For the sixth time since November, anti-Semitic fliers appeared around the University of Montana campus in Missoula, including four times in February.
Discovered on Monday, the latest fliers included an image of a disfigured military member with a quotation from the late former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Ovadia Yosef that said, “Goyim were born only to serve us.”
“There is a line that can be crossed, but as for putting out literature that is hateful or untrue, people get to do that because of the free speech amendment,” David Cox, the president of the board of directors at Missoula’s Har Shalom synagogue, told NBC Montana.
On Feb. 8, anti-Semitic fliers were seen on car windshields around campus, accusing Jews of weakening both the First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Bill of Rights.
On Feb. 12, fliers promoting Jew-hated were discovered around town, depicting a man on a cross, calling him enslaved because of a Jewish tradition.
“This doesn’t just affect the Jewish community; it affects the entire community,” Rabbi Chezy Vogel of the Chabad Jewish Center of Missoula told NBC Montana. “This is one person trying to poison the atmosphere and environment here. I would say don’t let them win. Don’t hide your religion, hide your beliefs now in the wake of this.”
“On the contrary, respond with pride in your religion,” he continued. “Stand up for what you believe in.”
The same day, a Missoulian reporter tweeted a picture of a swastika and the words “white power” being spray-painted on a building in the area.
Same day anti-Semitic literature shows up on Missoula properties, after I’ve already talked to people today for a Nazi story, this shows up on Broadway building. Paint still fresh. #mtnews pic.twitter.com/bqmMsGQ3Vj — Seaborn Larson (@SeabornLarson) February 12, 2019
On Friday, anti-Semitic fliers were found also on the doorsteps of Missoula residents, featuring a disfigured picture of U.S. President Donald Trump with spiked hair with the Israeli flag next to his head, apparently implying a demonization of those support the Jewish state.
“I didn’t know if it was going after specific people in the community,” Crystal Koosman, who is Jewish and a member of Har Shalom, told NBC Montana. “I went outside, and some of my neighbors were outside chatting, and found out that they were all up and down the block.”
No suspects have been found in any of the cases. It is currently unknown if any of the incidents are connected.
Finally, in November, recruitment fliers from the white-nationalist group Identity Evropa were found around campus.
