By Yaffi Spodek
More than a week has passed since slips of paper proclaiming “Kill Jews” were scattered along Sixth Avenue in Park Slope, and whoever was behind it has escaped detection so far.
The local 78th Precinct has submitted the defamatory notes to the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, and an investigation is under way.
“Since it happened on the street, and not on anybody’s personal property, it could be labeled a hate crime,“ said Detective Cheryl Crispin, a deputy commissioner for public information for the police department. However, she explained that it would be unlikely for a suspect to be prosecuted under the state’s hate crimes law, since the notes were not directed at a particular person.
But hate crime or not, residents and community leaders are angry.
“I was furious,” said Karen Guilbert, who first discovered the papers and handed them over to the police.
“It’s outrageous,” she said. “I walk along this block every day, and this is not the sort of thing that I want my kids seeing or that should be seen in any neighborhood. I chose to live here for a reason. The Park Slope community is very diverse, and along with that diversity comes a level of tolerance.”
By piecing the papers together, Guilbert discovered that the strips had been cut out from a document containing driving school instructions from a taxi company. But there were no addresses or phone numbers that offered further clues.
Guilbert, who picked up the slips between Fourth and Ninth Streets, says this was not an isolated incident. She also found similar “Kill Jews” fliers along the same street in November. Other sections of Brooklyn have been targeted as well; papers bearing the same message were discovered in Bay Ridge, Boerum Hill and Clinton Hill in the fall. Nobody was caught, and the police are investigating this most recent crime in connection with the earlier ones.
Local rabbis have expressed a mixture of shock and outrage over what happened. “It was very surprising,” said Rabbi Shimon Hecht of Congregation B’nai Jacob, an orthodox synagogue located a block away from where the papers were found. “The neighborhood is usually very safe, and this is not a particularly Jewish area, so that’s why it makes no sense. But what this shows us is that anti-Semitism is still alive, at least in Park Slope.”
Hecht says he maintains frequent contact with the 78th Precinct, especially in these circumstances. “I’m satisfied with their response and I believe they’re trying to do what they feel needs to be done,” he said.
Rabbi Andy Bachman of Beth Elohim, a local Reform synagogue, said that his congregants were concerned, but not afraid. “This is an extremely unusual incident,” he stressed. “People usually feel very safe in Brooklyn and Park Slope, and I am eager to hear the results of the investigation.”
Local legislators were quick to denounce the fliers as well. On Monday afternoon, Councilman Brad Lander (D-39th District) convened a press conference at Beth Elohim, which was attended by politicians and religious leaders.
“There is no room for hate speech and intimidation against any group in our community,” Lander said at the conference.
Brooklyn’s borough president, Marty Markowitz, shared a similar message, noting that the display of intolerance was particularly disturbing because Brooklyn is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. “We must remain vigilant in condemning hatred and discrimination, not only in Park Slope and Brooklyn, but around the world.”
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