Miami police investigate antisemitic fliers left at hundreds of South Florida homes

Local officials of the Miami Beach area said on Sunday that Florida police are looking into the origins of antisemitic fliers that were left overnight at hundreds of homes in the region.

The officials denounced the latest incident intended to shake the Jewish communities of the United States. 

“I call on our entire community to firmly and forcefully condemn this disturbing flyer, and all forms of hateful rhetoric, threats, violence and bigotry that have become increasingly common in our divided society,” tweeted the mayor of Miami-Dade County Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat.

She added that the acts “cut especially close to my heart” as the county’s first Jewish mayor. In response, police in both Miami Beach and nearby Surfside said they have increased patrols in religious institutions and neighborhoods.

The fliers placed at the homes come amid other high profile attacks against Jewish people, including one woman’s arrest in New York after she apparently spit on an 8-year-old and made hateful statements and a gunman’s hostage-taking at a Texas synagogue last weekend.

According to authorities, the papers mixed vitriol against Judaism with other comments regarding coronavirus measures, and they also listed several government and pharmaceutical company leaders whom it identified as being Jewish. Similar papers have also been found in California and Texas.

Sgt. Jay Matelis, a spokesperson for Surfside’s police department said that fliers were also found on multiple streets in the city. A community alert went out to Surfside residents on Sunday, saying that “antisemitic flyers related to the Covid pandemic” had been distributed in that area and police are “taking this matter very seriously.”

Although police have not yet released information about people or crimes related to the fliers, Miami Beach police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said on Sunday that authorities are keeping information limited to “protect the investigation” as it remains “open and active.”

In a statement, the police department noted, “There is no place for hate in our community and it will not be tolerated.”