Update, April 2024: We have identified another participant in the Goyim Defense League rally outside Chabad Lubavitch of Cobb County. GDL member Mel Travis Layton (AKA “John 8:44”) of Missouri was the driver of the white Jeep which passed by the rally several times. Although his face is not visible in footage from East Cobb on June 24, Layton can be seen harassing Temple Beth Israel in downtown Macon the day before. Comments by “John 8:44” in the GDL chat on Telegram indicated that he was part of the group targeting Georgia synagogues over the June weekend. “John 8:44’s” electronic trail allowed us to identify Layton.
Updated August 2023 to include identification of Amanda Sue Onger (AKA “GothWaffen”) of Florida.
On the evening of Saturday, June 24, supporters of the antisemitic and neo-Nazi “Goyim Defense League” (GDL) rallied outside Chabad Lubavitch of Cobb County in the Atlanta suburbs. The GDL participants held Nazi flags and made “Sieg Heil” salutes in a clear attempt at intimidation.
One day earlier, many of the same characters rallied outside another synagogue, Temple Beth Israel in downtown Macon, Georgia. The GDL’s main figurehead, Jon Eugene Minadeo II (“Handsome Truth”), was briefly arrested over minor charges, but was soon released from jail and continued his Georgia harassment campaign. The GDL is less of a concrete group than a propaganda outfit and brand centering around Minadeo.
In this photo album, we show twelve participants at the GDL’s East Cobb rally on Saturday. The footage is not clear enough to make any determination concerning the driver of the white Jeep that passed by the rally several times.
Of the twelve GDL participants pictured here, we identify the majority by name and associate the remainder with their online aliases. Most of those named here have already been publicly identified by other researchers and monitoring groups. However, GDL participant Matthew Thomas Bukaty of Florida is newly identified. Bukaty goes by the alias “DJ Boomer Tech” online. As well as participating in the GDL’s harassment campaigns, Bukaty is involved with the “Funky Side of Fash” project, which streams electronic music mixes combined with neo-Nazi imagery.
Only four of the neo-Nazis outside Chabad Lubavitch on Saturday appear to be based in Georgia: longtime white supremacist Michael David Weaver; Hilary and Philip Jacobs; as well as “Philly Fresh” (alias). The Jacobs couple as well as Weaver are the most active distributors of GDL propaganda in our state, often throwing bags of antisemitic propaganda onto lawns under the cover of darkness. “Philly Fresh” is part of the White Lives Matter – Georgia chat as well as active within the GDL. Over the last couple of years, our group has identified several others involved in GDL propaganda distribution in Georgia: see the tag on our website for details.
We are publishing these photos as a resource to other antifascist researchers and in the hope that someone will recognize the neo-Nazis who have not yet been publicly exposed. If you have any tips, please get in touch.
Continue reading “Documentation: Goyim Defense League Attempted Intimidation at East Cobb Synagogue, June 24, 2023”
