Congregations of 3 Synagogues Celebrate Sabbath Despite Arson

As the librarian at B’nai Israel, a Jewish synagogue on the capital city’s south side, Poshi Mikalson took her job seriously. When books were borrowed, she lectured members of the congregation about returning them promptly.

This weekend, at the temple’s Sabbath services, Mikalson thanked God that not everyone had listened to her.

Those overdue books, she told the congregation, were now all that remains of their library.

“You have saved a piece of the library,” she said.

Mikalson spoke to thundering applause as B’nai Israel’s congregation gathered to celebrate the Sabbath in the aftermath of an attack on their synagogue that left its prized library a charred shell.

An imposing structure on the perimeter of a large urban park, B’nai Israel and two other Sacramento area synagogues were set ablaze in the predawn hours Friday in what Jewish leaders called the worst act of anti-Semitism in the country in recent years.

Within hours of the attack, law enforcement, including local police and sheriff deputies, the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, mobilized a team of their most experienced investigators to probe for clues.

They estimated the damage to the three houses of worship at nearly $1 million, with the most serious at B’nai Israel, where the loss was expected to exceed $800,000. Knesset Israel Torah Center, an orthodox synagogue about 10 miles away, sustained smoke damage of about $30,000, and its neighbor two miles away, Congregation Beth Shalom, suffered about $100,000 in water damage when the sprinkler system was activated.

Four other synagogues in the Sacramento area were not attacked.

On Saturday, Jim Adamcik, agent in charge of the ATF’s national response team, told a news conference that specialists were brought in from all over the country to investigate, but it was too early to form any theories about how it happened.

“We’re just getting started here,” he said. “Give us some time.”

Adamcik said investigators had no suspects and were just beginning to sift through the evidence to determine what kind of devices were used to set the fires and where they were ignited.

Each of the blazes occurred in densely populated areas, he said, so investigators are hoping they can find someone who may have seen something.

With their synagogues designated as crime scenes, all three congregations were forced to find temporary quarters to conduct the Friday night and Saturday Sabbath services.

Throughout the city, there was an outpouring of support for the congregations from public officials, other churches and synagogues and community leaders.

More than a thousand people showed up at Sacramento’s Community Theater to attend B’nai Israel’s makeshift services, which were heavily guarded by police. Officers in uniform were stationed at each entrance and a firetruck sat outside.

Dozens came from the Northern California United Methodist conference that was being held across the street.

“When we heard about this we were just horrified,” said Gretchen Vandenberg, a Methodist church leader from Gilroy, who attended the Jewish services.

In an touching tribute to the Jewish community, the Rev. Faith Whitmore presented nearly $6,000 to synagogue leaders, the proceeds from a collection taken at the Methodist conference.

“Your pain is our pain,” she said.

B’nai Israel’s Rabbi Brad Bloom said that in many respects the burning of a library was more serious for Jews than the burning of the synagogue’s sanctuary because it symbolized their unity and history. The library had housed more than 5,000 books, some hundreds of years old and many out of print.

“It is not easy. As we have learned, it is not easy to be a Jew,” Bloom told the congregation. “Three synagogues in one night. I am sure that must be a precedent in the Jewish community of America.”

But he said the quick mobilization of law enforcement and the outrage expressed by government and community leaders “teaches us that our community is behind us.”

“This was not just a strike against the Jewish community,” said Louis Anapolsky, president of the congregation. “Let me suggest to you it was an organized strike against all the Sacramento community.”

Across town, Mosaic Law, a conservative synagogue that was not attacked, offered its facilities to Beth Shalom, a reform congregation.

“Are you here for Mosaic Law services or Beth Shalom?” the faithful were asked when they showed up for services Saturday morning.

As the members of the congregation filed into the Beth Shalom services, they were warned there would not be enough prayer books to go around. “We lost most of them in the fire,” explained one member.

Inside, Rabbi Joseph Melamed proceeded with the bat mitzvah of Laura Michelle Supkoff, a teenager whose coming of age ceremony will always be linked in memory to the attack on her synagogue.

The tiniest of the synagogues, Knesset Israel, celebrated the Sabbath at the home of one of its members, a location that prevented some from attending because it was too far to walk. Most of Knesset’s members live in the surrounding neighborhood so they can walk to the synagogue and adhere to the orthodox ban against driving on the Sabbath.

As the Sabbath ended, Jewish leaders throughout the city made plans for a communitywide interfaith unity service to be held Monday evening in Sacramento’s Community Center Theater.