Antisemitic stickers seen making rounds around downtown Halifax

The stickers read "The Bug That Backfired COVID-19," printed in black and white, and feature a Star of David and a Freemasonry-like symbol.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Downtown Halifax in Canada (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Downtown Halifax in Canada
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Antisemitic stickers have been seen making their way across the streets of Nova Scotia's capital Halifax, seemingly blaming the local Jewish community for the spread of COVID-19, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
The stickers read "The Bug That Backfired COVID-19," printed in black and white, and feature a Star of David and a Freemasonry-like symbol.
Many of the stickers have been found in the downtown Halifax area, and additionally posted across college campuses around the city.
"At first glance, this sort of appears strange and people might be unsure," said executive director of the Atlantic Jewish Council (AJC) Naomi Rosenfeld, according to the CBC. "But, unfortunately, we know that this messaging harkens back to old antisemitic tropes.
Rosenfeld explained to CBC that the messaging resembles rhetoric found in the antisemitic text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which describes a plan for Jewish domination over the world.
"The implication is that the Jewish community was the cause of COVID-19, which obviously is completely false and very antisemitic," she said.
Rosenfeld added that the pandemic has made the local public very "on edge" as of late. While she notes that the Jewish community has felt "welcome and at home" amid her tenure, she said that "unfortunately, it's human nature to try and find a scapegoat... and a very small, very radical group has decided that the Jewish community is that scapegoat."
Marnina Goneck, a member of the Independent Jewish Voices in Halifax, noted to the CBC that the stickers were "hateful" and "very disturbing."
"We can't keep quiet about something like this," Goneck said, according to CBC. "We have to really make sure we draw attention in a way that condemns these kinds of actions. We can't just let it go."


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