Antisemitic posters linked to white supremacist group, found in Bucktown: 'We have to push back'

Dozens of antisemitic flyers were found on car windshields in Bucktown this week, in the latest string of antisemitic acts in the Chicago area.

Lloyd Schoen, 63, was walking his dogs Monday morning when he saw cardboard signs with antisemitic messages on cars on Honore Street. He took down three of the signs.

“It was just so ridiculous,” Schoen said. “It’s just anti-Jewish, antisemitic stuff, there’s no point.”

The cardboard signs contained a link to GoyimTV, a channel run by the Goyim Defense League, which “espouses vitriolic antisemitism and white supremacist themes via the internet,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The antisemitic signs and flyers were discovered Monday morning on multiple vehicles in the 1600 block of North Honore Street, according to police. No arrests have been made. The flyers were also found near the 1600-1800 blocks of Honore Street, Wolcott Avenue and Winchester Avenue, according to a statement from Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd).

Waguespack said his office started getting emails and calls Monday morning from people who reported finding the flyers on their cars.

“We have zero tolerance for hate incidents or hate crimes,” he told the Sun-Times on Wednesday.

The City Council member’s office is working with officers from the Chicago Police Department’s 14th District and the Chicago Commission on Human Relations to look into Monday’s incident. Residents whose vehicles or homes were targeted can file an incident report with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.

Waguespack and state Sen. Natalie Toro, D-Chicago,were going door to door in the area Wednesday to share information from the human relations commission about hate incidents.

“I think that strong communities will stand up to this hate, whether it’s one incident or many,” Waguespack said. “At this time when there’s a lot of intolerance for people’s voices, we have to push back when there are ones of hate.”

“It’s just a hate crime,” said Kris Miya, 35, who lives on Honore Street.

Miya said he hadn’t seen any of the flyers, but he hopes the perpetrators are caught soon.

“That definitely has to stop. That’s something awful,” he said.

Last week, speakers affiliated with the GDL made antisemitic statements during the public comments portion of an Evanston City Council meeting. One man, who spoke in person and wore a baseball cap with a logo of the GoyimTV website, is an active participant in GDL and is not an Evanston resident, the Midwest regional director with the ADL told the Sun-Times on Monday.

Earlier this month, antisemitic messages were left on parked cars in Lincoln Park. Police also reported 40 to 50 antisemitic flyers on cars in Lincoln Park in January. In November, antisemitic signs and flyers were found in Elmhurst and La Grange Park.

Hate crime reports have surged across Chicago in the past two years, with 204 in 2022 and 302 in 2023, according to police data. Anti-Jewish hate crimes were the second-most reported last year, with anti-Black hate crimes being the first.