In the face of controversy that drew national media attention, one of the Bay Area’s best-educated and most upscale cities has abruptly reversed course in a flap over a history book.
Menlo Park has been in the middle of a public-relations whirlwind since talks broke down between the city’s historical society and Michael Svanevik, the author and historian who was commissioned to write a history of the Peninsula town.
Menlo Park Historical Association board members balked when Svanevik and co-author Shirley Burgett produced a more complete history than they envisioned — replete with mention of Jewish philanthropy, white flight, anti-war protest and the poverty of early Irish settlers.
Among the proposed edits to the 260-page manuscript: Drop all references to Jews or Jewish ethnicity. The authors refused.
On Tuesday of last week, the board members met privately and, by a vote of 4-3, voted to disband the contract with the authors.
Some citizens didn’t agree with the vote. A day later, some 100 irate residents stormed the association’s regular meeting at the Menlo Park Public Library.
Two of the board members who insisted on the edits, Kathryn Carroll and Peggy Stretch, abruptly quit, reportedly smarting from a public tongue-lashing and bad press. A third, Bill Russ, opted to remain.
The board appointed Frank Helfrich and Margaret Snowden to fill the spots.
The new board voted Monday to honor their contract with Svanevik and “recommend the book print the truth about Menlo Park’s past, be it favorable or unfavorable episodes,” according to Roger Seccombe, former vice president, now interim president.
“It really came out of a sort of misunderstanding,” said Helfrich, who has lived in Menlo Park all his life and served alternately as president and treasurer of the association.
Some felt titling a chapter “The Jews” was in bad taste. “The title just seemed to be out of place. And since it was a draft, we didn’t think we were out of line in suggesting a change,” Helfrich said.
Still, Helfrich said he is pleased the book will go ahead as planned.
Svanevik is out of town and will return Thursday. Helfrich said before he left, the board contacted him about its change of heart — and new members.
Last week, Svanevik said he’d been asked not to identify certain figures as Jewish, including Sigmund Stern, who donated a grove to the city of San Francisco, and the Koshland family.
“The Jewish philanthropic community has made too significant an accomplishment in the history of the region to be removed from its history,” he said at that time.
“This whole thing has been quite amazing, because here, Jewish families were particularly instrumental in shaping and developing [the community],” said historian and Stanford Professor Steven J. Zipperstein. “Especially the Koshland family.
Fred Rosenbaum, Lehrhaus Judaica executive director and a historian who splits time between residences in the Bay Area and Manhattan, said academic colleagues in New York have been buzzing about the debacle.
“Since the 1840s, groups of all ethnicities have streamed to the Bay Area, and all have made, and continued to make, major contributions,” he said by phone from New York. “You cannot write the history of the Bay Area without discussing its diversity.”
The association would have lost more than face, had it not reversed course. More than $25,000 had been invested in the project.
Had the project not come to fruition, the association would have forfeited $16,500 in a printing deposit and also would have handed over a $8,500 “kill fee” to the authors. The book’s sale price has been set at $40.
But Helfrich said that of equal importance to the expense is the public’s perception of Menlo Park, which he fears has been unfairly tarnished.
The town is home to academics, Stanford faculty members and numerous think tanks, including SRI, he said. Forty-one percent of its residents have college degrees, compared to 22 percent in San Francisco, according to government and business records.
“I’ve lived here all my life,” Helfrich said. “It’s a good town, not small-minded at all. We have a lot of very educated people here.”