Officials condemn antisemitic flyers found in Rockville Centre

Rockville Centre police are investigating antisemitic flyers left at about a dozen homes Friday morning that have drawn widespread condemnation from community leaders.

Similar flyers were found earlier this week in Oceanside, officials said. They include antisemitic statements and claim that President Joe Biden’s administration is controlled by a Jewish cabal.

Rockville Centre and Hempstead Town officials denounced the flyers Friday with local rabbis and vowed to fight back against hateful messaging on Long Island.

“Today I stand here to say that hate has no home in Rockville Centre,” Rockville Centre Mayor Francis X. Murray said. “This divisive rhetoric and behavior needs to be stopped now.”

Police said they would increase patrols through neighborhoods and around synagogues and other houses of worship.

Village Police Commissioner James Vafeades said police were looking to find who may have left the flyers overnight Thursday into Friday morning. Police were examining Ring doorbell cameras and pursuing potential hate crime charges and aggravated harassment, he said.

As news of the flyers spread, elected officials from across the state condemned them, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Assemb. Judy Griffin (D-Rockville Centre), State Sen. Anna Kaplan (D-Great Neck) and former Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen.

“I am disgusted by the antisemitic flyers that were found in Rockville Centre. These offensive tropes and despicable conspiracy theories have no place in our state,” Hochul said in a tweet. “We stand with our Jewish neighbors & continue our fight to root out antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head.”

“This trash should not be left on anyone’s door, let alone under the cover of darkness,” Griffin said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer tweeted: "I stand with residents and community leaders throughout Nassau County in condemning the recent distribution of these antisemitic flyers. Hate and bigotry have no place in Rockville Centre, in New York, or across America." 

The flyers are the latest sign of hate and discrimination to reach Rockville Centre, following two previous marches through the village in the past eight months by the far-right extremist group The Proud Boys.

Village officials and the governor also condemned statements from a village board meeting by a resident complaining about the number of Jewish temples in the village.

Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin said the Town of Hempstead has the second-largest Jewish population in the country and called on residents to stand up against hate, “united in disgust” after antisemitism has spread across the country in recent years.

Councilman Anthony D’Esposito, who represents Rockville Centre and Oceanside, said the community needs to stand up against all forms of hate, including religious and racist discrimination.

“It’s a shame that once again we have to gather on a beautiful street in the Town of Hempstead to denounce hate,” D’Esposito said. “It’s another day where cowards in the dark of night ascend on people’s homes to share messages and acts of hate.”

Eric Post, the Long Island director of the American Jewish Committee, said antisemitism remains underreported. He said the Jewish community has been in Hempstead since the mid-19th century and Congregation B’nai Sholom-Beth David, in Rockville Centre, was formed in 1907.

“We’ve been here a long time and have no interest in leaving Rockville Centre or anywhere else in America,” Post said.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.