Beachwood library speaks out for first time since dozens of books were burned
BEACHWOOD, Ohio (WJW) — A local library is speaking out for the first time after a disturbing incident that police are investigating as a potential hate crime.
Officials said a man checked out dozens of books centered on Jewish history, Black experiences and LGBTQ topics—then allegedly burned them.
3 vehicles involved in fatal Wadsworth crash
According to Beachwood police, the man first visited the Beachwood branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library on April 2, when he checked out 50 books.
The next day, investigators said a photo appeared online showing a car trunk filled with those books and a caption referencing 'cleansing the libraries.'
The titles of the books matched those recently checked out, prompting police to begin an investigation. One week later, officials said the same man returned to check out 50 more books.
Staff members grew suspicious of his behavior and reported the incident to authorities.
Police later discovered a video online that allegedly shows the man burning the books.
Local parents surrender after death of 3-year-old
In a statement to FOX 8, library officials said, 'We are not commenting on this ongoing investigation. We have taken steps to protect our staff, customers, and property. At this time, the customer has been restricted from all Cuyahoga County Public Library properties and their borrowing privileges have been revoked.'
Elizabeth Oestreicher, a Cleveland Heights resident who is both Jewish and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, spoke with Fox 8 about the emotional impact of the act.
'I think it's a move towards censorship and a move towards erasing history,' she said.
Oestreicher added that the act immediately reminded her of darker moments in world history.
'I think my first thought was just the 1930s in Germany and the book burnings that happened then,' she said.
Walgreens closing dozens of stores across country: Here's where in NE Ohio
Investigators said the total value of the books exceeds $1,700. The case was first flagged by a national group that monitors online extremism, and Beachwood police are still actively investigating.
Once their investigation is complete, the matter will be referred to a city prosecutor to determine whether charges will be filed. No arrests have been made at this time.
Fox 8 reached out to both Beachwood police and city officials for further comment, but they declined to speak while the case remains open.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
34 minutes ago
FBI, DHS warn of 'elevated threat' to Jewish community in new PSA
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are warning of an "elevated threat" facing the Jewish community in the wake of two attacks: Sunday's Molotov cocktail assault in Boulder, Colorado, and last month's killing of two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, D.C. The Israel-Hamas conflict "may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters," the FBI and DHS said in a public service announcement issued Thursday night. "Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States." The public should "remain vigilant" and "report any threats of violence or suspicious activity to law enforcement," the agencies said. The PSA references Sunday's attack in Boulder when Mohamed Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a group of marchers advocating for the release of Israeli hostages, according to prosecutors. Fifteen people, including a Holocaust survivor, were injured, officials said. Soliman, who was arrested at the scene, allegedly yelled "Free Palestine" during the attack, the FBI said. Soliman later told police "he wanted to kill all Zionist people," court documents said. He "said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine)," documents said. Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime as well as 118 state charges, including attempted murder, assault and explosives charges. He has not entered a plea in either case. The PSA also mentions the May 21 killings of two Israeli Embassy staff members. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were fatally shot as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. When the suspect was arrested, he began to chant, "free, free Palestine," according to police. The Anti-Defamation League has documented a dramatic rise in acts of hate targeting Jewish people in the U.S. since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in Israel. In 2024, the ADL said it recorded a record high of 9,354 antisemitic incidents in the U.S., marking a 344% increase over the past five years and a 893% increase over the past 10 years. "I am angry," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said a news conference in Boulder on Wednesday. 'It's way past time for our political leaders, community groups, media outlets, tech platforms, faith leaders to take action before more Jewish blood is spilled. And it's way past time to stop excusing antisemitic rhetoric," he said. Greenblatt urged the public to speak out against hate and shared small, specific actions people can take.
