I was visiting my parents in northwestern Minnesota, and was flipping through some of the local papers, when I saw this advertisement.
This is up in northwestern Minnesota, not exactly known for having a significant Jewish population. The nearest synagogue is 100 miles away in Grand Forks, ND, and that only has about 40 members.
One huge irony in this is that this event is at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls. Ralph Engelstad was a Las Vegas casino owner, who was an alumnus of the University of North Dakota. Engelstad was an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia, including a painting of himself in a Nazi uniform. He used to own cars which had allegedly been owned by Nazi leaders. He was fined 1.5 million dollars for throwing birthday parties for Adolph Hitler. He's still controversial in the area, but people weren't likely to turn down money for hockey arenas.
It should be noted that I am not accusing the Tea Party members of deliberately choosing an inappropriate venue, it just indicates a lack of thought. If they had any Jews associated with this, they might have pointed out that the venue was problematic.
Here's a reference for my claims about Engelstad, in case it seems to outrageous to believe:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/...
There's just so much wrong with this. Having the event at an arena paid for and named after someone who, at best, had an excessive fascination with Nazis would be enough for this to be News of the Weird material. But having a Jewish ritual done in an area were there just aren't any Jews and trying to pass this off as a Jewish event is pretty bizzare. If I was still in the area, I would be tempted to show up. I've seen imitation Jews on cable access shows, where they clearly had cobbled together some Jewish trappings out of felt. If there are any Kossaks in that area, it might be interesting to get a followup.