During the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, anti-Semitic signs were posted on the streets of St. Albans, Vermont; This is reported to be the second incident in St. Albans in the last month.
For the second time in the month of December, anti-Semitic signs were stapled to powerline posts throughout the town of St. Albans, Vermont. The signs read “It’s okay to be anti-Semitic.” As word spread, employees of the town moved quickly to remove the signs.
Interestingly enough, St. Albans Police Sgt. Joseph Thomas stated, “There were some signs, leaflets that were left on utility poles in the city today. We had some in the past. It had some anti-Semitic undertones to them. If in conjunction with any other act could be considered a criminal act. Although not directly racist or anti-Semitic, it could definitely cause some upheaval in the community.” This is interesting because this is a very watered-down version of the truth. They weren’t ‘indirect’ and they didn’t have ‘undertones’. The signs were emphatically anti-Semitic.
When asked for a response to the person responsible for the signs, local Rabbi Eliyahu Junik responded, “It’s a little bit hard to answer that question because I don’t know who that person is and their history. I guess everyone needs a different answer. But I would say get help, go meet Jewish people, go speak to them.”
This incident follows suit with several other rural communities throughout the United States that are seeing a rise in anti-Semitic events. Police are now investigating what has taken place in Vermont.
