Friday, Nov. 1, 2002 | 11:20 a.m.
The Jewish War Veterans say they have in effect been booted out of this year's Veterans Day Parade because organizers scheduled the event for Nov. 9, a Saturday, which is their Sabbath.
The organization says its bylaws prohibit members from participating in the event that falls on the Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
They say event organizers should have held the Veterans Day Parade on Veterans Day, which is Nov. 11. Event organizers say they picked Saturday because they thought it would be the best day to get the biggest crowd.
"We will not be marching or otherwise participating because our faith will not allow us to do it on our Sabbath and our organization's constitution does not permit us to engage in this kind of activity on Saturdays," said Al Hartenstein, commander of the Southern Nevada Council of Jewish War Veterans.
"Am I slighted that they picked Saturday for the parade? Yes, I am. Are we protesting their decision? No, we are not. And I want it clear that we are not accusing anyone of being anti-Semetic."
Usually, about 150 of the 450 active members of the four Jewish War Veterans posts participate in the Veterans Day parade by riding in three vehicles or walking along the Fourth Street route.
Parade officials insist they never intended to exclude Jewish veterans.
"When the group came to us and told us their situation we felt really bad about it, and we did everything we could do at that point to accommodate the Jewish War Veterans," said Debra Craig, secretary of the Veterans Day Parade Committee and wife of parade chairman David Craig.
"My husband asked them if their bylaws allowed them to march just as veterans without designating an organization. He also offered them seating in the veterans section of the stands, where the Jewish War Veterans would be designated as honored guests. They said no."
Craig said Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who is Jewish, called her husband with concerns over the matter, which she said they discussed at some length. Goodman was grand marshal last year and will participate as one of the leaders of this year's parade, she said.
Jews who are members of other veterans organizations, but not the Jewish War Veterans, have no restrictions in their bylaws that would prevent them from participating in the parade, Hartenstein and Craig said.
Hartenstein said it will be up to their individual consciences to decide whether they want to march and that his group will make no effort to influence their decisions.
Craig said no veterans organization entered in the parade has told the committee that its Jewish members will not participate en masse.
The Jewish War Veterans are hosting the 11 a.m. Nov. 11 ceremony at the Veterans Cemetery in Boulder City. Hartenstein said that too should not be interpreted as a protest to being left out of the parade. He said their services are open to people of all faiths.
Some Jewish veterans are more upset than others over the decision to hold the parade on Saturday.
"Of course they absolutely knew we would be upset by picking Saturday, but they scheduled it for that day anyway," said Harry Hartstein, commander of Jewish War Veterans Post 64. "They knew it was our Sabbath.
"They could have held it on Sunday like last year, when they had one of the largest turnouts in the nation for a Veterans Day parade. Or they could have held the parade on Veterans Day like they always have done. We are being treated like we don't exist."
Parade organizers disagree.
"Last year the parade was on Veterans Day, which was a Sunday, and a number of Christian veterans were upset and told us they would not participate because it was on their Sabbath," Craig said. "If we hold the parade on either weekend day someone or some group is going to be unhappy about it.
"Although Monday (Nov. 11) is a federal holiday, not everyone gets that day off from work. My husband has to work on Veterans Day. And it just seems that weekend parades get much better turnouts than weekday parades."
Hartenstein and Hartstein said in the past, when Veterans Day fell on a Saturday, their organization did not participate in the parade. However, Hartstein said, "that was a natural phenomenon. We understood and had no problem with that."
The Veterans Day event hosted by the Jewish War Veterans at the cemetery will feature members of the Congressional designation, area mayors, other dignitaries and, of course, veterans.
"It will be more upbeat than our Memorial Day services because we are honoring living veterans," said Jack Porrino, superintendent of the veterans cemetery.
The parade is expected to draw several thousand participants, including 2,900 children. Crowd estimates last year indicated a turnout of greater than 20,000 people along the short route from Gass to Ogden avenues.
Air and Army National Guard Gen. Giles Vanderhoot will join Goodman and Craig at the front of the parade. The co-marshals this year are representatives of ex-prisoners of war. Honored guests include Jack Tilley, the sergeant major of the Army, the highest-ranking non-commissioned officer.
Nellis Air Force Base also will participate in the parade that will feature active military, veterans, ROTC units and civilians. A Nellis jet flyby will kickoff the event hosted by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1753.
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