Do you remember young Daniel,who faced off against Israel haters 6 years ago?
Then there was this teenager a few years ago.
Now there’s a new kid on the block: 16-year-old Ranan Steiger, who has faced off against haters outside the Republican National Convention – all during his lunch break.
As Public Square filled up at around 4 p.m., Ranan was still there. A man had given him a hand-scrawled white posterboard sign that said “Just say NO! to White Supremacy.” Someone else had given him a red kippah printed with the website WeedOutHate.org, and Ranan put it on, signifying his Jewish faith.
Meanwhile, police formed a perimeter around the square to manage the density of the crowd as protesters started taking the stage for scheduled speaking times.
At 5 o’clock, five members of the Westboro Baptist Church – a small and well-known hate group – took the stage. During their half-hour time slot, Ranan said, one of the Westboro speakers saw his kippah and said, “You’re going to hell. You’re a Jew. You’re going to hell!”
Ranan then took the hand of a Muslim woman and they together raised their arms into the air.
“We said, ‘There’s bad people everywhere. There’s bad Jews. There’s bad blacks. There’s bad Muslims. There’s bad Asians. There’s bad everybody,’ ” Ranan said. “There’s bad people in every single religion, every single ethnicity. There are some people that are bad. But you have to look at the positive. That’s all I want. I want peace.”
A half-hour later, Westboro’s time was up. But behind the stage, there was another small group of men carrying signs with similarly hateful messages. The leader of the group, a man of about 40 with a salt-and-pepper buzz and beard, was speaking into a headset microphone attached to a speaker wrapped in camouflage.
As Ranan heard the words, he walked up to the man and started staring him down. He held up the sign, and as the man kept talking – including comments on Judaism – Ranan started yelling back: “I don’t care. Go away! Lose your voice! Lose your voice!”
And later: “Go back to your mother’s basement!”
Ranan was loud, but his voice isn’t deep or gravely. He sounds and looks slightly younger than his 16 years. A pair of young women approached Ranan, almost protectively. One of them asked, “Can you come here for a second?”
He shook his head. “I have to do this.”
Minutes later, a man and woman passed by behind the protesters Ranan was facing. The couple held signs that read “No bigotry. No racism. No sexism. No Trump” and “Trump is a Egomaniacal Opportunist Who Does Not Deserve to Be President.”
Ranan’s eyes widened and he beckoned the couple. “Over here!” he said. “Come teach them a lesson.”
It wasn’t working, so he repeated himself: “Teach them a lesson. Teach them a lesson!”
The man finally walked over and told Ranan, “Ignore them!”
Ranan wasn’t having it. “They’re idiots, though!” he said.
The man told him again: Walk away.
Ranan stayed. “Somebody has to do it!” he said.
And so he did. And will again. Afterward Ranan told me, “Tomorrow, I’ll 100 percent be back.”
Young Jewish boy yelling at Westboro Baptist Church — "go eat out of a dumpster" "go back to Ireland" #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/qlduvp8ogR
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) July 20, 2016
Showing some intestinal fortitude with some salty language on this one:
16-yr-old boy yells "s*ck my balls!" Adds that Westboro Baptist Church parents are "burning in mother f**king hell" pic.twitter.com/PYpfvsZg8V
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) July 20, 2016
The police make me feel safe, says 16-year-old protester from Cleveland #RNCinCLE @PJMedia_com pic.twitter.com/3msdTGYlEP
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) July 20, 2016
16-year-old Ranan Steiger says Westboro protesters' parents are in hell, praises police #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/LEnwHAqgzQ
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) July 20, 2016
Video of Ranan Steiger facing down a hate group. He said, "Someone has to do it!" #RNCinCLE https://t.co/YH75u1Nvuj pic.twitter.com/5Tace0Ziyk
— Tim O'Shei (@timoshei) July 20, 2016
