While the gunman behind Monday’s Highland Park, Illinois, mass shooting remains at large, some social media users are speculating that antisemitism may have been a motivating factor given the area’s large Jewish population and history of antisemitism.
Police have not addressed or confirmed a possible motive in the deadly shooting.
Highland Park is known as a heavily Jewish suburb more than 25 miles outside of Chicago, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz, both of which noted that some estimates put the area’s Jewish population at about a third of its total estimated population of 30,100.
Nearly 90% of the total population identifies as white, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.
The median home in Highland Park is valued at $535,000, and more than 75% of people 25 and over have a college degree, according to Census Bureau data.
When the shots rang out at the parade Monday, a traditional Jewish klezmer band was playing on the parade route, video shows.
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The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told its staff that “there is information about Jewish casualties” and that its Chicago-based consul general, Yinam Cohen, was in touch with authorities and local Jewish communities.
Cohen did not immediately reply to a request for comment from NBC News.
Highland Park “welcomed a sizable Jewish population after World War II,” unlike many of its neighboring communities, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, a database maintained by the Chicago History Museum, the Newberry Library and Northwestern University.
The area has a recent history of experiencing antisemitism.
In April, police said flyers containing antisemitic hate speech appeared in Highland Park and surrounding communities on Yom HaShoah, the Day of Holocaust Remembrance, NBC Chicago reported at the time. Highland Park police pledged to work with other suburban police departments and the FBI to investigate, according to NBC Chicago.
The city issued a statement condemning antisemitism in response to that incident.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
