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Northern California Residents Targeted with Antisemitic GDL Flyers

Residents in the east Redding neighborhoods of Alder Creek and Hacienda Heights awoke Monday morning to find that antisemitic pamphlets had been left in their front yards.

Residents of the two neighborhoods estimate that the pamphlets started to be dropped off around 11 p.m. on Sunday night. Alder Creek and Hacienda Heights sit between Simpson University and the McConnel Foundation’s Lema Ranch on opposite sides of Shasta View Drive.

Bridgette Jacobsen, a resident of Hacienda Heights contacted by A News Café, praised her neighborhood for being safe and “super peaceful.” Jacobsen is shocked the antisemitic pamphlets were distributed in Hacienda Heights and said “most neighbors are really kind.”

Jacobsen was the first resident to call the Redding Police Department to report the antisemitic literature, doing so late Monday afternoon. The Redding Police issued a news release at 4:30 p.m. saying the police were investigating the incident as a hate crime.

Alder Creek resident and head of the neighborhood watch in the community Gail Paulsen was also contacted by A News Café. She was the first person to share a picture of the antisemitic pamphlet left in her driveway, doing so on the Facebook group page Thought You Should Know – Shasta County. Paulsen has lived in Alder Creek for 17 years. She was shocked to find the antisemitic pamphlets because the neighborhood feels isolated and safe, but not totally surprised considering the far-right politics present in the North State.

Jacobsen and Paulsen are searching to see if anyone has camera footage of the culprits who left the antisemitic literature.

The pamphlets, titled “Every Single Aspect of the Media is Jewish,” include six headshots of media executives. Each are identified as Jewish and each have a blue Star of David superimposed on their foreheads. The pamphlet also lists other media executives identified as Jewish. The antisemitic conspiracy theory that people of Jewish descent are part of some sinister left-wing plot to take over society expressed in the pamphlets by other extremist groups such as QAnon.

Similar pamphlets were distributed earlier this month in Arcata and Scotia in Humboldt County. They have also been distributed in recent years in neighborhoods across the United States.

The watchdog group StopAntisemitism has documented dozens upon dozens of harassment campaigns by the group responsible - the ‘Goyim Defense League’ or GDL.

The dispersal of the pamphlets in Redding comes just a month after California Attorney General Rob Bonta released the 2021 Hate Crime Report that says hate crimes in California increased by 33% from 2020 to 2021. The report also says Anti-Jewish bias events increased by 32% from 2020 to 2021.