Synagogue pickets a cynical exercise
Demonstrations smack of harassment
They blame Israel and its supporters for causing all of the unrest and violence occurring there on an almost daily basis.
Fine. That's their opinion.
They advocate their cause in demonstrations outside the federal building on Liberty Street, before City Council, on the Internet and in letters to this paper.
As is their right.
If they wanted to parade their cause on the streets of Ann Arbor - a cause that, for some of them, includes Israel not only giving up the West Bank and Gaza Strip but even its statehood to the Palestinians - let them.
So long, of course, that they get a city permit to do so.
We're all for free speech.
But the group Jewish Witnesses for Peace also has been promoting its cause in front of one of Ann Arbor's synagogues, Beth Israel Congregation.
Every Saturday. And for some 11 months.
Freedom of expression clearly extends to public sites outside of churches, mosques and synagogues. But the demonstrations at the synagogue by this group have become a cynical exercise with no end in sight. Members of Beth Israel find the pickets mocking, intolerant and insensitive, making it difficult for many of them to gather on the Sabbath to worship and celebrate their heritage at the sanctuary unimpeded.
Indeed, what parishioners of any house of worship wouldn't find it offensive having to confront protesters most every time they show up to pray?
Jewish Witnesses for Peace, whose members are not all Jewish, contends that demonstrating in front of Jewish sanctuaries is appropriate because they're not just Jewish religious but Jewish national institutions, and that modern Israel is central to Jewish religious belief.
Israel is central to the Jewish identity. But Jews - be they Orthodox, Reformed, Reconstructionist, Humanist or Conservative, like members of Beth Israel Congregation - are hardly of one mind on Israel or any other subject. The protesters aren't going to change the congregation's "mind" no matter how many times they hold up their signs and offer their opinions. Their continuing presence at Beth Israel instead is having the opposite effect - increasing the ire of members of the congregation and those of the greater Jewish community.
Jewish leaders in the area for some time elected not to publicly confront the group, hoping their pickets would end. But because they haven't, the leaders now are voicing their concerns. Public support from other religious communities for this congregation also has been largely quiet until now, and hopefully that too will change.
Jewish Witnesses for Peace would do themselves and the community better to find other locations to protest or, better still, attempt to engage in a meaningful dialogue that doesn't smack of harassment.