Jew Watch

Jew Watch was an antisemitic^[1] website promoting Holocaust denial^[2] and negative claims about Jews. The claims included allegations of a conspiracy that Jews control the media and banking,^[3] as well as accusations of Jewish involvement in terrorist groups. The site contained propaganda, according to Sam Varghese of The Age, similar to that used in Nazi Germany.^[4] It was widely considered a hate site.^[1] Jew Watch received support from Stormfront, a white nationalist and neo-Nazi site.^[5] The site described itself as a "not-for-profit library for private study, scholarship, or research [that keeps] a close watch on Jewish Communities and organizations worldwide".^[6]

Jew Watch

Type of site	Antisemitic website^[1]
Available in	English
Owner	Frank Weltner

The site received media attention in April 2004 when it emerged as the first result in a Google search for the word "Jew" and a petition was started to get the site removed from Google search results.^[7][8] A scandal in 2006 involved solicitations for donations to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina being redirected to Jew Watch.^[9]

Ownership

Established in 1998,^[10] the website was owned and maintained by Frank Weltner, a member of the National Alliance, a white nationalist and white separatist organization.^[11][12][13]

Themes

Jew Watch featured articles, videos, and links, organized in the form of a Web directory. Content was organized under topic headings such as "Jewish Controlled Press", "Jewish Banking & Financial Manipulations", "Jewish Communist Rulers & Killers", and "Zionist Occupied Governments – Z.O.G."

Jew Watch claimed that Jews control the world's financial systems and media.^[14][15] It also claimed that the "All Anti-Christian Jewish Red Commissars" killed 100 million Christians in Russia from 1917 to 1945 under the orders of "Trotsky, the Jewish Commissar of Commissars".^[16] It said that global Jewry is the driving force behind both global capitalism and communism.^[17] The site linked to others which speculate that Jews have committed or are planning genocide against the Palestinian people;^[18] the site also promoted Holocaust denial, maintaining that the Holocaust either never happened or was greatly exaggerated.^[19]

Controversy

Google Search results

Many news sources, weblogs, and general information sites linked to Jew Watch creating a Google bomb that led to the site being the first search result for the term "Jew." In May 2004, Steven Weinstock launched an online petition on RemoveJewWatch.com to remove Jew Watch from Google. By mid-2004 the site had collected over 125,000 signatures.^[7][8]

In response to complaints, including one from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Google added an explanation to searches for the site. They said their results are automatically ranked by computer algorithms, and that they do not approve of any of the results.^[20]

In December 2004, OSCE's Sandy Starr addressed the issues of freedom of speech:

When it transpired that the anti-Semitic website Jew Watch ranked highest in the search engine Google's results for the search term "Jew", a Remove Jew Watch campaign was established, to demand that Google remove the offending website from its listings. Fortunately for the principle of free speech, Google did not capitulate to this particular demand ... Forced to act on its own initiative, Remove Jew Watch successfully used Googlebombing ... Better still would have been either a proper contest of ideas between Jew Watch and Remove Jew Watch, or alternatively a decision that Jew Watch was beneath contempt and should simply be ignored. Not every crank and extremist warrants attention, even if they do occasionally manage to spoof search engine rankings.^[21]

In 2013, Jew Watch was still appearing on the first pages of Google Search results for the term "Jew."^[22]

Hurricane Katrina solicitations

St. Louis City Circuit Judge Julian L. Bush permanently barred Frank Weltner and his site InternetDonation.org from soliciting funds in Missouri for charitable purposes after it was revealed by State Attorney General Jay Nixon that Frank Weltner had set up multiple websites soliciting funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina and then redirected those wishing to donate to his site that collected money for Jew Watch.^[9] A press release from the Attorney General said:

Anyone who takes advantage of the generosity and compassion of his fellow citizens in an attempt to fund his hate-filled Web site should never again be in the position to solicit charitable funds from well-meaning Missourians.^[23]

