los angeles | A small wave of hate mail addressed to Southern California Jews is being investigated by police, though the Anti-Defamation League said the envelopes bearing words such as, “Die Jews, Die!” and similar phrases, “do not seem to be targeting anyone individually.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating a series of large manila envelopes that appear to have been mailed randomly to Jewish institutions, such as Studio City’s Congregation Beth Meir and Temple Shalom in Ontario, and home addresses of people with traditionally Jewish last names. On the front and back of the stamped envelopes were racist and anti-Semitic statements such as “Jew Murderers” and “Die Jews, Die.”
A retired local government employee in Sherman Oaks said the envelope he received earlier this month had the words, “Jewish child molester” and “The only good Jew is a dead Jew” written on the envelope. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Journal that he did not open the envelope but instead gave it to the LAPD.
Those who received the envelopes said the writings did contain a specific threat to them. Police confirmed they are investigating the mailings but that the investigation is in its middle stage and that no arrests have been made.
There are questions as to whether mailing out anti-Semitic, offensive manila envelopes is a crime. “You have a right to hate as long as you don’t harm anyone,” said former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor. “You have to make an actual threat. Rantings and ravings of a hate nature are not necessarily criminal acts. This may be a hate incident, but not a hate crime.”
Law enforcement sources were surprised by the April 14 press alert issued by the Anti-Defamation League’s Pacific Southwest Region office in Los Angeles. The press release — reported on by local TV stations and the Associated Press — did not quote police or federal agents, who usually issue statements after an arrest and not during an ongoing investigation. “They [the ADL] put this press release out without coordinating with us,” said one police source.