Antisemitic Sign with Link to Far-Right Website Hung Outside Michigan Rep. Tim Walberg’s Office

JACKSON, MI, Dec. 13, 2023 ~ Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (MI-5) appears to have been targeted with a display of antisemitism, with a poster containing anti-Jewish imagery and a link to a white nationalist, antisemitic website hung outside of his Congressional office in Jackson.

Walberg, a former pastor, has been a vocal supporter of Israel during its bombing campaign on the Palestinian territory of Gaza that began after Hamas‘ attack on Oct. 7, taking part in a Congressional hearing last week to question university leaders on how they’ve handled rising antisemitism on college campuses. The poster contained a cartoon drawing of Uncle Sam removing a hat to show him wearing a kippah with the Star of David, the Israeli flag replacing the stars on the U.S. flag with the stars replaced by the Israel flag, and text that read “Jew u$ury buy$ USA pols.”

“This anti-Semitic garbage was hung outside my Jackson office today” Walberg said on X, formerly Twitter. “Whether it’s occurring in plain sight like this, or it’s the hypocrisy and acceptance of calls for Jewish genocide on college campuses, I’ll continue to condemn the scourge of anti-Semitism.“

The words and imagery lean into antisemitic stereotypes by suggesting politicians are influenced financially by Jewish people. A web link on the poster leads to a webpage on the Unz Review, a far-right website owned by conservative writer and publisher Ron Unz that has been known to publish articles promoting Holocaust denialism and far-right conspiracies. The Anti-Defamation League has called it a platform that lets “certain writers attack Israel and Jews” and the Southern Poverty Law Center has called it a “white nationalist” publication.

The webpage linked to by the poster promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family, a European Jewish banking family falsely accused by conspiracists of controlling the economy and the weather. It has been spread by far-right figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14) and radio host Alex Jones.

Antisemitism and Islamophobia have been on the rise across the country since the beginning of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to the ADL and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.