Students Join Protest of Neo-Nazi Rally

Harvard students and affiliates joined hundreds of others at Faneuil Hall yesterday to honor the 60th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust and shout down neo-Nazi groups who came to protest the event.

In sharply contrasting scenes, several hundred mourners filed into a tightly-guarded Holocaust Remembrance Day memorial service while others rallied outside, chanting anti-Nazi slogans in anticipation of the arrival of members of the Arkansas-based White Revolution and other fascist groups.

The protest forced the closure of streets around Faneuil Hall and Government Center.

Ten to 15 white supremacist demonstrators arrived about halfway through the memorial service, escorted by eight mounted police and more than 50 riot police.

After marching down Congress Street, the neo-Nazi demonstrators were directed behind police barricades as about ten times as many anti-Nazi protestors hurled insults and chanted slogans like “we say no, we say no, Nazi scum have got to go.”

“The counter-protest presence was huge,” said Jason D. Misium ’08, who was filming a documentary with Kris Bartkus ’08 for a final class project.

The counter-protest, which was formally endorsed by the Harvard Social Forum, drew a varied group of Harvard affiliates.

Edward Childs, a cook in Adams House and chief steward of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 26, said his reason for coming was simple—“to oppose Nazism.”

“It was a pretty pathetic showing,” he said of the white supremacist group.

Judith Murciano, a Leverett House tutor who teaches Expository Writing 20, “Censorship and Freedom of Expression,” said she was at the memorial service in part to “live the principles I teach.”

Her son, Raviv Murciano-Goroff ’09, said he heard about the memorial and the subsequent protest through a Harvard e-mail list.

“You have a group of racists coming to Boston to protest something as beautiful as the Holocaust Memorial... it’s important that we show that Boston doesn’t tolerate racism, anti-Semitism,” he said.

Murciano-Goroff also attended the remembrance service, which drew around 900 people to honor survivors of the tragedy and hear remarks from leaders of local and national Jewish organizations.

Outside, beneath the imposing facade of Faneuil Hall and the bronze statue of Samuel Adams, disparate groups came together to stand down the neo-Nazi groups.

Tufts senior Katie G. Todd attended the protest with a small group of Harvard students after learning of the event through a political activism e-mail list.

“I couldn’t believe it was actually real,” she said, adding that the hatred she saw on neo-Nazi websites motivated her to come to the protest and take a stand.

When neo-Nazi groups convened in Boston 11 years ago, they were similarly confronted by area activists, said Alyssa M. Aguilera ‘08.

“I think it’s important to have some sort of opposition to the Nazis,” Aguilera said.

THE CONFRONTATION

As time passed without the neo-Nazi groups arriving, some protestors grew skeptical that their opponents would show up at all.

Misium and Bartkus said that they witnessed two false alarms as protestors waited for the neo-Nazis to appear.

At one point, the crowd mobbed a small group of people dressed as punks who were not affiliated with the Nazi groups. The police isolated those victims and spirited them away in a police car.

Finally, half-an-hour into the memorial service, anti-Nazi protestors spotted the white supremacists rounding the corner toward Faneuil Hall with a heavy police escort.

The group, carrying a banner with the White Revolution logo and anti-Israel signs, were heckled by more than a hundred activists as they marched down Congress St.

While members of both groups largely stayed separate, two people were arrested for scuffling in the crowd, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Shireen Chambers, 36, of Dorchester, and Jerome Higins, 25, of Everett, were both charged with affray and disturbing the peace.

Chambers, who is white, allegedly struck Higins, who is black, in the face. Higins then allegedly spit on Chambers and hit her with a sign, the AP reported.

After about 45 minutes, the police led the neo-Nazi protestors into two waiting police vans.

“It gives you a sense of dedication, a sense of fear...it brings home the reality of hate,” said Herbert Belkin, who attended the Holocaust Remembrance service, of the memorial and protest.

—Staff writer Kristin E. Blagg can be reached at kblagg@fas.harvard.edu.