Apr. 2, 2022 6:15p
(WGTD)---Anti-Semitic flyers that blame Jewish people for the pandemic are still being distributed in Kenosha.
In recent weeks and as late as Friday, flyers have been found in the Allendale and Sunnyside neighborhoods. They're usually in baggies and weighted down with either gravel or rice and dropped on streets and sidewalks. They blame Jewish people for the pandemic, and say they're profiting from the vaccines.
About a month ago, Judith Fai-Podlipnik found a flyer in front of her house, triggering a range of emotions. Her father is a Holocaust survivor, and she’s a retired professor of Holocaust history.
She was one of the speakers at a Saturday rally that took place on the steps of the Beth Hillel Temple in Kenosha. "Jews have been accused for centuries for various plagues, pandemics and natural disasters. This is not new. This is not creative. It's redundant and it's boring," she said. "However, one emotion that I have not nor shall not experience because of this is fear. I will not be afraid to live in this community. I will not be afraid of being a Jew."
In Saturday's snow, the 50 or so people who gathered on the steps of the synagogue then walked to nearby Eichelman Park for a symbolic cleansing of the ground with lemon water, a brush and prayers. "This neighborhood of Allendale and our siblings over in Sunnyside--the ground has been defiled," said the Rev. Kevin Beebe from Spirit Alive Church in Kenosha. "Today, we wash the ground clean with our prayers. We claim it as the holy earth that God from the very beginning called very good," he said.
Monday night the Kenosha City Council is expected to adopt a resolution expressing support for the Jewish community and condemning the actions of whomever is distributing the flyers, something that apparently is being done under the cover of darkness.
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