Hate pays: Synagogue makes $10k off an anti-Semitic protest

When Congregation Beth Simchat Torah heard that the hate-spewing protesters of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church were coming to their turf, they cleverly decided to make a virtue of a visit by the fringe group, which has picketed the funerals of U.S. soldiers to get publicity for its anti-Jew, anti-gay, anti-American isolationism.

In an inspired moment of creative fund-raising, it convinced about 150 sympathetic community members to pledge $1 for every minute the hatemongers -- there were only six anyway -- appeared on their doorstep in New York City with signs bearing the group's usual invective, which has been trotted out for the cameras so often it ought to be trademarked: "Jews Stole the Land" and "God Hates Fags." By the time the haters departed, a mere 50 minutes after they arrived, $10,000 had been raised.