Local Support Is Sought
emple Israel Rabbi Paul
Yedwab made a plea to con-
greg-ants at Shabbat services
June 25 for funds to sup-
port the three Sacramento, Calif.,
synagogues attacked by arsonists on
June 18.
"I suggested that although they
aren't permitted to give tzeeiaka on
Shabbat; they could make plans to do
it," he said Tuesday "I already found
.
■
REBECCA ROSEN LUM
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California
San Francisco
- s investigators hone in on ,
an "abundance of evidence
culled from the scenes of
the June 18 arson attack on
three Sacramento-area synagogues,
signs point increasingly to a white
supremacist group.
Federal agents are tracking a number
of hate groups with chapters in the area.
High on the list is an Illinois-based
organization called the World Church
of the Creator, which has five active
units operating out of Sacramento.
World Church fliers were left at
two of the three torched sites, accord-
ing to FBI officials. During Yom
HaShoah services in April, similar
fliers were left at one of the burned
synagogues, the Reform Congregation
Beth Shalom in Carmichael, Calif.
Flames tore through the library of
Sacramento's Congregation B'nai
Israel, destroying 5,000 books and
300 videos on Jewish culture and his-
tory. Minutes later, arsonists struck
Beth Shalom and Kenesset Israel
Torah Center. The combined damages
may top $1 million.
FBI officials refused to comment on
the role of the white supremacist group
in their investigation or on possible con-
nections to other reported hate crimes in
Sacramento. But agents from the federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms said they have not ruled out
the World Church or two other groups,
the Posse Comitatus and the National
Alliance, which the Anti-Defamation
League has tagged "the most dangerous
hate group in the U.S. today."
A
7/2
1999
90 1_n.troif tow_cb_Nowc
checks waiting for me this morning."
The money will go to the Unity
Fund, started by the Jewish
Federation of the Sacramento Region
to help rebuild Reform synagogues
13'nai Israel and Beth Shalom and the
Orthodox Kenesset Israel Torah
Center.
B'nai Israel was the hardest hit,
losing most of the 5,000 volumes and
300 videos in its Jewish library.
Rachel Erlich, Temple Israel's librari-
an, said efforts to assist rebuilding the
library are under way. "We have some
duplicate books we can send to
them," Erlich said. "We'll tell what
we have and see if they need it."
Donald Cohen, regional director
of the Anti-Defamation
League/Michigan Region, is offering
the Sacramento community 130
books for a Holocaust library "We're
not open-to the public so the library
isn't used that frequently," he said.
Cohen will be sending the syna-
gogues a list of books he can forward
in the coming weeks.
"When they're ready, they will let
us know" what they want, he said
"Right now, they have nowhere to
put them."
— Lonny Goldsmith
Fire evidence points to hate,
groups, investigators say.
justify the terrorizing, the bestial
However, according
bombing of our Yugoslavia back
to Jonathan Bernstein,
into the dark ages."
director of the ADL's
The World Church rejects
Central Pacific region,
Christianity.
Its founder, Ben
the World Church is
Klassen,
has
said Christianity
"directly linked. They
was
"concocted"
by Jews "for the
left their fliers there."
very
purpose
of
mongreling
and
While ADL officials
destroying
the
White
Race."
stopped short of accus-
FBI Special Agent Nick
ing World Church
Rossi
cautioned against making
members of perpetrat-
too swift an assumption of
ing the predawn arsons,
guilt: "Even though they may
they point out that the
eventually be proven to be con-
literature recovered
nected to the individuals
from the crime scene
responsible for the fires, [the :\
blames the
fliers] may contain misstate-
"International
ments about the group or its
Jewsmedia" for the war
motives."
in Kosovo — a current
According to FBI statistics,
theme among white
78
percent of all religiously
supremacist groups.
motivated
hate crimes are
Although he denied
directed
at
Jews or Jewish insti-
responsibility for the
tutions
—
1,087
nationally in
attacks, World Church
1998.
That
year,
8,049 hate
leader Matt Hale told a
crimes were reported by 11,06,
reporter,
Sacramento Bee
agencies in 48 states.
"We -can't condemn it.
More than 100 agents from
"We believe the
six
agencies are working on the
Jews have perpetrated
case,
including the FBI, the
far more atrocities on
ATF
bureau
and Sacramento's
non-Jews than the
police,
sheriff's
and fire
Congregation B'nai Israeli damaged library building,
other way around,"
departments,
as
well as the
following
the
arson
attack
said the national
American
River
Fire District.
leader, who is based in
Gov.
Gray
Davis
announce:\
and the vicious beating of a father and
Illinois. "Our response
a
$25,000
reward
for
information
is they should look in the mirror to
his son by 11 skinheads in Miami last
leading to the arrest and conviction
see who is responsible."
year.
of the perpetrators. Andrew Cuomo,
Hale insisted that his organization
A World Church flier found Friday
U.S. Secretary of Housing and
does not "persuade people by burning
at the Kenesset Israel Torah Center
Urban Development, announced the
buildings. Its counterproductive,".
claims, "We are Slays, we will never
availability of $6.8 million in guar-
But Bernstein said the group "has
allow the International Jew World
anteed loans — the result of
Order
to
take
our
Land
[sic].
The
fake
been tied to some very serious inci-
President Bill Clinton's Church
dents" including the murder of an
Albanian refugee crisis was manufac-
Arson
Prevention Act of 1996. 1 1
tured by the International Jewsmedia to
African-American serviceman in 1991
-