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Antisemitic flyers distributed in Beverly Hills

Police immediately open an investigation into the hate incident accusing Jews of being responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Antisemitic flyers accusing the Jews of being behind the Covid-19 pandemic were left on several front lawns in Beverly Hills, California, early Sunday morning.

Local law enforcement immediately announced that it was beginning an investigation, calling it a “hate incident” and linking it to the Chanukah holiday that would begin several hours later.

In “a message to the community,” the Beverly Hills Police Department tweeted that a resident had contacted them shortly after 6AM because he had found a “flyer containing hate speech on their front yard.” A short tour of the area revealed more flyers, “enclosed in plastic bags containing rice (for weight), were distributed to homes in several blocks in the northeast part of the city.”

The police asked for anyone having information or relevant security camera footage to contact them, and stated that “On this first day of Hanukkah, the Police Department will be providing additional patrols throughout the city to ensure a safe holiday season.”

The flyers’ headline screamed in bold black letters, “EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF THE COVID AGENDA IS JEWISH,” and listed over a dozen names of Jewish officials who are heading the fight against the deadly pandemic. Among others, they included the Biden administration’s point man on the Covid crisis, Jeff Zients, the director, deputy director and chief medical officer of the Center for Disease Control, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, whose company was the first to come out with a vaccine against the coronavirus.

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California’s branch of the Chabad organization answered the hate with a public lighting of the Chanukah menorah Sunday evening.

The message would be clear, Rabbi Shlomo Cunin told NBC News.

“Just like you couldn’t do us in years ago, you can’t do us in today,” he said.

Chabad traditionally sets up huge menorahs in hundreds of cities around the world to spread the message of Jewish faith during the eight nights of the holiday that celebrates the Hasmonean victory in its war for independence from the Seleucid (Greek) Empire and the subsequent rededication of the Second Temple some 2,000 years ago.

The most serious antisemitic attack in California took place in April 2019, when white supremacist John Earnest entered a Chabad synagogue in Poway and opened fire, killing one person and injuring three others. He pled guilty in September to a 113-count federal hate crime indictment that included a weeks-earlier attempt to set a mosque on fire. In December he is expected to be sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years for his actions.