Return to the Land describes itself as a private membership association dedicated to building “European heritage communities” with “traditional views.”

By World Israel News Staff

A Missouri woman has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the operators of a remote Arkansas settlement promoted as a community for white residents, alleging she was blocked from buying land because of her Jewish ancestry and her multiracial family.

Michelle Walker, a white Christian woman with Jewish ancestry who is married to a black man and has biracial children, says Return to the Land violated federal and state civil rights and fair housing laws when it rejected her application to purchase land in its Ozarks development.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, names Return to the Land, its co-founders, its Ozarks chapter and the corporation that owns the land. It seeks damages and a court order barring the group from engaging in allegedly discriminatory housing practices.

Return to the Land describes itself as a private membership association dedicated to building “European heritage communities” with “traditional views.”

Its north Arkansas chapter owns about 160 acres near Ravenden, where the group has sought to create a settlement limited to white, Christian and heterosexual residents, according to the lawsuit and local reporting.

Civil rights groups representing Walker said the case is a direct challenge to racially exclusive housing.

“Return to the Land’s actions constitute blatant and brazen violations of long-standing federal and state fair housing laws,” said Reed Colfax, co-managing partner at Relman Colfax. “Ms. Walker has been deprived of her housing and civil rights, including the right to purchase land and build housing.”

The Legal Defense Fund, Relman Colfax PLLC and Legal Aid of Arkansas filed the suit on Walker’s behalf. The groups say Return to the Land discriminated against her because of her ancestry, religion and the race of her family members.

Walker learned in 2025 that Return to the Land was offering land in Arkansas at what the complaint describes as an unusually low price. She was interested in the property as an investment and because she had occasionally vacationed in the area.

But the application process asked about her ancestry and religion, as well as the background of her husband and children, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit says she was later told through the group’s online portal that she was “not an ideal fit.”

The complaint says Return to the Land’s application also asks prospective members for their views on topics including immigration, segregation, multiculturalism, and same-sex marriage.

Applicants are required to submit photos or video “to confirm that they appear white” and are encouraged to provide DNA test results, the complaint says, according to the Arkansas Advocate.

The lawsuit accuses the group of trying to build segregated communities for white residents and says its founders believe white people are genetically superior to other groups. The Legal Defense Fund called Return to the Land “a white nationalist organization seeking to establish a segregated, whites-only settlement in Arkansas.”

“A community grounded in the exclusion of people based on their race and religion cannot be squared with the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws that have been in place for decades,” said Jason Bailey, senior counsel at the Legal Defense Fund. “Return to the Land is attempting to revive housing policies and practices from one of America’s darkest eras, and we will fight to ensure this does not stand.”

Lee Richardson, executive director of Legal Aid of Arkansas, said: “A whites-only community is illegal, discriminatory, and unacceptable.”

Return to the Land has defended its model as an exercise in private association.

Eric Orwoll, the group’s president and one of the defendants, previously told CNN that residents must identify with European heritage and ancestry, and said the group draws its values from Christianity and Norse paganism.

“You have to be someone who identifies with your European heritage and ancestry,” Orwoll said at the time. “You have to celebrate traditional European values.”

He also said Jewish ancestry would not fit the group’s standard because “Jewish origins” have “their roots in the Near East.”

The group did not respond to requests for comment from several outlets after the lawsuit was filed.

The Arkansas Advocate reported that Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office, which previously said it had found no evidence of illegal activity after reviewing the project, is reviewing the complaint.

The case could test the limits of Return to the Land’s claim that it can use a private membership structure to restrict who may buy into its communities. Walker’s lawyers argue that federal and state laws bar property transactions from being denied on the basis of race, color, national origin or religion.

“This lawsuit sends the message to RTTL and any other white separatist organizations seeking to perpetuate segregation — the rule of law remains intact,” said John Relman, founding partner of Relman Colfax. “Our nation will not abandon the fair housing rights we have fought so hard to uphold and enforce.”

Orwoll said that his organization is prepared for a legal battle, which he hopes will clarify the legality of the RTTL and encourage other groups to replicate the RTTL model.

“The NAACP is backing a new lawsuit against RTTL by a Jewish woman, this time for discrimination,” Orwoll wrote on X.

“It’s 100% a case that could set precedent relevant for all white Americans, and we intend to fight it with everything we have.”

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American Democratic Jewish Council ad explicitly compares Trump’s popularity to the rise of Hitler in 1930s Germany.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) report  published last Thursday claimed that increasing numbers of U.S. Jews are considering emigrating, due to fears over rising anti-Semitism and white nationalism allegedly condoned by President Trump.

Heather Segal, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer, told JTA she receives six or seven inquiries each day from Americans who are considering relocating to Canada. Segal says most of them are Jewish.

“What they echo to me: ‘We’ve seen this before,’” Segal told JTA. “‘I’m not going to get stuck. I’m not going to get caught. We know how this goes… I don’t want to wait and see what happens. My grandparents left Poland in World War II.’”

Two other Canadian immigration lawyers echoed Segal’s claims, saying they’d seen a marked increase in Americans, a high proportion of them Jewish, interested in moving to Canada.

The report came days after the first presidential debate between Trump and his challenger, former vice president Joe Biden, in which Trump was slammed for not unequivocally condemning white supremacists and far-right militias.

During the debate, Trump said the groups should “stand back, and stand by. But..somebody has to do something about antifa and the Left.”

In a phone interview the next day with Fox News, Trump clarified his remarks.

“I’ve said it many times and let me be clear again: I condemn the KKK, I condemn all white supremacists, I condemn the Proud Boys,” he said.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Thursday, “The President just last week…expressed his desire to see the KKK prosecuted as domestic terrorists…he advocated for the death penalty for a white supremacist, the first federal execution in 17 years.”

“His record on this is unmistakable,” she said.

But Trump and McEnany’s statements failed to stop accusations that he is condoning white supremacism. A new TV ad from the American Democratic Jewish Council explicitly compares Trump’s popularity to the rise of Hitler in 1930s Germany.

The ad shows a split screen with Nazi supporters waving flags on one side and Trump supporters at his rallies on the other side.

While some were offended by the ad, the ADJC doubled down on its message in a statement.

“A majority of American Jews feel less safe today than they did four years ago due to the rise of white nationalism and anti-Semitism under Donald Trump,” the group said.

“This, coupled with Trump’s assault on our democratic institutions, are reminiscent of the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany. President Trump’s use of hatred for political purposes has made America less safe for Jews and we are voting accordingly.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition condemned the ad. The organization’s executive director, Matt Brooks, told Fox News, “The misappropriation of the Holocaust for political gain is unacceptable.”

“It is repugnant to everybody who lost family in the Holocaust.”

Trump campaign spokeswoman Courtney Parella responded to the ad in a statement. “As Democrats increase their false attacks against the President, Jewish Americans can see the truth for themselves through the President’s actions to fight against anti-Semitism,” she said.

“The historic Abraham Accords, doing what no other President was able to do and bring peace to the Middle East, [and] recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

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Anti-hate groups say the number of racists and blatant anti-Semites running for office across the United States this year is more than any other election in modern history.

The post WATCH: Record number of anti-Semites running for office in US appeared first on World Israel News.

Investigators are trying to understand why an American-Israeli Jew would make bomb threats targeting his own people.

The post WATCH: Identity of JCC bomb threat suspect shocks investigators appeared first on World Israel News.

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