Antisemetic incidents in Miami Beach and Pittsburgh

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A man was charged with a hate crime after allegedly harassing students at a North Miami Beach Jewish school, local media reported on Friday.

Jose Alfredo Garrido, 24, was caught on surveillance footage picking up something from the ground and tossing it toward the school's field where some students were playing around 11:30 a.m., according to the police.

He then left and returned minutes later wearing black gloves and carrying what appeared to be a whip.


The arrest report said that the footage "captured the defendant wearing black latex gloves carrying what appears to be a whip in his hands."

The police said that Garrido allegedly approached two victims and made a statement that the two couldn't understand before trying to grab the kippah off of one of the victims.

The arrest report states that Garrido turned to the victims with an "aggressive stance" and continued to harass the victims "with a whip in his hands."

Both victims walked away and reported the incident to a school security guard.

Garrido's arrest
The security guard was able to get a close-up photo of Garrido after he allegedly returned to the school with a whip and wooden stick. Garrido was later arrested at his home.

Police said they found a small blue bag with what seemed to be cocaine in his pocket when they did an initial search at the time of the arrest.

Garrido is charged with harassment and intimidation based on religious or ethnic heritage as well as possession of cocaine.

Fliers denigrating Jews were strewn around Squirrel Hill, and residents were reportedly targeted with antisemitic epithets, the latest antisemitic incident in the neighborhood that suffered the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting.

The fliers were reportedly thrown from a moving vehicle, according to Pittsburgh Police. Police said the fliers were in clear bags weighed with corn kernels so that they could be thrown effectively.

One of the fliers read, “Every single aspect of the Jewish Talmud is satanic,” according to a photo shared by Corey O’Connor, the county comptroller and a candidate for Pittsburgh mayor.

Cherry-picking the Talmud
The flier included quotes cherry-picked from the Talmud — a vast compendium of ancient rabbinic debates over Jewish law and tradition — that aim to show Jewish discrimination against non-Jews. Pulling quotes from the Talmud to depict Jews in a negative light is an age-old antisemitic mainstay.

The suspects were not immediately identified by police, but the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh attributed the actions to the Goyim Defense League, a white supremacist group. The federation also said the driver hurled antisemitic slurs at local Jews.

A recent report from the Anti-Defamation League found that the Goyim Defense League was one of three white supremacist groups that were collectively responsible for 94% of all antisemitic propaganda in 2024.

Distributing fliers has been a common tactic of antisemitic groups in recent years. Shortly after the synagogue shooting in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, Squirrel Hill was hit with antisemitic fliers.

Since when do schools need security guards?