Antisemitic flyers thrown in driveways overnight in Ormond Beach neighborhood

ORMOND BEACH — Residents in a neighborhood here along the Halifax River awoke on Monday to find antisemitic flyers had been left in their driveways overnight.

An image on one of the printed handbills, sent to The News-Journal by a neighborhood resident, was emblazoned with the headline that “Every single aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish,” above a list that identified more than a dozen national public officials as being members of the Jewish faith.

The list included Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention; as well as other CDC officials; COVID czar Jeff Zients; and Andy Slavitt, former senior pandemic adviser in President Biden’s administration.

The names also included Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and chief executive officer; and Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel.

A second flyer that also appeared in the same driveways along the 100 block of Riverside Drive featured the headline “Let’s Go Brandon,” a reference to the anti-Biden phrase that has become a mantra among right-wing voters and supporters of former President Trump.

Beneath that slogan appeared the message that “every single aspect of the Biden administration is Jewish” above a list of a dozen officials that includes Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; Attorney General Merrick Garland; Secretary of State Anthony Blinken; Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, among others.

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At the bottom of the page, the handbill advised those who received the flyers to visit the website goyimtv.tv for more information.

GoyimTV is a video website operated by the Goyim Defense League, which is described by the Anti-Defamation League as a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism. The group boasts thousands of online followers, according to the ADL.

A scan of the website on Monday found videos entitled “Jewish Fables Exposed” and “25 Questions about the SCAMdemic.”

Ormond flyers part of broader effort

The flyers found along Riverside Drive are part of a much wider effort by the Goyim Defense League, said Lonny Wilk, interim regional director of the ADL in Florida.

“There has been similar flyering over the last month, month-and-a-half throughout the state of Florida and it also has been going on around the country for a few months now,” Wilk said.

Other locations targeted in the state include Miami, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Melbourne, Fort Myers and Sarasota, the latter happening only this past weekend, Wilk said.

Nationwide, the ADL has been tracking similar flyer incidents in Colorado, California, Illinois, Texas and Maryland, all within the past 48 hours, Wilk said.

“The Goyim Defense League has leaders throughout the country, including in Florida,” Wilk said. “It’s not a huge group, but one thing we know very well with hate and antisemitism, you don’t need a huge group to cause a great deal of fear in any community.”

For Marvin Miller, president of the Jewish Federation of Volusia & Flagler Counties, news of the antisemitic materials inspired a mix of weary resignation and anger, but not fear.

“We’ve heard it all,” Miller said, “and it hasn’t changed. Today it’s the same thing, a narrow-minded group that you think would learn something by now and do better in the thinking process, but they don’t. It’s just another attack, another time.”

Only then did Miller’s anger surface.

“Deep down I’m boiling,” he said. “It’s very hateful, very hurtful.”

Flyer's antisemitic message angers resident

Along Riverside Drive, meanwhile, another resident also was angry.

Pat Rice, former longtime News-Journal editor, found the flyers in his driveway when he went out to fetch his morning paper on Monday. Later, he found others at more homes down the street.

“The flyers kind of speak for themselves,” said Rice, who isn’t Jewish. “It’s obviously bigoted racist people who are trying to create the impression that people of the Jewish faith somehow are behind the COVID pandemic, which strikes me as idiotic.”

Rice said that an Ormond Beach Police officer visited his neighborhood on Monday to investigate the incident. No report or information about the police response was available on Monday afternoon, said Officer Shane Jarrell, Ormond Beach Police public information officer.

Meanwhile, Rice said that he would be glad to have a civil debate with the flyers’ authors.

“I’m just a loudmouth who doesn’t like bigots, but I’ll have a conversation with them,” he said. “I’d be glad to sit down and have a civil conversation.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Antisemitic flyers turn up in driveways in Ormond Beach