Synagogue in O.C. Targeted, FBI Alleges

Rabbi Michael Mayersohn of Temple Beth David isn’t politically active, and he isn’t particularly outspoken or visible in the community. So when he learned that a white supremacist had allegedly targeted his synagogue, he was reminded with startling clarity that people face random hatred and violence solely because of their religion or race.

“I’ve been aware of the organized groups in this area,” the rabbi said. “But the possibility that we were targeted certainly did surprise me. This is a reminder to us that there are always people in society who harbor hatred or bigotry toward anyone who maintains a distinct identity--Jewish, black, whatever.”

According to a court affidavit, one of the eight people arrested by the FBI in a crackdown on an alleged white supremacist plot, Christopher David Fisher, 20, of Long Beach, said he threw a Molotov cocktail at a window of a synagogue in Westminster.

Fisher, who authorities describe as the leader of a neo-Nazi group called the Fourth Reich Skins, allegedly told an undercover agent in April that the handmade grenade failed to ignite because it was raining.

The prosecutor in the white supremacist case, Assistant U.S. Atty. Marc R. Greenberg, also said Friday that Fisher was preparing as recently as the night before his arrest to mail a letter bomb to a rabbi. A day earlier, Greenberg said in court that mail bombs were about to be aimed at “members of the Orange County Jewish community.”

He did not name any rabbis or synagogues.

Mayersohn said that an FBI official told him Friday that Fisher had not yet completed the bombs or developed a list of potential targets. He said he does not know why his synagogue apparently was singled out for Fisher’s failed Molotov cocktail, and that he himself was unaware of the alleged attack until the FBI made the arrests Thursday.

“Our geography perhaps would answer the question. We are right off the freeway, so people know about us,” he said. “But in all of this kind of bigotry, it’s not because of anything one does, it is because of who one is. It’s not directed at the actions of the victims, it is directed at their identity.”

In Friday night’s services, Mayersohn told around 120 shocked members of his congregation the sketchy details he learned from the FBI on Friday afternoon. He reassured them that he is taking extra security measures and told them they should celebrate because “we continue to combat hatred and bigotry.”

Mayersohn, 40, who has been rabbi at Temple Beth David for three years, said he is now personally checking the synagogue’s mail for suspicious packages and is being more vigilant in ensuring that the grounds are secure.

“We still don’t have reason to believe that any letter bombs were directed at us,” he said. “We will be vigilant until we hear one way or another.”

While many are tempted to compare modern racist acts with Nazi war crimes, the rabbi said Thursday’s arrests demonstrate an important difference: “The government is on our side,” he said. “We are not helpless and weak.”

Throughout Southern California, others said to be targeted in the alleged plot were also reassessing their security, but they vowed to remain steadfast in their work rather than succumb to fear.

The Rev. Cecil Murray, senior minister at First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, which was the prime target of the suspects’ alleged plot, said his congregation will not surrender to those who hate.

“We must rise or we make God look bad,” Murray said. “Only 3% to 5% are the haters. But the other 97% often get so cowed that we don’t stand our ground. If we just stand, we’ll be left standing.”

Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, said his group has records of past instances of threats or actions by those arrested in the FBI crackdown. He called them “very violent” but declined to reveal any details.

“We are keeping track of about 200 skinheads in Orange County that we know of, and they are just a few of them,” he said.

Bernstein said the Anti-Defamation League was unaware until informed by the media that Fisher was allegedly preparing mail bombs. But he said there was “a great deal of relief” in the Jewish community at news of the arrests.

Fisher, the son of two teachers and a graduate of Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, is allegedly the leader of the Fourth Reich Skins, a militant branch of the White Aryan Resistance with about 50 members, mostly youths.

In an April 20 meeting with an undercover agent posing as a white supremacist, Fisher allegedly revealed that he threw the Molotov cocktail at the Westminster synagogue but that it failed to ignite, according to a federal affidavit.

But the affidavit does not say when the incident occurred, and Mayersohn said there has been no sign of a Molotov cocktail thrown at the temple.

Vandals did, however, paint swastikas and other anti-Semitic threats on its walls on Jan. 17--the eve of Martin Luther King’s birthday. Included were the messages “Die Jew Pigs” and “HBMLK,” apparently shorthand for “Happy Birthday Martin Luther King.”

The synagogue also suffered a broken window.

Anne Otis, a synagogue member and its volunteer vice president of operations, also recalled that a window repair man found a bottle near the shattered window.

“Now this could have been a Molotov cocktail, and maybe because it rained that night, it just fizzled out. But we had no idea that it could have been that at the time,” Otis said.

She said the synagogue already is equipped with motion detectors, but that the board of trustees will soon meet to talk about new security measures in light of the arrests and alleged threats.

Temple Beth David was also painted with swastikas and other racist graffiti in 1988, at about the same time that a cross was burned in the yard of an African-American couple in Westminster. It also received a bomb threat.

Mayersohn urged his congregation members to retain their identity as Jews despite the bigotry of others.

“There are some who argue that we should be quiet and not make waves and not show our faces too publicly. I respect that opinion, but it is not one I have,” Mayersohn said. “I am not going to change who I am and how I present myself because of the hatred and bigotry of others. That is what they would want us to do.”

Similarly, Los Angeles’ Brotherhood Crusade President Danny Bakewell said the alleged plot against him “will not dissuade me from my agenda of advancing the cause of African-Americans and all people of good will.”

FBI agents warned Murray of First A.M.E. Church two weeks ago that he and his church had been targeted, but Murray said he was surprised by the extent of the alleged plot.

But Mayersohn said the FBI did not alert him in advance to his synagogue’s involvement in Thursday’s arrests.

Rap star Eazy-E also was targeted, and his manager was outraged Friday that he and others representing his rap group, N.W.A., received no advance warning.

“I think that it’s real scary when the federal authorities pick and choose and decide among themselves who they feel is worth being warned about an obviously legitimate death threat,” said Jerry Heller, Eazy-E’s personal manager.

Eazy-E, whose real name is Eric Wright, has generated considerable criticism with some N.W.A. recordings, including the now infamous 1989 song, “F--- Tha Police,” which accused police of mistreating minorities and warned of violent retaliation.

“Probably nothing would have made them (federal agents) happier than to be rid of Eazy-E and have the guy who did it go to jail for it,” Heller added. “They’d have been rid of two thorns in their side at the same time.”

But FBI officials said that only Rodney G. King and leaders of the First A.M.E. Church were thought to be in real danger and so were warned.

Even as community leaders were expressing relief that the alleged plot by white supremacists was uncovered, they recognized it could have led to disastrous consequences had it succeeded.

Reaction to the planned bombing and assassinations would have made what happened during last year’s riot “look like a Sunday school picnic,” said Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack, who was also identified as a potential target in the plot.