Anti-Semitic flyer drop prompts community outrage, solidarity

Walter Lane late last month found a plastic baggie in his driveway. Inside was a rolled up piece of paper.

"It was this flyer making a lot of implications about Jewish people controlling the media and stuff like that. It had pictures of high ranking people with Stars of David plastered on their foreheads," he told the Banner-Herald. "It was just disgusting."

Upon picking it up, Lane, who lives just north of downtown Athens in Chicopee-Dudley, glanced up and down his block.

"And they are literally in every driveway or walkway on my street," he said.

Last week, several neighborhoods in Athens were littered with anti-Semitic flyers. The majority of flyers showed up in Chicopee-Dudley and Newtown, with some folks finding more in Normaltown. After coming face-to-face with anti-Semitic hate speech, Athenians are figuring out what to do next.

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"I'm just disgusted"

Lane first learned about the flyers after seeing them on social media.

"A friend of mine posted a photo to Instagram showing that they had found some in his driveway," he said. "They walked around their neighborhood collecting all of them to throw them away. He ended up with a pile of like 20 or 30 of them."

The flyers featured dozens of baseless anti-Semitic claims, including the conspiracy theory that Jewish people caused the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and that the Holocaust was a hoax. They popped up just a few days after what white supremacists called the National Day of Hate. On Feb. 24, white supremacist groups throughout the United States carried out, or threatened to carry out, propaganda distribution, protests and even hate crimes. That date was chosen to coincide with the Jewish Sabbath.

"I've never seen something like this in Athens before," said Lane. "I've always thought of Athens as this really inclusive community. So when my friends and neighbors see this, when they're targeted ... I'm just disgusted."

Anti-Semitism on the rise

Rabbi Eric Linder of Congregation Children of Israel has lived in Athens since 2012. He told the Banner-Herald that in that time, he also had never seen anything like this.

"I knew they were dropping these in Atlanta. I've had friends and colleagues [from out of state] see various incidents," he said. "But you know, we really haven't seen this kind of hate speech before."

In early February, Atlanta residents found dozens of flyers with similarly antisemitic messages scattered throughout Dunwoody and Sandy Springs. One of those residents was Esther Panitch, who represents Dunwoody in the Georgia House of Representatives. She is the only Jewish member of the General Assembly.

“This weekend, it was my turn to be targeted,” Panitch remarked on the Georgia House floor on Feb. 6. “Unfortunately, it’s not the first time to be afraid as a Jew in the United States.”

Over the past year, Jewish communities throughout Georgia have struggled with what the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) calls an "all-time high" of white supremacist propaganda. In a report released on March 8, the ADL said that the number of anti-Semitic propaganda incidents, such as door-to-door flyer littering and banner drops, more than doubled in the past year. Georgia now stands at 10th in the nation for white supremacist propaganda.

"There's definitely kind of a an anger, a sadness, frustration, you know, all of those feelings," said Linder. "And there's a very visceral aspect to it. [Finding a flyer] on your porch is very different than getting an email. It feels more violating."

Community support

"The realization for a lot of us, myself absolutely included, was that we think of Athens as a safe haven from things like this," Linder said. "And I still do think that ... but this shows us that, you know, we're not immune from acts of hatred here.”

But the drop also brought him reminders of what makes Athens great, he said.

"An hour after my congregant called, Mayor (Kelly) Girtz called," he said. "A few faith leaders of other communities also called or emailed me."

That outpouring of support, he said, often follows hate crimes against Jewish people. After the 2018 massacre at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, folks from all over Georgia supported Athens' grieving Jewish community through vigils, protests and prayers.

And there's a particular sense of solidarity among clergy. On March 9, the Interfaith Clergy Partnership of Greater Athens issued a statement condemning anti-Semitism.

"We call on all in our community to be vigilant and to actively reject anti-Semitism wherever and in whatever form it occurs," it read. "Anti-Semitism is not only an attack on Jews, it is an attack on the values we all hold."

“That, to me, is what Athens is about," said Linder. "It's about all of us, whether we are minorities or not, having each other's back and being there for each other."

UPDATE: On March 14, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff released the following statement condemning the flyer drops in Athens: “Athens' Jewish community will not be intimidated by cowardly acts of hate. I condemn in the strongest terms recent despicable attempts to sow fear and division with hateful flyers delivered to families across Athens. Georgians are united in our rejection of bigotry.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Anti-Semitic flyer drop in Athens prompts outrage, solidarity