Road Cleaned By Neo-Nazis May Be Named For Rabbi

In May, State Rep. Sara Lampe introduced legislation renaming the Springfield stretch of highway after Heschel after consulting with the Jewish Community Relations Board of Kansas City. The measure was added as an amendment to the large transportation bill.

"For the National Socialist movement to be in the Adopt-a-Highway program is well within their rights," said Rabbi Alan L. Cohen of the Jewish Community Relations Board of Kansas City.

"But obviously there were people raising the concern that this is the wrong message for people to see driving down a Missouri highway, that there are National Socialists out here," Cohen said Sunday.

Susannah Heschel said she contacted Lampe's office last month and told them about her objections over naming just the neo-Nazi's stretch of highway after her father.

Lampe did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

"I understand the good intentions," Susannah Heschel said. "Everybody wants to get rid of racism. ... But I don't think it should be done this way."

Representatives of the National Socialist movement in Missouri did not immediately return calls seeking comment about the legislation Sunday. But a statement on the movement's Web site calls the renaming "a lame attempt to insult National Socialist pro-environment/green policies."