Antisemitic stickers, flyers found in Squirrel Hill, Bloomfield
Squirrel Hill and Bloomfield residents woke up Sunday morning to multiple stickers and flyers displaying antisemitic messages.
"It literally seems like we go from one crisis to another, and anxieties are high," Shawn Brokos, the director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh said.
Photos show some of the antisemitic stickers marking up multiple utility poles in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. And it was not just stickers — there were also reports of antisemitic flyers around the Bloomfield neighborhood as well.
"Very provocative type messages, very provocative, antisemitic, also directed at the Black community and minority communities. It's done by a known white supremacy organization," Brokos said.
The messages of hate were quickly taken down by the Department of Public Works by Sunday afternoon. But the feeling of shock among city leaders still remain.
"It's really horrifying, you know, sadly, we've seen a lot of that over the past year," Barb Warwick, councilmember for District 5 said.
"You got to be sick to want to put up some stickers just to be able to intimidate and demonstrate your racist concerns. Hate has to be condemned in the city and we will continue to do that every time we see it," Mayor Ed Gainey said.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is acknowledging the continuous fear of the community.
"They do it for the shock value, so, we don't want to feed into that in any way, but on the other hand, members of the community are anxious. Not just the Jewish community it's the Pittsburgh community," Brokos said.
Brokos is thanking the community for stepping up to report these instances.
"I'm just appreciative of the people who report this to us. They'll call us, they'll text us, they'll file an incident report for us, and that enables us to get to police and community leaders," Brokos said.
"If you hear any kind of hate, or anything that sounds like hate, you know, be gentle, be kind, but say something," Warwick said.
The Jewish Federation does have a link where you can report these crimes directly to them. From there, they take the report from police.
You can find the link to that here:
