Jewish Journal
Aaron Bandler
June 15, 2022
Several antisemitic brochures were found littered throughout the Westwood neighborhood on the morning of June 15.
Photos obtained by the Journal showed brochures with statements including:
Also depicted was a faux New York Times page stating that there were Holocaust stories in “the Jew owned New York Times” before the end of World War II. The flyers were adorned with advertisements for GoyimTV, which is operated by the Goyim Defense League (GDL); the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has described the GDL as “a small network of virulently antisemitic provocateurs.”
Rabbi Daniel Bouskila of the Westwood Village Synagogue told the Journal that the brochures were found “on every front lawn of Ashton Avenue” nearby the Wilshire Corridor. “The brochures were in plastic bags filled with small stones, and were most probably thrown from a car onto each lawn or front door,” he said. “There’s nothing else we know about them, except what they say. When I photographed them, there are those scan codes that lead to websites, which I did not open.”
Jewish groups condemned the flyers.
“We are appalled by the antisemitic flyers spread in Westwood today,” ADL Los Angeles Regional Director Jeffrey I. Abrams said in a statement to the Journal. “The subject matter differs from previous flyering incidents, but the dangerous messaging is the same, as is our response. This group seeks coverage to further spread their propogandist messages – and we refuse to give them the attention they crave. These hateful and antisemitic messages can and do inspire violence against Jews and other minority groups and it cannot be tolerated.”
He added that the “spate of flyers comes on the heels of a string similar incidents around Los Angeles County over the last eight months. Our county is witnessing an epidemic of antisemitic vitriol. ADL’s 2021 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents showed that vandalism, such as these hateful fliers, increased by 12% from 2020 to 2021. What’s more concerning is that we saw a 28% increase in harassment and a 367% increase in assaults in the same time period.”
American Jewish Committee Los Angeles Assistant Director Brian J. Hertz similarly said in a statement to the Journal, “Each time these sociopaths dump antisemitic, hate-filled leaflets in neighborhoods across our richly diverse city, we get a clearer picture of who they are – hateful pests with too much time on their hands. Nothing more. This most recent series of flyers illustrates just how far down the conspiracy-theory rabbit hole they’ve fallen. Their continued attempts to shock and rile up our community are a failure, as Angelenos are too smart to fall prey to such idiocy. Adherents of the ‘Goyim Defense League’ should focus on improving their own communities instead of scapegoating ours.”
Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement to the Journal, “This is but the latest disgusting chapter by [an] anti-Semitic group who use low-tech delivery system to spread anti-Semitic tropes coast to coast, usually adding names of local political leaders who happen to be Jewish. It effectively garners them PR for these Jew haters.”
StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder Roz Rothstein also said in a statement to the Journal, “Jews make up less than 2% of the U.S. population, but are the targets of nearly 60% of all religious-based hate crimes. In that context, the white supremacist conspiracy theories promoted by these flyers pose a real threat to both Jews and other communities. We have seen this anti-Jewish bigotry fuel deadly terrorist attacks against Jews in Pittsburgh, Poway, and elsewhere. Similar racism also motivated the murder of Latinos in El Paso, Muslims in New Zealand, and Black people in Buffalo just last month. We must all unite to fight back against the spread of this dangerous hatred and encourage anyone who is targeted with these antisemitic flyers to report this harassment to local law enforcement.”
Stop Antisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez said in a statement to the Journal, “Los Angeles Jews continue to be harassed by the distribution of flyers by the Goyim Defense League (GDL), this time throughout Westwood. The misinformation spread by these bigots is dangerous — how long will these antisemites be allowed to freely put the safety of Jews at risk?” Stop Antisemitism also sent the Journal a list of all of the GDL’s stunts since 2018, which showed a spike in incidents in 2021 and thus far in 2022.
Read the article here .
