Lake Effect News

By LORRAINE SWANSON

Editor

The religious group that is known to picket at the funerals of U.S soldiers killed in the Middle East wars and other public events associated with the GLBT community is targeting Edgewater and Lakeview synagogues in a series of protests scheduled for Monday, Aug. 3.

Westboro Baptist Church members protest in a staging area at last month's Pride Parade. The Topeka, Kansas-based church group condems homosexuality and just about everything else.

The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church has notified Area 3 police districts that members will be visiting Chicago next week for a full day of demonstrations in front of Chicago synagogues and Jewish organizations, including an evening performance by comedian Don Rickles at the Auditorium Theatre.

Michael Zedek, the senior rabbi of the Emanuel Congregation at 5959 N. Sheridan Road, confirmed Thursday afternoon that Westboro Baptist Church members will be staging an event across the street from the Edgewater synagogue.

Rabbi Zedek said he was notified by police sources three weeks ago that church members had targeted his and other neighborhood synagogues.

“We were informed that we should be expecting them. They were supposedly coming another time but got rained out,” Rabbi Zedek said. “We’re always hoping for an intervention from the weather, but we can assume they will be here on Monday.”

Westboro Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church headed by Fred Phelps. Several of its members are interrelated. Church members run two web sites include godhatesfags.com and godhatesamerica.com. The group is best known for its condemnation of homosexuality, which members claim is linked to most global events and tragedies. Westboro members denounce most U.S. religious groups for their increasing tolerance and acceptance of gays and lesbians. The church’s most recent appearance in Chicago was at June’s Pride Parade, a celebration of Chicago’s GLBT community.

While many consider Westboro’s anti-gay message obnoxious and incendiary, church members are described as relatively peaceful by most local police districts, obtaining the legally required permits and careful to inform police prior to scheduled events.

Church members are scheduled to show up across the street from Emanuel at 11:15 a.m. Monday. After that, they will head to Lakeview for demonstrations in front of Anshe Emet Temple, 3751 N. Broadway, at noon, and Temple Shalom, at 3480 N. Lake Shore Drive, at 12:30 p.m.

Temple Shalom was the target of a hate crime in January, when someone threw a Molotov cocktail at the synagogue.

Commander Lucy Moy-Bartosik, of the 20^th Police District, said her force will be monitoring the staged demonstration in front of Emanuel Congregation on Monday.

“We’ll be paying special attention just to assess the situation,” Moy said. “I’m sure [Emanuel Congregation members] don’t want us to draw attention to the synagogue. We will be discreetly in the background.”

Moy said that Westboro members were scheduled to speak with Area 3 Deputy Chief of Patrol Bruce Rottner regarding their plans for Monday. Rottner could not be reached for comment.

While Chicago’s Jewish faith community’s “standard operating procedure” is to ignore groups preaching anti-Jew messages, Rabbi Zedek said he felt it was not the correct response to the Westboro members’ visit.

As of Thursday afternoon, Rabbi Zedek began notifying Edgewater blocks and places of worship of the Phelps family’s upcoming visit on neighborhood Yahoo groups. Many have expressed support for Emanuel Congregation and its members.

The rabbi said he is encouraging “people of good will” to gather in the Emanuel Congregation parking lot at 11 a.m. Monday to stand in silent protest. He believes that Westboro Baptist Church members are hoping to provoke an incident so that they can file a lawsuit against the congregation. The Phelpses are scheduled to arrive across the street 11:15 a.m.

 “I don’t believe that the best response to hatred is silence,” Rabbi Zedek said. “We’re encouraging people to do what they think is appropriate.  People of good will who are not Jewish need to respond. It is our hope that there will be members at large from Christian and Muslim faiths who think it is their responsibility to do something, not only Jews.”

During the 46^th Ward aldermanic race in 2007, church members threatened to picket openly-gay candidate James Cappleman’s campaign office. Cappleman received an e-mail from the church asking if he “was the sodomite running for alderman.” Cappleman told Lake Effect News that church members never showed up.

According to the church’s web site, Westboro Baptist Church members will also picket the Chicago Sinai Congregation and Central Synagogue at 15 W. Delaware, a meeting of the Democratic National Committee, and an evening benefit for the Jewish United Fund-Israel Emergency Fund featuring Rickles, who is Jewish. Noted after the fundraiser for the Jewish United Fund, Rickles “will laugh you to hell.”

“It’s somewhat amusing that Don Rickles is a comedian who’s tried in a peculiar way to make nasty comments funny,” Rabbi Zedek said. “There’s nothing funny about the Westboro Baptist Church.”

Westboro Baptist Church members said they would respond to e-mailed questions before arriving in Chicago on Monday.