White supremacists stage rally at Valley Forge

? About 100 white supremacists rallied at Valley Forge National Historical Park on Saturday as nearly twice as many opponents heckled them from a nearby hillside.

Both groups were outnumbered by federal law enforcement officers. National Park Service spokesman Phil Sheridan said no arrests were made at the rally site, but one person was arrested after a scuffle in a parking lot.

Charles J. Juba, the national director of Aryan Nations from Leola, Pa., center, is flanked by Josh Webster of Center Point, Ala., left, and Barbara Marie Kreis, 10, with her father, the Rev. August B. Kreis III, right, both from Sebring, Fla., during a neo-Nazi Rally on the amphitheater stage at Valley Forge National Historic Park.

Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members shouted slogans from a stage at the park, where about 11,000 Revolutionary War soldiers commanded by George Washington camped from December 1777 to June 1778.

The Minnesota-based National Socialist Movement, which sponsored the rally, claims Washington held separatist and anti-Semitic views — a position disputed by most historians.

The event was held on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Rally organizers have said they were unaware of the holiday when they planned the event.

Still, Jeff Schoep, commander of the NSM, launched the rally with an attack on Jews, who he said planned “the destruction of all races through the evils of race mixing.”

Other speakers criticized America’s role in the Iraq war, calling it “Israel’s War.”

Counterdemonstrators in a cordoned-off area several hundred feet away shouted “Bull!” and waved placards with slogans such as, “Get out of our melting pot.”

Noah Osner, 25, said he joined the counterprotest to show there were people willing to stand up against racism.

“I think hate begets hate,” he said. “I think it’s scary to see such a volume of hate in one small area.”