Jewish groups are bracing for a KKK rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday that they fear will create a potential "powder keg."
According to The Jerusalem Post, about 20 members of an Indiana-based KKK affiliate, the Honorable Sacred Knights, are expected to rally in downtown Dayton and, in an agreement with the city, will be allowed to mask their faces and carry legal sidearms.
As many as 1,000 counter-protesters are also expected, the news outlet reported — including the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, members of the Antifa movement, a militant conglomeration of left-wing anti-fascist groups.
Rabbi Ari Ballaban, local head of the Jewish Community Relations Council, told The Jerusalem Post there’s been "a wide-range of emotional responses" to the upcoming rally.
"We worked with the Anti-Defamation League, who helped to organize us with higher-level law enforcement organizations," Ballaban said.
"But none of us are fortune tellers. Do we know what is going to happen? Certainly not. That is why we are urging people: There is no reason to put yourself in a dangerous position and show up to something that is a powder keg."
The Dayton Jewish community numbers around 5,000 people, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing the Jewish Virtual Library. It has several congregations.
The city itself is on alert too, Jared Grandy, Dayton's Community-police relations coordinator, told the Dayton Daily News.
"The elephant in the room is Charlottesville," he said. "That's what we don’t want to happen again."
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