Suspicious flyers on Jewish Community Center buildings show video game character
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Police launched a vandalism investigation at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) after staff reported finding suspicious flyers taped to three buildings.
The flyers were described as “antisemitic in nature” by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC).
The discovery was made Friday around 5 a.m. at the JCC’s north side campus, located at 6705 Hoover Rd., Jewish community leaders said.
The flyers contained no text and all appeared to show the same image of a video game character, according to David Sklar, a JCRC spokesperson.
“One or two” flyers were found on each of the three buildings, he said.
Authorities and JCC representatives declined to confirm details about the content of the flyers or why they were believed to be antisemitic.
The video game character has ties to ancient Egyptian culture, according to multiple JCC patrons who saw the flyers.
The incident was reported to the ARIES State Repository as a bias crime.
“With everything going on in the world today, we treat everything with a level of caution,” Sklar told News 8. “We suspect there’s probably some level of antisemitic purpose behind why those [flyers] were posted this morning.”
Jewish communities in central Indiana remained on “high alert” for potential threats following previous incidents at local synagogues, including antisemitic vandalism at Congregation Shaarey Tefilla in Carmel, according to Debra Barton Grant, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis.
“We’ve had several shootings at synagogues across the country over the last year,” she told News 8. “So situations like this just cause us to kind of move into high alert.”
Barton Grant thanked community members — Jewish and non-Jewish — for their concern and support, and urged JCC patrons to continue focusing on the “great work they do for the people of Indianapolis.”
Campus surveillance cameras may have recorded the flyers being posted, Sklar said.
Authorities had not yet identified a suspect Friday night. Additional officers were dispatched to patrol the JCC campus.
