Image by Twitter

By Laura E. Adkins February 28, 2017

After a demonstration at Shalhevet High School outside of Los Angeles this week, the infamous anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church announced via Twitter that it will hold a protest at Yeshiva University at the end of March.

The group says Y.U. “encapsulates the perverse state” of American Jewry.

Shalhevet High School was a wonderful success — next we’ll preach to Yeshiva University in NYC, @Laura_E_Adkins: pic.twitter.com/bCvKqinEYI

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

— WBC Fliers (@WBCFliers) February 28, 2017

Westboro Baptist Church is protesting because “Yeshiva University encapsulates the perverse state of both modern Judaism and the american [sic] university system.” WBC aims to “shine a light on the fact that the American Jewish community was the earliest and most forceful group to spread the soul-damning lie of ‘it’s ok to be gay,’” the release added.

Ironically, YU has historically faced flack for what many see as its reluctance to embrace gay rights.

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Westboro Baptist “arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America.”

Laura E. Adkins is the Forward’s contributing network editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @Laura_E_Adkins

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount