Neo-Nazis protest outside Broadway show about lynching of Jewish man

[speak easy]

Source: Washington Post

In a scene that mirrored history, spectators waiting to watch a Broadway musical about one of the most infamous antisemitic incidents in U.S. history were heckled outside the theater — by neo-Nazi protesters.

The show, “Parade,” is a dramatization of the story of Leo Frank, a Jewish pencil factory director in Atlanta who was convicted of the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in 1913. He was abducted from prison and lynched by an angry mob two years later, and the case remains a lightning rod for the far-right.

Protesters showed up outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Tuesday as spectators waited to see a preview of the Tony Award-winning musical.

“You want the truth about who you’re going to see tonight? You’re paying $300 to go worship a pedophile,” one masked protester could be heard saying, using an expletive, in a clip shared by Jake Wasserman, an editor for the Jewish American publication, the Forward

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/02/22/broadway-parade-protest-antisemitism-neo-nazis/

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Parade on Broadway
@paradebway
A statement from the producers of Parade in response to the display of Neo Nazi members protesting outside of the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre prior to last nights first preview performance on Broadway.

[groundloop]

1. 45*'s enabling of far right lunatics will continue to haunt us for a long time.

[IronLionZion]

2. Qanon is old antisemitic tropes modernized

it's easier to justify hatred for people if you accuse them of being pedophiles.

[KS Toronado]

10. That explains why

reQublicans have been saying that for years about Democrats, starting with Hillary eating babies.
Have heard MAGAts locally say all Democrats are pedophiles.

[IronLionZion]

11. It's easier to hate a group of people if you imagine the worst about them

[KS Toronado]

12. That must be the reQublican game plan

Get their voters to HATE.

[wolfie001]

3. So now these chickenshit clowns don masks?!

Pathetic donald dump supporting weasels.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Now? They've been doing it since Nathan Bedford Forrest founded the Ku Klux Klan

Hell, it was anti-KKK laws about masks that Republican idiots tried to use against covid mask requirements.

[wolfie001]

5. Really I just wanted to call them.....

....chickenshit weasels.

[IronLionZion]

8. Nazis wear masks because their jobs might fire them

[thatcrowwoman]

13. That's for true, IronLionZion. Nt

[LudwigPastorius]

7. It's a great show, particularly the music.

I love that these brain dead, anti-semitic goons protesting will bring the show to the attention of more people and cause them to go see it.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

9. More background of the case from Wikipedia

"Leo Frank
American factory superintendent and lynching victim

Leo Max Frank (April 17, 1884 – August 17, 1915) was an American factory superintendent who was convicted in 1913 of the murder of a 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in Atlanta, Georgia. His trial, conviction, and appeals attracted national attention. His lynching two years later, in response to the commutation of his death sentence, became the focus of social, regional, political, and racial concerns, particularly regarding antisemitism. Today, the consensus of researchers is that Frank was wrongly convicted and Jim Conley was likely the actual murderer.


Quick Facts Born, Died ...
Born to a Jewish-American family in Texas, Frank was raised in New York and earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University before moving to Atlanta in 1908. Marrying in 1910, he involved himself with the city's Jewish community and was elected president of the Atlanta chapter of the B'nai B'rith, a Jewish fraternal organization, in 1912. At that time, there were growing concerns regarding child labor at factories. One of these children was Mary Phagan, who worked at the National Pencil Company where Frank was director. The girl was strangled on April 26, 1913, and found dead in the factory's cellar the next morning. Two notes, made to look as if she had written them, were found beside her body. Based on the mention of a "night witch", they implicated the night watchman, Newt Lee. Over the course of their investigations, the police arrested several men, including Lee, Frank, and Jim Conley, a janitor at the factory.

On May 24, 1913, Frank was indicted on a charge of murder and the case opened at Fulton County Superior Court, July 28, 1913. The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of Conley, who described himself as an accomplice in the aftermath of the murder, and who the defense at the trial argued was, in fact, the perpetrator of the murder. A guilty verdict was announced on August 25. Frank and his lawyers made a series of unsuccessful appeals; their final appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States failed in April 1915. Considering arguments from both sides as well as evidence not available at trial, Governor John M. Slaton commuted Frank's sentence from capital punishment to life imprisonment.

The case attracted national press attention and many reporters deemed the conviction a travesty. Within Georgia, this outside criticism fueled antisemitism and hatred toward Frank. On August 16, 1915, he was kidnapped from prison by a group of armed men, and lynched at Marietta, Mary Phagan's hometown, the next morning. The new governor vowed to punish the lynchers, who included prominent Marietta citizens, but nobody was charged. In 1986, Frank was posthumously pardoned by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, although not officially absolved of the crime. The case has inspired books, movies, plays, and a TV miniseries."

Much more at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Frank?wprov=sfla1

[NJCher]

14. heartbreaking

an accomplished, distinguished life ruined.