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For William J. Lowenberg, riding in a limo with then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan provided a lingering moment of surrealism.

“When I sat with him in the back of the limo and talked, it was not easy for me,” recalls the San Francisco Republican of his chauffeured ride through Los Angeles, circa 1980. “Imagine, a man running for President of the United States to be sitting with a Jew who was in Auschwitz. I found him to be one of the most sensitive men I knew.”

Lowenberg is one of several Bay Area leaders in political and Jewish communal life eulogizing the late president in the wake of his death on Saturday, June 5. Reagan had plenty of detractors, but those who worked with him on issues important to the Jewish community have mostly fond memories.

Reagan appointed Lowenberg vice-chair of the Washington, D.C., Holocaust Museum committee. Throughout 14 years of planning, fund-raising and building the museum, Lowenberg remembers the president as a solid supporter of the $300 million project.

“Anything we needed, we got,” he says. “We never had to ask twice. He understood what we wanted to do and the legacy we wanted to leave.”

KGO on-air personality and Jewish activist John Rothmann is a former chair of the San Francisco County Teen-age Republicans and a one-time Nixon campaign operative. A registered Democrat, Rothmann never voted for Reagan, but found much to admire in the 40th president, especially when it came to his long-standing support of Israel.

“In June 1967, Reagan had been governor only a few months,” notes Rothmann. “At the time, Israel appeared to be in big trouble, so Reagan ordered the purchase of $1 million in Israel Bonds for the state pension fund. He did it to affirm his support for Israel. He was a great friend through thick and thin.”

Richard Goldman, co-founder of the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, also had occasion to meet the president. He once attended a dinner at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum that Reagan hosted in honor of Queen Elizabeth, who was visiting the Bay Area. “It was a formal event but with a wonderful spirit. Reagan had an ability as president to make people feel comfortable, and he did that with the queen as well.”

Goldman remained impressed with Reagan’s ability to “use his personality to make things happen. He will always be remembered for his effect in ending the Cold War and developing a personal relationship with [former Soviet President Mikhail]Gorbachev.”

Reagan’s tenures as both president and governor of California were also marked with controversy. Although he found much to applaud in Reagan, Goldman adds, “Two things stick out in my mind from when he was governor: the closing of the mental institutions and the firing of [former U.C. President] Clark Kerr. Those left an unfortunate effect on me.”

Democrats in the California Legislature and the U.S. Congress clashed early, clashed often with Reagan, but even his harshest critics felt a measure of respect and affection for the man. In her remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday, June 8, California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer said Reagan “taught me that you can disagree without being disagreeable. He believed that if we are all pleasant and respectful to one another, we can find areas of common ground, reach across the aisle, and get things done.”

David Waksberg, a Palo Alto-based software industry executive, had no trouble working with the Reagan administration when he needed help. He served as a leader of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews back in the movement’s heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. He remembers Reagan as an unwavering supporter of Jews seeking freedom from the USSR.

“The view of Ronald Reagan among refuseniks and Soviet Jewry activists was uniformly positive and enthusiastic,” says Waksberg. “They considered him a hero because he spoke their language. The evil empire speech was music to their ears. In my experience, the two Americans they admired most were Ronald Reagan and [the late Democratic Sen.] Henry Jackson.”

Reagan was a prolific letter writer during his career, and among his correspondents were both Rothmann and Lowenberg.

One hand-written letter from the president is among Lowenberg’s prized possessions. In it, Reagan addresses concerns over American leadership in seeking Middle East peace, a daunting task in those pre-Oslo days.

“First and foremost in all we do,” wrote Reagan to Lowenberg, “is concern for the safety of Israel. Believe me, we’ve made great progress and while there is still much to do our goal remains a just and fair peace.”

Reagan is the only president since Richard Nixon never to have visited Israel.

The president’s letter to Rothmann dates from August 1966 and was written in response to concerns that the then-candidate for governor was too close to anti-Semitic right-wing extremists.

“My own record is very clear,” wrote Reagan. “I have, down through the years, opposed the hate-mongers…. There are no members of right-wing organizations or the John Birch Society in my campaign.”

Says Rothmann, “Whether or not you voted for him, there’s no question about his feelings for Israel, the Holocaust and support for Jewish causes. Ronald Reagan was a great friend of Israel, and history will record him as a great president.”

Adds Lowenberg, “San Francisco is the loneliest place for a Jewish Republican. But there was something about the man. He had a soul and a heart. He felt the cause we are so deeply involved in. He felt and understood it and didn’t neglect it.”

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