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Ohio is investigating a Nazi homeschooling network that celebrates Hitler
(JTA) — Ohio’s department of education is investigating a homeschooling network that claims public schools are run by “Zionist scum,” teaches kids to say “Sieg Heil” in class and instructs fellow parents not to give their kids “Jewish media content.”
These are the more than 2,500 members of the “Dissident Homeschool Network,” a channel on the social network messaging app Telegram. The “dissidents” are a group of Nazi parents who share homeschooling lesson plans extolling the virtues of Hitler and white nationalism — while relying on a popular social media account run by a Jewish woman to provide ammunition for their hatred. The founders of the group were recently unmasked by a hate group monitor as a couple in rural Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
“There is absolutely no place for hate-filled, divisive and hurtful instruction in Ohio’s schools, including our state’s home-schooling community,” Stephanie Siddens, the interim superintendent of public instruction at Ohio’s education department, told Vice News. “I emphatically and categorically denounce the racist, antisemitic and fascist ideology and materials being circulated.”
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, along with Rep. Bob Latta, whose district encompasses Upper Sandusky, and Rep. Jim Jordan, all gave statements to Vice News condemning the group. But Ohio officials say that there is little to no homeschooling oversight from the state board of education. Although parents who homeschool are required to submit copies of their lesson plans to the state, a county official who oversees the area where the Lawrences live told HuffPost, “Parents who decide to home educate their child are responsible for choosing the curriculum and course of study.”
“We are so deeply invested into making sure that [our] child becomes a wonderful Nazi,” the founder of Dissident Homeschool Network, who goes by the pseudonym “Mrs. Saxon,” recently said on a neo-Nazi podcast to promote the group. She has been identified by the Anonymous Comrades Collective, an anti-Nazi group, as well as Vice News and HuffPost, as Katja Lawrence, a Dutch immigrant who currently lives in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
Lawrence is a recently naturalized U.S. citizen who frequently rails against other groups of immigrants on social media; her husband Logan is an insurance agent. The Lawrences are so enamored of Nazidom that Katja uploaded audio of her own kids performing Nazi salutes to her Telegram channel, and baked a cake to celebrate Hitler’s birthday.
The journalists and researchers who reported on Dissident Homeschool Network were able to track the couple down after they revealed that they owned a German shepherd named Blondi — also the name of Hitler’s dog.
Launched in fall 2021, the Lawrences’ homeschooling project is explicitly labeled as a means for neo-Nazi parents to indoctrinate their kids by keeping them away from public school. Lesson plans include teaching cursive by having students write out famous quotes from Hitler and American neo-Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell; building “math” classes around racist manipulations of urban crime statistics; and praising Confederate general Robert E. Lee as “a grand role model for young, white men.” In idle chats, members of the group disparaged the Indiana Jones movies as “Jewish revenge porn.”
The group also facilitates in-person meetings between like-minded parents and children. Relatives of the Lawrences told HuffPost they found their activities “disgusting” and “heartbreaking for their children.”
Despite their near-constant stream of antisemitic invective, members of the Dissident Homeschool Network frequently share memes from the right-wing social media channel Libs of TikTok, which is run by an Orthodox Jew. The account has gained national notoriety for its demonization of LGBTQ people as “groomers,” as well as for its constant attacks on public education, a hot target for figures on the right who believe educators are indoctrinating children with “critical race theory” and “gender ideology.”
That account’s administrator Chaya Raichik, who has recently made her identity public, frequently advocates for parents to homeschool their children. Homeschooling has become a popular choice for conservatives, both for religious and ideological reasons, and lobbyists for the movement together with Republican lawmakers have made it easier for parents to homeschool their children with little to no oversight.
The “Dissident” group provides parents with instructions on how to teach Nazi material while avoiding scrutiny from the authorities. On the channel, Katja Lawrence frequently boasts about the size and strength of their Nazi parents’ movement: “There is a huge network of people like us.”
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Eisenkot has backing of 67 seats, but not yet allowed to form Israeli government
(JTA) — Yashar Party head Gadi Eisenkot inched closer to wresting the premiership from Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, as he secured the majority support of 67 out of 120 parliamentarians, but was not yet granted the mandate to form a government.
President Isaac Herzog said that Eisenkot had more backing than the 46’s parliamentarians who favor Netanyahu, after the president held two days of consultations with all the political parties that will be sworn in next week at the opening of the 26th Knesset.
