I'm sure that most of you have heard about how three synagogues in my
home of Sacramento, CA were firebombed early Friday morning
and perhaps you have heard about the pains of despair that so many Jews
around the country are feeling. And, of course, these feelings run even
stronger among those of us who are members of one of the temples.
I have been a member of Congregation B'nai Israel for the past 17 years.
This is our 150th anniversary. We are the oldest congregation West of the
Mississippi.
All day yesterday [Friday] members of our temple (as Jewish
Congregations go, we're on the large side with 900 families) phoned each
other seeking news about how bad it really was, etc. since we were not
allowed anywhere near the site.
Was this the beginning of another reign of terror for us? Was this
another Kristalnacht?
We talked about how this could happen in America? What have we done? Why
do they (still) hate us so much? Aren't we good members of the
community? We volunteer for local services and donate funds to good civic
causes. All we ask is to be allowed to worship the way we wish and to be
allowed to keep our culture alive in our own homes and temples. We don't
seek converts.
It is not a "we're better than you are," or "God loves us more than you."
All we ask is that we be allowed to live in peace, brotherhood, and safety
within the dominant Christian community. We don't want to bother or
threaten the dominant community. Just allow us to "to be." Is that so
hard?
And on one night, in my hometown, they firebombed three of our temples.
Not in New York, or L.A. But here.
They must live here. Who would come in from out of town to our small
City and our small Jewish congregation? It must be local people, and if so,
why? We don't bother anyone.
We heard via our phone tree as well as the local media, that our
Weekly Friday Sabbath service would be held in the 2,000 seat Community
Theatre.
I wasn't going to go at first. I'm not religious and don't often go to
Friday night services. However I thought that someone should be there
To "stand up" to the terrorists who would attempt to rend and destroy us.
Even though it was announced that everyone (Jew/non-Jew) was invited (this
is normal for Reform congregations) I figured that there would only be 150 or
250 people there, enough to fill up a few rows in the huge theatre,
Which has two balconies.
When I arrived I was totally surprised.
Eighteen hundred people from all over our community, Jews, Catholics,
Buddhists, Hare Krishna's, and members from every sect of the Protestant
community was there. There were members from black churches, gay
churches, Asian churches, as well as atheists, agnostics, and some of the
followers of so-called "new age" spiritual leaders. There were ministers,
bishops, city council members, the police chief, the FBI, ATF, and
representatives from the state legislature and governors office. Never
have I seen such an outpouring of grief and concern from the community...
for Jews.
One of the most touching groups was the Methodists. It seems they were
having a large convention here in Sacramento. And when they heard about
the bombings, many decided they wanted to pray with us. And so there were
hundreds of them all wearing their convention badges. And they
circulated through the waiting crowd explaining who they were and why they
were there.
What a wonderfully kind thing to do.
A Reform Jewish Friday night service is not what you might expect. It
Is not solemn and "dignified." It is the "Celebration of the Sabbath"
Where workday thoughts are put aside and the hearts of the parents turn
toward the children and the hearts of the children turn to the parents. We
sing, clap hands, say prayers, listen to the Rabbi and Cantor (who leads the
music) banter with each other, and of course hear a sermon, often filled
with humor. It is a happy service.... and usually short.
But who could be happy? Our house of worship had been torched. Our
Entire library of 5,000 books was gone. Yet our Rabbi told us that we must
persevere and that to not celebrate the Sabbath would be exactly what
the terrorists would hope to achieve. And so we went on with our service.
There were a number of speakers from our congregation and from the
community. All were inspirational and devoid of the kind of sorrow,
sadness, grief, or anger that you might expect.
Our previous Rabbi, now retired, who served us for 22 years, flew in
from Phoenix and reminded us that "we are the JEWISH people and that we
have always survived and we will survive this as well."
And we were putting on a brave front. We laughed, we sang, we
applauded, we said the ancient prayers. We held up the best we could.
Then something happened that I will never forget.
Seated on the stage (known as a bema (bee-mah) in Hebrew... alter) were
A number of our Temple's officers, as well as some of the "dignitaries"
From the city. There was one very attractive blonde woman whom no one
seemed to recognize. I heard the "buzz" of "who is that woman and why is
she there. Toward the middle of the service our Rabbi said he wanted to
introduce us to a Rev. Faith Whitmore and she got up and went to the podium.
She was either the local, or regional head of the United Methodist Church,
who was having their convention. And she spoke briefly about how appalled
she was and her brethren were about these incidents.
We've heard it before. From the Pope on down, all through the years its
Been "Gee, sorry for the Holocaust but there's nothing I could have done
about it."
She reached into her suit coat and took out a piece of paper.
