BALTIMORE — Baltimore made the social media feed of a national organization called "Stop Antisemitism," for this video.
It shows a man tearing down posters featuring photos of Israeli hostages outside Penn Station.
As quickly as the campaign began to put these posters up in cities around the country, came the campaign to tear them down.
"It's a twisted mentality that someone would tear that down. Those posters are just saying one thing - this infant, this elderly person, this disabled person, was kidnapped against their will by a terrorist organization. They must be released," said Jay Bernstein, the head of the Israel committee with the Ner Tamid congregation here in Baltimore.
While some object to the posters because they believe they ignore the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza, others believe it's all fake; there are no hostages.
This is Bernstein's message to those who believe the posters are simply Israeli propaganda:
"It's clear what happened on October 7. There's camera, and messages from the terrorists themselves. Not only did they do what they did, but they're happy with what they did. They're calling their family members saying, 'look, we killed Jews, we kidnapped Jews. This is not fake news. And people who claim that on October 7 there was no attack on Israeli civilians, or that only military installations were targeted, it's wrong, that's a lie, and i wish that was not the case," Bernstein said.
He helped organize a vigil Thrusday night outside city hall, to mourn the loss of those killed on October 7th, and call for the release of those still held captive by Hamas.
He believes this should be a black-and-white issue.
"We would hope and think and pray, that no matter what someone's political opinions might be regarding the Israel issue, regarding the Palestinian issue, that they would agree that these hostages must be released."
The vigil featured a display of 240 paper lanterns - that's the number of hostages the Israeli military believes are in captivity.
The mayor, and members of Baltimore City Council were invited to attend.
