The Silence on Hate in Florida

Anti-Semitism never grows old!

A reader points out to me that I promised to do a follow-up on an item from about a month ago on a weird situation down in Florida. Seems a prominent merchant in Delray Beach named Alex Seredin has been spewing obscene anti-Semitic hate in Usenet newsgroups for years -- to the utter indifference of the local community where this jackass does business, even getting some favorable publicity in a dimwitted local newspaper.

Seredin runs a souvenir shop on North Federal Highway (the old U.S. 1, ironically) called Peter Pan Gifts. Kind of makes sense, doesn't it? Anti-Semitism never grows old.

Seredin practices virulent anti-Semitism of the old-fashioned variety known and loved by generations past, commonly referring to Jews as "kikes" and "long noses." He recently opined that Jews "have no right to a country except six feet under," and recommended that "Palestinians expel all the bloody kikes." He posts his nauseating hate in Jewish newsgroups, effectively turning them into anti-Semitic podiums.

Oh, you don't believe me? OK, I'll turn over the microphone to the Plastic Flamingo King of Delray Beach for a moment. Here is the full text of a Jan. 10 post:

YOU FUCKING JEWISH TERRORIST BASTARD! ONE THOUSAND PALESTINIAN CHILDREN HAVE BEEN SLAUGHTERED BY YOU SCUM IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. RACHEL CORRIE IS AN ANGEL, AND YOU LONG NOSES WILL DIE THE DEATH OF SWINE!

So, as requested, here's my follow-up to this idiot's public ravings: Nothing. The silence continues in Florida.

Where is the outrage? Where is the media coverage -- particularly in the goofy Tribune Company-owned publication, City Link, that gave his schlock store free publicity? Why aren't outraged citizens -- Jewish and non-Jewish -- passing out handbills and telling visitors to Delray Beach about his nutty ravings?

Kind of makes you wonder whether there'd be the same indifference to a bigot spewing anti-black or even anti-Islamic hysteria. The media coverage would be so thick you could cut it with a knife. Instead, a neo-Nazi nut with a garbage mouth spews hate on the Internet and nobody gives a damn.

Hey, America is the land of the free, and this moron has a right to be a moron. But apparently, in South Florida, we are the "home of the wimps" when it comes to telling bigots to take a hike. Or at least we are when their targets are Jews.

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