'It's garbage': Offensive flyers delivered to homes spark outrage

Antisemitic fliers left at hundreds of Miami Beach homes

BY MYCHAEL SCHNELL - 01/24/22 01:47 PM EST

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/591063-antisemitic-fliers-left-at-hundreds-of-miami-beach-homes

 

Antisemitic fliers were left at hundreds of homes in Miami Beach overnight on Sunday, the latest incident against the Jewish community reported in recent days.

 

The Miami Beach Police Department announced on Twitter on Sunday that detectives are looking into the origin of the antisemitic flyers that were distributed in residential neighborhoods overnight. Increased patrols were dispatched in neighborhoods and at religious institutions, according to authorities.

 

“There is no place for hate in our community and it will not be tolerated,” the department said in a separate tweet.

 

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber (D) announced in a tweet on Sunday that hundreds of residents in the community had found antisemitic flyers outside their homes. The flyers, contained in a plastic bag with small pebbles, list the names of Jewish officials who work at government health agencies and for pharmaceutical companies.

 

Gelber posted a photo of one of the flyers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, who is Jewish, is listed on the flyer, among other individuals. He asked his followers to save any video camera footage that may have captured relevant images.

 

“There is no place for this in our community & we will do all we can to make that point clear,” he said in a separate tweet.

 

Miami Beach police spokesperson Ernesto Rodriguez said authorities are releasing few details regarding the incident to “protect the investigation,” which is “open and active,” according to The Washington Post.

 

The city of Surfside dispatched an alert on Sunday informing residents of the antisemitic flyers. The city said detectives are working to determine the origin and announced that patrols would be increased in the community.

 

The city also noted that similar flyers were found in California and Texas, linking to news reports detailing the incidents.

 

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (D) called on the community to denounce the flyers. She said the incident, as well as other antisemitic incidents, “cut especially close to my heart” because she is Jewish.

 

“As the Mayor of our beautifully diverse, inclusive and caring community, and the first Jewish Mayor of Miami-Dade County, antisemitism and all acts of hatred and bigotry cut especially close to my heart,” Cava said in a tweet.

 

“I call on our entire community to firmly and forcefully condemn this disturbing flyer, and all forms of hateful rhetoric, threats, violence and bigotry that have become increasingly common in our divided society,” she added in a separate tweet.

 

The discovery of antisemitic flyers in Florida is the latest incident targeting the Jewish community in recent days.

 

Last weekend a British national held a rabbi and three congregants hostage in a Texas synagogue for several hours, and a woman was arrested and charged with hate crimes earlier this month after allegedly spitting on Jewish children in Brooklyn.