Chesterfield, VA – Residents in a Chesterfield neighborhood are standing in unity after finding antisemitic flyers just a few feet from their front doors on Monday.
On the quiet street of Sainsburg Drive, those living there call their neighborhood nothing but peaceful until many received a message outside their home this week.
“That was a first,” Nick Scott said. “We had just been out of town and found a little bag like that sitting in our driveway with no explanation.”
Scott’s house was just one of several homes that received one of two different flyers placed in a plastic bag and filled with rocks.
Residents NBC12 spoke with said they’re not sure when or who dropped the flyers off, but some say this isn’t the first time they’ve received a message like this while living in the county.
“I was kind of like, ‘oh okay, here we go again.’ Cause I got a KKK recruitment letter, which was a little bit more shocking because I’m originally from Detroit, Michigan, and you just don’t see stuff like that there,” Fatima Moore said.
Moore said she received that message a few years ago when she lived off of Reams Road. On Monday, the flyer she received discussed President Joe Biden’s administration, but some neighbors received a different flyer that targeted long-standing antisemitic tropes.
“Let me be really clear; that is absolutely antisemitic,” said Daniel Staffenberg, with the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond.
Staffenberg says over the last few months, the federation has worked with several law enforcement agencies as similar flyers have been distributed in Richmond, Hanover and Henrico.
“We’re aware of the group that’s doing it. I’m not going to give them the honor of naming them, but it’s a white supremacist group, and it’s happening all throughout the country,” Staffenberg said.
He said these types of messages are meant to try and scare the community to not share its Jewish identity and feels this is a terrorist act that needs to end.
“It is time for us to figure out a way to put a stop to it,” Staffenberg said. “Anybody that’s doing this should know that I’ve seen great strength in all of our religious and interfaith partners and throughout the community and that this is not what Greater Richmond is.”
Staffenberg recommends anyone who finds a similar flyer go ahead and report it to the police. You can report it here.
