Editor’s note: At approximately 2:15pm today, the Huntington Town Board and the Huntington Anti-Bias Task Force issued a press release detailing an incident involving a flier placed at a resident’s home which promoted a website with anti-Semitic rhetoric. The incident was reported to the police, and brought to the attention of the town’s Anti-Bias Task Force. According to a 2022 report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), New York has the highest rate of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the country, and incidents on Long Island increased by 23% in the last year.

“The task force is very heartened by the Town’s swift response and condemnation of this hate incident,“ Eve Krief, a task forcer leader and town board liaison, told the Journal. “Similar fliers surfaced in other Long Island towns last summer and have appeared across the country. What is particularly disturbing about these fliers is their political nature because history has taught us that politicized hate is dangerous and can grow and spread if not addressed. Silence is complicity and we must stand against hate swiftly and strongly and stamp it down whenever and wherever it surfaces.”

The release is published in its entirety below:

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On Tuesday, March 7, 2023, one of our Huntington residents awoke to find a flier, which made them feel targeted due to their religion. The flier identified members of our current Federal Executive Branch who were Jewish by marking them with an Israeli flag. The flier then went on to promote an electronic webpage, which has been taken off most social media sites due to its overtly anti-Semitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories, which denied the Holocaust, as well as other national and international incidents.

The individual who received this flier reported the incident to the police and contacted her Rabbi, who brought the incident to our Anti-Bias Task Force. Upon researching this case, it was discovered that these types of “literature drops” are a common tactic of this anti-Semitic group, whose members are often overt in their biased philosophy.

The Town Board supports our residents as well as the Huntington Anti-Bias Task Force, which is resolute in their contention that no member of our Huntington family should ever feel singled out or threatened due to their race, religion, gender, sexual identity, or political beliefs. Huntington has no place for hate and we will stand in solidarity with any individual or group experiencing bias.

We also remind our residents that your first call on any such incident should be to the Suffolk County Police Department at 631-852-COPS. Of course, Huntington's Anti-Bias Task Force also invites you to share incident concerns with our Director of Human Resources, Ms. Carmen Kasper (ckasper@huntingtonny.gov.)