‘He has no known history of anti-Semitism and was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) The man who barged into a Jewish rabbi’s home on Sunday and used a machete to attack multiple people reportedly admired the black Hebrew Israelites, a radical group that believes they are the true chosen people of God and Jews are imposters.
Grafton Thomas now faces federal hate crimes on top of five counts of attempted murder. In a criminal complaint, FBI Special Agent Julie Brown said investigators found “anti-Semitic sentiments” in Thomas’s journal entries, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
One entry said “Hebrew Israelites” took from the “powerful ppl (ebinoid Israelites)” and questioned “why ppl mourned for anti-Semitism when there is Semitic genocide.”
The reference to “ebinoid Israelites” is an apparent reference to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a group identified by the FBI as a fringe group with the potential for terrorism.
This report differs the account Thomas’s family offered. His family claimed he has a “long history of mental illness and hospitalizations” and that these crimes “tragically reflect profound mental illness.”
“He has no history of like violent acts and no convictions for any crime,” his family said late Sunday in a statement issued by attorney Michael Sussman.
“He has no known history of anti-Semitism and was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races,” said the statement. “He is not a member of any hate groups.”
Thomas’s journal also referred to “Adolf Hitler” and “Nazi Culture,” and included drawings of a Star of David next to a Swastika, according to the criminal complaint.
Thomas’s search history from a cell phone included searches such as “Why did Hitler hate the Jews,” “German Jewish Temples near me,” and “Prominent companies founded by Jews in America.”
Sussman, said these documents are nothing more than the “ramblings of a disturbed individual.”
“There is no suggestion any of those ramblings and pages of writing of an anti-Semitic motive, of any anti-Semitism,” he said.