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When you burn books, people are next

But outside were more than 100 protesting New Yorkers — teachers, parents, grandparents, politicians and at least one rabbi — who said the hateful “Moms” group was not welcome in New York City.

“I have a special message that I wanted to leave for Moms For Liberty,” said Karen Svoboda, president of the Hudson Valley-based Defense of Democracy, “I want to tell you to f— off.”

Svoboda and others formed their group, which now coordinates nationally, in response to a 2022 effort by Moms For Liberty to take over the Wappingers school boards in the Hudson Valley.

“I’m the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors,” said Alana Byrd, national field director for the group People of the American Way, “and I had to hear for years growing up about how this s— starts — and this is how it starts.”

“First they ban the books, then they say we’re poisoning their blood,” Byrd said, adding that she was expecting her first child this summer.

“I will be f—ed if I have to co-parent with these assholes,” Byrd said.

Rabbi Abby Stein echoed Byrd’s sentiments.

“I am terrified,” Stein said, who noted that she is also the granddaughter of three Holocaust survivors, “because as we heard earlier, I know where you are going with it.”

“When you ban books, when you burn books, you are gonna burn people next,” Stein said.

A Moms For Liberty supporter with gray mutton chops and a neck covered in tattoos began screaming at Stein, a trans woman, from the steps of the Bohemian Hall.

“Groomer,” he yelled, “you’re grooming our children, you’re disgusting.”

Another Moms For Liberty supporter standing on the Hall’s steps behind a row of NYPD officers called the protesters “demons,” while another called them “retarded.”

The supporters declined to comment or respond to questions from Patch.

What is liberty after all?

Local leaders have spent the better part of the month calling out the event — and the venue — for bringing what they call “hateful” values to the neighborhood.

“They call themselves Moms For Liberty,” said Upper East Side Democratic Party district leader Benjamin Akselrod, “but how is advocating for book bans liberty?”

“We got ‘Exhibit A’ right here of what we’re up against,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “The MAGA movement has come to Manhattan.”

“We know that Moms For Liberty are a bunch of hypocrites,” Levine said, calling the group’s beliefs as “not liberty but fascism.”

Inside the town hall, many in attendance showed up to directly register their disapproval of the out-of-state group and their values, according to reporting.

“Why are you telling me how to raise my kid?,” said one Manhattan parent, according to the Daily Beast.

One man, who sat through a two-hour presentation about the pandemic and “woke” schools, the Daily Beast reported, asked the group a simple question: where’s the beef?

“I would love to know what you think are wrong with the current curriculums and how we’re going to change them, because you haven’t said anything about it for two hours,” the Daily Beast reported the man saying. “You’ve wasted two hours.”

Outside, local elected officials were still taking rhetorical shots at the group, with some sharing how personally meaningful the protest was for them.

State Senator Liz Krueger said that her family had escaped Eastern Europe “where they burned books, and then they came after us after they burned our books.”

“I’m not interested in anybody who’s saying we’re going to challenge your right to read what you want, what you believe in, and to learn what you need to learn,” she said. “These people have no business in our community”

City Council Member Keith Powers reminded the group that this was not the first time that far-right groups had converged on the Upper East Side, citing when a fracas broke out in 2018 outside the Manhattan Republican Club.

“We can’t normalize such horrendous behavior activities,” Powers said. “And that’s why every time they show up in our neighborhood, we are going to stand together.”

Westside State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal introduced himself as “openly queer” and introduced the audience to Moms For Liberty co-founder, Bridget Ziegler, asking people if they were familiar with their recent sex abuse drama.

“What we are here to say to the Zieglers and to Moms for Liberty is take your clown circus back to Florida,” Hoylman-Sigal said, adding that the New Yorkers, the two Community Education Council members on the panel, should be “ashamed of yourself.”

“I’m a mom,” said City Council Member Julie Menin. “We are an inclusive city where we welcome all, and this group… has chapters that are literally quoting Hitler, that are anti-LGBTQ, that are anti-trans and that are banning books. How is this educational to ban books?”

According to one speaker, the late Norman Lear said that the “most fascist threat he saw in this country was right inside those doors,” said Svante Myrick, former Ithaca mayor and president of Lear’s group, People for the American Way.

“As [Lear] pointed out, I’d like to remind you that they do seem to have an unnatural obsession with the genitals of children,” he said. “They believe that attacking trans kids is their path to total power.”

Manhattan resident Jackie Rudin, a member of the group Rise and Resist, told Patch that what she was protesting this evening was a larger conservative plan to “dismantle our government and our country,” as part of Trump’s Project 2025.

“They’re trying to oppress people in any kind of possible minority,” she said.

One teacher from Brooklyn, Arielle, came up from Crown Heights to support her students.

As a member of ACT UP, she was dismayed that “after all these decades, we’re still here fighting homophobia, fighting transphobia.”

“I’m also here as an art teacher, and I’m here in solidarity for my students, my kids who deserve a safe and supportive city to live in,” she said.

“If some group like Moms For Liberty is allowed to have a platform here in New York City at the Bohemian National Hall, that doesn’t mean we’re going to put up with it,” Arielle said.

“We’re going to make noise, we’re going to disrupt business as usual. And we’re going to show out against oppression of any kind.”

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