Over a period of a week-and-a-half, West Roxbury residents reported a series of antisemitic messaging in the neighborhood; one on March 31 at the Highland commuter train station stop, the others on April 9, 10, and 13 on a long stretch of LaGrange Street.

The incidents have prompted ongoing investigations and brought condemnations from Boston District 6 City Councilor Ben Weber and State Rep. Bill MacGregor. The news has also alarmed the community.

A West Roxbury resident boarding a train at the Highland station noticed a spray-painted yellow swastika on the station ground platform. She was one of the last passengers to board and alerted the conductor who, with another conductor, examined it, delaying the train’s departure for a few minutes.

The passenger also reported it to Weber’s Instagram account and to the MBTA as instructed by the conductor. The swastika was gone by the next morning. The passenger said she immediately notified officials as she feared there would be more antisemitic occurrences and that this did not reflect West Roxbury as a community.

“I will always welcome anyone in my neighborhood and my home, and I know most of West Roxbury would do the same …there are a lot more good people living here than there are bad actors.” She encouraged neighbors to be vigilant about what they see or find.

The second occurrence involved residences on a mile-long stretch of LaGrange Street extending for blocks in each direction as the street intersects Centre Street. Residents reported finding small, printed pieces of white paper with the words “Boycott the Jews” on or near their property.

One resident said that she saw a piece of paper in her yard, picked it up as scrape and threw it out. Later, however, she walked down the west side of LaGrange Street to find another. “Seeing the second one, I was like, this is totally unacceptable, and not okay.”

She went on to find them on at least 10 other lawns and in bushes, at which point she called police and notified Weber’s office. “It’s incredibly disturbing …is this in front of my house specifically? And then obviously I saw them in all those other places.”

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She said she wanted others to know and be talking about it to raise awareness about the situation, especially in a neighborhood that is normally quiet and safe. “But now it's important that everybody knows, so that they can be on the lookout.”

Weber condemned the incidents and possible motivation behind them.

“It was disturbing to learn about these hateful messages being dumped along a long stretch of road in West Roxbury. It is hard to dismiss stuff like this when there are an increasing number of recent attacks on Jews gathering at synagogues. My advice to anyone impacted by this is to simply reach out to your Jewish neighbors or reach out to Temple Hillel B’nai Torah to find out how you can show your support.”

Weber also addressed the perpetrator(s) directly saying, “If this was a misguided attempt to make a statement about the Israeli government, my message to the person or people responsible for this is that using hate speech and stoking fear is not the way to make your point.”

Rep. MacGregor’s office was also notified by a few constituents about the flyers calling for an “overall boycott” of Jewish people. MacGregor posted a statement on Facebook on April 15 condemning flyers found in the district as having “no place in our community.” He went on to state, “…this kind of discriminatory and offensive rhetoric is not welcome in the 10th Suffolk District, in the Commonwealth, or anywhere else. However, when something like this occurs in our community, it’s on all of us to universally condemn it and work to make sure this does not happen again.” MacGregor’s full statement can be read at https://gvimes.link/statementwr

Anyone encountering these flyers or any acts of antisemitism should notify the Boston Police Civil Rights Unit at 617-343-4527, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) at 617-406-6300 or boston@adl.org