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Westboro Baptist Church member Margie Phelps rails against Jews and Israel in a protest outside the Washington offices of the Anti-Defamation League on May 8, 2009. (Eric Fingerhut)Protesters from the publicity-seeking homophobic and antisemitic Westboro Baptist Church plan to picket several Brooklyn Synagogues tomorrow including Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Union Temple in Prospect Heights, Kane Street Synagogue in Cobble Hill, and East Midwood Jewish Center in Midwood. This development is not surprising. In a May article I quoted a JTA report "that the Kansas homophobic church that has been marring soldiers' funerals has now turned its bigotry against us."
Both the NYPD and the Anti-Defamation League recommend that we resist directly engaging WBC, and in a letter to congregants Beth Elohim's rabbi Andy Bachman asks "that you calmly pass these protesters and walk directly into our building without incident." The president of a neighboring congregation writes that WBC "apparently have a history of pressing charges of assault or harassment against anyone who tries to argue with them or move them, and they relish any publicity they can garner by being confrontational. It is in our communal DNA to try to engage those who disagree with us in a constructive dialogue. In this instance, that is absolutely the wrong approach, and I ask you to give them the attention they deserve: Ignore them, do not talk to them, and do not give them the satisfaction of an argument or the opportunity to stir up publicity and additional attention to themselves." Bachman added that Natalie Chertoff will become a Bat Mitzvah as scheduled, and urged his congregants to "focus our energy and attention on making this truly a Shabbat Shalom at Congregation Beth Elohim." On the other hand The New York Times' Fort Greene blog reports that a WBC protest at Brooklyn Tech High School yesterday was cut short by the group when they faced an organized counter-protest by students and their parents.
For more info: David Cooper
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