A number of congressional members have already been published in support of conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism • The Jews living in the districts that voted for them: "Spreading a false and dangerous narrative"
About a year after the shooting attack at a Pittsburgh synagogue, another white supremacist who was planning to attack a synagogue in Colorado was caught.
The FBI arrested him in November 2019, before he had time to act.
At a court hearing in November 2020, he pleaded guilty to the charges against him.
Shortly afterwards, America went to the polls, and the president of the local synagogue in western Colorado voted for a congressional candidate he thought could protect the Jewish community from similar dangers: he elected Laurent Bobert, who won the election and now serves as a fresh Republican congressman.
Bubert, a restaurant owner and supporter of gun rights, has garnered a lot of attention since she came to Congress - and this is not positive attention - after coming out in defense of QAnon, a conspiracy theory that supports Donald Trump and has antisemitic nuances.
But the head of the synagogue, Michael Atlas-Acuna, does not regret her choice.
He does not believe that Bobert is anti-Semitic and prefers to define her as "vigorous."
He also did not hear much about her remarks regarding QAnon.
Atlas-Acuna thinks a policy that supports weapons will help protect its synagogue from future attacks.
Some members of the congregation in his synagogue, the Emanuel Synagogue in Pueblo, attend prayers with weapons.
"I believe in the right to bear arms," Atlas-Acuna said.
"I like the idea that we have friends who are responsible, who carry weapons. I feel sorry for anyone who will ever walk in this door, because a surprise awaits them."
Atlas-Acuna is one of the few Jews living in one of the two constituencies that sent to Congress in the last election candidates who view QAnon favorably.
The second constituency is in northwest Georgia, and the congresswoman representing it is Marjorie Taylor-Green, who not only repeated a variety of conspiracy theories on social media, but also shared distinctly antisemitic and Islamophobic social media.
Green's posts led to an unprecedented vote in Congress in early February, in which it was decided by a majority vote to remove her from membership in the House committees.
In both constituencies there are Jewish voters who continue to support the women of their Congress and explain that they are more troubled by anti-Semitism on the left.
But, there are also other Jews living in these two districts - geographically distant and different from each other - who have said in interviews that the two members of Congress frighten them.
According to a 2014 study, there are only a few hundred Jews in Green's constituency, and in Bubert's there are about 2,000 Jews.
The Jews from these districts said they did not feel they lived in antisemitic areas and doubted that anti-Semitism was the motive of their neighbors in voting for Green and Lobert.
"Her rhetoric is just full of hatred," said Shelley Feller of the city of Rom in Green's constituency.
"She spreads a false narrative and she's dangerous. The fact that she had antisemitic statements is particularly offensive, but I can not say that those were her harshest statements."
Fleur thinks Green won the general election because she is a Republican.
For decades, only Republican representatives have been elected in her constituency, in the northwest corner of Georgia.
Therefore, Green's series of posts questioning a school shooting incident or the fact that the 9/11 attacks did take place, or her support for calls for the assassination of senior members of the Democratic Party, did not prevent her victory in November.
She was the only candidate after her Democratic rival retired from the race.
In a recent speech to Congress, Green said she no longer supported QAnon, making it clear that "school shootings are definitely real" and that "the 9/11 attacks have definitely taken place."
"It's not that we feel we live in an antisemitic and hateful district," Fleur said.
"People vote because of specific issues, such as gun rights or abortions."
Following reports in a post Green wrote in 2018 claiming that the cause of the California fires was lasers from space controlled by the Jewish Rothschild family, the Fleur Synagogue, the reformed "Pursuit of Peace" community in the city of Rome, issued a statement condemning anti-Semitism among elected officials.
The statement did not name Green.
"It is especially horrible when elected officials mark a specific group and spread false narratives about them," the statement said.
Members of the Pursuit of Peace Synagogue, the only synagogue in Green's constituency, have no plans to expand beyond that.
Some fear that extensive coverage of Green's remarks will ultimately only strengthen her visibility and impact.
"She uses all the negative publicity she gets, she milks it," said Ann Levinson, a member of the Peace Chasing Synagogue.
"She can lean on the narrative of, oh, poor, muted, conservative, oh, look how the media, how everyone treats her. And she milks it to get more money, to get a lot more support."
The Jewish residents in Green's constituency think that it should not be focused on personally, but on the phenomenon as a whole.
Millions of Americans, it is estimated, support QAnon, and others have adopted other conspiracy theories.
