200 Rally at Burned-Out Synagogue : Congregation Holds Service as Bikers Stand Guard

About 200 Christians and Jews from throughout Southern California joined hands in prayer and sang “We Shall Overcome” Saturday in support of a small North Hollywood synagogue that was firebombed last week.

Among them were 60 motorcycle enthusiasts from an Orange County church--several of whom stood guard around the crowd assembled in front of the Yeshiva Aish HaTorah Institute, 12424 Chandler Blvd., as clergy members denounced the attack.

The bikers, many wearing leather jackets, chains and earrings, remained on alert until the conclusion of Sabbath services that members of the Orthodox Jewish congregation held inside the synagogue’s remaining building. “We wanted to make sure there was no more trouble here today,” one man said.

One of the synagogue’s two small buildings caught fire shortly after midnight Thursday when someone threw an incendiary device, or Molotov cocktail, at the structure. The building, along with some sacred books and prayer shawls, was destroyed before firefighters could extinguish the blaze.

Rabbi Zvi Block, who heads the synagogue, thanked those assembled in front of the charred building Saturday, saying that he was emotionally overwhelmed by the large number of people who turned out to “confront the fires of hate.”

“You have demonstrated that God’s gift of love and friendship is alive and well,” Block said. “This is beautiful to see.”

The crowd proved that “perpetrators of hate are viewed as they should be--as a minority,” the rabbi said. Those who speak out against bigotry and racism are the vocal majority, Block said.

Investigators said they had no suspects, but Mayor Tom Bradley, police and Jewish community leaders have speculated that the attack was part of a rising number of violent anti-Semitic incidents nationwide.

Block, the congregation’s rabbi, has close ties to the militant Jewish Defense League, and Irv Rubin, the group’s national chairman, maintains an office at the synagogue.

Police said Saturday that an incendiary device was thrown through the front window of a Los Angeles drapery store that houses a JDL hot line on the same night as the synagogue fire. But that bomb did not explode. Detectives said they did not know if the incident at Hal David’s Interiors, 1415 S. La Cienega Blvd., was related.

The telephone line, which only gives callers a prerecorded message and does not take messages, has been operating in the shop for two or three years, owner Hal David said in a telephone interview. He is not a JDL member or associate, but is an acquaintance of former Southern California JDL leader Irv Rubin, who went to New York in 1985 to head the national JDL. David said he had received no threatening calls or messages.

The fact that the phone message device was based in his shop “just wasn’t common knowledge,” David added, and was not listed as such in guides or directories.

Whether it will stay in operation there, “that decision hasn’t been made yet,” he said.

At Saturday’s gathering, the Rev. Billy Ingram, pastor of Maranatha Church in Newport Beach expressed his outrage at the synagogue firebombing, telling those present: “You will never stand alone as long as we have a voice.”

Ministers of several other large Christian congregations also denounced the vandalism.

The Rev. Phil Aguilar, an ex-biker who now leads the 4,000-member Set Free Christian Fellowship in Anaheim, embraced Block, saying: “We just want to show that we love you, rabbi.”

Aguilar said the bikers who belong to his church believe that they have a special mission to join in the fight against racism and bigotry.

“If you touch one synagogue, you touch every Christian church in America,” said the Rev. Jess Moody, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Van Nuys. “And we’re not going to stand for it.”