With cheers and standing ovations, an audience of 4,500 gathered at the Sacramento Community Center Theater Monday to rally against a rash of anti-Semitic acts unprecedented in recent U.S. history.
Speaker after speaker, from California First Lady Sharon Davis to Anti-Defamation League National Director Abe Foxman, emphasized a determination to rebuild after last Friday’s arson attacks on three Sacramento-area synagogues, which caused $1 million in damage.
“Tonight we stand united against these forces of hate in recognition of the following truth that despite our magnificent diversity that we are one people,” said Davis.
Foxman decried the arson, calling on the crowd to fight intolerance.
“We gather here to protect and reject the stench of hatred that fouls this community,” he said. “To send a loud and clear message to those who torched the three synagogues that their crime will find no haven, no sanction, no silent assent, only the outraged, unequivocal rejection of an entire community.”
Monday’s rally, which lasted 2-1/2 hours and drew 21 speakers, was also a strong show of religious unity. On stage were four rabbis of the congregations affected, three from the Reform branch and one modern Orthodox. Joining them were representatives from the Protestant, Catholic and Muslim faiths.
In the audience, the presence of the Rev. Dobrivoje Milunovic of the Serbian Orthodox Church in suburban Fair Oaks echoed that unity. Fliers, believed to be from a white supremacist organization, charging that Jews benefited from the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia were found at two of the damaged synagogues.
In addition, a number of Bay Area Jewish community leaders attended to show their support, including Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Center, and Janice Brenner, assistant to Israel Consul General Daniel Shek, and ADL representatives.
Striking one of the most poignant chords, Rabbi Brad Bloom of Congregation B’nai Israel, whose temple suffered the most extensive damage, delivered words of a personal nature. One day after the fire that gutted the synagogue’s library and damaged the main sanctuary, the rabbi found out that his father, Oscar Bloom, had died of a heart attack. The rabbi’s father was a World War II veteran who stormed the beaches on D-Day. He had always told his son to carry on the fight against the Nazis.
“I hope my father — who took a break off the 18th hole, and is listening to me now — I hope he’s proud of us and proud of me because I’m not going to forget him, and I’m going to take that message of a D-Day against hatred for the rest of my life,” Bloom said.
A proposed museum of tolerance in Sacramento, championed by Bloom, received its first financial boost. Don Harris of the Sacramento-based nonprofit Nehemiah Housing presented him with a $10,000 check at the rally.
Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) — who introduced a motion passed unanimously by the Assembly on Monday — has said he will work toward establishing an educational institution designed to teach tolerance.
“How do we keep the emotion and passion everyone feels tonight?” he said later. “Put it in our heads or hearts, and ensure that we act on it to make sure this type of thing never happens again.”
A special fund administered by the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region to assist the three synagogues — Congregation B’nai Israel, Congregation Beth Shalom and Kenesset Israel Torah Center — has received more than $51,000 so far, including a pledge from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.
Before the event, Foxman, who came to Sacramento from his New York office, said he was struck by how quickly the local community responded.
“We were ready to do a reward for information, and it came from the community,” he said. “And I think this is so much healthier.”
In addition to the $25,000 reward announced Tuesday by Gov. Gray Davis, two Sacramento-area businessmen have posted a joint reward totaling $35,000 for any information aiding the investigation. The Sacramento Bee published a flier topped by the name of a just-formed community group, United We Stand, along with a chai, the Hebrew word for “life.”
Many in the audience raised the flier in a show of support during Monday’s rally. Poshi Mikaelson, librarian at B’nai Israel, said the event gave her hope in the midst of the destruction.
“This is carrying me through,” Mikaelson said. “Today I had to go into the library. Instead of being completely gutted, there were recognizable books on the shelf, but they were completely charred. If you touched them, they fell apart. It was so hard to see. So coming here and having everyone support me and support the whole community. It made the difference.”
The JCRC’s Kahn came to the rally with a letter of support signed by about 100 religious leaders attending the United Religions Initiative conference at Stanford this week.
“I was struck by both the eloquent and poignant remarks of so many of the speakers who utilized their personal experiences to condemn these anti-Semitic attacks [and by] the thunderous applause and standing ovations that greeted every speaker, including rabbis leading responsive readings. It was a stupendous event,” he said later.
“I thought it was an extraordinary outpouring from both the Jewish and the general community in Sacramento,” he continued. “This was not only a rally to come together in support of the Jewish community but it was a Sacramento pride rally, [saying], ‘We’re proud of our diversity, we’re proud of our Jewish community and we will stand together against hate.'”
Brenner was at the rally on behalf of the Consulate General of Israel. Consul Eran Etzion sent a message that was read at the beginning of the event, saying that “eradicating the scourge [of hate] is a mission we all share.”
Calling the event “almost a transformational experience,” Brenner said, “You had this room of people that was so resolute and steadfast in standing in solidarity with the Jewish community.”