JDL Rallies Against Bomb Attack on Reno Synagogue

Militant Jews burned Nazi and Confederate flags in front of the federal courthouse Friday to rally against racism a day after five skinheads pleaded guilty to attempting to firebomb a synagogue.

The protest organized by the Jewish Defense League attracted about a dozen people and prompted a counterdemonstration by six men who said they were white supremacists and friends of the five neo-Nazis who pleaded guilty.

The young white men unfolded Confederate and Nazi flags and raised their arms in Nazi salutes.

The two sides exchanged obscenities across the street, but there was no violence or arrests.

Leaders of the Jewish Defense League in Los Angeles had planned the flag burning to coincide with the scheduled opening of a trial for the men who police say tried to firebomb a Jewish temple in Reno in November.

Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that the five self-described white supremacists had pleaded guilty to a series of charges and face as much as 40 years in prison. Sentencing was set for Oct. 30.

“The remnant of white supremacy is across the street,” JDL International Chairman Irv Rubin said. He urged Jews across the country to arm themselves against violence aimed at Jews and other minorities.

Some Jewish leaders here criticized the JDL’s protest.

“This does not represent the Jewish community here,” said Rabbi Avraham Keller of the Temple Emanu-El, the synagogue that was targeted.

On Nov. 30, a plastic bottle filled with concrete shattered a window, but the gasoline bomb that followed burned only on the sidewalk. The five men--all in their teens and 20s--selected the building because of its religious affiliation, prosecutors said.

“Even if they did it, they shouldn’t get 15 to 30 years in prison,” said counterdemonstrator Jesse Doremus, who said he shared the men’s views on white supremacy.