Most-hated family in America visits Great Neck

(Hint: it's not hard to understand why they're so unpopular)

By Michael Orbach

Special to the web — Sept. 25, 2009 / 7 Tishrei 5770

Noah Phelps, 10, of the Westboro Baptist Church wasn't exactly sure why he was at the protest in Great Neck. Wearing a purple t-shirt and matching purple hat, he held an Israeli flag loosely in one hand; occasionally, deliberately, he stepped on it.

"I'm here, pretty sure I'm here, it's because of the Jews. I don't know."

His Aunt Margie resembled a walking billboard, holding four signs with messaging including "God hates Israel" and "Obama is the anti-Christ." An Israeli flag dotted with fake blood draped her waist. She corrected him politely.

"It's Jews, hon."

For one surreal moment, it seemed as if the Phelps clan was a run-of-the-mill family — albeit one with an incredibly deep-seated hatred toward Jews and homosexuals — that was spending a family vacation praying for the apocalypse.

Moments later, before his relatives broke into song, Noah explained that he didn't have any Jewish friends, though he may have some when the 144,000 Jews are saved, according to the biblical interpretation taught by his grandfather, Fred Phelps, leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. The Kansas-based church became infamous picketing funerals of American soldiers. Recently it has turned its attention to Jewish targets. The Anti-Defamation League considers the Westboro Baptists to be a hate group. Later, a family member called Noah, seemingly disoriented by the attention he was receiving, back behind a poster.

Chabad in Great Neck was the Phelps’ first stop on their tour of the Jewish community of New York. Later in the day they planned to protest outside North Shore Hebrew Academy, the following day in Borough Park and at the East Midwood Jewish Center in Flatbush.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, Noah's mother, earlier explained to the Jewish Star that the sites of the Great Neck protests were chosen after watching Capturing the Friedmans, an Academy-award nominated film that chronicled a Jewish family accused of pedophilia. The Phelps’ seven-member protest included Shirley, her husband and sister, two sons and a daughter, and another man. The group was dwarfed by a swarm of journalists and by police officers assigned to guard the protestors. Every so often, a black convertible would drive by blasting Jewish music; each time the driver yelled "Am Yisroel Chai!" — the nation of Israel lives — before speeding off.

Across the street, twenty protestors cordoned behind metal police barricades, staged a counter demonstration. Several older men wore berets that identified them

as members of the Jewish War Veterans Association.

David Rivkin, who served in Korea, said it was "absolutely necessary" for Jews to stand up against the Phelps clan.

"We have to go by the words of Adolph Hitler,” he said. “All of us are Jews. An attack on one Jews is an attack on all Jews."

Abe Braun, a Satmar Chasid who was driving on his way to make a fish delivery, stopped to support the counter-protest.

"I don't know which is worse: that they're out there," he said pointing to the Phelps family, "or that the Jews aren't here. It's in front of a shul. Where are we?" he asked.

Rabbi Yosef Geisinsky of the Chabad of Great Neck said last week that he was aware of the protest but did not plan to organize a counter-protest; instead he planned to "totally ignore them."

"The less attention we give them, the less attention they’ll get from the media," he explained. "We have to be busy overcoming the darkness with light; making the world a better place for people and that’s the way we’re going to fight darkness.”

Herbert Rosen, 93, a Holocaust survivor who escaped from Germany and went on to fight for the U.S. in World War Two, was worried about the protest.

"The question of color, religion, and where you came from — we are a democracy. We should never have let it happen," he said. "If we forget the past, we have no future."

Shirley Phelps-Roper's other son, Luke, 7, who was also at the rally, was even less sure of why he was there. His eyes were hidden behind oversized sunglasses, and he wore a navy blue shirt with an anti-gay epithet that doubles as the family’s web address. The placard in his hands read "Bloody Obama" and pictured what appeared to be a fetus.

"I don't know," he said meekly when asked why he was there, and struggled to remember how many protests he'd been to. When asked for his favorite television show, he quickly answered "Family Guy," a popular animated series on Fox. His mother explained that they were only allowed to watch the first two seasons since later episodes were inappropriate.

Noah said his favorite character was Stewie, a baby. The show’s creator, Seth MacFarlane, told an interviewer in August that he envisions the Stewie character as gay.

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