During the October 11 Walnut Creek City Council Meeting, Councilmember Kevin Wilk called out “awful, vile leaflets” that appeared in Walnut Creek.
The antisemitic flyers appeared in a neighborhood in Walnut Creek along the Concord border during the Jewish High Holidays in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The flyer stated “every aspect of the Ukraine-Russia War is Jewish” among other statements.
Wilk called on the community to push back against racism and hate speech.
His comments also come as on Monday in Marin County, Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli said action was being taken to track hate a string of recent hate-driven incidents, including the distribution of antisemitic flyers in communities around the county,
Here are Wilks full statement during the council meeting:
“I wasn’t sure whether to bring this next issue up but I think its important that it is exposed and not just because I am Jewish. Last week during the high holidays, antisemitic leaflets were dropped in a neighborhood bordering Walnut Creek and Concord near Oak Grove Road.
These are awful, vile leaflets that we have seen in other Bay Area communities over the past couple of years. We are seeing that hate crimes are up nationwide and just this week in Los Angeles we heard some awful hate speech and racist hate speech by LA councilmembers no less.
I bring this up to expose these hate crimes so we can recognize this overt racism and unite as one community to push back on this. We have made great strides in our community to be inclusive and all welcoming and we refute this type of anti-Semitic and any hate material in every way and shape and form. There is more work to be done for sure, but we as a community need to expose racism, antisemitic and hate crimes for what they are.
So many norms in our society have become polarized and this is one issue which we must continue to present a united front in opposing, not accepted as free speech and ignore it as one of those things.
Silence can equal acceptance and I hope others join me in not remaining silent on an issue like this. I am entering these abort flyers into the record and ask any residents to please let the city or police department know if you see these come to your door.”
Wilk apologized to end his report to the council on a negative note but thought it was important.
Mayor Matt Francois agreed saying it was important.
“Thank you for providing that sobering reminder that this sort of hate and antisemitism still exists in our community and we should call it out and condemn it at every opportunity we can,” said Francois.
Councilmember Cindy Darling apologize that Wilk had to go through that during a special time of the year for your community.
“It’s something we will not tolerate in this city,” said Darling.
