Antisemitic flyers left outside homes in Boca and Parkland

Boca Raton and Parkland residents woke up on Tuesday to find antisemitic messages outside their homes, in flyers stuffed in plastic bags weighed down by corn kernels.

“The pamphlets referenced gun control and immigration and showed the faces of prominent politicians with the Star of David on their foreheads,” the Broward Sheriff ’s Office wrote in a statement about the incident.

Broward deputies found bags containing similar hate messages at other homes in the Parkland neighborhood. Their Threat Management Unit is conducting an investigation, as is the Palm Beach Sheriff ’s Office.

Reports of similar flyers came from as far south as Coral Gables and, last week, as far north as Vero Beach.

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of the Boca Raton Synagogue posted on Twitter that these bags had been left around the neighborhood of Boca Del Mar. He praised Palm Beach County deputies for picking up some of the flyers before residents could see them.

A spokesperson for the Broward Sheriff ’s Office said that deputies have not confirmed the incidents are related, but the flyers appear similar. The distribution of these flyers is similar to an incident from earlier this year. In January, antisemitic conspiracy materials related to the pandemic were widely distributed in Miami Beach and Surfside.

Rabbi David Steinhardt, senior rabbi at B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, said these acts reflect the hostility of people who are fearful they are losing control.

“In this case, my immediate response is that it’s not just an expression of antisemitism, although it certainly is that, but it’s a reflection of a culture that has gone awry, where there’s so much expression of hatred ... taking place throughout our society,” he said.

Steinhardt said as someone who is educated on the history of antisemitism, he’s aware that acts such as distributing flyers could grow into greater harm.

“I also understand the dangers that small antisemitic acts represent,” he said. “Because unless they are properly responded to, they can often lead to more serious offenses.”

He is hopeful police will find whoever is responsible for distributing the material, and he called on community leaders to condemn the hatred.

The ADL, a center fighting antisemitic hate, released a recent report citing a 34% increase in antisemitic incidents in the U.S. from 2020 to 2021. The 2,717 antisemitic incidents in 2021 is the highest number on record since the organization began collecting the data in 1979.

“Fear is what leads to hatred, and hatred leads to violence. And I think that the obligation of community leadership is to make sure that there is no violence,” Steinhardt said.

Detectives are asking for anyone with information or surveillance video pertaining to the flyers to share that information.