Myrtle Beach leaders condemn anti-semitic flyers found on doorsteps days before Hanukkah starts

Last year, Hope Sachwald was participating in a virtual forum with St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School students when a question took the breath from her.

“One of the questions that one of the students asked was, ‘why do Jews and Catholics hate each other?’ And I was floored. I grew up in a neighborhood where my non-Jewish friends learned about what we were learning, we went to each other’s churches,” Sachwald, a member of the small Jewish Reform Congregation of Myrtle Beach, said.

Days before the start of Hannukah and just hours after another round of antisemitic fliers were reported in a Myrtle Beach neighborhood, members of the city’s Jewish community were given a promise by Mayor Brenda Bethune.

South Carolina is home to roughly 8,160 Jews — three-tenths of a percent of the state’s overall population, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.

“We want our community to be one of acceptance, one of love and one of diversity, and we can’t do that without each of you,” Bethune said ahead of city leaders unanimously approving a symbolic resolution condemning all acts of religious intolerance, racism and discrimination.

Words read off a piece of paper and into a microphone, yes.

But Rabbi Doron Aizenman of Chabad Jewish Academy looked over his shoulder to more than 20 of his students in attendance — the boys wearing traditional yarmulkes — and urged them to remember the words.

“I know that you do not understand most of the language that was spoken out. I didn’t either. But we don’t forget this moment. It can be a source of strength for life,” Aizenman said.

The city’s position comes amid rising anti-Jewish sentiment nationally. A 2021 American Defamation League audit of antisemitic incidents found a 34% jump from 2020 — the 2,717 occurrences were the second most on record since tracking began in 1979.

South Carolina has more than 15 reported instances of anti-Jewish acts in 2021 — more than a quarter them in the Grand Strand.

Language in the city’s resolution closely mirrors that included in a U.S. House proclamation approved 420-1 last May. Both point to the spirit of America’s early settlers and Founding Fathers that fundamental freedoms including religion are baked into the country’s identity.

“The antisemites don’t respect the First Amendment, and they have no respect for God, who says that all men were born in the image of God,” said Avi Perets, rabbi of Temple Emanu-El.