Victim of Hate Crime Lauded as Caring Man

Many people at a benefit rally Sunday for Myron Cohen-Ross spoke of the Thousand Oaks businessman as a symbol of all innocent victims of anti-Semitism and other bigotry.

But to the children and adults who patronized the Heroes and Legends comic-book store, which was torched 10 days ago, the gray-haired collector is not a symbol or a storekeeper, but an unusually bighearted person.

“This is a very, very caring man,” Thousand Oaks resident Rene Rodriguez said to the more than 200 people gathered at the rally at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village.

Rodriguez helped organize the gathering along with a Costa Mesa-based Christian group called Shalom International.

Rodriguez and others came together to show support and raise money for Cohen-Ross, whose Thousand Oaks Boulevard store was spray-painted with anti-Semitic graffiti and set ablaze on Sept. 18.

Cohen-Ross said that he lost about $250,000 worth of merchandise and that his insurance will cover only about $50,000. He plans to rebuild at another location near the old store.

Rodriguez said he met Cohen-Ross when he wandered into his Heroes and Legends store about a month before it was burned.

The two men talked about their childhoods in New York City. By the time Rodriguez left, he felt so close to the store owner that he hugged him.

Owen Ryan, 20, said he had been going to Cohen-Ross’ store since he was 12 years old.

At first he went because it was the only comic-book store in town, said Ryan, who works for McClave Jewelers in Thousand Oaks.

But he kept going, dropping in every Friday when the new comics arrived. “I continued to go there because he was really nice.”

Ryan said he came to the rally “just to show him how much I care.”

Other customers have shown that they too care by donating hundreds of comic books to replace the collection lost in the fire.

Cohen-Ross was given about a dozen comic books, such as “Archie” and “Groo the Wanderer,” at the rally and received several hundred more at his still-functioning Agoura Hills comic-book store over the past 10 days, he said.

Cohen-Ross, an Agoura Hills resident who opened the Thousand Oaks store eight years ago, cried openly when he spoke to the crowd.

“Thank you all for helping me,” he said. “Thank you for sharing. Thank you for being a part of me.”

His wife, Judith, said she wasn’t surprised by the outpouring of love for her husband.

“This is the kind of response he gets from people,” she said. “He’s like the man at the old-fashioned candy store. . . . He treats everybody with respect and caring.”

But Judith acknowledged that the rally was about more than her husband’s popularity, or the particular crime against his store.

“It’s way beyond what just happened to us,” she said. “I think it’s the community standing and saying, ‘This is not tolerable.’ ”

The theme of community response to hate crimes dominated most speeches at the rally.

The Rev. Larry DeWitt of Calvary Community Church told the crowd, “It’s about time for people in this community to stand up together . . . to speak out together against acts of violence, to denounce together anti-Semitism.”

Other speakers included ministers from several local churches, an official from the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce and leaders of Shalom International, a group dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism.

Shalom International leaders presented Myron and Judith Cohen-Ross with a $500 check for rebuilding. Myron Cohen-Ross said he hopes to open again at a new location in Thousand Oaks in the next 60 days.

In addition, about 50 people in the audience passed checks to the front of the church during the rally.

Shalom International member Randy Senzig of Thousand Oaks said some of the money will go toward other businesses in the same strip mall as the burned store. A nail salon, an antiques shop and an insurance agency were also damaged in the fire.

One person who said she wasn’t inspired by all the speeches was Morgan Cohen-Ross, the 9-year-old daughter of Myron and Judith.

“To me it was boring,” Morgan said after the rally. The youngster had to sit still next to her parents on the church stage during the hour-and-a-half event. “But to many other people, I suppose it was a comfort.”

The entire experience, from the burning of the store to the rally, “is just really all a dream,” Morgan said. “It was a bad dream at first. The good dream is that people care.”