Harsh Findings on Cars
Recently, a series of flyers were found in about fifty cars owned by mostly Jews containing antisemitic markings. This incident was categorized as a hate incident. However, many people think it should be considered a hate crime, but since it did not target anyone specifically, it is not a hate crime. However, the people that received the flyers, felt threatened by them. “I saw on my dashboard a piece of paper with an antisemitic, very antisemitic markings on it that said that Jews own the media, the Jews started COVID,” said by resident Aaron Snyder. Snyder was one of the fifty people to receive the flyers.
Altogether, the community affected decided to voice their concerns in the annual Neighborhood Association Meeting. President of the neighborhood association, Brian Comer said that he is upset about the amount of hate there is in the city and it is not welcomed.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time something similar has happened. Additionally, something similar happened a week prior to this incident in Lincoln Park. “We are convinced that this was a targeted effort to purposely select and area where Jewish residents lived to try to make them uncomfortable and frighten them,” said Alderman Brian Hopkins.
Residents Getting Tired of Letting This Happen
Additionally, Snyder expressed to the Alderman that he fears that the war between Hamas and Israel, will negatively affect the city. Essentially, people will show their true colors about how they feel towards Jewish people and will continue doing stuff like this. Rabbi Mendy Benhiyoun of Lincoln Park, showed his concern over this incident and insisted that anyone that is involved in this should be found and given strict consequences.
Evidently, Alderman Hopkins believes that this was not a random incident. This was related to the previous incident in Lincoln Park. In fact, they might be the same group of people. Additionally, the community only asks for peace to be given to them. They would like to be left alone and not be involved with the war going on in Israel. However, this feat is very difficult to achieve.
Written by Erika Cano
Sources:
ABC 7 News: Lincoln Park vehicles targeted by antisemitic flyers with outlandish claims about Jews
CBS News: Antisemitic flyers set on dozens of cars in Chicago neighborhood
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Matthew Paul Argall Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Jason Lawrence Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
