Brooklyn Enclave Thwarts Atheist Billboard
An atheist organization’s Hebrew-language billboard calling God a “myth” was not unveiled near a Brooklyn Hasidic enclave as scheduled.
The billboard sponsored by the American Atheists organization was supposed to be unveiled Tuesday in New York’s South Williamsburg. But when workers from the advertising company came to erect the sign on top of an apartment building the landlord would not allow them into the building, the Brooklyn Paper reported.
Instead, the group will on Thursday erect the billboard at a site on the Brooklyn-Queens expressway near the original site, MSNBC reported.
On Wednesday the group is set to erect an Arabic-language billboard with the same message near the Islamic center in Paterson, New Jersey, a community with a large Muslim population.
David Silverman, president of American Atheist, blamed the hitch in the group’s plans on powerful neighborhood rabbis, according to the Brooklyn Paper.
“The Jews have stopped the billboard,” Silverman told the newspaper. “It’s really ugly bigotry. As a former Jew, it’s repugnant to see Jews act like this.”
Landlord Kenny Stier told the newspaper that “I don’t want to get involved in this.”
The billboard advertises an atheist rally in Washington DC on March 24.
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