Dayton Jews Cautioned To Keep Away From KKK Rally
Image by Getty
(JTA) — The director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Dayton called on the Jewish public to avoid a KKK rally set for Saturday in the Ohio city.
Rabbi Ari Ballaban said in a statement issued earlier this week that a counter rally scheduled to take place right next to the Honorable Sacred Knights, an Indiana-based white supremacist group, would just give the group the confrontation it is seeking.
Ballaban called on the Jewish community to either stay home or attend the “positive alternative programming” sponsored by the local NAACP chapter and a coalition of some 40 city groups. Titled “An Afternoon of Love, Unity, Peace and Diversity,” the program is being held about a mile from the KKK rally in downtown Courthouse Square.
About 20 members of the KKK group are expected to march on Saturday. They reportedly will be permitted to carry legal sidearm weapons but not rifles, bats or shields, Newsweek reported. About 1,000 protesters are also expected.
The city approved the rally in February after the application to use the public space was filled out correctly and submitted.
Mayor Nan Whaley also called on residents to steer clear of the KKK rally.
“This hate group that is coming in from outside our community wants to incite problems in our community and we want to stop that from happening,” she told Ohio’s Fox45. “We really don’t want people to go downtown because that’s what this hate group wants, and we don’t want to give this hate group what they want.”
Whaley in her comments also said that “Judaism values the preservation of life above almost anything else.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
