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Community rallies outside Ten Thousand Villages

By Jason Cohen

October 10, 2008
 

About 150 area residents Sept. 25 rallied outside Ten Thousand Villages in Highland Park to protest the decision by the chain store's owners to host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for dinner that night.

The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), owners of the Ten Thousand Villages craft shops, was one of a small group of religious organizations to treat Ahmadinejad at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Manhattan.

The rally was organized by locals Jeffrey Schreiber and Harry Glazer.

"[Ahmadinejad] is funding Hamas, Hezbollah, denying the Holocaust ever happened, and demoralizing Israel," Glazer said. "Some people grant him respect that he doesn't deserve, and we need to stop him," Glazer said.

Alan Gordon, a resident of Highland Park said he thinks Ahmadinejad is a danger to the world -- and must be stopped.

"He is very similar to Hitler and as an American and Orthodox Jew I feel he must be stopped," Gordon said.

Bruce Birnberg, of East Brunswick, said he is often frustrated with world events and the fact that the Mennonites and Quakers are supporting Ahmadinejad.

"I usually can't do anything, but tonight I can," Birnberg said. "He poses a threat to Europe, Israel, and anyone that he supplies weapons to."

In November 2007, The Jewish State published a story bringing to light the connections between Ten Thousand Villages and anti-Israel organizations ("H.P. shop: Questionable connections," Nov. 9, 2007).

The chain stores are a fully owned subsidiary of the MCC, and in fact as of last year were responsible for bringing in more than one-third -- the largest single share -- of the MCC's income. The MCC publishes anti-Israel material and funds anti-Israel and anti-Semitic organizations in the Middle East. In addition, then-Ten Thousand Villages' chairman Paul Quiring had given testimony -- later shown to be false -- to a United Nations committee on Arab refugees. When The Jewish State alerted Ten Thousand Villages' board that it had obtained the testimony, planned on publishing it, and asked for Quiring's side of the story, Quiring was replaced as chairman with Alex Hartzler. Both declined to comment on the testimony.

Not all the attendees at the rally were there to protest the MCC. Highland Park resident Gary Mitchell objected to the marginalization of groups that are willing to hold a dialogue with Ahmadinejad.

"Dialogue is always good, but it's not just the Mennonites, but the Episcopalians and the Catholics that support him as well," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said that Ahmadinejad was misunderstood when he spoke to the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 22. Mitchell said The New York Times claimed Ahmadinejad's words were misrepresented.

"I think we need to talk, not bomb, and I think his Farsi was translated wrong," he said.

Andrew Getraer, the executive director of Rutgers University Hillel, spoke at the rally and said Ahmadinejad is directly complicit in killing thousands of Americans.

"We are gathered here today because we, too, are outraged by the international forum and legitimacy granted to this purveyor of violence, hatred and lies," Getraer said. "A man who regularly and repeatedly calls for genocide -- for what other name is appropriate for Ahmadinejad's openly calling for the destruction of an entire sovereign nation and its people, the state of Israel." 

Getraer said some people are treating Ahmadinejad as a respectable international leader, when he clearly is not.

"The leader of a wealthy and expanding nation who subscribes to conspiracy theories that the Jews -- he uses the code word Zionists -- manipulate American and European leaders and control international financial and monetary centers," Getraer said, describing the Iranian president. "Modern history teaches us that when paranoid, ant-Semitic, and anti-democratic national leaders make open and extravagant threats, while wielding significant military power, no one in the world is safe."

Ahmadinejad is a danger to the people of Iran, to Israel, and the world, he said. 

"As we gather here, Ahmadinejad is speaking at a major dinner, invited and sponsored by a coalition of groups, including a group that goes by the misnomer of Religions for Peace, including the Mennonite Central Committee," Getraer said.

Getraer expressed his disapproval of Ten Thousand Villages' -- via the MCC -- support for anti-Israel causes.

