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Moms for Liberty is sharing the Philadelphia Marriott with an international Jewish conference. Some attendees aren’t happy.

“I just wondered: Who is the genius that booked two sort of opposing groups in the same hotel?” one attendee said as the protests grew outside.

A protester wearing a Jewish prayer shawl in rainbow hues joins demonstrators gathered outside the Moms for Liberty meeting in Philadelphia on Friday.
A protester wearing a Jewish prayer shawl in rainbow hues joins demonstrators gathered outside the Moms for Liberty meeting in Philadelphia on Friday.Read moreJoe Lamberti / AP

The much-protested Moms for Liberty summit isn’t the only conference happening at Downtown Marriott in Philadelphia this weekend.

The hotel is also hosting the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs’ biennial international conference — with plans for the Jewish group to share “contiguous space” with the far-right “parental rights” group’s conference, featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.

That potential for conflict gave some of the 400 or so Jewish attendees pause — and caused at least a few to cancel their plans.

Some who did attend, including Elliott and Lynne Dubin of northern Virginia, on Friday morning stopped by the growing protest against the conservative “parental rights” group, which drew dozens outside the hotel at 12th and Market Streets.

”I just wondered who is the genius that booked two sort of opposing groups in the same hotel?” Elliott Dubin said. “Many of the Holocaust survivors went through book burnings in Germany and this seems to be the same type of thing.”

A Marriott spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on the conflicting conferences.

A statement posted to the FJMC website said that the double-booking — which some members were told may even include the two conferences sharing ballrooms partitioned by temporary dividers — was brought to the organization’s attention after it had signed a contract with the Marriott.

The FJMC statement said that the group has held “multiple discussions” with Marriott Hotel management, expressing concern that the Moms For Liberty’s “activities, speakers, and any protests which may result from their speakers or activities, or the security which may be imposed to minimize such actions, do not interfere or impede with the programs and activities we have planned.”

“At the FJMC we believe that every person is made b’zelem elohim — in God’s image, and deserving of loving-kindness, respect, and dignity,” the statement continues. “As such, the FJMC strongly advocates for equal rights for all, including the LGBTQIA+ community. While the FJMC recognizes that Moms for Liberty and their speakers have the constitutional right to peaceably assemble, the FJMC does not endorse [their views].”

Among those who canceled their travel plans was Eric Weis, a longtime member of the Jewish group’s board of directors who said he has not missed one of the group’s biennial conferences in the last 22 years.

Weis, 72, of Wayne, N.J., and his wife made the decision after learning about the heightened security and protests.

“There was just no way we could have fun,” said Weis, who likened the conference in other years to “Disneyland” — where he said those in the leadership of the Conservative Movement of Judaism mingle, greet old friends, and feel “incredible spirituality.”

» READ MORE: Protesters denounce start of Moms for Liberty summit in Philadelphia: ‘Hate has no place here’

“It’s a great time, and normally I would never miss it for the world,” said Weis, who lost family members in the Holocaust and formerly led the Jewish Men’s Club Holocaust programming.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Moms for Liberty as an extremist antigovernment organization. This month, a Moms for Liberty chapter apologized after featuring a quote from Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in a newsletter.

The group’s national leaders released statements distancing themselves from that quote.

Their focus has been on electing right-wing school board members and banning books about race and gender identity.

To Lynne Dubin, the Jewish conference attendee and a retired teacher, that intolerance was also offensive.

“If I were still teaching, I have a vision of me being thrown out or sent to jail” rather than comply with censoring books, she said.

Still, the dynamic is complicated, said Sam Brint, president of the Men’s Club at Wynnewood’s Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, which was being recognized at the conference. Brint, who had not planned to attend due to a scheduling conflict, said the culture clash at the Marriott was “not good.”

On the other hand, he said, members might hold Trump in some regard as a “friend to Israel.”

His bottom line: “It could create a lot of extra drama that we’d prefer to avoid.”

Weis said he’d heard of a handful of other FJMC attendees pulling out of the conference due to the double-booking, but that he strongly believes the organization will “emerge from this stronger.”

“We’re not dainty and we’re not cowards,” he said. “And we’ll never allow the forces of evil to triumph, because it happened 80 years ago, and we’re not going to let that happen again.”