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More than 200 people are expected to gather at a Collin County home this week for sushi, drinks, political speakers — and a bonfire to destroy masks that organizers say represent government overreach.
The Dallas Jewish Conservatives event Wednesday evening in Parker is meant to celebrate Gov. Greg Abbott’s announced end of Texas’ mask mandate and other COVID-19 restrictions.
“I felt it was an opportunity for my fellow conservative Texans and freedom-loving Americans to come together and celebrate,” said Benji Gershon, president and founder of Dallas Jewish Conservatives. The bonfire “is symbolic of freedom and it’s symbolic of the fact that the mask represents government control.”
The people whose home has been listed as the event’s location were declining to comment Sunday, he said.
Although the bonfire was added to draw attention, it’s not the event’s focus, Gershon said. Speakers will include Trump campaign staff members and Shelley Luther, a Dallas salon owner who gained national attention for defying COVID-19 orders and ran unsuccessfully for a state Senate seat.
Event organizers also will observe a moment of silence for the more than 500,000 people who have died from the virus before burning the masks, which experts say are critical to slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Gershon said he has friends and family members who have died or become seriously ill from the virus, and he doesn’t want to belittle the severity of the pandemic. Instead, he said, the event will celebrate the removal of government mandates.
“I’m not personally anti-mask,” he said. “It should be a personal choice, not a government-mandated thing.”
Despite the advertised mask-free environment, some COVID-19 protocols will be in place, according to the event’s website.
It will be outdoors with plenty of space for social distancing, and hand sanitizer will be available. Also, according to the event’s description, registrants must not hold the event organizers liable for illness while “acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any place where people are present.