"Because of this, many of us in town have chosen to boycott Ten Thousand Villages, and to protest in front of it," Getraer said. Now, I have to tell you, I feel a little bad about this.  After all, I have no idea if the local management of the store shares the parent body's politics, and I am quite sure the villagers and artisans in Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, Guatemala, and many other nations have no idea what Ten Thousand Villages' leaders are doing. But months ago I joined this boycott and today I encourage these protests. Because hatred and lies and prejudice must be opposed immediately and completely, in every context and in every way."

He encouraged unity in the face of the Iranian threat.

"To paraphrase Edmund Burke: All that is necessary for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men to remain silent," he said. "We are not silent, and now is the time."

Doniel Sherman, a resident of Highland Park that attends the Torah Academy of Bergen County, spoke at the rally and said he can't believe that Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust occurred.

Ahmadinejad, along with 67 attendees from 30 countries, took part in an international conference to review the Holocaust in Tehran in 2006 that questioned if the Holocaust existed.

"You see, I am the grandson of Holocaust survivors," Sherman said. "When I see my grandmother, I see the numbers on her arm. When I see my grandfather, I see the way he has blocked out the memories of events too painful and too gruesome to recall.  When I talk to my grandparents, as much as they try to shield me from knowing about the suffering they experienced, every so often, some of their pain slips into their voices." 

Sherman said he visited Yad Vashem so he knows the Holocaust happened and after visiting it he felt ashamed to eat because he saw that many people died during the Holocaust from starvation. 

"I felt ashamed to continue my summer experience, when so many of my cousins and uncles and aunts spent their waking hours being treated like animals," he said. "And I felt ashamed that I have not remembered these martyrs every day of my life, because six million members of my Jewish family were wiped out in six short years."

Sherman said Ahmadinejad hates Israel and wants to destroy it because it is such a strong ally with the United States.

"Ahmadinejad isn't bothered by the testimonies of hundreds, if not thousands, of survivors who testified about the atrocities they experienced," Sherman said. "His indifference and denial of these horrors that occurred only two generations ago is evil. Such a man does not deserve the opportunity to voice his hateful message in this land where we treasure human rights and civil rights. Inviting Ahmadinejad to address the U.N. or to discuss his opinions over dinner is akin to inviting Muammar Qaddafi, Idi Amin, or any other despot to your dinner table and listening to his opinions. 

"Scarily enough, though, the Mennonite Central Committee is doing just that -- again, after having done it in 2006 and last year. We are gathered outside of Ten Thousand Villages, a store owned by the Mennonite Central Committee, to protest the invitation the Committee and others extended to Ahmadinejad to engage in a dialogue over supper tonight."

Schreiber said since the first time the Mennonites hosted Ahmadinejad, he has had ideas of genocide and plans to destroy America and Israel.

"Each year he is given a dinner by the people that own Ten Thousand Villages," Schreiber said. "What point do intelligent people stop and think of what Ahmadinejad is really doing? We simply can not support Ahmadinejad or anyone like him."

Schreiber said the rally against Ahmadinejad in Manhattan that took place across the street from the Grand Hyatt Hotel where Ahmadinejad was staying drew an estimated 1,000 people.

"I think that considering that our entire Highland Park population is just 16,000, a tiny fraction of the audience that the N.Y. City rally drew from, the fact that we drew 15 percent of the audience that attended N.Y. City makes me especially proud and happy about our turnout," Schreiber said.

Michael Gordon and his son, Tzvi, of Highland Park said they were protesting    Ahmadinejad and the MCC because they felt such an evil man as Ahmadinejad doesn't deserve face-to-face meetings with those seeking peace.

"He is following in the footsteps of Hitler, but trying not to make the same errors," Rebecca Goldwaser, of East Brunswick, said. "The U.N. is a bunch of crooks."

Joel Paul, of Edison, said many people feel that Ahmadinejad is equivalent to Hitler. 

Marc Hanfling, of Edison, said Ahmadinejad is supplying weapons for insurgents in Iraq and needs to be taken seriously.

"Iran is the foremost sponsor of terrorism in the world," Hanfling said.