Antisemitic messages distributed in State College draw rebuke from community members
Antisemitic messages distributed to State College homes, including one owned by a Jewish man running for a spot on Borough Council, drew a rebuke Monday from the political veteran and other community members.
The Centre Daily Times viewed at least four messages that espoused hatred for Jews, including one that called a sacred Jewish text “satanic.” Each were placed inside zip-close bags that contained rice.
State College Borough Council candidate and former council president Evan Myers said the manner in which the messages were delivered — it appeared as if someone threw the bags out of a window as they drove by — led him to believe it was a “well-thought-out distribution.”
“I certainly won’t be intimidated by this. It certainly is extremely troublesome; these were vile messages. I can only believe they were meant to intimidate people. In some ways, it’s not unexpected,” Myers said. “... There’s no mistake that it’s part of a larger pattern of hate, racism and homophobia and Islamophobia and misogyny and anti-immigration thoughts.”
Myers said he and some of his neighbors received the messages Sunday. They were reported to the borough’s police department. The CDT left messages with two officers that weren’t returned as of Monday afternoon. It’s unclear how many people received the bags.
“It’s dangerous. At some point, unfortunately, words sometimes translate into action and unless people do point it out, call it out, say ‘It’s wrong,’ sometimes some people think it’s OK,” Myers said. “And it’s definitely not OK.”
The antisemitic material was made public Sunday in a Facebook post by State College Area School District board member Peter Buck.
“To call them disgusting is an understatement,” Buck wrote. “The sickness of hatred mus(t) be fought every day by all of us.”
Similar messages contained in bags with rice were found in August in a small town about 70 miles west of Boston. After consultation with the Anti-Defamation League of New England, the town’s police department said it believed the messages were distributed by a neo-Nazi extremist group that operates nationally.
The group is a loose network of people connected by virulent antisemitism, the ADL wrote on its website. It has thousands of followers online. The group, the ADL wrote, engages in “antisemitic stunts and schemes to troll or otherwise harass Jews.”
Josh Wretzel, the vice president of social action at Congregation Brit Shalom, said Monday its members were left feeling “distraught and angry, but resilient” after learning about the messages. He and Myers said it’s at least the second time in less than a month that community members received such messages. Others were distributed on Sept. 11.
Wretzel encouraged anyone who may harbor animosity toward Jews to learn more about the religion, adding, “We have more similarities than differences and can find common ground on which to relate.”
“The tendency that I think we have — if I can generalize — is to stay quiet and is to let these things pass in silence. We’re reticent to speak out because we don’t have the best history of things going well for us when we call attention to ourselves,” Wretzel said. “I think there was some of that impulse when we were made aware of the first round of materials. After this happening again within a very short span, I think there’s a little bit more urgency that we feel.
“We know that we’re a part of this community and we know that we belong and we know that there’s a lot of people in the community who agree with that. We want to make sure that the voices that welcome us overpower the voices that do not.”