See also

•  Internet portal

• Antisemitic canard
• Jihad Watch

References

1. Antisemitic and hate site:
   • "Racists of all beliefs can find materials to their liking on the Internet. ... One such site, Jew Watch, contains articles and other writings on anti Semitic themes, with such titles as "World War Two Slave Labor Issues and Greedy Jewish Lawyers" and "The Rothschild Internationalist Zionist Banking One World Order Family"." Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the use of the Internet for purposes of incitement to racial hatred, racist propaganda and xenophobia, and on ways of promoting international cooperation in this area. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Preparatory Committee Second session. Geneva, 21 May-1 June 2001. Item 6 of the provisional agenda. Review of Reports, Studies and Other Documentation for the Preparatory Committee and the World Conference. United Nations General Assembly. A/CONF.189/PC.2/12. 27 April 2001
   • "He runs Jew Watch, a wildly anti-Semitic, 6-year-old Web site that carries archives of conspiracy theories about Jews." Radical Radio: Neo-Nazi broadcasting from St. Louis AM station 2012-08-13 at the Wayback Machine, Southern Poverty Law Center, Fall 2004. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
   • Becker, David (2004-04-07). "Google caught in Anti-Semitism flap". CNET. Retrieved 2006-04-09.
   • Sullivan, Danny (2004-04-25). . Search Engine Watch. Archived from the original on 2006-10-17. Retrieved 2006-08-08.
   • "In fact, the No. 1 result for the search entry "Jew" turns out to be www.jewwatch.com. The fanatically anti-Semitic hate site is ranked first in relevance of more than 1.72 million Web pages ..." Joe Eskenazi. No. 1 Google result for ‘Jew’ is fanatical hate site – for now, J. The Jewish News of Northern California, March 19, 2004.
   • "As previously reported, the anti-Semitic site Jew Watch used to be the first item returned from a Google search on the word "Jew," a result that attracted widespread criticism and several online protest campaigns." David Becker. Anti-Semitic site drops off Google, CNET, April 26, 2004. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
   • "Money donated through multiple Web sites registered to Frank Weltner of St. Louis was redirected to a site that collected money for an anti-Semitic and racist organization, Nixon said ... Nixon said Weltner registered at least 10 Internet domain names with Katrina-related themes, such as donatekatrina.com and katrinafamilies.com. The Web sites showed photos of neighborhoods in rubble and families in peril, along with a pitch to donate. Those who clicked on a link to donate were redirected to a central Web site, InternetDonations.org., the same collection point for individuals pledging donations to JewWatch.com." Nixon obtains permanent injuntion against Jewwatch.com operator who deceptively solicited Katrina donations 2012-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Attorney-General Jay Nixon press release, October 26, 2006. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
   • "Jew Watch organizes its anti-Semitic materials much in the same way a popular Web directory might group more benign information." Poisoning the Web: Hatred Online – Don Black: White Pride World Wide 2008-12-25 at the Wayback Machine, Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
   • "Google's review comes a couple weeks after the Anti-Defamation League and online petitioners expressed concern over an anti-Semitic Web site, Jew Watch, showing up among the top results for the search term 'Jew.'" Verne Kopytoff. Google revisits policy on hate sites, San Francisco Chronicle, April 23, 2004.
   • "A New York real estate developer has launched an online petition to get an anti-Semitic site removed from Google's index after it came up as the first result when he did a search for the word 'Jew'." Online petition launched against anti-Semitic site, The Age, April 7, 2004.
   • "So it's ironic that an anti-Semitic website, Jewwatch.com, would find a host in Boca Raton. But it did." Hate Speech: Boca anti-Semitic website host tells site owner to “take his business elsewhere.” 2011-09-29 at the Wayback Machine, Boca Raton News, January 5, 2006.
   • "Although not mentioned in the Audit, two specific antisemitic web sites came to the attention of the Canadian Jewish community. Jew Watch, a vehemently antisemitic web site, was being listed by an Internet search engine under the 'Jewish Resources' section." 1998 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2012-02-10 at the Wayback Machine, B'nai Brith Canada. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
   • "In March, during a casual Web search, the 26-year-old real-estate investor accidentally found that Jew Watch, an anti-Semitic site, was the top Google result." John Brandon. Dropping the Bomb on Google, Wired News, May 11, 2004. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
