any social grievances they perceive.”

According to Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood, 15 GDL members operating in his jurisdiction have been arrested and charged with multiple offences, including stalking, threatening a public official, aggravated assault, murder, terroristic threats, vandalism, and underage soliciting.
But the group has generally been able to avoid arrests for their hateful acts by hiding under the cover of first amendment rights. Hill described them as “very careful.”
“Minadeo certainly schools his followers on how to agitate and spread antisemitism legally. He instructs them to blanket entire neighborhoods and not direct their propaganda at one individual,” she said. “They know to blanket a neighborhood so that they can’t be accused of targeting.”