Experts say the targeting of the National Holocaust Museum by a white supremacist highlights the need to focus on domestic terrorists.
Barack Obama's election, an exciting first in American history, has stoked the fears of a violent few.
Old prejudices, against African Americans and Jews, are being revived online.
"Something culturally is going on. They can't accept it, and they're acting out on it" said Deborah Lauter of the Anti-Defamation League.
In the last six months alone, the ADL has focused on six high-profile, violent attacks motivated by hatred of Jews.
Last month, four Muslim men were arrested and charged with planting devices they thought were bombs at two synagogues in the Bronx.
Also in May, the manhunt for a murderer on the Wesleyan campus forced the shutdown all Jewish institutions in Middletown, Connecticut when his journal revealed that he planned to target Jews.
And just last week, a Muslim man in Arkansas who shot two soldiers at a recruiting station had reportedly searched for information about Jewish institutions online.
Lauter and her colleagues are very concerned about what they are calling a 'new phenomenon' of outrageous crimes motivated by hate.
"The election of Obama, the economy and the continuing debate over immigration. Each one alone would rile up the extremist movement. Put together it is a perfect storm for hate," she said.
It's unclear if, or how, President Obama's visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp last week may have triggered the attack at the Holocaust Museum in Washington.
The A-D-L and other organizations like it are tracking online hate groups, chat rooms, and other social networking sites for clues.
James von Brunn, 88, is far too old to fit the standard profile of a hatemonger who acts on the violent rants he posts online.
Just another reason, experts say, to remain vigilant.
NEW YORK AND TRI-STATE AREA NEWS
USEFUL LINKS:
