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New Target

Wrath of Kansas church switches to Jewish community.

Eric Fingerhut
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington

A

fter years of focusing on gays
and lesbians with its protests,
the Westboro Baptist Church
has a new target — the Jewish corn-
munity.
The Topeka, Kan.-based church, which
features the slogan "God Hates Fags," pro-
tested at three Jewish sites in Washington
May 15. The protests are part of a series
of rallies that will bring members of the
church to Jewish community institu-
tions in Omaha, St. Louis, South Florida
and Providence in the next few weeks,
according to the church's Web site and
fliers the group is distributing that list
scheduled protests and proclaim "Jews
Killed the Lord Jesus?'
Led by Pastor Fred Phelps, the 71-
member church, according to Anti-
Defamation League research, first
gained notoriety about a decade ago
when it began picketing the funerals
of gays or those they thought were gay
— including Matthew Shepard, who was
the victim of an anti-gay attack.
In recent years, church members
frequently have protested outside the
funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and
Afghanistan or at other events that are
likely to bring news coverage and, in
turn, publicity to the church. One such
event was the funeral of three young
girls killed in a traffic accident.
While picketing outside the
Washington office of the Anti-
Defamation League last week, Phelps'
daughter Margie said the group is now
focusing on the Jewish community
because church members have been
"testifying" to gentiles for 19 years that
"America is doomed" and they haven't
gotten the message.
"Now it's too late," she said. "We're
done with them."
Margie Phelps added, "One of the
loudest voices" in favor of homosexual-
ity and abortion is "the Jews, especially
the rabbis."
"They claim to be God's chosen peo-
ple," she said. "Do you think that God is
going to wink at that forever?"
Deborah Lauter, the ADL's director of

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May 21 • 2009

Margie Phelps rails against Jews and Israel in Washington.

civil rights, said the church has always
been "anti-Semitic" but never targeted
the Jewish community until recently. She
said the ADL isn't entirely sure what trig-
gered the new focus on Jews, but specu-
lated that the help the ADL provided to
a school that the church picketed last
month for performing the musical Rent
could have something to do with it.
Mark Potok, director of the Southern
Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project
tracking hate groups, said he didn't
think there was any real significance to
the church's new focus on Jews.
"With a group willing to picket the
funerals of little girls killed in a school
bus crash, it's hard to be surprised by
anything they do," Potok said. "They're
the farthest fringe:' he said, noting
that even hard-line anti-gay groups are

embarrassed by Phelps' church.
Lauter added that the protesters are
not violent and don't try to recruit oth-
ers to their cause. But they are provoca-
tive and are "baiting the Jewish commu-
nity to respond?'
"We're advising Jewish institutions not
to give them the publicity they crave:' she
said, and not engage the protesters.
In Washington, the group first pick-
eted the funeral of former Congressman
Jack Kemp and then protested outside
the ADL offices, the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum and the city's larg-
est synagogue, Washington Hebrew
Congregation. The group positioned
itself across the street from the museum
— on the edge of the National Mall
— meaning that visitors to the museum
that afternoon did not even necessarily

see them when entering the facility.
Margie Phelps and three fellow
church members stood on the sidewalk
and held signs stating that "God Hates
Israel," "Jews Killed Jesus;' "America Is
Doomed,""Israel Is Doomed," and "ADL
Jew Bullies." One of the four women had
an Israeli flag tied around her waist that
dragged on the ground; she stepped on
the flag as she walked.
Alluding to prophecy in the book
of Revelation, Phelps said that all the
nations of the world would soon be
marching on Israel, led by President
Obama, whom she called the "antichrist?'
She said "Israel is doomed" and that only
the 144,000 "righteous Jews out there"
would survive the "persecution" that all
other Jews will experience. —
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