Jews See Lesson In Aryan March Opportunity To Learn How To Deal With Hatred

Members of North Idaho’s small Jewish community say the Aryan Nations march through Coeur d’Alene should not be ignored, but should be used to teach Jews and others how to deal with hatred.

“Any incident like this offers the opportunity to reaffirm one’s support for human rights,” said Alan Wasserman, a member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and lawyer with Idaho Legal Aid. “In the normal course of daily activity, people don’t have the opportunity to speak out on human rights.”

Helen Stoddard, an Israeli citizen and Jew who lives in Hayden, said the Aryan Nations plan to march through downtown Coeur d’Alene shows that “there is no place in America that is isolated from evil.”

Stoddard called for shopkeepers to close their businesses and fly flags at half staff if and when the Aryan Nations march.

“I don’t think they should feel this is just a Jewish problem,” she said. “Their literature spells it out. It isn’t against only the Jewish people.”

The Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group with a compound north of Hayden Lake, originally applied for a request to march through Coeur d’Alene on April 18 to commemorate Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Financial troubles forced the group to postpone its event until late July in conjunction with the annual Aryan World Congress.

The planned march has attracted attention throughout the West. Irv Rubin, an activist with a long history of arrests who represents the Los Angeles-based Jewish Defense League, has promised a countermarch.

But many in the Jewish community say Rubin’s tactics are too aggressive.

“Irv Rubin does not speak for anyone other than Irv Rubin,” said Rabbi Jacob Izakson of Spokane’s Temple Beth Shalom. “The march is definitely not going to be ignored. It is a teaching opportunity. It is not a time for violence.”

Izakson said his congregation plans to decide by the end of the month how best to deal with the proposed march. Meanwhile, the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations is continuing to gather pledges for cash donations based on the duration of the Aryan Nations march.

Stoddard said parents should find out from their children how much they understand about the march and explain, at their level, the differences between good and evil.

“Hatred has to be taught,” she said. “It’s not something you’re born with.”

It’s that hatred, Stoddard said, that inflicts more abuse on an already wounded community. She says she had friends in Coeur d’Alene who had survived the Holocaust but were afraid to speak about their experiences.

While violent confrontation may not be the right answer, Myron Schreck, a University of Idaho and board member of the Jewish Community of the Palouse, said it is an understandable response.

“To hear anyone speak honorably about Adolf Hitler sends chills through the bones of any person who is Jewish and any person who cares about the results of hatred and intolerance,” Schreck said. “I would not suspect that any Jewish person feels at ease knowing that there were a number of people who wanted to use the opportunity to celebrate the birthday of this person.”

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: PUBLIC DISCUSSION Tonight, Norm Gissel of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations will discuss the community’s response to the Aryan Nations march. His presentation begins at 5 p.m. at the North Idaho Unitarian Universalist Church, 610 N. Fourth, Coeur d’Alene.