Northeast Florida business leaders know the antisemitic messages displayed over the weekend during the annual Georgia-Florida college football game is not a good look for Jacksonville.
Banners displayed Oct. 29 on an Interstate 10 overpass and the Arlington Expressway and scrolling projections Oct. 30 on TIAA Bank Field and a Downtown building drew national attention.
Brightway Insurance Executive Chairman and co-founder David Miller said Oct. 31 said the public nature of the hate speech has a “chilling effect” and “immediately challenges a lot of the really good work that so many in the community are doing.”
Jacksonville area leaders, including Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, Mayor Lenny Curry, JAX Chamber Chair Ray Driver, GuideWell and Florida Blue President and CEO Pat Geraghty and others, issued statements denouncing the hate speech.
According to Floridapolitics.com, Gov. Ron DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin issued a statement Oct. 31 that said the governor “rejects attempts to scapegoat the Jewish community — it has no place in Florida,” after criticism from the Florida Democratic Party and others that he did not immediately respond.
A message that read “Kanye was right about the Jews” was projected on Jacksonville’s city-owned football stadium Oct. 29 and the privately owned residential apartment high-rise at 11 E. Forsyth St. Downtown.
Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, previously posted antisemitic comments on social media.
Daily Record news partner News4Jax.com reported Oct. 29 that another antisemitic message displayed on banners that read “End Jewish Supremacy in America” and “Honk if you know it’s the Jews” hung from an overpass on the Westside, just off Chaffee Road and I-10.
Jacksonville-based Brightway Insurance is a national property/casualty insurance distribution company with more than $860 million in annualized written premium making it one of the largest personal lines agencies in the U.S., according to the company’s website.
Miller has served in board leadership positions of the Jewish Community Alliance and JAX Chamber.
He said when hate acts are broadcast and reported nationally, which happened over the weekend and continued Oct. 31, it creates a challenge for groups like JAX Chamber and the Jacksonville Civic Council that are “putting our best foot forward and telling a positive story about Jacksonville.”
‘Response can say a lot’
The acts took place while leaders of the chamber and its JAXUSA Partnership economic development division were in the United Kingdom for the Jaguars annual London game.
The chamber uses the trip to pitch Jacksonville to international companies for expansion or relocation.
“Any business that’s looking at Jacksonville and looking at all the different factors, it’s certainly on the wrong side of the balance sheet when you hear things like this,” Miller said.
“It now puts an onus on us to turn the challenge into an opportunity,” he said.
According to Miller, interfaith organizations like the University of North Florida OneJax Institute, the Jewish Federation and others are working on initiatives to build alliances and on security for the Jewish community.
OneJax plans a candlelight vigil to denounce the antisemitic speech at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 3 at James Weldon Johnson Park Downtown.
Miller says the efforts can be “jumpoff points” to motivate businesses to raise awareness and involve their employees and leadership to counteract hate speech.
“If we allow that kind of thing to go unchecked and they get thousands of retweets and they get on the national news, and there’s nothing else, they’ve won,” he said.
“We can control what happens after. We can’t control what they said and that it happened, but what we can absolutely do is control what we do about it.”
VyStar Credit Union President and CEO Brian Wolfburg said via email Oct. 31 that when these types of “discriminatory incidents” occur, people notice how civic and business leaders respond.
“This response can say a lot about a community,” said Wolfburg, who also is a member of the JAX Chamber board executive committee.
“We had several leaders of major Northeast Florida organizations — as well as our public officials — clearly denounce the weekend’s antisemitic displays.”
Jacksonville-based VyStar has more than 2,000 employees, 65 branches in Florida and Georgia and $13.03 billion in assets.
“We cannot allow the hateful rhetoric of a few to overshadow all the good our city has to offer to businesses looking to expand to Jacksonville,” he said.
The Jacksonville Civic Council, which comprises 80 for-profit and nonprofit CEOs and executives in Northeast Florida, released a statement Oct. 31 denouncing the banners and projections.
