**Press Release**

UJC MetroWest condemns the message of hate by the Westboro Baptist Church

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has announced plans to picket the JCC MetroWest in West Orange, among several other New Jersey locations and many other sites around the country, on October 27, 2009.

UJC MetroWest condemns the hate-mongering and extremist rhetoric that the WBC has practiced for decades and is the evident purpose behind the targeting of Jewish institutions. The WBC is a hate group whose targets have been Jews, homosexuals, Catholics, Lutherans, and other Christian denominations they consider heretical. They also have protested at the funerals of people murdered and killed in accidents such as plane crashes, as well as funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Their tactic is to provoke confrontation so as to obtain and benefit from media coverage of the event. UJC MetroWest and our partner organizations, including the JCC, are committed to not giving them that publicity.

“We condemn the outrageous expressions of hatred and bigotry toward the Jewish people, Israel, and homosexuals by the Westboro Baptist Church. There is no place among serious people for this kind of intolerance and extreme rhetoric,” said Gary O. Aidekman, President of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. “UJC MetroWest and its partner organizations will carry on with their regular activities of the day, ignoring this publicity seeking and insidious group so as not to give any credence to their message.”

The proper law enforcement authorities are fully aware of the WBC’s intentions and have planned appropriate security measures to prevent violence and to maintain public access to the JCC while protesters are on site. We urge members of the community to conduct their regular activities on October 27 but to avoid engaging with the WBC protesters or confronting them in any way. Confrontations are what they want — the press reports are the way they spread their message of hate.

Above all, UJC wishes to emphasize that the security and safety of community members and of our staff is of the utmost importance and is our greatest concern. The JCC is taking all measures possible to insure the well-being of everyone who comes to its facility during the protests.

“The Westboro Baptist Church demonstrations of hatred and intolerance are not only directed against the Jewish community, but against most Christian denominations, and everyone they consider heretics,” said David Lentz, Chair, CRC of MetroWest. “This is an opportunity to remain vigilant against prejudice and bigotry of any kind. Our response as people from many different communities and faiths should be to join together and support each other to show the world that this type of hatred only draws us closer together.”

As members of the Jewish community, we at UJC wish to express our pride in the historic dedication of the Jewish people to fighting for equality, for our own people and for all people, regardless of religion and culture, gender, and sexual orientation. Jewish people have traditionally been in the forefront of the fight for equal rights in the modern world. The fight for freedom is the very beginning of the story of our religion, and it is a commitment that we maintain to this day. It is the heart of what we believe — that all people of good will have the right to respect, and equal treatment, and recognition of their full humanity — that all people have the right to exist.

At times like these particularly, it is all the more imperative for us to remember what our highest values have taught us, and what we work to represent on this earth.