I loved this book.
Rabbi Michael Weisser will never forget a chilling phone call he received just after he and his family moved into their new home in Lincoln, Nebraska. "You will be sorry you ever moved into 5810 Randolph Street, Jew boy," said a voice on the telephone before abruptly hanging up. Two days later, they received a manila packet with hate literature in the mail, and a note: "The KKK is watching you." The anonymous calls and notes were from Larry Trapp, Grand Dragon of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Nebraska— a man the FBI considered armed and dangerous. He had waged a campaign of terror in Lincoln for years.
Astonishingly, Weisser undertook a campaign of his own in which he reached out to Larry Trapp with kindness and ended up turning Trapp’s life around. Eventually, Trapp renounced all ties with the KKK and converted to Judaism. The Weissers grew so close to Trapp that when he was diagnosed as terminally ill, they took him into their home and cared for him until his death. That was in the 1990s. A book, Not by the Sword, tells the story of their relationship and Trapp’s transformation in response to the Weissers’ kindness.
Rabbi Weisser recently moved from Nebraska to become the spiritual leader of the Free Synagogue of Flushing. "We consider ourselves very fortunate that a person with his impressive background and credentials—a nationally-known leader—would come to lead our synagogue in Queens," Florence Boyar, president of the Free Synagogue, said. Boyar, who has been affiliated with the synagogue for decades, is looking to Weisser to revitalize the synagogue to make it a dynamic force to promote culture and understanding in the Flushing community.
