Fact Check: In 2017, the Charlottesville, Virginia, white supremacist rally and riot was followed by white supremacist attacks on synagogues in Pittsburgh in 2018 and outside San Diego in 2019.

Fact Check: "In 2017, the Charlottesville, Virginia, white supremacist rally and riot was followed by white supremacist attacks on synagogues in Pittsburgh in 2018 and outside San Diego in 2019."

What We Know

The claim connects three significant events involving white supremacist violence in the United States.

1. Charlottesville Rally (2017): The "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, took place on August 11-12, 2017. This event was marked by violent clashes between white supremacists and counter-protesters, resulting in the death of Heather Heyer and numerous injuries (source-4). The rally was a response to the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and featured overt displays of white supremacy.

2. Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting (2018): On October 27, 2018, Robert Gregory Bowers, motivated by antisemitic beliefs, attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing eleven people and wounding six others. Bowers had expressed his hatred for Jewish people online, particularly targeting the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) (source-2). This incident is considered one of the deadliest attacks on the Jewish community in the United States.

3. Poway Synagogue Shooting (2019): On April 27, 2019, a gunman opened fire at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California, killing one person and injuring three others. The shooter, John T. Earnest, was motivated by antisemitic beliefs and had previously expressed admiration for the Pittsburgh shooter (source-8).

Analysis

The claim that the Charlottesville rally was followed by the Pittsburgh and Poway synagogue attacks is partially true. While the events are chronologically accurate, the direct causal link between the Charlottesville rally and the subsequent attacks is more complex.

• Causation vs. Correlation: The Charlottesville rally did indeed bring white supremacy into the national spotlight, and it is widely acknowledged that the atmosphere of hate and division it fostered contributed to a rise in antisemitic incidents in the following years. Reports indicated a significant increase in antisemitic acts in the U.S. following the rally (source-6). However, attributing the Pittsburgh and Poway attacks solely to the rally oversimplifies the broader context of rising white supremacist violence in the U.S. during this period.

• Source Reliability: The sources used to substantiate the claim are credible. The information about the events comes from well-documented reports and analyses, including academic and journalistic sources. However, the interpretation of these events can vary, and some sources may carry inherent biases depending on their editorial stance (source-1, source-3).

Conclusion

The claim is Partially True. While the timeline of events is accurate, and there is a clear connection between the rise of white supremacist violence and the Charlottesville rally, the assertion that these attacks were directly caused by the rally lacks nuance. The Pittsburgh and Poway shootings are part of a larger trend of increasing antisemitism and white supremacist violence that cannot be solely attributed to one event.

Sources

1. Congressional Testimony
2. Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
3. The Charlottesville rally 5 years later: 'It's what you're still trying to forget'
4. Unite the Right rally
5. Neo-Nazi Who Killed Charlottesville Protester Is Sentenced
6. The seeds of Pittsburgh were sown in Charlottesville
7. Trump's record on white nationalism under new scrutiny
8. IntelBrief: Allowing the Threat of Violent White Supremacy to Remain Unchecked