Flyers with anti-Semitic language distributed in neighborhoods across South Florida; also reported in 5 other states
Similar flyers were distributed in five other states — Colorado, Wisconsin, Texas, California, and Maryland — according to the Anti-Defamation League.
A copy of one flyer obtained by CNN shows an image of the Star of David along with a list of top government health officials, pharmaceutical company leaders, and heads of investment management companies, which the flyer incorrectly states are all Jewish, along with other Jewish hate speech on the back.
Miami Beach wasn’t the only city targeted in Florida.
In Surfside, a beachfront town of about 5,700 people north of Miami Beach, one resident expressed alarm at the flyers.
“We couldn’t believe it, here (in) 2022, here in Surfside. This is absolutely hideous,” he told WFOR. “We’re used to hearing these types of stories back 50 years ago, back 60 years ago.”
“I noticed that those little sandwich bags were in almost everybody’s driveway along, along this street,” he said.
‘We will not allow hate mongers,’ State Attorney says
Local officials expressed outrage at the anti-Semitic onslaught.
“I took my morning walk with my wife on Sunday morning, and they were everywhere,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN.
“For me, it’s jolting because, look, I’m Jewish. … The idea that there are people out there who just are willing to spout out hate simply because who I am, is jolting to anybody,” Gelber said.
It added: “Because Broward County is home to the third largest population of Holocaust Survivors in the world, we are acutely aware of what happens when hate is allowed to thrive unfettered and unchallenged. As a nation, we can do better and we will do better.”
Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the state attorney for the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County, said her office was working with police to find out who distributed the flyers.
“If there is evidence that meets the requirements of Florida law for a criminal prosecution of these, vile hate-fill (sic) pamphlets, we will take this matter to our criminal courts,” Rundle said in a statement. “We will not allow hate mongers, who are leaving garbage throughout our community, to divide and harm our community.”
Investigations in San Francisco and Denver
Authorities in San Francisco and Denver also reported anti-Semitic flyers were distributed over the weekend.
The San Francisco Police Department said multiple flyers were reported in the Pacific Heights neighborhood and that its special investigations division was handling the incident.
In Denver, the police department’s bias motivated crime unit is investigating flyers distributed in the Country Club neighborhood.
“We’re already living in a moment where we’ve seen a large rise in anti-Semitic incidents,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL. “Double the vandals and violence than we did just a few years ago and this weekend, we had these anti-Semitic flyers drop in six different states,” he told CNN.
The appearance of these flyers happened only days before the January 27 anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the notorious Nazi concentration camp, and just over a week after an armed man held four people as hostages for hours in a Colleyville, Texas , synagogue.