   • "... even when they appear on the internet, the antisemitic extremes of Jew-watch.com and the ethnic boosterism of Jewhoo.com seem relics of an archaic time." Vincent Brook. You Should See Yourself: Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Culture, Rutgers University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8135-3845-9, p. 232.
   • "... Jew Watch (a hate site allegedly reporting Jewish monopoly, banking, and media control worldwide)." Eli M. Salzberger, Niva Elkin-Koren: Law, Economics and Cyberspace. The Effects of Cyberspace on the Economic Analysis of Law. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-84064-669-1. p. 72
   • "... an anti-Semitic website named 'Jew Watch.'" Experts Warn of Rapid Growth in On-Line Hate 2007-10-19 at the Wayback Machine by Kirk Makin. Globe and Mail, September 13, 2006
   • "Racist skinheads connect and reconnect online through a multitude of websites like Stormfront and Jew Watch, which are deep reservoirs of hate ..." Barry Howard Minkin: Ten Great Lies That Threaten Western Civilization Ten Great Lies, 2007. ISBN 0-9792904-0-6. p. 140.
2. Levy, Steven. "Google: Watch Out For 'Watch'", Newsweek, 26 April 2004, accessed 23 November 2010. (subscription required)
3. Elkin-Koren, Niva; Salzberger, Eli M. (2004). Law, Economics and Cyberspace: The Effects of Cyberspace on the Economic Analysis of Law, Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 72.
   • Also see, regarding media, "Jewish Controlled Press" 2012-09-21 at the Wayback Machine, Jew Watch, accessed 23 November 2010.
4. Varghese, Sam. "Online petition launched against anti-Semitic site", The Age, 7 April 2004, accessed 23 November 2010.
5. "Daily Digest", San Francisco Chronicle, 27 April 2004, accessed 23 November 2010.
6. Anderson, Jack; Cohn, Douglas. "Hate groups discover the Internet", The Hour, 24 October 2000, p. 134.
7. Brandon, John. "Dropping the bomb on Google", Wired, 11 May 2004, accessed 23 November 2010. 2010-10-12 at the Wayback Machine 22 November 2010.
8. "RemoveJewWatch.com", WhyNot Media, accessed 23 November 2010. 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine 23 November 2010.
9. Missouri Sues To Stop Phony Katrina Relief Sites 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine ConsumerAffairs. September 13, 2005
10. Finkelstein, Seth. "Frank Weltner (JewWatchCom) replies", sethf.com, 4 June 2004, accessed 23 November 2010.
11. . Southern Poverty Law Center, Fall 2004. Archived from the original on 2012-08-13. Retrieved 2006-08-08.
12. . Jew Watch. Archived from the original on 2012-06-23. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
13. Perlmutter, Dawn (Fall 2001 – Winter 2002). . Anthropoetics. 7 (2): 1–26. ISSN 1083-7264. OCLC 32874935. Archived from the original on 2008-07-09. Retrieved 2008-07-30. "[O]ne example is a white supremacist web site called Jew Watch"
14. Weltner, Frank. "Jew Watch – Jewish Banking and Financial Manipulations". jewwatch.com. Jew Watch. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
15. Frank, Weltner. . jewwatch.com. Jew Watch. Archived from the original on 18 February 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2014. Jews Do Rule the Media. This means they can control what we hear, see, think, and largely believe.
16. . Jew Watch. Archived from the original on 2007-03-29. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
17. "Jewish Controlled Press – Reports by Historical Sources". Jew Watch. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
18. . Jew Watch. Archived from the original on 2007-03-15. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
19. . JewWatch. Archived from the original on 2007-04-03. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
20. Daniels, Jessie (2009). Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights, Rowman & Littlefield, p. 170.
    • For the ADL letter to Sergey Brin, see: "Google Responds to ADL" 2004-11-22 at the Wayback Machine, Anti-Defamation League, 21 April 2004, accessed 23 November 2010.
    • For Google's explanation, see: "An explanation of our search results" 2004-06-07 at the Wayback Machine Google, accessed 23 November 2010.
21. Starr, Sandy. "Hate speech on the Internet", p. 140, accessed 18 August 2011, in "The Media Freedom Internet Cookbook", Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 16 December 2004.
22. "Anti-Semitism in information era". YnetNews. 8 April 2013.
23. . Attorney General, 2006. Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2007-02-21.

Further reading

• Bar-Ilan, Judit. "Web links and search engine ranking: The case of Google and the query "jew"", Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 57 12: 1581–1589, October 2006.
• Finkelstein, Seth. "'Jew Watch', Google, and Evil", sethf.com, 30 March 2004, accessed 23 November 2010.
• Finkelstein, Seth. "Jew Watch, Google, and Search Engine Optimization", sethf.com, accessed 23 November 2010.
• Kopytoff, Verne. "Google revisits policy on hate sites / Search engine to reconsider labeling in response to Jewish group upset by anti-Semitic content", San Francisco Chronicle, 23 April 2004, accessed 23 November 2010.
• Romirowsky, Asaf. "Anti-Semitism Hits Home via Google"^{[permanent dead link]}, Jewish Exponent, 25 October 2007, accessed 23 November 2010.