"I want you to know that this afternoon we took a special offering of
our members to help you rebuild your temple and we want you to have this
check for six thousand dollars." For two seconds there was absolute dead
quiet. We were astounded. Did we hear this correctly? Christians are going
to do this?
On the third second the hall shook with a thunderous applause. I've
Never heard applause like that before. And it went on for two minutes. And
Then people broke into tears. Me too. It was like all of the emotion of
the
day and evening poured out in those few minutes.
Those in my parent's generation were dumbfounded. Who ever heard of
Gentiles caring about Jews? The idea of a Gentile coming up to a Jew and
saying "I want you to know how sorry I am" was beyond the ability of many
of our members to cope. And I have to admit that I too, the old curmudgeon
that I am, felt so much emotional gratitude for these lovely people, who
were not even part of our community or city.
As Rev. Whitmore gave the check to the Rabbi and hugged him, it was one
Of the most emotional moments I've ever been witness to. In my entire
Lifetime I've never known an organized Christian denomination to
officially do anything "nice" for a Jewish congregation. Our congregation,
some 1100 of us stood with tears in our eyes. Christians who for centuries
sent the Cossacks to pillage our towns, who put us through their
Inquisitions, who burned Us at the stake as heretics, who expelled us from
their countries, who Locked us away in tiny shtetls (shtet-ell... a poor
Jewish town like in Fiddler on the Roof), who eagerly turned us into the
Nazi SS, and who ran the trains, who produced the poison gas, or just
"knew" about the greatest human tragedy of this century.... were doing
something good for a Jew. Nothing in my life prepared me for that. It's one
thing to say "I'm sorry, it's too bad," but it is quite another to put
$6,000 behind it and not even be from the community!!!
When this is all behind me, I'm going to find out who the head Methodist
deacon, pope, minister, or whatever he/she is called, get the address and
write a warm thank-you letter... as will every member of our congregation.
The evening closed with a final hymn and we all went home feeling a bit
better.
It didn't really hit me until this afternoon [Saturday] when I drove down
to the temple (about 20 miles from my home) and saw the charred remains of
the library wing. The place was swarming with ATF, FBI and other agents,
collecting materials for the investigations. One ATF agent said that this is
being classified as an "act of domestic terrorism" and has been given the
highest priority. When you see the destruction of something that was
"yours," something you helped build, and something you were proud of, it hits
you.
The depression is awesome. It is just awesome.
Why here? Why us? Why me? I'm sure there are answers, but I don't have
them at the moment. The only answer I do have is that we must pick ourselves
up as a congregation and community (there were two other temples also
heavily damaged) and move on. They can't beat us. We ARE the Jewish people.
We were here 5,000 years ago, and we will be here 5,000 years from today.
I'm going to end by doing something that may upset some of you. I'm
going to call in whatever markers I might have. I've been writing A
Saturday Rant for you for over four years now. I've contributed to the
dialectic of
the industry and have tried to be a force of positive change. In public I
have done what I think has been right and for the best in our sector of the
industry. In private, as some of you know, I give as much help and
advice as I can to new publishers. I've always been honest with you and
while I've made mistakes, on the whole I think I have been a good citizen
of the industry and our small press community.
We lost our ENTIRE 5,000 volume library. I saw it. It was soot. Not
Even a page remained. Nothing.
It was a wonderful library of Jewish-oriented books and films. It was a
treasure of our congregation and it was used by hundreds of our
members, especially the young people. In our community, mothers took their
children to the Temple library as much as they took their children to the
public library. It was part of "what we do." Our books and videos were one
of the ways we "socialized" our young people into our culture. And it works.
We don't have a very high incidence of crime, substance abuse, or academic
problems with our young people. We expect a lot from them and we make sure
they have the tools and opportunities not to disappoint us.
If you could find it in your heart to send a check for a dollar or two
(five, ten, or whatever is in your heart) for our library fund, it would
be what we call a mtizvah (a good deed.) I told our Rabbi that I would ask
every publisher in America through my Saturday Rant for a small
contribution. You probably won't get any recognition or even a formal
thank-you. But as a publisher you of all people should know what the
loss of a library means to we who are known as "the people of the book."
If this is something you could do, please make out a check to
Congregation B'nai Israel and send it to me at Adams-Blake Publishing,
8041 Sierra Street, Fair Oaks, CA 95628. I will see that it gets to the
right people.
One final request. Would all of you post this to any other private
Lists you are on?
. . . I have to heal as much as everyone else... and I have a lot of
work to do this summer... not only in my business but to help rebuild our
temple and community. They have not beaten us. As our Torah teaches
us..."And this too shall pass."
And as the final benediction to every one of our services reads "May
The Lord bless you, and keep you, and give you peace."
Alan N. Canton
Vice President
Adams-Blake Publishing
abpub@ns.net
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