The Goyim Defense League (GDL)

The Goyim Defense League (GDL), founded in 2018 by Jew hater Jon Minadeo II, is a neo-Nazi based network of individuals whose name, based on the Yiddish word “Goyim,” parodies the Anti-Defamation League. The GDL’s mission is to spread antisemitic bias against the Jews.

Inspired by neo-Nazi zealotry, GDL content glorifies Adolph Hitler and the Waffen SS, features “white power” slogans, denies the Holocaust, and propagates far-right conspiracy theories such as the “great replacement” and “Jewish supremacy.”

Originally based in California before moving its headquarters to Florida in 2022, the GDL is now active nationwide, frequently organizing on its video platform, GoyimTV, as well as under-regulated thread boards such as Gab and Telegram.

Since 2018, StopAntisemitism has consistently documented the GDL’s history of violence and Jew hatred on the internet and throughout the United States. In 2022, the GDL was responsible for almost 10% of all documented hate crimes targeting Jews.

The GDL is notorious for its targeted flyer drops, in which antisemitic brochures are distributed, often in historically Jewish neighborhoods or ones with a sizable Jewish community, and feature the names and pictures of prominent Jewish individuals in a variety of industries or supposedly related to hot-button political issues such as gun control, immigration, abortion, and COVID. These coordinated campaigns have covered nearly a third of the country, with the vile leaflets frequently found in plastic bags, weighted down with coffee beans, rocks, rice, corn kernels, or chicken feed, and littered in residents’ front yards, mailboxes, driveways, or on cars.

Other GDL tactics include hanging banners over popular freeway overpasses with antisemitic messages, including one dropped over the 405 in Los Angeles that read “Kanye is right about the Jews.” The GDL also projects hate symbols and slogans on buildings, vandalizes streets with antisemitic graffiti, drives around in rented U-Hauls covered in antisemitic messaging yelling propaganda from a loudspeaker, and provocatively confronts unsuspecting civilians on video with the resulting footage later posted on their website.  

Jon Minadeo II, GDL’s leader, and a self-proclaimed white supremacist was named StopAntisemitism’s ‘Antisemite of the Week’ and a top 3 finalist in StopAntisemitism’s 2022 ‘Antisemite of the Year’ contest. Minadeo is the only person to have been named ‘Antisemite of the Week’ twice. He is a well-known agitator who often stages publicity stunts, such as dressing as an Orthodox Jew and running around yelling antisemitic slogans from a megaphone, and even traveling to Auschwitz Concentration Camp memorial, where he held up Jew-hating signs. He is also known for his ‘Name the Nose’ tours, which can involve several days or even weeks of coordinated antisemitic efforts in a particular geographical area.

The hate group has thousands of followers online, with several of its members having been arrested and charged with both misdemeanors and felony hate crimes. Prominent members of GDL include anti-Zionist Robert Frank Wilson, aka ‘Aryan Bacon’, and Jew-hater Nicholas Bysheim. Frank Wilson was the GDL member alongside Minadeo who posed with antisemitic signs outside of Auschwitz. Wilson fled to Europe to escape criminal charges for physically attacking his neighbor. Amsterdam police were quick to link an antisemitic incident at the Anne Frank Museum to Wilson. Wilson projected antisemitic phrases onto the museum’s exterior. Bysehim or ‘Jehu’ has been arrested several times for littering antisemitic flyers throughout the country. Bysheim is currently due in court regarding one of these incidents, he is unable to find a lawyer to represent him. Other members include convicted pedophile, Jesse Shenk & anti-Zionist arsonist, Franklin Sechriest.

The GDL’s dangerous ideology inspired many members to participate in antisemitic rampages and bias against the Jewish people. In February 2023, Jew-hating Jaime Tran shot two Jewish men as they left prayer services in Los Angeles. It was quickly uncovered that Tran had been kicked out of dental school for harassing Jewish students with the GDL flyers produced by Minadeo and his members.

The GDL has endorsed the BDS movement’s Mapping Project.