by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

September 25, 2008

Thousands of people angered at the possibility of Iranian nuclear weapons and their potential use against Israel rallied outside the United Nations Monday — some 24 hours before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was scheduled to address the General Assembly.

Jewish organizations and their allies — many from Jewish day schools, some from the Christian evangelical community — filled several streets near the UN building in Manhattan as speaker after speaker denounced the Iranian government and its leader.

With demonstrators chanting “Stop Iran now!” and waving Israeli flags, speakers representing organizations ranging from Israel’s Knesset to Canada’s Parliament issued admonitions to Ahmadinejad and urged the international community to oppose the regime in Tehran.

“Last year Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came, and we came to protest his coming. And now he is back — so we are back,” said novelist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, a concentration camp survivor.

“We say, ‘Please go home. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, go home and stay there. We don’t want you here. Nobody wants you here.’ In truth, the proper place of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not in the United Nations. Not at social events. Not at diplomatic dinners. The only place he belongs is at an international tribunal, which will charge him with inciting crimes against humanity,” said Wiesel.

For local participants, there was no underestimating the importance of standing up to Iran and having their message heard.

“This was extraordinarily important. Ahmadinejad is a powerful threat to the world,” said Max Kleinman, executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, which sponsored a bus to bring local participants to the protest rally.

“It is very important that all people who care about freedom and the safety of the world gather together to join in solidarity against Ahmadinejad and his regime.”

Philip Horn of West Orange, chair of the Israel and World Affairs Committee of UJC MetroWest’s Community Relations Committee, said he was glad to see the large numbers of demonstrators. “All of the tumult stimulated people to come. I don’t think Iranians are deaf to what is taking place.”

The rally was part of a “window of opportunity to act and engage others to act to dampen Iran’s ability to go nuclear,” said CRC director Lori Price Abrams. “We are in a very serious game if we do not prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The rally was a galvanizing moment for the community.”

Jill Tekel of West Orange said she also was “impressed with the turnout. I met people from California and from Canada with the same message. Regardless of religion, we spoke out in one voice.”

And Barbara Israel Bortniker, a West Orange attorney, said she was heartened by “a bit of diversity, but I would like to have seen a few more non-Jewish groups there. All human beings afraid of nuclear holocaust ought to be standing up against this guy.”

Ferne Hassan, assistant director of the American Jewish Committee’s Metro New Jersey Area, however, found the turnout disappointing. “The numbers were not as big as I had anticipated,” she said. “It suggests a waning of advocacy. This is an important issue that affects not just Jews but all Americans.”

On the contrary, said Merle Kalishman of Livingston, chair of the MetroWest CRC, who said she was “overwhelmed by the turnout compared to last year. Obviously, concern about the Iranian threat has grown.”

‘Hateful language’

Rally speakers stayed on message, slamming the visiting Iranian leader and warning of the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to the United States, Israel, and the world.

‘We cannot allow and we will not tolerate this threat.’

There was little sign of the political controversy that enveloped the event last week when an invitation to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was withdrawn two days after U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) canceled her longstanding plans to address the rally.

Representing the government of Israel was Speaker of the Knesset Dahlia Itzik.

“Enough is enough,” she said. “We cannot allow and we will not tolerate this threat. Today we pledge to stand united and work together and put an end to this great danger and make the world a better place.”

Former Israeli cabinet member and onetime Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky urged the crowd to “never lose heart. This is the fight we can win. This is the fight we must win. This is the fight we will win.” 

Two Iranian-born human rights activists turned the discussion away from potential nuclear threat to repressive acts committed by the government against its own people.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam, a human rights activist and runner-up in a Miss World beauty pageant, said, “How can we trust leaders like Ahmadinejad, who openly violate basic human rights conventions? This year alone, six children have been executed and 140 remain in prison right now awaiting their execution.”

Benafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, a crusader and filmmaker whose father is a political prisoner, told the crowd, “I am not for war but I can certainly understand the existential threat that makes war seem a viable solution.” She described the government as one that functions “as a mafia-type state with its mullah mobsters, loyal families, sidekicks, and flunkies. Absolute payoffs and corruption are the blooming spirit of this regime.”

Pat Pattillo, senior program director of the National Council of Churches, alluded to Ahmadinejad’s threats against Israel and his denial of the Holocaust.

“President Ahmadinejad’s hateful language denying the Holocaust and calling for Israel to be wiped off the map must be consistently and forcefully denounced by all who value peace,” he said.

Following Pattillo, a representative of the mainline Protestant churches, the Rev. Paul deVries, president of the evangelical New York Divinity School, called for interfaith activism.

In fiery rhetoric, deVries said, “We must stand together as Christians, as Jews, as people of every faith, as people of no faith. We must stop his promise to create another Holocaust.”

Sophie Lubka of West Orange, a native of Poland who was incarcerated in three concentration camps, held aloft a homemade sign that said “Holocaust Survivor: Never Again.”

“I hope the diplomats will listen to our cries and do something about them,” she said. “There should be no more Holocausts and no more wars.”

Standing by her side was a fellow survivor, Philip Bardash, who fled from Germany to Siberia and now lives in Parsippany.

“I am upset that we didn’t have a better showing of the leaders in our government who claim to be so pro-Israel,” he said. “We should speak with one voice.”

Robert Wiener, with reporting from JTA

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