Orval Etter, founder of the often criticized Pacifica Forum, doesn’t think of himself as a racist or an anti-Semite.
He acknowledges, however, that some attendees to the forum are. One of those attendees, Valdas Anelauskas, has brought the spotlight back to the forum for comments he posted on the Emerald Web site in response to columnist Deborah Bloom’s opinion article supporting the Iraq war.
Anelauskas wrote, “Even if the author’s name wasn’t Deborah Bloom, after reading your opinion piece in the Emerald (Feb. 7) there is no doubt that it was written by someone who is Jewish. Because only from people of that peculiar tribe can we expect such Talmudic hatred for humanity. There is even a famous saying that wars are the Jews’ harvest.”
The Emerald removed the comment because Editor-in-Chief Laura Powers deemed it “hate speech.”

The forum is most known for hosting controversial topics and speakers, such as Holocaust denier Mark Weber. University President Dave Frohnmayer addressed Anelauskas’ comment and the forum in his spring letter, dated March 31. Frohnmayer distanced the University from the forum and called the comment by Anelauskas “gutter bigotry.”
In its Friday meeting, the forum discussed an article that appeared in The Register-Guard newspaper April 18 and Frohnmayer’s letter. Around 14 people gathered to weigh in on the Forum’s recent attention.
Dawn Coslow, who has been regularly attending the forum for about two and half years, questioned how Register-Guard writer Jeff Wright chose to present his article.
“The fact is, I see so many discrepancies between the letter and Wright’s article,” Coslow said. “There’s a ridiculous blurring of lines here.”
Anelauskas presented a series of lectures two years ago on Zionism and Russia and recently authored a speech on Martin Luther King, Jr. titled, “Martin Luther King: The Man Behind the Media Mask,” which Frohnmayer’s letter called “unabashedly racist.”
Jimmy Marr, who gave the speech written by Anelauskas, said, “I felt like it was racist.” Oregon Commentator writer C.J. Ciaramella reported the speech called King a communist who “intentionally incited violence wherever he went.”
Forum attendee James Flagg said many people disagreed with Anelauskas on several points and the forum should not be judged by the opinions of its members.
“It’s one guy and maybe two or three that sympathize with him,” he said. “Those of us who disagree say so.”
At the forum’s April 18 meeting, Anelauskas said Etter was wasting time and repeating himself, to which Etter replied Anelauskas could leave. Anelauskas did leave, promising to never return, Etter said. Anelauskas did not attend last Friday’s meeting.
Etter called Anelauskas “one of the most racist attendants” in a telephone interview. “The Pacifica Forum, whatever evaluation you want to make, the Pacifica Forum is in the target and we’re being criticized by Jewish groups thanks to some of the things some of the attendants at the forum said, and said rather unwisely, that I didn’t agree with.”
But Etter says the forum will continue to practice free speech.
“If (speakers) say something that some of us don’t agree with, they get an opportunity to say it,” Etter said. “This makes some people in the community mad, like Hillel.”
Oregon Hillel is an organization that serves Jewish University students.
Hillel asked Frohnmayer to speak out against the forum “because it warmly embraced Valdas Anelauskas” and the organization viewed Anelauskas’ comments “to be viciously anti-Semitic and borderline intimidation,” Hillel Executive Director Hal Applebaum wrote in an e-mail. Applebaum said Deborah Bloom sent him a copy of Anelauskas’ comments.
Applebaum said while Hillel believes in free speech, “the only response to hate speech is more speech.”
Applebaum said Etter “encourages racist and anti-Semitic speech at the Pacifica Forum and almost always ‘explains’ it as testing free speech issues. I believe that is a cowardly and transparent way to deflect criticism directed at the content of much of the PF’s programming.”
Etter said, “There are too many assumptions going around that the general opinion in the forum has favored the racist and anti-Semitic statements.”
Two years ago the Anti-Hate Task Force, an arm of the Community Alliance for Lane County, was formed in response to Anelauskas’ lecture series on Zionism and Russia. It has since had members attend the forum to monitor and document forum discussions.
“The Jewish segment of the community found what (Anelauskas) was saying highly objectionable and they started pouncing on him and criticizing the forum for giving him as much opportunity as we did,” Etter said. And Anelauskas has been attending the forum fairly regularly for a couple years, Etter said. “He has become a lightning rod ever since to attract sharp criticism to the forum.”
Applebaum said he found it ironic that Etter now considers Anelauskas racist after “vehemently” defending his decision to allow Anelauskas’ presentations.
Etter said, “I found myself, quite a while back, divorcing myself, separating myself, from Valdas’ anti-Semitism, but when you read criticism of the forum, including in the Oregon Commentator, you’d never know I was one of the first to part company with Valdas when he became anti-Semitic.” The Commentator regularly blogs about the forum and its topics.
Etter explained that Anelauskas’ views stem from his experiences living in the Soviet Union under the rule of the KGB. He said although Anelauskas has been living in the U.S. for quite a while, “his general evaluation of this country is very negative.”
Etter, who is in his early 90s, started the forum in 1994. He told the Register-Guard in 2006 he organized the forum after becoming “convinced that Israel was a very tyrannical state.”
Applebaum said, “The Forum deserves to be called a group that focuses much of its attention on blaming Jews (and the Jewish state of Israel) for so many things, that I think that it is fair to say that they focus inordinately on anti-Jewish themes.”
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