Flyers with anti-Semitic conspiracies tossed across Mt. Lebo neighborhood
Neighbors in Mount Lebanon are upset after anti-Semitic propaganda was dispersed across their neighborhood.
According to police, someone distributed the offensive flyers on Markham, Altadena and Inglewood drives sometime during the overnight hours late Monday into Tuesday. Those three streets run parallel to one another, just south of Markham Elementary and Bird Park.
“I was really disappointed,” said resident Edward Kubit. “I don’t see a place for this.”
Channel 11 obtained one of the flyers, which was enclosed inside a plastic bag, with about a cup of rice, presumably meant to keep the propaganda from blowing away. Several neighbors discovered them on their driveways or on sidewalks. One neighbor told Channel 11 that police were observed collecting them Tuesday morning.
The flyer is conspiratorial in nature, claiming the “COVID agenda” and the “Ukraine-Russia War” is “Jewish.” The flyer includes a QR code and a website, which Channel 11 is not publishing. The bottom of the document states “these flyers were distributed randomly without malicious intent.”
The anti-Semitic action is very similar to another one we reported on earlier this month in Squirrel Hill.
“We have had an uptick of anti-Semitic activity over the past several weeks and it’s something that definitely is a concern to us,” said Shawn A. Brokose, Director of Community Security of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “We’re tracking it very closely, we’re working collaboratively with law enforcement.”
Brokose is aware of both the Mt. Lebanon and Squirrel Hill flyer distributions, but she declined to discuss a potential connection or other specific details as the investigations are ongoing.
Incidents of anti-Semitism are reported to the organization by both community members and police departments.
“We look at the community impact. What does the community see when they receive these flyers? We’re still very much reeling from the events three and a half years ago, the attack on Tree of Life,” she said. “We’re looking to grow and rebuild and when we see propaganda like that, it just brings us back to that trauma.”
Channel 11 reached out to the Mt. Lebanon Police Chief to see if investigators have any suspects. At the time this article was published, we had not heard a response.
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