A Port Washington political activist says she has been harassed and falsely accused of trying to stop a local public event at which a QAnon guest speaker is accused of spewing hate and antisemitism.
Community organizations and elected officials have rallied behind Melanie D’Arrigo, a Progressive Democrat who has run for Congress twice and is the co-founder of Port Washington-based LGBTQ+ organization Be The Rainbow.
D’Arrigo said on Aug. 4, the Friday before the event in Port Washington, she started receiving “hateful” messages that accused her of being a pedophile and child sex trafficker on her Facebook and Instagram accounts.
She also said she was shocked and confused after receiving comments with “homophobic slurs” on photos from Gay Pride events.
D’Arrigo said she found out the harassment surfaced after she was accused by the Q&A’s organizer and guest speaker, Scott McKay, of trying to shut the event down at the Rays of Wellness center in Port Washington. She has denied these accusations.
On Aug. 6, the Rays of Wellness hosted an event with McKay, a social media figure who has been criticized for spreading QAnon conspiracies and what the Anti-Defamation League describes as antisemitic rhetoric, focused on an alleged underground child trafficking plot around the world.
The event was organized by Jason Shurka, founder of the nonprofit organization UNIFYD World, whose family owns the Port Washington wellness center.
He said the goal of his nonprofit is to bring clarity to issues. He said this can upset some people because “the truth doesn’t always sit the right way with certain individuals that have certain conflicts of interest.”
UNIFYD World conducts projects, which include UNIFYD Healing – an advocacy for wellness centers that provide “Energy Enhancement System” technology. He said they have opened 318 wellness centers with this technology globally, including Rays of Light in Port Washington.
Energy Enhancement System allegedly uses custom computers that generate morphogenic energy fields for physical and mental healing.
Shurka said every wellness center is focused on helping humanity heal itself. He said they do not claim the technology heals people, but say they give individuals the proper resources to heal themselves.
Shurka said the event hosted at the wellness center was to bring awareness to the pervasive issue of child sex trafficking. Shurka said McKay is an advocate for this issue and has insider knowledge of child sex trafficking.
McKay is a self-proclaimed “Patriot Streetfighter” who hosts a show on the social media platform Rumble with 228,000 followers and was part of the Reawaken America Tour to recruit Christian nationalists.
A 36-year-old from Dallas, Texas, McKay made comments previously that the ADL describes as antisemitic about the Khazarian Mafia, a group of Jews traced back to the 8th century.
McKay had said on Rumble that Adolf Hitler was “built,” “created by” the Khazarian Mafia and “was actually fighting the same people that we’re trying to take down today.”
McKay’s earlier comments triggered strong opposition to his Aug. 6 appearance in Port Washington.
The North Hempstead Town Board condemned McKay’s rhetoric.
North Hempstead Council Member Mariann Dalimonte, who represents Port Washington, and state Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti (D-Port Washington) issued a joint statement.
“As not only residents of Port Washington but its elected representatives, it was so troubling to hear that someone peddling in vile, antisemitic tropes would be invited to speak here,” the joint statement said.
The Port Washington Democratic Club released a statement prior to the event castigating McKay’s antisemitic comments and urging individuals not to attend the event. The statement said they were not calling for a protest.
Kim Keiserman, president of the Port Washington Democratic Club, said they released the statement because it is their mission to promote democratic values and speak out against hate. She said the club thought the community had the right to know this event was being hosted.
“It just shows that people everywhere need to be aware of what’s happening in their community, we need to be willing to speak out against hate even when it’s uncomfortable and we have to tell the truth,” Keiserman said. “Sometimes that can be difficult…We have to be willing to tell the truth, we have to be willing to listen to one another and we need to work to come together and we all have to stand up to hate.”
She said the club’s statement purposefully focused on McKay, not mentioning the business or Shurka, as their concern was with the speaker’s reputation.
Shurka, who is Jewish, said the claims that McKay has made antisemitic comments and the event was antisemitic were offensive to him.
Shurka said the comments made by McKay that critics claim are antisemitic are never verbal statements and are written comments that are twisted by other people. He said McKay has never said anything against Jewish people.
“Otherwise he wouldn’t be sitting at my Shabbat dinner table,” Shurka said. “He sat at my Shabbat dinner table, he did the blessings with us, and he’s very close with my family. You think an Israeli Jewish family is going to be friends with an antisemite that praises Hitler? Absolutely not.”
In the wake of this statement from the Port Washington Democratic Club, Shurka said he called out D’Arrigo and the club for attempting to shut down the event.
D’Arrigo said she was not involved in the statement from the club and was not aware of the Rays of Light Wellness Center business prior to the event. Keiserman confirmed that D’Arrigo was not involved in the club’s statement and had no prior knowledge.
D’Arrigo said both Shurka and McKay targeted her on social media, claiming that she had called various local municipalities, like law enforcement and the North Hempstead Building Department, to halt the event.
She said none of these claims were true and that she made no efforts to shut the event down.
D’Arrigo described the posts as a call to action for harassment against her.
Shurka said he did not do anything wrong or illegal. He said he was sharing on social media that these attempts were being made and that the individuals needed to be stopped.
D’Arrigo’s husband spoke at a town meeting on Aug. 8 claiming that his wife’s personal information was spread, also known as doxxed, to over 500,000 social media followers. At the meeting, multiple council members expressed support for the D’Arrigos and denounced the event.
Shurka denied that he doxxed D’Arrigo or released any personal information about her. He said her social media accounts are public and able to be shared.
He also said he never made any claims that D’Arrigo is a pedophile and involved in child sex trafficking.
D’Arrigo said she went to the police to file a report about the online harassment as she was nervous about the potential for inciting violence against her and her family.
“It’s one thing when you’re commenting on a national story, it’s quite another when someone is bringing this to your town and is a neighbor,” D’Arrigo said.
Keiserman said the Port Washington Democratic Club has supported D’Arrigo in the wake of the events and applaud her and her husband for speaking out against the alleged harassment.
Upon filing the police report, D’Arrigo said the police department asked Shurka to remove her name from his social media post. Shurka confirmed the police did ask him to do so, but that it was a request and not a demand.
Shurka said he is not upset with the community members in Port Washington who were in opposition to the event.
“As a matter of fact I totally understand where they are coming from because they don’t know better,” Shurka said. “Because they read something on CNN, they read something on the media that showed them something, and they believed it because that’s what they were taught to do.”
Shurka said in response to the event and the controversy, Rays of Light has doubled in size, their Instagram following quadrupled and more new customers have come to the center.
“Because inadvertently by trying to shut us down, they made us bigger than we’ve ever been,” Shurka said. “And that’s a lesson in and of itself. They call it what you resist persists. We never resisted them, they resisted us and in turn, they helped us.”
Shurka said the event, viewed by 15,000 people via live stream, was filled with unity and love.
He said many community members silently praised him and his event, but are not speaking out loud. He said this included politicians, authorities and residents, but would not provide names.
D’Arrigo said she is an outspoken advocate against hate and injustice so she wasn’t pleased to hear that McKay would be speaking at a local event.
She said she found this event upsetting along with fellow community members. She said people were taking down their pride flags and signs out of fear of also being targeted.
D’Arrigo said that while every town has the need to expand upon its inclusivity, she said Port Washington is a community that has an emphasis on fostering inclusivity and safety for all individuals.
“So it was pretty shocking to see someone with so much well-documented hate be invited,” D’Arrigo said.
D’Arrigo said that she hopes there is more thought into the types of events brought to this town and reflect the interests of the community.
“Hate has no home here, so if it has no home here then let’s make sure that is true in all facets,” D’Arrigo said.
