KENOSHA, Wis. — Earlier this year, NBC News reported antisemitic fliers had been found in at least three U.S. cities: Denver, San Francisco and Miami. Now, similar fliers have been found outside of Kenosha homes on at least two occasions.
Marilyn Propp moved from Chicago to Kenosha about five years ago. She was walking to a friends house in February when she saw a bag filled with rice and piece of paper on the sidewalk.
"I picked it up and I opened it and it was this horrible screed, this horrible antisemitic piece of paper blaming Jews for Covid. Listing all the Jews in government that are behind this conspiracy and I just went cold inside," Propp said.
She said she called the Rabbi and Beth Hillel Temple. She was told they had heard of many others in the community finding the notes and were collecting them to give to police.
Propp said that since moving to Kenosha, she's always felt safe in the community, but finding the antisemitic message made her fearful.
"I felt really targeted and really afraid and really angry. Wondering why, why these people are targeting regular, normal people," Propp said. "I did lose distant cousins in the Holocaust. My whole family is Jewish."
Over this past weekend, Propp said she saw even more Kenosha community members posting in the app NextDoor about finding more notes. The ones found over the last few days made claims about the media being Jewish.
Propp said it's shocking to know these messages are being spread in a smaller city like Kenosha.
"To find it is a really frightening intrusion on our life here," she said. "That you would be a target of hate, it doesn't make sense. It's shocking. This not Germany in 1940."
Earlier this year, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation released a report about antisemitism in Wisconsin. Although a slight dip in antisemitic incidents overall was reported, it did note an increase in incidents at Wisconsin schools.
Kenosha police said on Tuesday that they have had 12 different 'distributions,' mostly located on the southeast side. The fliers are all anti-Semitic and have been nearly identical in all 12 distributions, police said.
"That is part of what we are trying to figure out as well as who is responsible. We have collected all of the fliers and continue to investigate," police said in a email.
