Home
Software
Books
Articles / Rants
Consulting
Ordering Info
Good Links
About Us
Contact Us
 Adams-Blake logo


A Saturday Request


A Saturday Request  6/19/99

Newspaper feature about the arson.
Article about the result of this letter.

[Note: This essay was written to the book publishing community, but ended up going around the world such that it raised over $200,000 for Temple B'nai Israel. Since it's not one of my best pieces, I know that there was another force, another power at work here. I'm a good writer, but I'm not THAT good! - ANC]



I have long said that book publishers are the "keepers of the culture."  And
I have long held (although not in public) that the Jews are the mothers and
fathers of the culture.

I'm sure that most of you have heard about how three synagogues in my home
of Sacramento, CA were firebombed early Friday morning (see link above) 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 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 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. It 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 one of you please post this to the Gundry list?
Maybe someone there would like to contribute. And would all of you post this
to any other private lists you are on?

This will be the last Rant for a while. I usually take July and August off
but I think I may begin my hiatus now. 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
info@adams-blake.com

============================
If you are in the publishing business, you must see PUB123, the newest and
most affordable back-office software system available. You can find it on
http://www.adams-blake.com. Email us at: info@adams-blake.com
============================


8041 Sierra Street #102    Fair Oaks, CA   95628   916.962.9296