Kenosha Police Found Flyers Scapegoating The Jewish Community For COVID-19

WISCONSIN — Flyers blaming the Jewish community for the COVID-19 pandemic were left on residences in Kenosha, and the Milwaukee’s Jewish Community Relations Council said similar flyers have shown up across the country.

Kenosha police said antisemitic flyers passed out to residents claimed COVID-19 was facilitated by the Jewish community, Fox 6 Milwaukee reported.

"When people run into problems they can't find an explanation for, they can end up turning to scapegoats," Kai Yael Gardner Mishlove, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in Milwaukee, told Patch.

The claims can create a dangerous environment, invoking trauma and possibly inciting violence, Gardner Mishlove added.

The flyers were weighted down in bags of beans and listed the names of Jewish people in different institutions associated with the pandemic, from the media to public health.

Gardner Mishlove said the flyers implied Jewish people were profiting from vaccinations to fight COVID-19 or responsible for the creation of the virus.

Similar flyers have been discovered in 11 American cities, including Wisconsin, since November 2021, Gardner Mishlove said. This is the second time they've been found in Kenosha.

Antisemitic materials were also found in neighborhoods in Colorado, Florida and California. The flyers were an "attempt to intimidate and harass Jewish communities around the United States," the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement in January.

The conspiracy theories spread this way associate Jewish people with super-influence over the economy and public health, Gardner Mishlove said.

Anti-Jewish incidents were up 36 percent in Wisconsin from 2019 to 2020, and 99 incidents were reported in 2020, an audit by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation showed.

The circulation of conspiracy theories surrounding the Jewish community were up 90 percent, and antisemitic rhetoric shared on social media was up 100 percent, the audit showed.

Gardner Mishlove said that people should give the flyers to the police if they find them, but also report what they find to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.

"It's also important to support each other in the community and build bridges between communities," Gardner Mishlove said. "Antisemitism is a societal problem, and hate can filter against one group to another."