San Francisco Supervisor Amos Brown stood half-furious, half-somber at the microphone inside the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco last week.
In a striking voice nurtured in the pulpit of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, where he is minister, Brown spoke of a picture still fresh in the audience member’s minds — a trail of kids holding hands, led across a street by police officers.
“What a better world this would be,” Brown said, “if we could have our hands together before the enemy strikes.”
The rally on Wednesday of last week was convened hastily, one day after Buford O. Furrow Jr. burst into the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills and wounded five people with gunfire. He later killed a Filipino-American postal carrier.
The swiftness with which the rally was organized suggested that many in the city already have joined their hands together. The estimated crowd of 350 included seven ministers, seven rabbis, three city supervisors and one mayor.
“We have to take back this country,” said Susan Lowenberg, who spoke on behalf of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, which helped organize the rally along with the JCC and the Jewish Community Relations Council.
“It’s not a Jewish issue, or a black or Chinese issue. It’s an American issue. We have been too silent. This country has changed and it’s time for us to grab it back.”
Lowenberg then reeled off a litany of ways to stop the snowballing violence: “Don’t watch violent TV; don’t buy products from companies that advertise during violent TV shows; don’t buy violent video games; don’t see violent movies; do demand stricter gun control laws.”
Television crews captured the emotional event for the news later that night, while police officers dotted the grounds because of safety concerns.
Some in the crowd were clad in business suits, probably having come directly from work. A few were wearing jogging outfits, perhaps planning to work out at the JCC’s gym after the rally.
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown arrived in a tuxedo just in time to join the rest of the crowd in holding lighted candles.
“Each of us are horrified and need to re-examine whether we’ve made every rule and regulation to stop this in our community,” the mayor said. “I will call all of San Francisco a no-hate zone. All of America should be a no-hate zone.
“Each of us must become equipped to see the early warning signs to prevent such tragedy,” Brown continued. “In our city, we are desperately trying to do that. We must reaffirm our commitment to celebrate diversity rather than lament it.”
The diverse speakers represented nearly every ethnicity and major religion.
Iftekhar Hai, director of interfaith relations for United Muslims of America, began his brief speech by uttering “shalom aleichem” — Hebrew for “peace to all of you.” He then pledged to the Jewish community that “whenever you call on me, I’ll be there to support you against this kind of bigotry.”
The Rev. Gerry O’Roark, director of ecumenical and interreligious affairs at the Catholic Diocese of San Francisco, said, “We are all brothers and sisters. If you harm any of us, you harm the rest of us.”
O’Roark added that although such solidarity might not have been evident before, “Let the word go forth from San Francisco that people of religion are coming together.”
In a very emotional speech, Rabbi H. David Teitelbaum, executive director of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California, asserted that the Jewish community will not be victimized.
“Let us take courage against those who think nothing of gunning down innocent children,” he said. “We will not stand for this. Not in Nazi Germany, and not here.”
To close the hourlong rally, Cantor Martin Feldman from San Francisco’s Congregation Sherith Israel sang a powerfully loud “Hatikvah.”
Several audience members said they were inspired by the positive words and the short, intense prayers.
After the rally, Kimberly Smith of San Francisco said, “I am equally appalled at what happened in Los Angeles. This issue also affects me as an African-American, and as a human being.”