In this era of rising antisemitism, it can pop up anywhere, out of nowhere and for seemingly no reason.
Why Zoom bomb a random synagogue in the Philadelphia suburbs? Why put a swastika sticker on a sign in a synagogue parking lot in South Jersey? Why ask a librarian in the Central Bucks School District to take down an inoffensive poster with a quote from Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel about combating oppression?
These are just some examples from the Philadelphia area over the past few years. The perpetrators are often nameless and faceless, as in those first two cases. Or, as in the case of the Central Bucks School District leaders, not really that antisemitic if pushed. (The district allowed the librarian to put the poster back up the next day.)
But perhaps no local outbreak of antisemitism is more random and unexplainable than the recent spate in Tredyffrin Township. The Chester County town with almost 30,000 residents has Jews in its community, but it does not have a large synagogue, a JCC or any other major center of Jewish activity.
Yet in late March, antisemitic graffiti was found at separate businesses at the Gateway Shopping Center and on Valley Forge Road, respectively. A day after that, a resident discovered “antisemitic symbols at Valley Forge Middle School,” according to a patch.com article. A month later, on Adolf Hitler’s birthday, April 20, “swastikas were found on Chesterbrook Boulevard,” at Jenkins Arboretum, the Forge Mountain neighborhood, the intersection of Walker and Thomas roads and behind the Gateway Shopping Center.
Tredyffrin Township Police arrested a 15-year-old for the March incident at Valley Forge Middle School. He is charged with “numerous counts of criminal mischief and ethnic intimidation” through the juvenile system, according to Lieutenant Tyler Moyer. But his motivation is unknown since the police have not had a chance to interview him. The culprit behind the April outbreaks is still at large.
“We realize that this is multifaceted. We’re struggling to figure out the why. Why is there suddenly this national uptick that, now, we’re finding in our backyards?” said Lisa Schreiber, a Jewish Tredyffrin resident organizing a community response. “I have three children in high school, and I’m constantly talking about: Where is this coming from? Is it social media? Is it the celebrity part like Kanye West putting this garbage out? Is it their parents at home? This is likely coming from multiple sources, so I’m guessing it requires multiple solutions.”
Schreiber moved to the town with her family 13 years ago. Though they moved there “sight unseen” and did not realize how few Jews lived in the community, they experienced few incidents before 2023. Yet after the March incidents, which occurred near her home, Schreiber decided that a town with no organized Jewish presence needed to have one.
She connected with 25 Jewish families in the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, forming the T/E Jewish Connections group. The group started its work by asking the Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors to take a stand. At its May 23 meeting, the board obliged with a resolution condemning antisemitism.
Around the same time, T/E Jewish Connections took to GoFundMe to raise more than $7,000 for future advocacy. On June 4, the group, Howard Griffel, a Jewish township resident working with Schreiber, and other Jewish residents gathered to place anti-hate yard signs in the Forge Mountain development. The next step might be billboards on Lancaster Avenue in the township, according to Schreiber.
“That would be the public awareness piece,” she said.
Schreiber and Griffel are also speaking with interfaith leaders on the Main Line who expressed interest in “trying to support the Jewish community in any way they can,” Schreiber said. And at the end of May, Schreiber and other parents had a two-hour meeting with Richard Gusick, the superintendent of the Tredyffrin/Easttown district, and Oscar Torres, the district’s equity director. They discussed teaching the Holocaust “within the context of the modern-day Jewish experience,” among other topics, according to Schreiber.
“I’m hoping that will continue over the summer and into the school year,” she said of the conversation.
Throughout the process, Schreiber has gotten advice from the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Council and StandWithUs. She is encouraged by how much progress her group has made in a little more than two months. And it has gotten a positive response from the community.
“The number of people who care and who aren’t antisemitic, you know it’s more than the people that don’t. I have seen such goodwill come forth in our community at every level,” Schreiber said. “As a mother of three children, I have to teach them that the world is inherently good.”
