Today, members of the extremist Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church ended their two-day tour of hate in New Jersey. WBC (the God hates Fags & Jews people) added a new slogan to their platform just for their visit to the East Coast – “God Hates New Joisee, U Heard?â€. Seriously? These crazies have spent the last two days spewing their hatred of everything liberal and/or Jewish in the Garden State. Yesterday, they picketed the ADL, JCCs, Federation etc and today they were in front of New Brunswick High School and Rutgers Hillel, among other sites. To Rutgers Hillel’s credit, they didn’t take the news of the impending picket line lying down. They organized a counter protest, Rutgers United Against Hate  to show WBC that you don’t mess with New Jersey.  Counter protest attendees were asked to wear scarlet, the school’s color, to show solidarity. In response, a WBC spokesperson said: “We’ll also be putting on our red. You know what, I happen to have a nice red sweatshirt that says “Jews Killed Jesus.”  You can always expect classy style from Middle America.Â
So mazel tov to Rutgers Hillel and the greater Rutgers community for their successful, peaceful counter-protest.  More than 1200 people stood out in the rain today to show up the 6 person contingent from Westboro Baptist Church. It seems that the extremists were expecting Dirty Jersey;violent outbursts like from Teresa of Real Housewives fame, aggressive behavior like from Tony Soprano, maybe.  But Rutgers delivered their response with singing, readings and cheering for peace and love. RU Rah Rah indeed.
- The Shabbat Experiment - 8/22/2010
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people are always hating on new jersey. i’m a pennsylvanian myself, so while i have a special place in my heart for the garden state, i’m PA all the way.
tzvi, i think that WBC’s hatred in no way compares to the mild dislike that dani expressed.
First Dani Klein says
“The fact that I had to go to New Jersey
was bad enough”
Then he asks why “hateful people” can’t be
arrested. Perhaps he should assess whether
his dismissive attitude toward an entire
state might qualify him for a night in jail.
No, it qualifies him for gratuitous cookies.
I attended KosherFest today at the Meadowlands convention center in NJ. When we arrived around 10am in the rain, low and behold, the WBC was there in their full hate gear, screaming and chanting.
The fact that I had to go to New Jersey was bad enough, but to see this hate-fest made matters much worse. Why cant we arrest hateful people in this country?
~Dani Klein