TOWN AND COUNTRY, Mo. — Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham was in the middle of Sabbath service when his phone started to ping with messages about an offensive display just two miles from his synagogue.
"It's just jarring to think that there are people like this in our neighborhood essentially," Abraham said, who leads Congregation B'nai Amoona in Creve Coeur.
On Saturday, videos and pictures quickly began to surface online of a group dressed in red and black, wearing masks and waving Swastika flags on an Interstate 64 overpass. A sign reading "America for the white man" was on display at the Mason Road overpass, where dozens of Jewish congregants from at least three different synagogues drive by.
'My immediate reaction was like here we go again. We as a Jewish community have very much been under attack over the last year since October 2023," Abraham said.
The Anti-Defamation League put out data saying more than 10,0000 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the U.S. in the last year since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The demonstration came just hours after the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.
"It was already going to be a sad New Year leading into a terrible anniversary. The worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust," said Jordan Kadosh, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. "Just because our constitution protects vile speech doesn't mean that we don't all have an obligation to say that this is wrong and not welcome in our community."
The display offended not just the Jewish community.
"The NAACP has been around since 1909. Actually created on the premise of working in collaboration with the Jewish community to stop hanging and here we are in this century facing the same type of divisiveness," said John Bowman, president of St. Louis County NAACP.
The groups 5 On Your Side heard from agreed that it is not just the Jewish community that should stand up for equality.
"We're going to stand against all forms of hate, whether that's antisemitism, whether it's racism, whether it's LGBTQ, whatever it might be. That we have to stand together," Abraham said.
The Town and County Police Department stated they were monitoring the situation on Mason Road for the safety of pedestrians and those driving by.