As US elections approach racist protesters, anti-Semitic graffiti appears

REUTERS: Days before the controversial national elections in the US in which immigration has become a central issue, racist leaflets saying "It's good to be white" have been reported on university campuses in five states, while synagogues in New York and California were sprayed antisemitic graffiti.

The phrase on the leaflets is associated with white supremacist Ku Klux Klan. These individuals have been reported on campuses, including Duke University, North Carolina, Tufts University, Massachusetts, the University of Delaware, the University of Vermont, and Iowa State University. In some cases, vandals have associated leaflets with posters encouraging people to vote on November 6th.

Moreover, after the killing of 11 worshipers in the Pittsburgh synagogue by an armed man last weekend, graffiti saying "Kill all Jews" was sprayed Thursday night in the Union Temple synagogue in New York. Similar graffiti was found in a synagogue in Irvine, California, earlier this week.

During the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue last weekend, the worst of all the American Jewish community, the man accused of the massacre shouted: "All Jews must die."

Robert Bowers, 46, a declared anti-Semite, pleaded not guilty on Thursday in federal court of 44 counts against him in the attack.

A message on the highly controversial online 4chan picture chart last week called for participants to place leaflets in public places. Some participants this week have posted photos of themselves with leaflets.

The universities concerned have condemned the leaflets.

"We denounce these actions for what they are: cowardly acts of vandalism intended to intimidate," said Michael Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president of public affairs, in a statement.

"I want to assure our community that we do not tolerate hatred and fanaticism," said Tufts President Anthony Monaco in a message sent to his university.

At the same time, the former KKK leader, David Duke, has published on Twitter that the "hateful response" to protesters "proves the pervasiveness of hate and racism!"

A series of politically motivated mailings to prominent Democrats last week, followed by shootings in the synagogue, exacerbated national tensions ahead of the Nov. 6 elections, which will decide whether the US president's Republican party Donald Trump will maintain control of the Congress.

The massacre also fueled a debate about Trump's political rhetoric and his self-identification as a "nationalist," who, according to critics, caused a skyrocketing of right-wing extremism.

The Trump administration rejected the idea of ​​encouraging white nationalists and neo-Nazis who embraced it, insisting that it was trying to unify the # 39; America.

(Report by Nick Carey, edited by David Gregorio)