Girlfriend of Antisemitic ‘GDL’ Founder Fired From Yoga Studio for Participating in ‘Business of Hate’
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by Algemeiner Staff
Supporters of the “Goyim Defense League”, some making Nazi salutes, hung an antisemitic banner at an overpass in Austin, Texas. Photo: Twitter
The girlfriend of the California-based founder of a neo-Nazi group waging a propaganda campaign blaming the COVID-19 pandemic on a Jewish conspiracy has been fired from her job as a yoga instructor.
Yoga instructor Kelly Johnson was fired from her posts with Yoga Hell in Petaluma and Funky Door Yoga in Berkeley because of her alleged support for the violently antisemitic views of her boyfriend, Jon Minadeo Jr.
A neo-Nazi with a penchant for dressing up in outlandish costumes decorated with swastikas, Minadeo founded the so-called “Goyim Defense League” (GDL), which has carried out a coast-to-coast campaign distributing flyers in several cities claiming “Every Single Aspect of the COVID Agenda is Jewish.”
In an email to clients, Jeff Renfro — a Jewish businessman who owns the yoga studios where Johnson worked — announced that she had been terminated. “We are a firm believer in diversity and inclusion,” the email said, adding that “Kelly seems to share in Jon’s beliefs” and “had assisted him in his business of hate.”
Renfro told the Bay Area Jewish news outlet J. Weekly that he had noticed a change in Johnson late last year. He alleged that she had made “bigoted” comments about Black Lives Matter protests and complained about having to sit next to “smelly Jews” on a plane journey. Looking more closely into Minadeo’s antics, Renfro said he was shocked by the “GDL” material he found online.
“I can’t find the words to tell you how bad it is,” Renfro said. “As a Jew, it’s as if he’s calling me a dirty k*ke, an evil k*ke. And that I should be killed.”
Renfro said that he deeply regretted having to fire Johnson, with whom he had a close relationship.
“I told her I’m Jewish, I explained to her that my mother was Jewish,” he said. “This is something that is not okay, no matter how good of friends we are. This overrides our friendship.”
Johnson, meanwhile, denied Renfro’s allegations in a statement published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I am really hurt that they have gone this far to lie about me and say these things about me that are untrue,” Johnson said. “I am a very loving person and have relationships and friendships with all kinds of people. It’s really hard to read this. It’s all lies.”
