Jewish Leaders Assail Book Display : Bias: Muslim store’s black history exhibit at DWP contained several volumes of anti-Semitic writings.

Jewish leaders voiced outrage this week over a black history exhibit at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power that included several volumes of anti-Semitic writings, and they have called for increased vigilance and regulation by the city to prevent a repeat of such incidents.

The display was contained in a one-day exhibit operated Wednesday by a bookstore that had been invited by the DWP’s African American Employees Assn. to help commemorate Juneteenth, a black celebration marking the end of slavery.

Unknown to the employees’ association, the bookstore’s exhibit included several pieces of anti-Semitic writings, including: “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which portrays Jews as the masterminds behind a plot to take over the world, and “The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem,” by the late automobile magnate, Henry Ford Sr.

“These are books that inspired Hitler,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

Cooper said this is the second incident in less than a year in which the books have appeared at a city-sponsored event.

Last September, both books were displayed at the city-sponsored African Marketplace, an annual cultural event celebrating what promotional material called the “African Diaspora and the influences of African culture.”

The appearance of the books at the marketplace prompted a sharply worded letter from City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky to the city’s Cultural Affairs Department.

“The sale of these books at a city cultural event, in support of which the taxpayers have allocated $43,000, is an affront not only to the Jewish community but to all who abhor racism and treasure tolerance,” Yaroslavsky wrote.

Since Wednesday, DWP General Manager Daniel W. Waters has banned temporarily all exhibits so the department can review its guidelines on public displays.

Waters also issued a statement for all employees, stating: “I want to apologize to both African-Americans and Jews who might have been offended and ask your forbearance while we seek ways to preclude any situations which would cause divisiveness among our ethnic groups.”

The exhibit at the DWP was assembled by Shabazz Books and Bakery, a Muslim enterprise.

Beverly King, the department’s director of human resources, said it wasn’t until one employee, a Holocaust survivor, noticed the books that anyone in the DWP or the employees’ association was aware they were being displayed.

King said the president and vice president of the employees’ association at once asked the bookstore to remove the books, but were turned down. Waters also asked that the books be removed and also was turned down.

Los Angeles Police and DWP security officers were called to the scene, but by that time, the exhibit’s permit had expired and the bookstore took down its one-day display.

Shabazz Books manager, who identified himself as Walter X, attacked the department’s efforts to close down the display as unconstitutional.

“Since we abide by the laws of the Constitution, we have the right to put any books there,” he said. “Because we live in a society that supposedly promotes freedom, we have the freedom of speech and we’re here to use it. If you don’t like the book, then don’t buy it.”

Walter X defended the books, saying they propose an interpretation of history that should be heard. “Those books deserve to be put out there,” he said. “If the truth hurts, it’s just going to have to hurt.”