The Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo is asking all Buffalo Jews to boycott both a rally planned by a local neo-Nazi group and a counter-rally by the Martin Luther King Day Coalition in the city’s Niagara Square at 10 a.m. Jan. 15, the 52nd birthday of the slain civil rights leader, Federation president Gail Kaplan said last Friday.
At the same time, Buffalo Jews have been asked to participate in a commemorative gathering to honor King in the city’s Lafayette Square the same day at 12 noon organized by the city’s Black Leadership Forum which, according to Mrs Kaplan, comprises all of the major Black organizations in the community. The rally in Lafayette Square is being cosponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews and by many other community organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo, Mrs. Kaplan said.
She reported on the Niagara Square and the Lafayette Square actions in a telephone interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. She said that a hearing was planned tomorrow in Federal District Court in Buffalo on an injunction to ban the Nazi rally. The New York City office of the American Civil Liberties Union is filing a friend of the court brief on behalf of the neo-Nazi group. Mrs. Kaplan said that planned Jewish participation in other events commemorating King would proceed regardless of the action Federal Judge John Elfein takes on the injunction.
Mayor James Griffin of Buffalo has refused to issue permits for the neo-Nazi and the King Coalition counter-rally in an attempt to prevent violence. The Coalition, however, said it was going ahead with its rally, stating that its members “have no faith in Mayor Griffin’s ‘efforts’ to ban the Nazi rally.”
FEDERATION POSITION OUTLINED
The positions of the Federation and of the Buffalo Board of Rabbis were stated in two notices mailed last Friday by the Federation to Buffalo’s 7000 Jewish families, Mrs. Kaplan said. The statement of the Federation’s position was signed by Mrs. Kaplan and Harold Axlerod, chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Committee of the Federation, according to Morris Rombro, the Federation’s executive director.
The boycott request was one of a series of statements approved unanimously last Tuesday night at a special meeting of the Federation board called to consider the planned Nazi rally, Rombro told the JTA.
The Federation statement urged Buffalo Jews not to go to the Niagara Square events, “even as observers.” The statement said that the Jewish community was participating in a commemorative gathering in honor of King’s memory in Buffalo’s Lafayette Square on Jan. 15, adding that “we encourage all members of the community to attend this rally and to boycott all activities at Niagara Square.”
The Federation statement urged all Buffalo Jews to attend a concert tribute to the memory of the slain Black leader, also on Jan. 15, at the Kleinhaus Music Hall. Buffalo Jews also were asked to attend a meeting on Jan. 18, sponsored by B’nai B’rith at the Jewish Community Center at which the speaker will be Nathan Nogler, a vice chairman of the New York regional board of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and chairman of the Anti-Semitism Task Force of the region.
The Federation statement also asked Buffalo Jews to “wear the brotherhood badges” created by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The JTA was told the badges were created especially for the occasion.
BOARD OF RABBIS’ POSITION
The statement from the Buffalo Board of Rabbis, signed by its president, Rabbi Sholom Stern, declared that “the people who are singling out Blacks today as their targets of hatred will tomorrow attempt to launch their vitriolic hate campaign against Jews.”
This was a reference to the fact that a week ago, three Black men were stabbed in Buffalo, one of them fatally, by white attackers. Last fall, six Black men were murdered by white assailants. No arrests have been made in the assaults.
The plaintiffs seeking the injunction against the Nazi rally are the Black Leadership Forum; the Unity Day Steering Committee, and its spokesperson, Sister Joan Malone; the Buffalo Board of Rabbis; Charles Haynie, as a parent; Ronald Fino, Joseph Newton and Thomas Fricano, as taxpapers; and City Councilman David Collins.
Their suit named Karl Hand as a member and officer of the American Nazi Party, as a representative of the National Socialist Party of America and as a representative of the Western New York Information Center in Buffalo, an organization formed by Hand for receiving and distributing literature, and John Doe and Richard Roe, cited as “persons unknown.” Judge Elfein ordered Hand to appear in court tomorrow to show cause why the neo-Nazi group should not be prevented from holding a rally on Jan. 15 in Niagara Square.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
