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Jew Watch is a website that aims to "report accurate information regarding Jewish ownership and control over mass media and politics," and which describes its objective as "Keeping a Close Watch on Jewish Communities & Organizations Worldwide." It is owned and maintained by Frank Weltner. While the Southern Poverty Law Center maintains he is a member of the National Alliance, a white nationalist/white supremacist organization, Weltner denies the charge. The website asserts that "Jew Watch is a Not-For-Profit Library for private study, scholarship, or research." Although the maintainers of the site insist that it is not a hate site, it is widely recognized as an anti-Semitic website and has received much criticism from a wide range of organizations and individuals.

The site became notorious in April 2004 when it emerged as the first result in a Google search for the word Jew. A second scandal in 2006 involved solicitions for donations to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina being redirected to JewWatch.

Overview

Jew Watch features an archive of writings, articles and links, organized in the form of a Web directory. The material is organized under topic heads such as

• "Jewish Controlled Press,"
• "Jewish Entertainment,"
• "Jewish Banking & Financial Manipulations,"
• "Jewish-Zionist-Soviet Anti-American Spies,"
• "Jewish Communist Rulers & Killers,"
• "Jewish Terrorists,"
• "Zionist Occupied Governments,"
• "Jewish Communists,"
• "Jewish Atrocities,"

Jew Watch claims that the United States is ruled by a Jewish-Occupied Government, that Communism was invented by the Jewish Karl Marx and was a Jewish plot to enslave the world, and that Jews control the world finance system and the media. It also claims that the "All Anti-Christian Jewish Red Commisars" killed 100 million Christians in Russia from 1917-1945 under the orders of "Trotsky, the Jewish Commissar of Commissars". It also makes the suggestion that global Jewry is the driving force behind both global capitalism and communism. The site links to others which speculate that Jews have committed or are planning genocide against Christians and against the Palestinian people, and promote Holocaust denial, maintaining that the Holocaust either never happened or was greatly exaggerated.

Jew Watch also has a large list of names of celebrities and historical figures which it claims are Jewish or of Jewish descent. For example, it claims that individuals such as Joseph Stalin, Dwight David Eisenhower, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill were Jewish. The website also condemns Christianity for being a "Jewish Religion".

The site has a number of quotations without references or citations which it purports are from the Talmud or Jewish figures.

Jew Watch purports to expose what it calls "Jewish crimes against humanity". Its stated position is that Jews are responsible for every major war in the last 150 years, that Judaism hates all races of humanity (including white Christians, Blacks, and Muslims), and dominates the world by proxy through the United States. In addition, the website claims that the former Soviet Union, the United States, the former Soviet CIS states, Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, and France are "Jewish Occupied Governments."

Google controversy

The increasing publicity has resulted in many news sources, weblogs and general information sites to link to Jew Watch, and thus created a Google bomb. In May 2004, Steven Weinstock launched an online petition to remove Jew Watch from Google. "When performing a search for the word 'Jew' on Google, the first Web site listed is Jewwatch.com, a site that has been notorious for being anti-Semitic," Weinstock wrote in a widely disseminated e-mail.

"In order for Google to remove this, they would need a petition of over 50,000 requests," Weinstock said. He set up an online petition site called RemoveJewWatch.com. Within a few days 2,000 signatures had been added to the list. By mid-2004 the site had collected over 125,000 signatures. RemoveJewWatch.com went offline, but a preserved versions remains.

Google's response, however, has been a sponsored link for the search term since 2004 which explains how Google results are automatically ranked by computer algorithms.

National Vanguard writer Kevin Strom claimed that Weinstock's efforts resulted in a "censor-fest" of Jew Watch and insisted "Our race deserves to live in freedom, and no trickster, thug, or con man can stop us from achieving that goal. We are going to win". John Goth, in the same publication, described his "disgust" as a "loyal White man" at "the recent Jewish attacks on free speech and particularly, on JewWatch.com."

To this day Jew Watch's ranking fluctuates in the top three to five positions for the search term “Jew” on the American Google site, along with two Misplaced Pages articles for "Jew" and "Judaism".

The Katrina controversy

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 has set up multiple sites soliciting funds for Katrina victims, then redirected those wishing to donate to his site that collected money for JewWatch . 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" .

References

1. ^ "Radical Radio. Neo-Nazi broadcasting from St. Louis AM station". Southern Poverty Law Center, Fall 2004. Retrieved 2006-08-08.
2. Becker, David (2004-04-07). "Google caught in Anti-Semitism flap". CNET. Retrieved 2006-04-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. Sullivan, Danny (2004-04-25). "Google In Controversy Over Top-Ranking For Anti-Jewish Site". Search Engine Watch. Retrieved 2006-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. "JewWatch Profile". Zionism On The Web, 2007. Retrieved 2007-21-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
5. "Jewish Religions - Christianity". Jew Watch. Retrieved 2006-04-08.
6. "Jewish Occupied Governments". Jew Watch. Retrieved 2006-04-08.
7. Brandon, John (2004-05-11). "Dropping the Bomb on Google". Wired. Retrieved 2007-01-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. "RemoveJewWatch.com". WhyNot Media. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
9. "An explanation of our search results". Google. 2004. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
10. Strom, Kevin (2004-04-24). "The Censorious Race". National Vanguard. Retrieved 2006-04-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
11. Goth, John (2004-04-22). "The Jew Watch Saga Can Be Fun". National Vanguard. Retrieved 2006-04-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. "JewWatch Profile". Zionism On The Web, 2007. Retrieved 2007-21-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
13. "Nixon obtains permanent injuntion against Jewwatch.com operator who deceptively solicited Katrina donations". Attorney General, 2006. Retrieved 2007-21-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

External links

• Jew Watch
• Google search for "Jew"
• Official letter to Anti-Defamation League from Google's president
• Jew Watch, Google, and Search Engine Optimization by Seth Finkelstein

• Antisemitism
• Hate
• World Wide Web