Scorched!
At California synagogue, congregants struggle with
effects of wildfires.
TOM TUGEND
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Los Angeles
y phone, e-mail and word of
mouth, the bad news kept
piling up at Congregation
Emanu El in San
Bernardino, Calif.
The homes of six member families
had been burned to the ground in the
devastating wildfires sweeping across
southern California. Another 30-40
families from the congregation were
forced to evacuate, and no one knew
the whereabouts of eight other fami-
lies.
Rabbi Douglas Kohn, spiritual
leader at the Reform congregation,
was exhausted. "I haven't slept more
than 10 hours since Shabbat," he said
Monday evening, Oct. 27. "I can see
the tall flames from my study. Embers,
soot and ashes are falling on the syna-
gogue and we can't use the air condi-
tioning.
"We have evacuated our Torah
scrolls and original Marc Chagall
paintings. One of our members, an
officer in the fire department, is on
the fireline, and our Jewish police
chief is also in action.
B
"Every one of our 420
families is out helping oth-
ers. Everyone is concerned
about everyone else," Rabbi
Kohn said.
Emanu El is the only syn-
agogue in San Bernardino,
a city of 185,000 people 60
miles east of Los Angeles.
The shul also is believed to
be the oldest in California,
in continuous operation
since 1851.
A home burns to the ground in California. (AP
As of Tuesday, Oct. 28, at Photo/Paul Sakuma)
least 17 people had been
killed by the region's 10
major wildfires. So far, San Bernardino closed its pre-school and transferred its
and its surroundings have been hardest Torah scrolls, Rabbi Martin Lawson
said. Tifereth Israel Synagogue also
hit, accounting for almost half of the
took its Torah scrolls to safety after
1,100 homes destroyed early in the
nearby residents were ordered to evac-
week.
uate.
But it seemed that losses and suffer-
In Simi Valley, the Mount Sinai
ing were almost everywhere in south-
Memorial Park cemetery reported
ern California. To the south, in San
minor damage to buildings and exten-
Diego County, the 20 classroom trail-
ers of the Chabad Hebrew Academy of sive burning of trees and park areas.
The Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a
San Diego were totally destroyed by
Jewish retreat center in Simi Valley,
the fire. An adjacent, brand-new $25
was untouched by the fire.
million building, almost completed
In the San Gabriel Valley, four
and surrounded by flames, was spared,
employees of the local Jewish federa-
according to Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein.
tion reported major damage to their
San Diego's Temple Emanu El
Old Wounds
Ford Motor Company historian revises history.
JAY TCATH
JUF News
he controversy surrounding
the Ford Foundation's fund-
ing of viciously anti-Israel
groups is not the first time
that the Ford name has sparked contro-
versy with American Jews.
Henry Ford, the motor company's
founder, was a base anti-Semite who
later in life tried to make amends by
Jay Tcath is director of the Jewish
Community Relations Council of the
Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan
Chicago.
apologizing for his publication of The
International Jew, the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion and other anti-Semitic
tracts. Both the company and the foun-
dation have tried over the years to make
amends and mend those fences. The
foundation, endowed by Henry and
Edsel Ford, no longer has any ties to the
company.
Now, as the company celebrates its
centennial, it seems that much work
remains unfinished. In a June 8 Chicago
Tribune article in the automobile section
focusing on the Ford centennial, the
company's official historian, Robert
Kreipke, characterized Henry Ford as a
victim of unfair Jewish criticism.
Kreipke attributed the alle-
gation of Ford's anti-Semitism
to Jews being offended by his
picture being hung on Hitler's
wall. Kreipke then com-
pounded matters by saying,
"Ford never liked moneylend-
ers [and] at that time many
moneylenders were Jews."
The Jewish Community
Relations Council of Chicago Ford
protested to the Tribune that
while its automobile section might not
be the place to air a debate on Ford's
anti-Semitism, since the issue was
included in the published interview, the
paper had a journalistic obligation to
include a perspective other than the
company historian's white-washing.
At the same time, the JCRC protested
to Kreipke, arguing that Henry Ford
should not be rehabilitated in such an
inaccurate and revisionist manner, espe-
cially in light of the publicity the com-
pany is garnering during its centennial.
homes.
Meanwhile, Jewish communities ral-
lied to aid the homeless and other vic-
tims of the fires. Some 11 Chabad
centers in southern California turned
themselves into relief and counseling
centers, providing clothing, furniture
and food.
The Board of Rabbis of Southern
California called on all member con-
gregations to provide assistance, the
board's executive vice president, Rabbi
Mark Diamond, said.
There are several ways to contribute
to fire relief assistance:
• Hard-hit Congregation Emanu El
in San Bernardino has established a
Fire Tzedakah Fund. Checks can be
made out to Emanu El and sent to
3512 North E St., San Bernardino,
Calif , 92405.
• The Jewish Federation of Greater
Los Angeles has set up a Fire
Emergency Relief Fund. Mail checks
to Jewish Federation, 6505 Wilshire
Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif., 90048, and
write "Fire Relief Fund" on the memo
line. 0
Rachel Brand .of the Jewish Journal of
Greater Los Angeles contributed to this
story.
Kreipke responded to the
JCRC letter by standing by
his published statements.
He went on to say that
today the Ford Motor
Company continues fighting
to take The International Jew
out of publication, but that
some copies still are being cir-
culated despite its efforts.
In the JCRC follow-up let-
ter to Kreipke, the organization
stressed that whether Jews were or were
not moneylenders in the early 20th cen-
tury is utterly irrelevant and that the
widely held view — by Jews and others
— of Ford's anti-Semitism was in no
way a function of his photo being hung
on Hitler's wall.
"That these assertions continue to
stand as the official Ford Motor
Company's view of things is simply
incomprehensible and indeed a matter
of substantial concern," the JCRC
wrote.
❑
10/31
2003
19