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