Axios
an hour ago
- Axios
Dupont Circle park to close for WorldPride weekend after all
After days of uncertainty, the National Park Service shut down Dupont Circle for this weekend's Pride festivities, even after a community backlash to the idea and the D.C. police chief withdrawing her request to close it. Why it matters: It's a blow to WorldPride 2025 revelers, who were hoping the park in the heart of D.C.'s historic LGBTQ community would remain open. Driving the news: Citing D.C. police chief Pamela Smith's original request to close the park, NPS installed fencing early Friday morning. Fencing will remain until 6pm Sunday. U.S. Park Police said the temporary closure is necessary "to secure the park, deter potential violence, reduce the risk of destructive acts and decrease the need for extensive law enforcement presences." Context: In 2023, NPS said the park was faced with $175,000 in vandalism and damage to the historic fountain after Pride weekend festivities. Last year, D.C. police said groups of juveniles got into fights and "engaged in unpermitted and illegal activities." Those incidents spurred Smith to send a closure request to NPS in April this year. But following public backlash, Smith rescinded that request on Tuesday. The latest: U.S. Park Police decided to move ahead with the closure anyway. "While some community leaders and residents have voiced their concerns for a closure of Dupont Circle to MPD the threat of violence," the agency wrote in a letter to NPS leadership Wednesday, "criminal acts and NPS resource destruction has only increased since MPD's original April 22, 2025 park closure request." The letter cites a "local DJ advertising and selling tickets to an unpermitted gathering/party in Dupont Circle following World Pride events" as one more reason to shut down the park. Between the lines: It's another pain point for festival-goers who are already upset with the Trump administration for anti-LGBTQ policies.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Opinion - Progressives push anti-Israel activism, are surprised by antisemitic violence that follows
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is running for cover. After the horrific attack on Jews in Boulder, Colo., the Minnesota representative issued the kind of bland statement meant to deflect blame, posting this on X: 'I'm holding the victims and families in Boulder, Colorado in my heart. Violence against anyone is never acceptable. We must reject hatred and harm in all its forms.' As some noted, it took nearly 24 hours for Omar to issue even that statement, which notably failed to mention that the victims were Jews and the suspect is an Egyptian Muslim who attacked them while shouting 'Free Palestine.' A video has now surfaced in which the accused assailant ranted about his faith, saying 'Allahu Akbar.' After he firebombed a group of Jews, he told investigators he wanted to 'kill all Zionist people.' One of the victims, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, asked NBC News, 'What the hell is going on in our country?' It's a question everyone should be asking. Here's part of the answer: It is a very easy hop from college students intimidating Jewish students and chanting about Intifada and a Muslim man trying to murder Jews. It is similarly but a short leap from Omar, who applauded anti-Israel student protesters at Columbia University for being 'brave and patriotic,' voted against an antisemitism resolution in the U.S. House and suggested to aggrieved people acting out of anger that some Jewish students are just 'pro-genocide.' It is also easy to connect student demonstrations with terrorism. For the first time, a protester at Columbia University — an outsider arrested for hate crimes against Jews — has been linked to Hamas. He won't be the last. In recent months we have witnessed not only the hideous attempt to burn Jews alive in Boulder, but also the firebombing of Jewish Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's home and the cold-blooded murder of two young Jewish people at the Jewish Capital Museum in Washington. All three suspects expressed anti-Israel sentiments, with the alleged perpetrator of the latter killings shouting 'free, free Palestine' after he shot the victims 21 times. The Anti-Defamation League reports that 2024 saw a record number of antisemitic attacks, up 344 percent over the past five years. This is intolerable. Radicalized students at some of our top schools are part of the problem. Recently, MIT's graduation was marred by a student speaker, Megha Vemuri, who donned the politically symbolic keffiyeh and told the commencement audience, 'We are watching Israel try to wipe out Palestine off the face of the earth, and it is a shame that MIT is a part of it.' She also accused MIT of complicity 'in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.' Writing in the Times of Israel, one alum panned the speech as a 'trite, TikTok-depth graduation speech on a tragic issue of devastating complexity'; she condemned the administration for not informing the audience of myriad programs funded by MIT that improves the lives and futures of Palestinians. MIT's president, Sally Kornbluth, did not defend the university or refute Vemuri's incendiary language; instead, she stepped to the podium and said, 'At MIT, we believe in freedom of expression. But today is about the graduates.' Not, apparently, about the Jewish graduates. A Jew graduating with a Ph.D in cryptography posted on X: 'I finally got my PhD from @MIT, with my 5-year-old twins, my 2-year-old and my parents (children of Holocaust survivors) traveling halfway around the world just to be there. Instead, MIT's student commencement speaker decided it was appropriate to use the moment for hate-filled rhetoric against Israelis and Jews … too many in the crowd erupted with cheers and anger. My kids might not have understood every word, but they felt the fear and hostility. … How could @MIT let this happen? How, indeed. It is not only schools that are allowing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hatred to spiral out of control; because the fever is being staunchly condemned by the Trump White House, the media has gone mushy. After the Boulder incident, USA Today ran a sob-sister piece about the offspring of the Egyptian man who tried to burn Jews alive with the headline: 'Boulder suspect's daughter dreamed of studying medicine. Now she faces deportation.' After receiving massive blowback, USA Today quietly revised the offensive piece. Increasingly, it is progressives like Omar who are responsible for surging antisemitism. Apologists claim that supporting Palestine and opposing Israel do not constitute antisemitism. Perhaps they would not in in isolation, but the protesters have taken pains to muddy the waters as much as possible. As the New York Times recently noted, 'the sprawling protest movement against the war in Gaza has scrambled efforts to distinguish opposition to the actions of the Israeli government, or even to the state of Israel itself, from hostility to Jews. Critics of the protesters have argued that slogans like 'globalize the Intifada' are thinly veiled calls for violence in any Jewish space.' A rabbi in Boulder was quoted by the Times writing, 'Jews in America have mostly felt the threats of antisemitism from the far right in the form of White Supremacy, yet now many of us have experienced hatred, bigotry and intolerance from progressives, those who many of us have considered friends and allies.' In City Journal, Charles Fain Lehman writes, 'The American radical anti-Israel movement has built the intellectual scaffolding for—and in many cases all but invited—the violence now playing out in places like Boulder. When you call for 'Intifada,' you cannot feign surprise when someone takes that call literally. Whatever your legal right to speak, that is the outcome you invoked.' Lehman is correct: The Intifada is here and must be confronted. Our government must protect free speech criticizing Israel or supporting Palestine, but it must also deploy all resources to punish acts of violence — including on college campuses — before more people get hurt. If it were blacks or Asians under attack, we would not have to defend efforts to stave off hate crimes. Jews should be afforded the same protections. Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim and Company. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