"It's disturbing to me, it's anxious and it's very scary because I do not think she's alone in the campaign," said Jeff, Fleur's husband.
"I think there is good reason to believe that there are other people who feel that way. And when someone supports a conspiracy theory, he does not invent it alone."
The Fleur couple do not know whether their constituency neighbors also believe in QAnon and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
They noted that there are actually many in their environment who believe in integration and multiculturalism.
Shelly Fleur said Christian friends approached her following reports of Green and asked how she was.
But the Pursuit of Peace synagogue has been attacked in the past by anti-Semites, and in recent years a group advocating supremacy alone has hung antisemitic leaflets on the building.
Synagogue leaders did not want to share a photo of the building for this article because they did not want to reveal to hate groups the address and identifying characteristics of the place.
"When we live our lives here on a daily basis, we do not experience negative and abusive experiences," Jeff Fleur said, but added that the support received by Congresswoman Green "raises questions for us."
"But we have no proof of what people think," he said.
Also a lot of Emily Siegel from Aspen's Jewish community, in Bubert's constituency, is not sure how many of Bubert's voters are aware of or identify with her statements on QAnon.
Siegel wondered "if her opinions reflect half or more than half of those who voted, or if those opinions do not represent the voters, but the voters think she is the most suitable for the position and are willing to accept her despite those opinions."
Bubert won the November election by a large majority.
The county has been represented in Congress by Republicans for more than ten years.
Siegel said some members of her community are particularly concerned that Bubert opposes public health regulations designed to reduce the spread of the corona virus.
Western Colorado is more politically diverse than northwestern Georgia.
Most of the Aspen synagogue members grew up outside the area, and about a third or half of them live in this ski town only part of the year.
But like Green's constituency, Bobert's voters also said anti - Semitism was not necessarily the main problem.
Prominent from this is the lack of acquaintance of the residents of the area with Jews and Jewish customs.
"A lot of people in the area have never met a Jew," said Leslie, a local Jew who refused to give her last name to maintain her privacy.
"They know nothing about Judaism, so when they meet you, they do not know what to say. There is no overt anti-Semitism in the area."
Atlas-Acuna also feels comfortable as a Jew in his district, saying he is "not worried at all because of Lauren Bobert."
In contrast, like most Republican Jews, he is troubled by anti-Semitism on the other side of the political spectrum.
He mentioned two congressional members who support the boycott of Israel, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib, as well as Alexandria Oxio-Cortez, a New York congresswoman who is an ideological ally but does not support a boycott of Israel.
"I am much more concerned about the left wing of the Democratic Party, than the anti-Semitism we have on the left in Congress today," Atlas-Acuna said.
Ira Levy from northwest Georgia feels the same way.
He did not say who he voted for, but he thinks Green should be given a chance now that she's in Congress, and not disqualified based on statements from years ago.
He also thinks more attention should be paid to anti-Semitism on the left.
"She apologized for what she said, it's behind us and she wants to open a new page," Levy said, adding that he does not believe it is necessary to "mark her when there are many other people who have said things much worse than what she said."
Levinson, who said Green "supports crazy ideas" and that she was "terrible," said she was unsure if Green was aware that the conspiracy theories she disseminated were anti-Semitic.
"I think we do not really know what she thinks of Jews," she said.
Levinson assumes there are neighbors in her county who believe in conspiracy theories about George Soros and the Rothschild family, but thinks most of them are unaware that they are repeating ancient anti-Jewish rhetoric.
"I think here we really need to sit down with them and explain to them why what they say perpetuates a negative attitude and negative opinions about Jews," Levinson said.
"They do not understand that when you start talking about capital tycoons and throwing away Jewish names, it is antisemitic."
Despite the concerns, the heads of the local Jewish communities have not yet asked the two women in Congress to meet and whitewash the troubling issues.
"I do not believe anything she says," said Nancy Burnett, president of Peace Pursuit, about the congresswoman representing her.
"Even if we were to address her, what we would hear is what she would be instructed to say," Brent said.
"I do not think anyone in our synagogue wants to contact her of any kind."
Shelly Fleur, however, fears that Green's election to Congress heralds the arrival of a racist and conspiratorial movement that will only grow.
According to her, the most important thing is to defeat Green in the 2022 election. But she does not delude herself that Green is alone in the campaign.
"She's one of two who went into this round in the election," Fleur said, referring to Green and Bubert.
"But what will happen in the next round? Will we still see this movement in our country? That's what's scary."