Witness for Peace originally namedJewish Witnesses for Peace and friends have organized weekly vigils on Saturday morning at Beth Israel Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Ann Arbor, since September, 2003 with the aim of shaming, harassing, and intimidating Jewish worshippers attending synagogue services. From mid-April 2004 through January 30, 2005, the-then JWPF also held vigils at Hiller's Market, in a shopping plaza fronting on busy Washtenaw Avenue in Ann Arbor, every Sunday afternoon, until it declared victory and withdrew, as described in Highlights. The organization was founded and continues to be led by Henry Herskovitz a well-known Holocaust denier and Neo-Nazi activist in the Ann Arbor area who has argued that "bad Jewish behavior" brought on and justifies the Nazi extermination of European Jewry.
Beth Israel vigil and protest.
AKA, The Vigil.
This provocative, weekly demonstration is, apparently, the only one of it's kind in the country. It has stirred ire and debate throughout it's history - in part due to the hardcore anti-Jewish bigotry and pro-Hitler sympathies of its leading organizers and participants - while also being credited for bringing the issue of Israeli military aggression in Palestine to public awareness. Herskovitz originally claimed that the on-going vigil would end once the administrators of the Beth Israel Temple agree to a meaningful dialog regarding their organizational support for the state of Israel, and thus support for military occupation of Palestine and the aggression that accompanies it. He has since added increased conditions expecting none of them to be approved. Temple Beth Israel have so far refused to meet with the Vigilers, much as George Bush would refuse to meet with rogue terrorists, like, say the state of Iran or N. Korea.
While claiming to be non-violent, most of the participants have posted signs denouncing not just Israel but Jews and Judaism as such and affirming the policies of Nazi Germany.