I certainly realize that the political climate in Pennsylvania, as in many other states across the nation, is tense and polarized right now, but I never figured our state to be the most hateful in the nation when it comes to instances of racist, antisemitic and similar messaging, but this is the conclusion that the Anti-Defamation League has made after tracking 4,851 cases in 2021.

Pennsylvania led the way with 473 documented instances of hate propaganda, dissemination. On top of that, earlier this year there was a flurry of antisemitic hate fliers found in at least 15 states, including ours. In fact, in late March white supremacist and hate leaflets were found in envelopes on lawns in a residential neighborhood in Bangor, Northampton County.

In response to the report and the latest incident in Bangor, about 60 people braved the rain during a weekend “No Home for Hate” rally in Bethlehem to call attention to what’s been going on. Esther Lee, president of the Bethlehem branch of the NAACP, organizer of the rally, said, “We can’t sit on our cans and think it is going away; we have to do something about it.”

As I did research for this column, I was stunned to find that hate groups have been active in our area for more than a century. In researcher Emerson H. Loucks’ report nearly a century ago, he noted that the Ku Klux Klan was extremely active in northeastern Pennsylvania. “Luzerne County was a real local stronghold, with no less than 13 klaverns (klan lodges), while Schuylkill had 11,” Loucks found. The KKK in these two counties had about 10,000 members between them by 1924. Loucks suggests that Carbon, Schuylkill, Luzerne and Lehigh counties formed a major center of Klan activity. He concluded that the anthracite region became a distinct “province” of the Invisible Empire, as the Klan is called, one of eight areas into which Pennsylvania was divided.

That was then, what about now? Well the ADL report indicates that hate propaganda in all of its ugly manifestations is still being distributed throughout our area and other areas of the state.

“Fighting hate in Pennsylvania has never been more important,’’ said Andrew Goretsky, ADL’s regional director for eastern Pennsylvania. ADL’s White Supremacist Propaganda report.

Goretsky said communities of good will can protect themselves against hate group activity by learning the symbols used by white supremacist hate groups and reporting activity to law enforcement and to the ADL.

Last year marked the second-highest level of incidents reported since ADL began tracking such data - with an average of about 13 incidents per day, and nearly double the 2,724 cases reported in 2019. In 2020, the use of propaganda distributions as a tactic peaked at 5,125 incidents nationwide.

ADL’s Center on Extremism tracks the distribution of racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ flyers, stickers, posters, banners and stenciled graffiti by various members of far right and white supremacist groups. The 2021 report found that at least 38 known white supremacist groups were behind hate propaganda efforts last year, affecting 49 states and the District of Columbia.

“White supremacists more frequently are resorting to hate propaganda as a tactic to spread their noxious ideas and recruit new membership,’’ said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.

In 2021, hateful propaganda appeared in every state except Hawaii, with the highest levels of activity (473) reported in Pennsylvania. After that come Virginia (375), Texas (327), Massachusetts (272), Washington state (228), Maryland (217) and New York state (212). For reporting purposes, ADL counts an incident where multiple or hundreds of fliers are distributed across a neighborhood on a given day as a single incident.

Things are not letting up this year. The ADL specifically named the antisemitic Goyim Defense League, whose flyers blame Jews for spreading COVID-19, threatening the “white race” through increasing diversity and having too much power.

One of the ADL’s key findings noted that last year there were 108 white supremacist events, more than double the 53 events held in 2020, and the most recorded in any of the past five years. Nearly half of the white supremacist events were privately planned unannounced flash demonstrations. Patriot Front held the two largest flash demonstrations in 2021, including one in Julyk in Philadelphia.

Aside from the Bangor incident, ADL listed others in nearby eastern Pennsylvania communities from 2020 until earlier this year.

Feb. 24: Plymouth, Luzerne County. Grave sites were desecrated with painted swastikas and racial epithets.

Oct. 22: Pennsbury School District, Bucks County. Some board members received violent antisemitic messages that said, “Death to the Jew” and “Good men are waking up to the Jew sickness.”

June 1: Waymart, Wayne County. A swastika was found carved into a slide at a children’s playground.

April 10: Pocono Pines, Monroe County. A synagogue’s exterior sign was defaced with swastika stickers.

Feb. 24, 2021: Worcester Township, Montgomery County. A virtual township planning meeting held on Zoom was disrupted by unknown participants who drew swastikas and wrote the N-word on the screen.

Oct. 26, 2020: Bethlehem. Swastikas and “KKK” were found etched into playground equipment.

July 19, 2020: Dresher, Montgomery County. A Jewish women’s group’s Zoom meeting was disrupted by an unknown participant who drew a swastika on the screen and identified himself as “Adolf Eichmann” (one of the major organizers of the Holocaust by the Nazis during World War II).

June 5, 2020: Allentown. A synagogue’s Shabbat prayer service held on Zoom was disrupted by unknown participants who told worshippers “death to the Jews.”

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.