When Idaho looks in the mirror, it sees mountains, lakes, rivers, and an established community. What lurks in the shadows, however, is a history of antisemitic messages.

The well-known term within the community, “keep Boise kind,” still flourishes, but has been momentarily overshadowed by recent hateful rhetoric spread in some high-profile areas of the city.

On Sunday, the North End neighborhoods of Boise experienced something unnerving — antisemitic fliers distributed in Ziploc bags, weighed down with pellet-gun ammo. News of the fliers circulated on Twitter over the weekend. The fliers depicted anti-Jewish messages in relation to COVID-19, and claimed the Jewish population is part of a “COVID agenda.”

The fliers were also reported by community members on Twitter to have been distributed in California and North Carolina.

“Imagine how wonderful it would be if these hateful acts were the catalyst for people to embrace each other. That would be the greatest accomplishment,” said Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz of the Chabad Jewish Center in Boise.

While antisemitism has a history in Idaho, this latest incident in the state’s capital city comes nearly two weeks after hateful messages, including images of swastikas, were spray painted in tunnels along the Greenbelt in Boise. Two weeks before that, a swastika was spray painted on the historic Idaho Building off Eighth and Bannock streets near one of the city’s busiest areas.

Lifshitz said this is a re-surfacing of old issues the Jewish community has experienced in the past — he is disappointed with the recent antisemitic activity, but has faith in the city of Boise and its residents. He said he has already received broad support among the community and Boise law enforcement, which contacted him the moment the messages were discovered.

“We call upon our citizens to stand strong, to stand tall, to stand together,” he said.

Boise Police said the officers responded to the north end just before midnight on Saturday to investigate “anti-Jewish literature distributed around property,” a spokesperson from the department emailed the Idaho Press. Boise Police said the papers appeared to be randomly distributed and that officers are trying the locate surveillance video or any signs that individual people in the neighborhood are being targeted.

In 2020 the Idaho Anne Frank Memorial, an educational park with a statue of Holocaust victim Anne Frank, was covered with swastika stickers. In 2017, it was defaced three times in the same week, according to the Spokesman-Review.

Other areas like Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint have experienced antisemitic messages over the last year as well, and a St. Luke’s hospital in McCall was vandalized with spray-painted swastikas in late September.

The Wassmuth Center, founded in 1996 in Boise for constructing a memorial to human rights, has been vocal about the antisemitic messages that have flooded the city in recent years. The center has consistently dealt with vandalism to the Anne Frank Memorial.

Dan Prinzing, the executive director at the Wassmuth Center, said the frequency of these incidents is feeding the notion that Idaho is a “haven for hate.” Prinzing said as long as leaders peddle in conspiracy theories, acts of hate will be emboldened. He called upon Idaho leaders to address the community.

“Now is the time for city and faith leaders, civic and community organizers, and law enforcement to stand together, speak out and take deliberate action to confront antisemitism, hate speech, and the actions that tear at the fabric of what and who our community represents,” he said.

Alicia Abbott, a volunteer for the Western States Center and voter outreach strategist for the Idaho 97 Project, said she’s concerned about the ideology’s presence in government, where she said it’s frightening to imagine people in office holding similar viewpoints.

“Supremacy is most harmful to the people it targets and I am sad for my neighbors who have to live in fear,” she said. “It’s unacceptable and must be condemned in every instance.”

Abbott has seen a number of methods of outreach for hateful messages during her volunteer work. These messages, Abbott said, are rooted in white supremacy and parliamentary training.

“Another common delivery method of white supremacist rhetoric are community bulletin boards that you often find at gas stations, grocery stores, other common areas,” she said. Abbott said she runs into fliers like these around Idaho, and that 50% of the time the information about a possible Bible study is really disguised and rooted in white supremacy.

Mike Satz, lawyer, founder of the Idaho 97 Project and member of the Jewish community, said he hasn’t seen so much hate until this year. He grew up in Texas, where he said the last time he saw this type of rhetoric was in the late 80s at a neo-Nazi rally. He has seen hate within the community, but nothing as sophisticated as the hateful messages distributed on the fliers.

“We are seeing rise in it (hate speech) right now because it’s connected to the political climate, rhetoric and lack of reaction from the middle. That lack of reaction gives the cue to these hateful people that they can get away with it,” Satz said. “Keep Boise accepting. Be kind to your neighbors.”

Lifshitz believes incidents like these should be used to unite neighbors, to preach kindness and to turn something negative around.

“The community is a welcoming community, but it gives us an opportunity to look at these activities and turn them into something positive. To recognize beneath every terrible act there is an opportunity. For the wonderful citizens of Boise to come together to not only voice their support but engage in acts of kindness,” Lifshitz said.