Back to the conference here -- editorial in Jewish paper says the JDO is wrong:
Washington Jewish Weekly
Thursday, December 20, 2007
In defense of speech, not hate
Thursday, December 20, 2007
The Jewish Defense Organization has an understandable beef with
American Renaissance, a monthly magazine that is put out by the New Century
Foundation and bills itself as the "premiere publication of racial-realist
thought."
The foundation and magazine both rely on pseudoscientific research,
and attendees at their conventions have included such notorious racists as
David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader and the author of Jewish
Supremacism, and Don Black, operator of the hate Web site Stormfront.
Both we and the JDO are appalled by the white supremacist agenda.
American Renaissance has scheduled a convention in February at the
Crowne Plaza Dulles Airport Hotel in Herndon. JDO wants to shut down that
convention and has begun a campaign called "Operation Nazi Kicker," urging
the hotel to cancel the meeting and threatening to stage protests and
boycotts of the hotel.
JDO, however, is missing something. As much as we deplore hate speech,
we live in a country where it is permissible, as is free assembly. And, the
hotel has as a much of a right to host the convention as it does to reject
it. Plus, while we think hotels should be mindful of which groups they are
willing to have use their facilities, do we really want hotels and meeting
centers making a regular practice of judging clients?
JDO itself, after all, sometimes goes too far in its own language,
crossing the line into hate. While we are appalled every time that members
of the Neturei Karta < an Orthodox anti-Zionist group that believes that a
Jewish state should be formed only when the messianic age arrives < shows up
at a demonstration against Israel or at a Holocaust denial conference, JDO
wants to "wipe the Neturei Karta off the face of the map."
Would JDO want another group to campaign against its convention?
As the hotel told us in a statement: "Though the hotel's management
may not agree with or support the viewpoints of some of our hotel's
customers, these groups are permitted in our hotel as long as their
activities do not violate any federal, state or local ordinance or statute,
or constitute a significant risk of potential harm to other guests or
employees."
Hate speech is not action. And the JDO knows that.
Let's keep the focus on actions, and increased hate crimes legislation
in both the state and national arenas.
