Civil rights organizations report that antisemitic threats and language have spiked significantly since the Hamas attack on Israel. In Ardmore, police say ten people have reported finding flyers promoting antisemtism on their lawns.
“I was reading it and I was like what kind of message is this supposed to be,” Ardmore resident Roxy Gonzalez said.
Monday morning Gonzalez found a flyer on her driveway directing her to a website filled with conspiracy videos and hateful commentary.
The Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism has been tracking the activities of those responsible - the Goyim Defense League’ or ‘GDL’ for nearly five years and state they vilify Jews with their premeditated hate campaigns.
“My family alone is a diverse family and it kinda feels like an attack honestly,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said her cameras didn’t catch the person responsible, but down the street her neighbor Gregory Trent found a different flyer in his yard.
It linked to the same website.
“I saw it out there and thought it was a piece of trash. then noticed it was corn and flipped it over and saw it had this tract,” Trent said. “I thought ‘this is shocking’ and I was really offended.” Ardmore police said the reports of these tracts are from different areas around the city.
“I have always been a student of the Second World War and of the atrocities that were formed there and to me this was part and parcel of the kind of rhetoric and inflammatory things… that helped lead to the Nazi coming to power,” Trent said. “I was shocked to see it happening here.”
Ardmore Police said anyone who receives a flyer can throw it away, but if it keeps happening and you feel harassed, you should contact them.
“I don’t see how anything could be done except the citizens together saying we won’t take part in this kind of vile rhetoric,” Trent said.
The FBI confirmed with News 12 that there’s been a recent uptick in antisemitic rhetoric in Oklahoma and across the nation.
They say while it’s disturbing and offensive, expressing views like this is not a crime.
As long as it’s not threatening, it’s protected under the First Amendment.
“When things get to this point, this is way more than political, this is a threat to our very society,” Trent said.
“I’m a little bit creeped out just cause I know as well as all of us the United States is built on diversity,” Gonzalez said.