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<\/a><\/p>\nTwo social media posts from the Department of Homeland Security appear to reference what some are calling neo-Nazi tropes (l-r): a reference to the antisemitic book “Which Way, Western Man?” and the use of a double-capitalized “HH” that is common online shorthand for “Heil Hitler.” Both posts include nostalgic imagery. (Screenshots)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWhich way, American man?\u201d the department\u2019s official page posted Sunday, over a political cartoon from 1936 called \u201cUncle Sam at the Crossroads.\u201d <\/p>\n
The post, a recruitment ad for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alluded to the phrase \u201cWhich way, Western man?\u201d \u2014 the title of a 1978 book steeped in antisemitic conspiracy theories and explicit threats against Jews. As a social media meme, the phrase has been used to ridicule the \u201cwoke,\u201d feminism and immigrants.<\/p>\n
In its own X post Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League called the \u201cWhich way\u201d reference \u201cthe latest problematic ICE recruitment post from the X account of the Department of Homeland Security.\u201d The ADL cited several problems with it, including the reference to the 1978 book by William Gayley Simpson, whom the organization calls a \u201cwhite supremacist and antisemite.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cAmerican man\u201d post came a month after another controversial post from DHS reading \u201cRemember your Homeland\u2019s Heritage,\u201d with both \u201cH\u201ds capitalized \u2014 an alignment that both progressive outlets and X\u2019s own AI chatbot Grok theorized could be an illusion to \u201cHH,\u201d a shorthand for \u201cHeil Hitler\u201d deployed by neo-Nazis. <\/p>\n
\u201cHH capitalization \u2026 and a painting symbolizing white colonial expansion over Native lands mirrors known white supremacist dogwhistles,\u201d Grok wrote in response to one user. <\/p>\n
Multiple Trump administration officials have documented ties to antisemitic and white-supremacist circles and ideologies. Trump\u2019s nominee to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, announced this week, \u201chas repeatedly appeared in front of the massive portrait of Adolf Hitler\u2019s favorite battleship during media interviews,\u201d the Daily Beast reported.<\/p>\n
Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment. In a statement to CNN, spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, \u201cCalling everything you dislike \u2018Nazi propaganda\u2019 is tiresome,\u201d and went on to describe the intended message of the \u201cAmerican man\u201d post: \u201cUncle Sam, who represents America, is at a crossroads, pondering which way America should go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The posts reflect a larger effort by DHS and ICE, who are seeing a massive budget increase and hiring spree under President Trump, to use nostalgic language and images depicting American \u201cculture\u201d and \u201cheritage\u201d as under attack from outsiders. As part of its ICE recruitment efforts, DHS has employed numerous works of art depicting frontier life and other American idylls \u2014 often without permission from the artists or their estates. <\/p>\n
Other images used by DHS, such as John Gast\u2019s 1872 painting \u201cAmerican Progress,\u201d are positive depictions of concepts like Manifest Destiny. DHS itself does not have such a lengthy history: It was formed in 2002 in response to the 9\/11 attacks, largely by consolidating offices from other departments.<\/p>\n
Critics from groups like the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights say the DHS posts use coded language and motifs popular in online white supremacist communities, with some overlap with Christian nationalism: One video overlays a Bible verse over footage of ICE agents. DHS has claimed to receive 100,000 ICE applications since launching its campaign.<\/p>\n
But the latest post is more overt. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhich Way, Western Man?\u201d argues that Western and \u201cNordic\u201d culture is under threat by Jews. The book includes passages on \u201cthe Jewish-led and largely Jewish-manned movement of Communism\u201d and \u201cthe Jewification of the West.\u201d One chapter is titled \u201cThe Necessity of Eugenics.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book has since been re-published by National Vanguard Books, a neo-Nazi group that also publishes the white nationalist novel\/manifesto \u201cThe Turner Diaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Rothschild, a Jewish researcher of conspiracy theories, wrote on X that the post was \u201ca clear reference\u201d to the book, which he described as \u201ca work of staggering racism and antisemitism that argues Jews must be \u2018put out and kept out\u2019 of western society.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ADL also objected to DHS\u2019s use of the 1936 cartoon by Frank Lea, which depicts Uncle Sam puzzling over signs pointing to \u201cInflation,\u201d \u201cDepression\u201d and \u201cOpportunity.\u201d The DHS version replaces those signs with ones reading \u201cCultural Decline,\u201d \u201cInvasion\u201d and \u201cLaw & Order.\u201d Text overlaid on the image reads, \u201cAmerica needs you. Join ICE now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The alterations, the ADL said, \u201cbasically equate migrants in the U.S. with \u2018cultural decay\u2019 and \u2018invasion.\u2019\u201d The Jewish civil rights group concludes, \u201cA U.S. government agency should not resort to using such language and imagery for any purpose, let alone recruiting people to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liberal Jews, largely pro-immigrant thanks to their own families\u2019 immigrant backgrounds, have increasingly spoken out against ICE\u2019s migrant roundup tactics, including raids at houses of worship. A recent detention center opened in the Everglades has also drawn comparisons to concentration camps.<\/p>\n
Pam Nadell, a historian whose forthcoming book is a history of American antisemitism, told JTA that when it came to both posts, \u201cI see the antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThink of who they\u2019re appealing to, who might be likely to want to join ICE and come and get rid of the immigrants,\u201d Nadell said. She also saw significance in using a New Deal-era cartoon but replacing the name of Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s anti-poverty program with \u201cCultural Decline.\u201d Roosevelt\u2019s critics, she said, were often antisemitic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the \u201930s, the attacks on the New Deal, the attacks on Roosevelt, the charges that he was controlled and manipulated by a cabal of Jews, that\u2019s part of the right-wing attack against the New Deal,\u201d she said. \u201cSo the fact that they\u2019re replacing that attack with \u2018Cultural Decline,\u2019 that\u2019s the same kind of right-wing attack. Back then it was on the government; now it\u2019s on civil society.\u201d<\/p>\n