Letter signed by 23 religious and human rights organizations condemns recent spree of antisemitic incidents in Boise, Idaho.
A letter signed by 23 religious and human rights organizations has been published in response to multiple antisemitic incidents that took place in Boise, Ohio during the past year, the Moscow-Pullman Daily News reported.
“People throughout Idaho and the Northwest find all forms of hate and prejudice repulsive and are alarmed by the increasingly blatant demonstrations of antisemitism occurring in Boise,” said the Latah County Human Rights Task Force letter.
The task force called on lawmakers, law enforcement and individual citizens to “speak up and take a united stand against hate.”
In June, antisemitic slogans and swastikas were spray painted on fences, sidewalks and tunnels near Boise’s Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial.
In November, vandals defaced a historic downtown Boise building with antisemitic graffiti, including a swastika.
Less than a month later, antisemitic flyers accusing the Jewish community of being behind the pandemic were found in the north end of Boise in Ziploc bags weighed down with pellet gun ammunition.
A week later, the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial was again defaced. Swastika stickers and antisemitic flyers were found plastered throughout the monument.
“We can only imagine how it must feel for people, especially Jewish residents, to find flyers on their doorsteps with disgusting caricatures of Jewish figures, describing the COVID pandemic as a Jewish plot, enclosed with pellet gun ammunition,” the letter said.
The letter continued: “Can this really be happening in our supposedly law-abiding state in these supposedly enlightened times? Wake up Idaho! The roots of hate, when allowed to spread, hurt not just the Jews, but all minorities, and eventually all of society.”
An investigation by Boise police into the incidents is still ongoing.
An annual crime report released by the Idaho State Police found that four antisemitic hate crimes were reported in 2020 in the state, which was the most recent year studied. That number is the highest since 2005.
Source: Arutz 7