Herzog, who is tasked with deciding which parliamentarian has the power to form a government, told the media he would not make a choice until Sunday.
“The results of the consultations may appear clear, but the authority vested in me by law is to determine who has the ability to form a government, and that is not entirely clear,” Herzog said, adding that he would continue to hold talks with the party leaders.
Eisenkot has the expected support of the Jewish-Israeli parties, B’Yachad, Israel Beytenu and the Democrats, which gives him a potential coalition of 48 parties. The Arab-Israeli party Ra’am, with eight seats, also recommended him, as did the Joint List, which has 11 seats. The Joint List is expected to support Eisenkot from outside the government. This means the party would vote with the government block to allow it to govern, but would not formally be part of its coalition.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Eisenkot has backing of 67 seats, but not yet allowed to form Israeli government appeared first on The Forward.
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Montreal Jewish-owned bakery devastated by suspected arson attack
(JTA) — A Montreal kosher bakery burnt down following an suspected arson attack on Wednesday morning. This incident was the second of two alleged arson attempts directed at the Jewish-owned bakery, Mimimelon, within 48 hours. In both cases, the bakery was empty and no injuries were reported.
The Montreal police said there is no evidence yet that the incident was motivated by antisemitism. However, the hate crimes and arson units have been assigned to investigate the case, given the bakery’s ties to the Jewish community.
The first incident took place on the night of Monday, Nov. 2, when Mimimelon co-owner Jennie Volfson received a security notification that someone was attempting to open the bakery’s back door. When Volfson checked her business’ security cameras, she saw flames and immediately called Montreal police and firefighters. Upon arrival, firefighters were able to control the fire and keep damage to the bakery minimal.
Volfson, who owns Mimimelon with her husband and father-in-law, said she received a second notification from the bakery’s security system around 12:30 AM on Wednesday, Nov. 4. When she checked Mimimelon’s security cameras, Volfson saw a flash of light and “an explosion,” before the live feed cut out.
This time, Volfson said the blaze could not be contained. “I expected that the damage would be bad, but it’s complete destruction. There is nothing to rebuild. We’re going to have to scrap everything,” said Volfson, adding that she was uncertain of the future for the bakery.
Based on the shop’s security footage, Volfson surmised, “There was a person who was able to get inside the bakery this time, probably because the door was compromised from the day before.”
Mimimelon, located in the historically Jewish Saint-Laurent neighbourhood, has previously been the target of acts of antisemitism. In September, a masked man entered the bakery and yelled “All the Jews will burn,” before running off.
The attack on Mimimelon comes at a time when B’nai Brith’s 2026 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents found that antisemitic incidents nearly tripled in Quebec from 2025-2026. In August, a Montreal kosher restaurant was gutted by fire which police investigated as arson.
“People do pass by sometimes on the street and yell disgusting things, and especially around October 7th. We were on high alert the whole Jewish High Holiday period, but then the holidays finished and nothing happened” said Volfson.
“B’nai Brith has called for law enforcement across Canada to consider hate motivations whenever a Jewish home or business is targeted,” Paola Samuel, B’nai Brith Canada Regional Director of Quebec and Atlantic Canada, wrote on X. “With the number of antisemitic incidents rising in Canada, a hate motive, unfortunately, cannot be ruled out.”
“We don’t really have competition as we’re a very niche business,” said Volfson. “We’ve been here for 11 years, and I don’t understand where this is coming from now.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Montreal Jewish-owned bakery devastated by suspected arson attack appeared first on The Forward.
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Jews cared more about Israel and antisemitism this election – but it didn’t change their votes much, exit poll shows
Jewish voters overwhelmingly backed Democrats in Tuesday’s midterm elections, even as concerns about Israel and antisemitism played a growing role in their political decisions, according to a new exit poll published on Thursday.
The GBAO Strategies survey of 800 Jewish voters found that 72% of Jewish respondents supported Democratic candidates for Congress, compared with 24% who voted Republican. The poll, sponsored by J Street, a progressive pro-Israel, pro-peace advocacy group, was conducted via text message from Oct. 28 to Nov. 3 and had a reported margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The Democratic share was slightly lower than in previous midterm elections, when Democrats received 74% of the Jewish vote in 2022 and 76% in 2018. In the 2020 presidential election, 77% of Jewish voters backed Joe Biden, according to GBAO’s polling. These findings differ from a national NBC News exit poll, which found that 68% of Jewish voters supported Democrats this year and 31% backed Republicans, compared with 78% who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. (The national surveys used different methods, making it harder to say how preferences actually changed.)
