Day: September 22, 2009

“Westboro Baptist” Hate Group to Protest New York Area Synagogues
— The Jewish Star reports:
— “Fringe Baptist group to bring hate to Great Neck”
— “Protests planned next week in Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan”

— “A fundamentalist church from Topeka, Kansas plans protests at Jewish locations in Great Neck, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan for three days beginning Thursday, September 24th. The Westboro Baptist Church, led by Rev. Fred Phelps and composed largely of his family members, has been in the news with its protests at funerals of AIDS victims and American soldiers killed in action… While the church has mainly protested what it perceives as homosexual targets and colleges around the country, since April 2009 it has also picketed Jewish sites, according to the Anti-Defamation League.”
— “The church is an ‘extreme group that spews hate wherever it goes,’ said Ron Meier, director of the New York region of ADL. ‘Their strategy is to attract attention and draw a response and by doing so get publicity for their church, and that’s why the ADL has advised all groups not to engage them. Because without a response they don’t gain attention and any further spreading of their view,’ he said.”
— “Westboro Baptist Church is considered to be a fringe organization; it is not associated with any major Christian group or denomination. A documentary about the Phelps family that aired on the BBC was titled, The Most Hated Family in America.”
— “At Chabad of Great Neck, which according to the church website will be picketed at noon on Friday, Sept. 25, Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky said he was aware of the protest and planned to pay no attention to it.”
— “Protest are also planned outside the Great Neck Synagogue, North Shore Hebrew Academy High School and at Temple Beth Israel. The group also plans to picket outside the East Midwood Jewish Center on Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, and in Manhattan at the 92nd Street Y, the Jewish Theological Seminary and at the United Nations. The group’s past targets include appliance stores that sell Swedish vacuum cleaners.”
— “The group’s website states that Jews killed Christ and that, ‘God hates these dark-hearted, rebellious, disobedient Jews.” The fifty-member church claims to have staged over 40,000 protests across the country.”
— “The automated telephone greeting at the Westboro Baptist Church features a pleasant, Southern-accented female voice who advises if you are a ‘Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, or Christ-rejecting Jew,’ that ‘God hates you all,’ and recommends visiting the church’s website where more information is available.

— Additional Reports:

— Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports on “Westboro Baptist Church”

— Southern Poverty Law Center listing of “Westboro Baptist Church” as a hate group