When Gail Sigel of Elkridge picked up a copy of Howard County Issues on her front lawn on Aug. 3, she was shocked to find what it was wrapped in: a one-page circular that blamed Jews for slavery in America and urged readers to "join the people who are fighting to make a safer future for white children."

She wasn't the only one upset by the circular.

Mona Brinegar, publisher of Howard County Issues, a quarterly of local opinion, said she was angered by the neo-Nazi group's use of her publication.

" 'Horrified' comes to mind," Brinegar said.

The circular was produced by the National Socialist Order of America -- Maryland chapter, based in Elkridge. The National Socialist Order of America is identified on various Web sites as a neo-Nazi organization recently formed after a split with the National Socialist Movement.

Members of the group had taken the newspapers from a local library and then wrapped the circulars around them, according to Tim Brand, a group spokesman.

The newspapers were found in their front lawns of about 40 residents, said Howard County police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn.

Sigel said she was shocked at the message of hate in the circular.

"It's promoting hate in the community," she said. "This hate is against blacks and Jews in the community."

Sigel said she was also disturbed because the circular was a recruitment tool for the group and was included with a respectable newspaper with no ties to the group.

Sigel was not the only Elkridge resident to receive the circular.

Llewellyn said police began looking into the incident after two residents reported receiving the circulars with other newspapers.

While Llewellyn said the information was distasteful, the distribution did not appear to be illegal because it did not appear to target any specific ethnic group and the periodical used was free.

In July the group had used the Columbia-based The Business Monthly, another free newspaper to similarly distribute its circulars, according to the Business Monthly editor.

Brand said the circulars were sent out as part of a recruitment effort the group steps up over the summer.

"It picks up during the summer because we have better weather," Brand said of the recruitment efforts.

He said the group would continue to distribute the circulars, although it no longer will wrap them around periodicals.

"Every time we do a drop like that we'll get some complaints but about five or 10 people will write us letters (of interest)," Brand said.

Michael Cornell, an editor at Howard County Issues, said that since the distribution the staff has contacted several synagogues in the area, offering them a chance to respond to the pamphlets. He said the newspaper has not heard back from any of them.

Cathy Yost, owner and general manager of The Business Monthly, a Columbia-based business publication, said she received two phone calls from residents in the Elkridge area in July, saying anti-Semitic circulars had been wrapped around her newspapers.

"To have them use our paper to put it out was appalling to me," she said. "We certainly want no association with these type of hate groups. ... It's really, really bad."

Yost contacted the group at a phone number listed on the circular and told them to stop wrapping their circulars around the newspapers or the company would get a court order banning them from doing so, she said.

"We left a message to basically cease and desist or we were going to file a complaint," she said.

Since then Yost has had no complaints, she said.

Sigel, an Elkridge resident for 22 years, said the hate circulars are out of place in Elkridge, a community that she said has become more and more diverse over the last decade.

"I feel that Elkridge demographics have changed in the last 10 to 15 years, so that this is shocking," Sigel said.