“These unacceptable acts of ignorance and hate must not be tolerated, nor will it deter the JCC from advancing our rich and long-standing tradition of interfaith and multi-cultural collaboration in business, civic and charitable activities,” the organization said in the statement released by CEO Jeanne Miller.
The Civic Council often takes public positions on culture issues in Jacksonville that it sees as impacting economic development.
In May 2020, the group reaffirmed its support of LGBT protections in the city’s Human Rights Ordinance after an appellate court ruling brought the issue back to City Council for technical fixes following its original passage in 2017.
Miller sees similarities between the antisemitic messages Oct. 29-30 and the 2017 HRO debate that brought out staunch opponents and “galvanized” the business community to push community leaders to pass the LGBT protections.
In April, the Civic Council recommended that City Council enlist the University of Virginia’s Institute for Engagement & Negotiations to facilitate a process, being paid for by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, about whether to remove statues and historic markers that honor the Confederacy on city-owned land.
‘Incident is well beyond sports’
City Council member Ron Salem has been a proponent of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville securing a College Football Playoff game in 2026.
“This incident is well beyond sports. I think it hurts the city overall in addition to our sports situation,” Salem said.
“What greatly concerns me is the message they were sending and the fact that it’s been picked up nationally. It just hurts the city.”
The city soon will negotiate with the universities of Florida and Georgia on a renewed contract to host the annual game in Jacksonville past 2023 with the current agreement expires.
The universities issued a joint statement Oct. 30 condemning the hate speech projected in Jacksonville.
City and chamber leaders promote both games as economic drivers for Jacksonville and Northeast Florida.
Salem said those talks hinge more on future stadium renovations, and he doesn’t see the hate speech at TIAA Bank Field impacting those negotiations.
Economic impact not yet known
City Council wants to know what city officials are doing to investigate the incident.
“What do we know about who did it? What are our options for those who did it? Is it a free speech issue or is there something more we can pursue like a complaint against people that might have perpetuated this?” Salem said.
According to StopAntisemitism.org, the white supremacist group Goyim Defense League, led by Jon Minadeo II, is responsible for the Jacksonville antisemitic incidents at the Georgia-Florida game.
StopAntisemitism.org posted a video that shows Minadeo II in Jacksonville yelling obscenities at fans who spoke out about a sign projected on an overpass.
The group has been active in multiple incidents.
On Oct. 22, the group hung banners similar to those in Jacksonville above Interstate 405 in Los Angeles. The group also drove a box truck with hateful messages in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
Salem said he reached out to Curry’s administration for those answers but had not received a response by noon Oct. 31.
State Attorney Melissa Nelson’s office issued a news release Oct. 31 that the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held such speech, “even despicable speech,” to be protected by the First Amendment.
The state attorney’s office said if it is presented with evidence that indicates “an intent to directly incite imminent criminal activity or specifically threaten violence against a person or group, then criminal prosecution may be implicated.”
Nelson denounced the hate proponents’ actions in Jacksonville.
“The type of hateful, antisemitic rhetoric we witnessed over the weekend is repulsive and has no place in any community,” Nelson said.
“We will continue to monitor these types of activities to ensure the safety of everyone in our city and hold accountable any who cause harm to anyone based on hate or animus,” she said.
The Curry administration has not responded to a request for comment on the incident’s potential economic impact to Jacksonville. The mayor on Oct. 30 denounced the antisemitic messages in a Twitter post.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office told Action News Jax on Oct. 31 that it is working with partner agencies regarding reports of hate speech.
“At this time, the Sheriff’s Office has not identified any crimes having been committed; the comments displayed do not include any type of threat and are protected by the First Amendment,” JSO told Action News.
CNN.com reported Oct. 31 that JSO “has not identified any crimes having been committed.”
According to CNN, the Jacksonville branch of the FBI said it is in contact with JSO in case the investigation reveals further information of a crime.
For Miller, the long-term impact depends on how Jacksonville residents and city leaders handle future action.
“We’re going to decide how the story ends up,” Miller said.
“They (hate promoters) wrote the first chapter, but the book’s not over. I would never bet against Jacksonville.”
Managing Editor Monty Zickuhr contributed to this report.
