Confederate Flag Found Tied To Front Door Of Jewish Heritage Museum In Wake Of Capitol Riot

CHICAGO, IL - AUGUST 23: A Confederate Navy jack flag sits at the base of Confederate Mound, a memorial to more than 4,000 Confederate prisoners of war who died in captivity at Camp Douglas and are buried around the... CHICAGO, IL - AUGUST 23: A Confederate Navy jack flag sits at the base of Confederate Mound, a memorial to more than 4,000 Confederate prisoners of war who died in captivity at Camp Douglas and are buried around the monument, on August 23, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. The monument, which is maintained by the National Park Service, is located inside the private Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago's southside. Cities around the country are debating what to do with Confederate monuments following recent protests and calls for their removal. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) MORE LESS

January 8, 2021 3:19 p.m.

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A Confederate flag was found tied to the front door of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City early Friday morning, just steps away from a vintage train car outside the museum that was used to transport Jews to Auschwitz death camps.

The museum’s CEO and President Jack Kliger believes the flagged was attached to the building — which is known as a “living memorial to the Holocaust” — sometime overnight. Museum officials filed a police report, Kliger said in a statement.

“This is an atrocious attack on our community and on our institution and must be met with the swift and forceful response of law enforcement,” he said in a statement. “The Confederate flag is a potent symbol of white supremacy, as evidenced by the events at the U.S. Capitol this week. … These horrific acts of emboldened anti-Semitism must end now.”

Many members of the mob of Trump supporters that breached the Capitol earlier Wednesday were carrying Confederate flags and wearing Confederacy symbolism.

Several of those filmed participating in the insurrection are known white supremacists, such as the influencer and live-streamer Tim Gionet, known as Baked Alaska. One man arrested Friday who’d earlier bragged about stealing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) mail, Richard “Bigo” Barnett, described himself as a white nationalist online.

One unidentified rioter was photographed wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” t-shirt, and another advertised his membership in NSC-131, a local chapter of the Nationalist Social Club, a neo-Nazi group.

Nearby the Capitol Building, one man harassed an Israeli journalist during a live shot, demanding an answer to the question “What is a goy?” (The term, Yiddish for “non-Jew,” is commonly used by white nationalists as an ironic self-description.)

The Confederate flag found tied to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York is under investigation, a New York City Police Department spokesperson told TPM.

Just issued this statement on behalf of my client. This was a horrible incident. pic.twitter.com/y4J2Dhd5I0

— Jeff Simmons (@JackHites) January 8, 2021

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Nicole Lafond (@Nicole_Lafond) is TPM’s deputy editor, based in New York. She has also worked as the special projects editor and as a senior newswriter for TPM. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and previously covered education in central Illinois.

Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) is a reporter in TPM’s New York office. Prior to joining TPM, he was associate editor of The National Memo and an editorial intern at Rolling Stone.

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