Mike Enoch | |
|---|---|
 Enoch in 2017 | |
| Born | Michael Isaac Peinovich 1977 (age 47–48) |
| Career | |
| Show | The Daily Shoah |
| Style | Neo-Nazi,antisemitic,Holocaust denial |
| Country | United States |
Michael Enoch Isaac Peinovich[1] (born 1977),[2] more commonly known asMike Enoch, is an Americanneo-Nazi,[3][4]antisemitic conspiracy theorist,Holocaust denier,[5] blogger, andpodcast host. He founded thealt-right media networkThe Right Stuff and podcastThe Daily Shoah. Through his work, Enoch ridiculesAfrican Americans, Jews, and other minorities, advocates racial discrimination, and promotes conspiracy theories such asHolocaust denial andwhite genocide.[6][7]
In early 2017, while operating his antisemitic media network under his pseudonym, Enoch wasdoxxed by fellow neo-Nazis. Most notably, the dox revealed that the neo-Nazi Enoch was married to a Jewish woman, and that their wedding had featured traditional Jewish rites and chanting.[5] According to Salon.com, prior to the dox, Enoch's wife had appeared as a guest onThe Daily Shoah to promote antisemitic memes.[6]
In addition to his founding of a neo-Nazi media network, Enoch has drawn attention for his role in organizingbook burnings.[7]
Enoch was born as Michael Enoch Isaac Peinovich ofNorwegian andSerbian descent. His mother was the president of theNational Labour College, while his father was a professor ofOld English at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.[8][9][10] His parents divorced when he was young.[1] He grew up inMaplewood andMontclair inNew Jersey.[9] Enoch attendedColumbia High School in Maplewood.[11] While in high school, Enoch had jobs inpizza delivery andswimming pool sanitation. After graduating high school, he attended anddropped out of several universities before becoming acomputer programmer who worked at ane-publishing company.[1]
Enoch first drew media attention for his use of the "Sieg Heil" salute at a conference in 2016 organized byRichard B. Spencer to celebrateDonald Trump's election as president.[6] The salutes were performed in front of journalists, and footage of the speech and the Enoch-inspired salutes was circulated by the mainstream media. According toAndrew Marantz, the event marginalized the alt-right by defining it to the public as a neo-Nazi movement, and led to an exodus of Trump supporters.[12]
The Right Stuff is awhite nationalist,neo-fascistneo-Nazi blog founded by Enoch that hosts several podcasts, includingThe DailyShoah andFash the Nation. The blog is best known for popularizing the use oftriple parentheses to identifyJews on social media.[13][14][15]The Daily Shoah is a far-right podcast, hosted onTRS. Its name uses theHebrew word referring tothe Holocaust.[16] The podcast also uses the triple parentheses symbol.[17][18][19]
In January 2017, users of theimageboard website8chan leaked the identities of several of its key contributors, including Enoch, and revealed that his wife was Jewish[20][21] and that their wedding had featured traditional Jewish rites and chanting.[5] According to Salon.com, prior to the dox, Enoch's wife had appeared as a guest onThe Daily Shoah to promote antisemitic memes.[6]
Other information released included the names of his family members, his job as a software developer, his home address onManhattan'sUpper East Side neighborhood, and his hometown ofMaplewood, New Jersey.[22] After initially attempting to deny the reports, Enoch later admitted that the allegations were true.[23] Though Enoch initially planned to leave the network, he quickly changed his mind and vowed to continue his activities.[24] However, the fact that the released biographical information about Enoch contradicted his professed ideology[20][21] led many listeners of TDS to question the authenticity of Enoch's commitment to the views he espoused on the show.[6]
In a 2017 audio statement released on their podcast,Daily Shoah co-host Seventh Son announced that Enoch and his wife were separating.[24] The revelation was met with mixed but mostly supportive reactions from individuals includingDavid Duke[25] andRichard B. Spencer.[24]
Enoch's father asked his son to change his surname because of his neo-Nazi political activities.[1]
AfterU.S. CongressmanSteve King tweeted praise for Netherlandspolitical candidateGeert Wilders's stance againstfurther immigration to Europe, Enoch joined other alt-right voices in approval of King's position, stating "King doubles down. Great job. Take note cucks, this is how you *actually* fight the left."[26]
On 18 April 2017, Enoch joined Richard B. Spencer in giving a talk atAuburn University where he expressed that he and the movement were breaking away from the new direction that theTrump administration was taking.[27] While Auburn administration had initially cancelled the planned event, citing safety concerns, Enoch assisted Spencer in filing a lawsuit onFirst Amendment grounds.[27]United States federal judgeWilliam Keith Watkins issued a ruling requiring Auburn to allow Spencer and Enoch to speak.[28]
In April 2018, he wasretweeted byAnn Coulter following his dissemination of conspiracy theories relating to theDouma chemical attack in Syria claiming it was faked. AfterNewsweek askedTwitter for a comment, hisaccount was suspended.[29]
In addition to his founding of a neo-Nazi media network, Enoch has drawn attention for his role in organizingbook burnings.[7]
Peinovich was the chair of the National Justice Party, an antisemitic group that posted political demands on its website but had no actual party registration in the U.S. Following the 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, Peinovich wrote "Hats off to the Palestinians for taking bold and courageous action in their own cause and showing us that the Zionist regime is not invincible."[30]
In October 2017, Enoch was listed as a defendant inSines v. Kessler, the federal civil lawsuit against various organizers, promoters, and participants of the 2017Unite the Right rally. The trial began on October 25, 2021, and the jury reached a verdict on November 23.[31][32] All defendants other than Enoch, who had previously been dismissed from the case, were found liable forcivil conspiracy under Virginia state law, and ordered to pay $500,000 in punitive damages. The jury weredeadlocked on the two other claims pertaining to Enoch, which argued he and other defendants had engaged in a federal conspiracy to commit racially motivated violence.[33]
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins in Montgomery, Ala., Tuesday barred Auburn from blocking Spencer, stating there was no evidence that he advocates violence. "Discrimination on the basis of message content cannot be tolerated under the First Amendment," he wrote in the ruling.