Jim Gerstein, GBAO’s pollster and a Democratic campaign consultant, cautioned against reading too much into the change over time. “You’d have to squint really hard to try and see that that is a shift or anything really meaningful,” Gerstein told the Forward during a press briefing. He noted that Republican support also fell, from 25% in the 2022 midterms to 24% this year. Gerstein suggested that strong opposition to President Donald Trump during his first term, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, may help explain the higher Democratic numbers in 2018 and 2020.
He also noted that campaigns and outside groups have spent significantly more money targeting Jewish voters in the past two election cycles. “These are really negligible, and we don’t look at this as much shifting,” he said.
Even as Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans did appear to make gains among Jewish voters in some closely watched races amid a divide over U.S. support for Israel. Several outspoken critics of Israel won seats in the House, including five members of the Democratic Socialists of America. Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Troy Jackson of Maine, two new senators who made criticism of Israel a major part of their campaigns, also won highly contested races.
The exit poll suggests that disagreements over Israel have not fundamentally changed how American Jews vote.
The future of American democracy remained the top concern for Jewish voters, with 44% naming it as one of the two most important issues influencing their vote, followed by 34% who said the cost of living was among their leading concerns. But Israel and antisemitism became more important than in previous elections. Twenty-one percent named antisemitism as one of their top two issues, up from 11% in 2024. Israel ranked sixth, cited by 14% of voters, compared with just 4% in 2022.
Compared to previous elections, Israel and antisemitism moved up the list of priorities — 21% identified antisemitism as one of their top two issues, up from 11% in 2024. Israel was ranked six with 14%, compared with just 4% in 2022.
Gerstein argued that rising antisemitism and the debates over support for Israel serve as a basic test for candidates rather than the deciding factor in most elections. “I think we see candidates in both parties passing that threshold quite easily,” Gerstein said.
Asked which positions expressed by candidates during the campaign they agreed with most, 30% chose unconditional support for Israel, while 39% favored support tied to Israel’s compliance with American interests and values. Another 31%, including 60% of voters between the ages of 18 and 34, agreed with the statement that Israel has committed genocide and should no longer receive U.S. aid.
Orthodox voters, representing 9% of the sample, voted Republican by a 63-34 margin.
A Jewish split on Israel
The survey also found a Jewish electorate that itself is becoming more divided over Israel.
Thirty-nine percent said their sympathies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were primarily with Israelis, compared with 23% who sided with Palestinians. Another 38% sided with both. Among younger Jews, 49% said they sympathized more with Palestinians, compared with 20% who sided with Israelis.
A majority — 51% — said it supported continuing $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military assistance to Israel, while 49% opposed it. However, 44% also said arms sales should be conditioned on compliance with U.S. law.
Jewish voters showed greater agreement on how criticism of Israel should be treated and whether Israel’s policies directly impact them.
Sixty percent said Jewish organizations that label harsh criticism of Israel as antisemitic are using concerns about antisemitism to defend unpopular Israeli policies. About two-thirds said AIPAC’s spending against candidates critical of Israel increases antisemitism in the United States, while 80% said Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank contribute to antisemitism. An overwhelming majority of 76% support sanctions against violent Israeli settlers.
The survey also found that 39% of Jewish voters, including 63% of those under 35, said that spending by AIPAC to defeat Israel critics this election cycle made them less likely to support candidates backed by the pro-Israel group.
Mamdani scores high
One of the more striking findings was that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was more popular among Jewish voters nationwide than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his criticism of Israel and strained relationship with some Jewish organizations.
The poll found that 49% of respondents viewed Mamdani favorably, compared with 43% who viewed him unfavorably. Netanyahu received a favorable rating of just 20%, while 72% viewed him unfavorably. That marks a 12% decline in two years for the Israeli leader, who is struggling to form a government after the last Israeli election ended in deadlock.
In an interview with CNN Wednesday night, Mamdani pointed to his approach to governing as an example of how elected officials can represent Jewish voters even when they disagree with them on Israel.
“I represent the most Jewish city in the United States of America, and I know that there are some Jewish New Yorkers, for example, that may have a different set of opinions on Israel and Palestine as I do, and that doesn’t mean that I work any less hard to deliver for them across the board,” Mamdani said. “I think that’s the same truth for anyone who was elected last night.”
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