By all accounts, particularly his own, it was the stupidest act in Fifth Ward Democratic Committeeman Alan Dobry’s 30 years in politics. On March 24–just two weeks before the April 2 Fourth Ward aldermanic runoff between incumbent Tim Evans and challenger Toni Preckwinkle–Dobry pasted anti-Semitic fliers to light posts in Jewish sections of Hyde Park.
More important, the incident has exposed tension between black and white ideological soul mates in the liberal precincts of the Fourth and Fifth wards.
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Not all of his opponents are willing to do that. “The issue is not what Alan Dobry did in the past; the issue is what he did to this community in March,” says Sam Ackerman, an Evans supporter and longtime Hyde Park independent. “This was a blatant attempt to smear Evans’s reputation and tarnish the ward’s racial solidarity. The wounds won’t heal overnight.”
When Korshak retired in 1976, Dobry decided to give the race a try. He linked his candidacy to Congressman Ralph Metcalfe’s insurgency against the Daley organization, and beat his Machine-backed opponent by about 100 votes.
This was the background to the flier incident, which occurred in the midst of a heated campaign that already had some racial undertones. Preckwinkle is black, but her strongest support has come from the wealthier white precincts south of 47th Street.
“The press was ignoring these fliers, and I started to get hot under the collar,” says Dobry. “I felt that people in the south side of the ward had to know that they existed. I wanted the truth to get out.”
Dobry supporters say Jarrett has distorted Dobry’s intent. It was, they say, an impulsive act bred by too many years of provincial Fourth and Fifth Ward in-fighting. “This is an isolated incident,” says Bloom, “that some people are trying to exploit for political purposes.” It has nonetheless exposed age-old hostilities between black and white Hyde Park activists. And several Jewish leaders (including Rabbi Arnold Wolf of K.A.M. Isaiah Israel Congregation, a Hyde Park synagogue) and state Democratic Party chairman Gary LaPaille have called on Dobry to resign. “I won’t resign,” says Dobry. “My future as committeeman should be left to the Democratic voters of the Fifth Ward and not Gary LaPaille.”
