| Convention
Draws Criticism |
By Rebecca Plevin
Observer Staff Writer |
| A Jewish organization is waging a campaign to stop the monthly
magazine American Renaissance's February convention at the
Crowne Plaza Dulles Airport hotel in Herndon. The magazine
bills itself as being the "premiere publication of racial-realist
thought," according to its Web site. |
| The Jewish Defense Organization, a group that fights anti-Semitism
and trains Jews in self-defense techniques, began this week
calling Washington, D.C., area Jewish groups, Hillel organizations
and local synagogues to urge people to contact the hotel and
request that the meeting be cancelled, said Jewish Defense
Organization spokesman Jeff Adler. |
| "People are very upset about this," Adler said. "People
do not want this Nazi meeting to happen." |
| Adler said he was encouraging people to, "flood the hotel,
let the highest levels of the hotel know, this Nazi meeting
must be stopped." |
| The group called its effort "Operation Nazi-Kicker" and
listed the phone numbers of the hotel management on its Web
site, www.jewishdefense.org. |
| "I think it's totally illegitimate to try to sabotage someone's
meeting," said Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance.
"I cannot think of words strong enough to condemn that." |
| Taylor said trying to shut down another group's meeting
flies against the American values of freedom of speech and
democracy. "They would be very happy in Stalin's Soviet Union,"
he said. |
| The American Renaissance convention will cover the themes
of race and immigration, Taylor said. The event will feature
speakers such as J. Philippe Rushton, a professor at the University
of Western Ontario, who is the author of the book "Race, Evolution
and Behavior," and Paul Gottfried, a professor at Elizabethtown
College in Pennsylvania, who is the author of "Conservatism
in America: Making Sense of the American Right," according
to the publication's Web site. |
| "What we talk about is entirely legitimate and in accordance
with history, morality and human nature," Taylor said. "We
have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of." |
| David Welliver, general manager of the Crowne Plaza, did
not return calls by The Observer's deadline on Wednesday night. |
