Flap leaves only U.S. flag flying

Tariq Malik

Only the American flag flies at Old World Village for now.

The banners of four other countries reflecting the shopping center’s

German theme have been taken down, at least until a policy decision is

made by the village’s board of directors on displaying international

symbols.

But it’s not at all what resident and shop owner Michele Weiss

intended.

To honor her Jewish heritage, Weiss tried to display an Israeli flag

on one of the five poles along Center Drive during High Holy Days, which

started Sept. 29 and concluded with Yom Kippur on Monday.

Old World officials took the flag down because they said Weiss hoisted

it during the night without the consent of her fellow merchants or the

neighborhood board of directors, which chooses which flags to display.

“That is public land, not private,” said Old World restaurant manager

Bernie Bischof, whose family built the village 23 years ago. “The flags

are chosen by our homeowner’s association, otherwise it’s breaking our

rules.”

Weiss believes differently.

“I think it’s because we’re Jewish,” she said, saying that she and her

mother, Pat, have been targeted because of their faith and ethnicity.

“We’ve had problems since the day we came here.”

Weiss, 32, and her mother own Michele’s Boutique and a vacant

storefront. They live above them. Since 1986, she said, they have

experienced prejudice and anti-Semitic attitudes from their neighbors and

management, from not being able to get entry keys to being restricted

from setting up display tables in front of her shop.

Bischof said prejudice has nothing to do with it and that display

tables are prohibited as a village policy to improve the center’s look.

But, the Weisses believe there has been a history of prejudice that

has set an ill tone for the shopping center.

In 1986, village founder Josef Bischof was forced to pay $2.4 million

to store owners for fraud and allegedly harassing tenants by singing Nazi

songs. Three years later, a conference of the Institute of Historical

Review, which questions the Holocaust, held a conference in the center

despite protests by shop owners.

Bischof again came under fire in 1997 because of a sign he posted in

Santa Barbara County that suggested county supervisors there should

receive the “Auschwitz treatment” for restricting development on his land

in the area.

Other shop owners said they haven’t experienced prejudice.

“I’ve lived here 11 years and have never seen any discrimination,”

said Donna Burgard, who runs a physical therapy business in the village.

“I understand the protocol for flag display is to fly all countries at

the same height, and it would be nice to fly the flags of all countries

out there, but there isn’t enough flag poles.”

Nothing, she added, prohibits shop owners from displaying their flags

on their own property.

While the Weisses claim to have been attacked verbally and through

telephone messages because they are Jewish, other shop owners say they

received similar criticism from the Weisses because they are German.

In a special meeting Saturday, three of five directors on the

neighborhood board agreed to take down the flags, with the exception of

the American flag, from the front of the village and wait until a full

board can determine a final flag policy.

Ultimately, they added, they may only display the U.S., state and city

flags in front.

“What we have to do is make sure that we pay respect to all countries

and make sure that flags are displayed correctly and properly,” said Jim

Burgard, one of three Old World board members present during the meeting.

In the meantime, the Jewish High Holy Days are over, leaving the

Weisses disappointed they could not salute their ethnicity and appeal to

a broader public than the foot traffic by Michele’s store.

“I think it’s so sad . . . we had a German holiday [Oktoberfest] and a

Jewish holiday, and to have the flags flown together would have been a

wonderful sign of unity,” said Marj Rankine, owner of a Scottish shop in

the village. “But we shot ourselves in the foot.”

Board members in attendance agreed with Rankine and agreed to put her

in charge of flags when a decision has been reached by the full

neighborhood board at the Oct. 26 meeting.