Neta Meltzer was still grieving last week’s shooting deaths of a Johnson County native and her boyfriend outside a Jewish museum in Washington, DC, when she heard about the white nationalist group marching in downtown Kansas City on Saturday.
Three days after Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were killed as they left the Jewish Capital Museum, the news about scores of masked Patriot Front members descending on the downtown area was tough to stomach.
“On the heels of the tragedy last week in DC, to see this other layer of hate kind of surrounding the community, obviously, is just so troubling,” said Meltzer, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau/American Jewish Committee. “And really, in the environment that we’re in in this moment, it compounds the pain.
“But it also increases the very tangible sense of fear that came out of what happened in DC and that they bring with them when they do these sorts of demonstrations.”
Milgrim, 26, who grew up in Prairie Village, and Lischinsky, 30, both were staff members at the Israeli Embassy. Lischinsky had bought an engagement ring and planned to propose to Milgrim in Jerusalem this week while the couple was visiting his family, officials said. A man yelling “free Palestine” was arrested at the scene of the shooting and has since been charged with first-degree murder and other crimes.
Milgrim’s private funeral was held Tuesday in Overland Park.
On Saturday, more than 150 Patriot Front members gathered at the National WWI Museum and Memorial and marched downtown carrying flags — including Confederate flags — and chanting. Many questioned why Kansas City police did not make any arrests or cite the group for transporting members downtown in U-Haul rental trucks.
U-Haul International took swift action against those who rented its trucks, saying Tuesday that those who signed the rental contracts are now prohibited from any future business with U-Haul.
The Patriot Front is a white nationalist “and avowedly fascist nationwide organization” that was formed in the aftermath of the deadly “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights.
Meltzer said the events that have transpired in the past week “almost leave me speechless.”
“On one day, you have this just absolutely devastating murder, sort of like a true illustration of what globalized Intifada means,” she said. “And then just days later, from the other extreme of the spectrum, you have these demonstrators coming in and just demonstrating hate, and you can really see almost too clearly just the sheer breadth of what the Jewish community is facing.”
But one thing is certain, Meltzer said: “This is not Kansas City.”
“As disturbing as this is, the Jewish community knows this is not who we are,” she said. “What we’ve seen since last Wednesday night, last Thursday, has been really a tremendous outpouring of support and love for our community, from elected leaders, from community leaders. Everyone understands what this meant to us and what we are feeling right now.
“So these demonstrators, they are not representative of our community and while what they’re doing is compounding that pain, we are very clear-eyed that they will not accomplish their goals.”
‘They came and they went’
Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said she didn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out why the Patriot Front chose Kansas City for its march.
“To try to understand or rationalize the minds of people like that is a good waste of your time,” Grant said. “They came and they went. The cops didn’t arrest them. I mean, what can you do?”
Grant said when she sees events like the march on Saturday, “I see a bunch of racist, ignorant, cowardly individuals.”
“If they are proud of what they’re doing, why are they hiding their faces?” she said. “I don’t walk around with a mask on. I’m proud to be a Black American. And when I go down to protest, wherever I’m going to protest, I want the people to see me. I will not mask up to bring my activism.
“It’s distasteful, but they have a right to walk on the sidewalks. They have a right to protest, just like I do. I’m just not going to be a coward, and I’m not going to hide my face.”
US Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II said in a statement Tuesday that the First Amendment protects the free speech rights of all Americans.
“But I want to make clear that the hate group that marched in Kansas City this weekend is an embarrassment — which is why they wear masks — and does not represent the accepting and loving community I’ve been proud to call home for decades,” said Cleaver, a former Kansas City mayor and a United Methodist minister.
“As always, the light will outshine the darkness, and love will overpower hate in our communities.”
Together, he added, “we will ensure that Kansas City and all of #MO05 are a welcoming place for ALL of God’s children.”