BOCA RATON, Fla. — For the second time this year, Boca Raton police are investigating after antisemitic flyers were found in a neighborhood near downtown.
"I'm very distressed to learn about this," Betsy Wenzel told WPTV. "It's probably a few people that are really trying to get a lot of exposure."
Wenzel was shocked to hear antisemitic flyers were found scattered throughout her Boca Raton neighborhood Sunday night.
"I have very good friends [who] are Jewish, and it doesn't matter what people's faith is," Wenzel said. "It's really important that we embrace one another and love one another, and this is very distressing."
In a photo sent to WPTV by one of Wenzel's neighbors, the flyers are packaged in Ziploc bags, just as they were when similar materials were found in another Boca Raton neighborhood in January.
WPTV blurred the messages but, in both instances, the flyers appear to be weighed down by pellets.
"To me it's troubling and it's an intimidation tactic," Danielle Yablonka, a member of the Hillel community at Florida Atlantic University, said. "Unfortunately, here we are in Boca Raton, a super Jewish-concentrated area, and they're targeting the Jewish people."
Boca Raton police released the following statement to WPTV on Monday morning:
“We are aware of the recent materials. The first report was received last night just before 11 p.m. along the 600 block of High Street. Additional locations in the area have since been reported. We are currently investigating.”
"I think it's disgusting, but it's nothing new and I really, really hope it doesn't happen again," Yablonka said.
Wenzel agreed.
"It's very distressing to learn that right in my own neighborhood, there's people that have hatred in their heart for any group of people,” Wenzel said.
This incident comes after the Anti-Defamation League reported an increase in antisemitic incidents in South Florida late last year.
