Confronting hate Anti-Semitic posters found throughout the region

Part 2

The Millerton News is examining reports of anti-Semitic posters being spotted throughout the Harlem Valley, what the police are doing about it and how the community is reacting, in a two-part series. This week we address the deeper problem and how such acts are related to the post-election atmosphere.

Harlem Valley — The police investigation into reports of anti-Semitic posters being hung in recent months throughout Millerton, Amenia, Dover and Lakeville, Conn., came to a swift end. With no suspects — and no crime technically committed — distribution of the hate speech was deemed not to be prosecutable by the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office. As a result, the New York State Police closed the case.

But that doesn’t address the problem at hand: that people are expressing their fears by instilling it in others. After all, ask some experts, what is a hate crime other than an outward expression of one’s own sense of inadequacy? 

That aside, the anti-Semitic flyers that were posted on a telephone pole in Millerton, across from the Harney Tea Shop; in Amenia, at the HRH Care doctors’ office bathroom; and in Dover, on a set of telephone poles on Lime Kiln Road, scared a lot of people. There were also flyers found outside of Mizza’s Pizza, the Black Rabbit and On the Run in neighboring Lakeville.

Alex Harney, manager of the Harney Tea Shop, reported the flyers to the Millerton Police Department. Arthur Moshlak, of Millerton, reported the posters to the Connecticut State Police. He said as some were found in Lakeville, there should be an interstate investigation. Instead, the Connecticut troopers simply informed the New York troopers of the incident, and the case was ultimately closed.

“I’m a little curious that each state is kind of throwing up a kind of, ‘Don’t tell me about Millerton,’ attitude,” said Moshlak. “If the same posters are in two states, that’s an interstate happening. We’re not separate states, but one united country.”

That’s why Moshlak contacted the U.S. Attorney General’s office, though he said it’s been a matter of phone tag since making the call.

“We had back-and-forth messages, but I never talked to anyone,” he said. “The feds called me back and said they were responding to me, but they never spoke to me, and they didn’t give me their name.”

But more to the point, Moshlak said the posters are indicative of a racist sentiment that he’s all too well aware of, as a Jew living in a rural community. It’s something he’s encountered previously, though in different incarnations.

“There were two people in our neighborhood before the election, flying the Confederate flags,” he said. “Those people I wrote letters to as a fellow citizen, and they elected to take the flags down. I wrote them thank you letters. This is America, and you can run the Nazi flag if you want to.”

Traces of bigotry and prejudice can be found anywhere, said North East town Supervisor George Kaye. It’s up to the community at large to dispel such sentiments — wherever they exist.

“Those types of comments, no matter who makes them, are completely out of step with society and are deplorable,” said Kaye. “This is something you tend to see more and more in different areas. Society cannot condone it, and we as individuals cannot condone it. It’s out of place no matter where it is.”

“We know that in the wake of the elections, there has been an increase in hate speech in our communities and in the schools,” said Brooke Lehman, co-founder of The Watershed Center, a retreat center aimed at bringing justice and equality to local communities. “While not all people who support Trump are racist or intolerant, those people who are racist and intolerant may have felt emboldened by the outcome of the elections. The Trump campaign used language to stir up intolerance and racial hatred.”

That’s a concern to people like Moshlak, who said he’s watching Washington, D.C., closely.

“Right now I’m envisioning that there’s no outward KKK flags at the inaugural address,” he said the day before the event. There weren’t. “We’re only 100 miles from the most liberal city on the planet. There’s plenty of hate in New York, but middle Americans, white necks, red necks, they blend in in New York City. Then there’s all the gays, queers, African Americans — they all blend in. But 100 miles away [it’s different] … so I don’t think we should deflate ourselves with no action.”

Not sure what such action should look like, Moshlak said he’s “disgusted” with the way this nation’s future is unfolding. 

“I think it’s shameful that a country could buy into Donald,” he said. “He’s xenophobic, myopic ... it’s insanity.”

“Driving around during the elections there were no Hillary signs, just lots of Trump signs,” said Dr. Robert Dweck, who discovered one of the anti-Semitic posters in the bathroom of his Amenia doctors’ office. “This would just be conjecture, but my personal belief is that [Trump] has emboldened people who might not otherwise feel so at liberty to do things like this.”

“All I know is that with some of the hateful political styles and the anger of the elections, I felt more hypervigilant, and this added to that,” said Dover resident Liz Willis, who found some of the posters while walking in her neighborhood. Willis is of Jewish descent. “I felt this campaign has invited stuff like this. It kind of adds in some sense of giving permission for people to express themselves in this right.”

Rabbi Jon Haddon of Temple Beth David in Amenia agreed politics could be a factor.

“I’m not taking a stance on political candidates, but the tone of the elections and the polarization of people is bringing these feelings of hatred about,” he said. “And the people who are perpetrating this pain are themselves in pain, because when you’re feeling good about yourself, you don’t have to hurt or attack anyone else.”

But others say it’s impossible to blame one person, like President Donald Trump, for all of the country’s racial woes.

“I don’t blame it on any political backer. If it wasn’t there to begin with it wouldn’t be there now,” said Kaye. “So I think it would be easy to use that as a scapegoat, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.”

“It’s a symptom of a wider intolerance that’s growing in the nation,” said Bill Leicht, president of Urban Visions, which promotes non-violence and peace education. He spoke specifically about the hate posters found in Millerton. “People were really shocked and upset by this occurring … and it’s an event that took place in my home neighborhood, and is affecting the people I love.”

“Our hope is that it’s a tiny minority of people who hold these sentiments, but they’re hurtful,” said Lehman, adding there are initiatives in the Hudson Valley right now to make the region a “hate-free zone.”

“We have to reach across the ideological and political lines and talk to people about their, as well as our, own pain, and begin a dialogue,” Leicht said.

Rabbi Haddon likewise acknowledged that having a conversation about race relations is a good place to start. But he also said he thought the anti-Semitic postings were primarily an act of vandalism versus outward hatred.

“I just think it’s symptomatic of the times where we live, where hatred has been unleashed,” he said. “It’s really deplorable, but in a way, although we are the victims, the Jewish community, it’s really a problem for the Christian community, because somebody of their faith is perpetrating these acts.”

Haddon said his temple has been a “beacon of warmth” on all levels, and that he’s sure the posters “have nothing to do with Jewish behavior” or his synagogue.

“It’s aggravating, it’s frightening, it’s deplorable, it’s mostly stupid vandalism,” he said. “If a brick were thrown through the synagogue window, I’d be more frightened. But these swastikas and nasty notes are par for the course. I’m not going to change anything about me or our temple. Life goes on and we hope and pray that these stupid acts will stop.”

Kaye likewise said being afraid is not the answer.

“I don’t think it does us any good to feel threatened by it,” he said. “That’s exactly what the people who are doing this would desire us to feel. That should not be the case. I think we need to be vigilant and realize these sentiments are there. We need to do as much as we can as individuals and  as a society to do away with that kind of thinking, but we shouldn’t be afraid of it.”

To report incidents of bias and discrimination in New York state, call the toll-free hot line at 1-888-392-3644. Hate crimes can also be reported to the Southern Poverty Law Center at www.splcenter.org or by calling the Anti-Defamation League at 212-885-7700.