When Sarah W. let her daughters walk around the block last weekend, it was hardly an odd experience in their very walkable St. Paul neighborhood. Nor was stopping to see what books could be picked up at the Little Free Library on the 1000 block of Ashland Avenue.
“My daughter said it was in a plastic bag, and she opened it and saw the flyer,” Sarah said. “My 7-year-old said that her older sister started to cry right away, and asked her what was going on. [The older one] said that she had to wait to ask me all the questions she had.”
Sarah answered her kids’ questions, which ranged from very basic for the younger child to the more existential for the older one.
“She asked, ‘Why would anyone say something like that?’” Sarah said. “I’m not sure I can answer that question, but we can talk about it.”
Sarah reached out to her friend Iola Kostrzewski, who works for the ADL, and also to the Jewish Community Relations Council, which tracks antisemitism in Minnesota. Officials from the JCRC said it’s important for the recipients of these or other bias incidents to report them right away so they can be tracked and investigated…