Moshe Arens' World,
Challenging Questions,
A Cantor And The KKK
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
g
. .
-ecision
L
arry Trapp was the grand
dragon of the White Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan of Ne-
braska.
Michael Weisser was a cantor
at B'nai Jeshurun in Lincoln.
The two became best friends.
In Not By the Sword (Simon
& Schuster), journalist Kathryn
Watterston tells the story of how
a Nebraska cantor refused to be
intimidated by the KKK's
threats, and in fact extended his
friendship to its leader.
movements
1 8 it Gold ard stainless St eel
W N
Water
b„
RAYMOND WEIL
GENEVE
Crosswinds Mall
4301 Orchard Lake
Road
West Bloomfield
Dion,'s
Worki of Watches
539-1181
Mon.-Wed. 10-6
Thurs. & Fri. 10-9
Sat. 10-6
OSCAR
BRAUN'S PEN
LINCOLN TOWERS SUITE 111 968 5858
SALE
MILE)
15075 W. Lincoln
-
One Block East of Greenfield
PARKER
K-45 KITCHEN-AID MIXERS WATERMAN • CROSS • LAMY
MONT BLANC
NOW ONLY $166.88
FOUNTAIN PENS
CLOSED SATURDAY
PANASONIC
50% OFF
BREAD MAKERS #10 $149 88
PLAQUE
REMOVER
BRAUN
TOOTHBRUSH ON SALE
NORELCO $3588
TRIPLE HEAD SHAVERS
SONY-RCA
TV'S
$225.00 #144 NOW $112.00
$155 ROLLER BALL 'RED' $95
Cuisinart
FOOD PROCESSORS
5
69.00
3 - SPEED
INTERPLAK $
TOOTHBRUSH
3
ity
n°13Ping
...
92
Getting ready for the big day.
Mon. thru Fri. 10-4
(10'12
in your NeOborhood
The Boardwalk
Sugar Tree
Orchard Lake Road • West Bloomfield
It started with an anonymous
threat.
"You will be sorry you ever
moved into 5810 Randolph
Street, Jew boy!" was Mr.
Trapp's first message to Cantor
Weisser.
He was the kind of man who
liked violence and loved "to scare
people he thought needed to be
brought down a notch or two." He
hated blacks. He hated Asians,
Mexicans and Indians. And, of
course, he hated Jews.
Michael Weisser was a grad-
uate of Hebrew Union College-
Jewish Institute of Religion in
New York. He had worked in Cal-
ifornia, Ohio and Florida before
moving to Nebraska. He was look-
ing for a challenge, and Congre-
gation B'nai Jeshurun would be
just that.
In Not By the Sword, Ms. Wat-
terston writes what happens af-
ter Cantor Weisser and Mr.
Trapp became acquainted, and
then friends, and finally the for-
mer KKK head moved into the
cantor's home. This includes a
trip to Cantor Weisser's temple,
In Bar Mitzvah: A Jewish
Boy's Coming of Age (Viking),
author Eric Kimmel (himself a
native of Portland, Ore.), consid-
ers everything from fact (why
does a boy become bar mitzvah
at age 13?) to how to prepare for
the big day (typical worries:
"What if I forget the Haftarah
right in the middle? ... Has any-
one ever died from becoming bar
mitzvah?")
There are chapters on the
structure of the prayer service,
the use of a tallit and
tefillin, and ideas to con-
sider as a boy approaches
adulthood.
Also new for parents
"who don't have all the
answers" is Rabbi
Harold Kushner's When
Children Ask About
God (Schocken).
Rabbi Kushner, also
the author of When
Bad Things Happen to
Good People, gives par-
ents guidance on how
to answer such sticky
questions as "Why did
God let this terrible
thing happen?" and
"What happens when I
die?"
The first step, he ad-
vises, is "we must come to
a clear understanding of
matter whether were white peo- what we ourselves are ready to
ple or Oriental people or black believe about God." The second
people. Once we get that under issue is translating this idea into
our belt and realize we are one "words of one syllable" that a
race and one race only, then and child can understand.
"Above all, never let us be
only then will we progress as a
afraid to say to our children: That
society.
or Seth Rubinstein, a bar is a very difficult question,' " he
mitzvah had nothing to do writes. " 'People have been trying
with parties and every- to answer it for a long time, and
thing to do with becoming they are not sure they know all
the answers there are for it. Let
a man.
"I loved my bar mitzvah," he me try to answer it as best as I
said. "It was the most important can, but you probably won't un-
thing I'd ever done. For the first derstand it all until you're older."'
time, I really felt proud to be @4-Line Drop:Did the Bush ad-
Jewish. You see, where I live ministration have Israel's well-
in Eugene, Ore., Jews are a being or its downfall in mind
definite minority. And when when it intervened in Israeli pol-
you're a minority, you have to itics?
Former Israeli Foreign and De-
put up with a lot of slurs, stereo-
types and basic ignorance. There fense Minister Moshe Arens has
were plenty of times when I no doubt.
In Broken Covenant:
wanted to be like everybody else.
But when I celebrated my bar American Foreign Policy
mitzvah, I felt as if I really and the Crisis Between the
accomplished something impor- U.S. and Israel (Simon &
tant, and everybody in my life Schuster), Mr. Arens provides a
who mattered knew it was firsthand look at American gov-
important and came to celebrate ernment officials in action in Is-
rael during the time of the Gulf
with me."
where Mr. Trapp told the con-
gregation:
I had wasted the first 40 years
of my life and caused harm to
other people until I believe God
stepped in to give me Cantor
Weisser as a messenger to show
me that I could receive love and
to show me the love that I could
give to others. I've learned we're
all the same, we're all in the
world, we all have to face the
same situations and people, and
we have the same purpose — no
F