The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 104

i i rj. jj. i "il "I mfw fW m'O'y1''!" Page Examiner April 4, 1979 Temple's matriarch She got strength through sorrow Brenda Payton East Bay people Roy Klarkley is the new administrator-engineer for the City of Clayton. Named to the National Medal of Science Committee recently were two professors from the University of California at Berkeley, John Whinnery and Dean Moore. Poor health has forced Leland Reaves to resign as San Pablo's city attorney.

A San Ramon resident, Peggy-Jean Wolstenholme, was named outstanding Junior member the Daughters of the American Revolution California conference. City council members in Pinole have chosen Thomas Cutino to be mayor. Ann Hansen is new vice mayor. The director of children centers for the Berkeley schools, Betty Mason, is resigning at the end of the school term to accept a position in Oklahoma City. Bernard Ramm was named professor of theology at the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley.

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If you are interested in advertising in these Zoned Sections, phone our Advertising Department won TEE EAST at 777-7267. By Mary Ganz A few days after fire destroyed Temple Beth Jacob in Redwood City, teen-agers from the congregation were poking through the rubble to see what could be salvaged. It was a heart-rending task. There lay the Torah, burned; the flag of Israel, scorched; the prayerbooks, blackened and torn. One of the volunteers noticed something metal still glinting among the ashes.

It was a brass plaque dedicating a bench in the synagogue to Birdie Zelver on the occasion of her "Bar-Mitzvah," her 13th year as chief administrator of the temple. The seat it had bung on was lost in the fire; so were the files and temple records meticulously kept by Zelver for nearly 27 years. For Birdie Zelver, the plaque is a symbol of hope. "I'm keeping it for when we rebuild so I can hang it back on the seat," she said. She began in 1952, working part-time all that was needed then to run the little congregation of 80 families in Menlo Park.

She worked from 10 to 2 and brought her youngest child, 3-month-old Ava, with her in a car bed. She was there in 1957 when the temple got a new rabbi Herbert D. Teitelbaum, who still leads the congregation. She was there through the drive to build a new temple, and when the Redwood City building was dedicated in 1960. At last the congregation had a home large enough to seat all 445 families.

Then, on Feb. 3, the sanctuary was destroyed. Arson was suspected, but fire officials, after investigating, called it a fire of undetermined origin. The congregation was not homeless for long. The First Congregational Church of Redwood City quickly offered its sanctuary for the temple's services and its building for the Hebrew school.

Zelver had a full-time job just keeping track of the offers of help. A benefit spaghetti supper at Pete's Harbor in Redwood City drew 700 well-wishers and raised $10,000 for the building fund. Evergreen Savings offered free publicity for the fund, and Jewish and Christian congregations throughout the area collected special offerings for the temple. Demolition of the burned-out structure began two weeks ago. The goal is to have the children back in the school building by fall.

"I feel this tragedy we've just experienced has brought us all closer together," Zelver said. "We were strong before but we're getting stronger." Zelver and Rabbi Teitelbaum are using rented offices in Redwood City as a base of operations. Zelver, 60, thinks she fits the stereotype. "I worry a lot about my children," she explained. "And I feel that I am a mother to a lot of the children in the congregation." Yet it's hard to imagine this quiet reserved woman urging her children to eat their chicken soup.

Birdie Zelver 's succor is of a different sort "I've tried to keep the congregation together, like a family," she said. As administrator, she directed weddings for many of the young couples in the congregation. Later, those same couples might ask her to arrange a briss the ceremony of circumcision performed on the male child. When those boys reached the age of 13, Zelver was there to help arrange thier Bar-Mitzvahs, the ceremony that marks the beginning of manhood. "Those were some of the happiest times," she said.

Two years ago a group of friends helped raise part of the funds she needed to fulfill a lifelong dream a visit to Israel. "It was like coming home," she said of the trip. In Jerusalem, she visited the Wailing Wall, the spot where Jews for centuries have gone to pray. At the wall she heard someone calling her name. She turned to find a delegation of young members of her congregation, in Israel for international choir competition.

"That was a very happy experience, to see our young people in Israel." Zelver returned to throw herself once again into temple work. She didn't know a that within two years she'd be arranging a funeral service for the Torah the custom when a holy book is destroyed, as in the fire. Zelver puts in a full day from 10 until 6 at the temple's temporary offices. She now has a bookkeeper and an assistant to help answer the telephone. She handles the rabbi's correspondence, writes the newsletter and coordinates the rebuilding effort "If you want to know anything, you call Birdie and she has her finger on everything and knows where things are," Rabbi Teitelbaum said.

"Of course she is constantly doing much more than she needs to do or is asked to do. To feel wanted and loved and needed makes me very happy. I feel blessed." Mortinej Anlioth 1 Concord pJSr tm PaWo Clayton RKfcmond Mill Bienwood Walnut Creek BerkoleyJOrino'o Alamo frwryvilleW Oonv.ll. jf CoHro Volley HPAl Publin Livermore Horward Pleawnton iw Unton City Surtol Fremont ran Francisco Examiner White cops, black youths THE MORE THINGS change the more they stay the same. Two we ks ago, three white Oakland police officers shot and killed Melvin Black.

15. The circumstances were disturbingly similar to those of the 1973 fatal Emeryville police shooting of Tyrone Guyton, and the countless other police shootings of young black men across the country. The police, the district attorney and the VS. attorney are investigating the Black shooting. If the black community is less than assured that the investigations will be Impartial, it may have something to do with the fact that two days after the shooting the police said it was justified.

The city council hearings into the shooting, closed to public and press, dont foster confidence either. While the propriety of the police action was debated in local newspapers, the black community viewed the incident somewhat differently. The black community is not monolithic with one opinion about anything. But 1 think it is true that black people often have a perspective that is different from that of the larger society. Most of the black people I talked to saw the shooting as another police murder of a young black man.

They had little doubt that if the young man had been white, he would have had a better chance. The thinking is that white police officers, who grew up in a racist society like the rest of us, would have been instinctively less afraid of a white youngster than of a black youngster in a black neighborhood. Have we cleared our minds of the racial stereotypes and racial fears we all grew up with? Psychologists tell us that we distinguish fewer details of the features of a person of another race they actually do all look alike. Maybe the police would have noticed Black's young age, or his own fear, if he had been white or, conversely, if they had been black. Maybe they would have noticed some little thing that would have stalled their reaction or caused them to aim lower.

GIVEN THE HISTORY of the black community's relations with the Oakland Police Department or most urban police departments for that matter, the black perspective is understandable. Despite a great deal of public protest about the Guyton shooting, despite the highly questionable circumstances around his death, nothing has been done about it "It just shows once again that in America the police can do whatever they want to black people and nobody cares," said one young black man. Most of the black men I know grew up with the fear that if they were out late at night they could be stopped by police and questioned about some crime where a black man was the suspect And in a fear-charged atmosphere the questioning could turn into a more serious confrontation. Too often those questionings were a form of harassment A black judge I know was arrested for rape while be was a. law student; he fit the description of the rapist, police said.

San Francisco's Zebra dragnet is another example. The black community's view of the police is markedly different from that of the society at large. In many cases the police are seen as an oppressive force people to fear rather than as protectors. "It's like a war," said one young black man. "And the police are the enemy.

They are afraid we're going to kill them and we're afraid they will kill us." The police department and the newspapers made a lot of the fact that Melvin Black had an arrest record and had been accused of violent crimes. But he wasn't shot and lulled because of his record. "Nowadays people say the kid didn't have any business being out there with a gun anyway," a black man said. That's true. He shouldn't have had a gun, pellet or otherwise.

He shouldn't have been getting into trouble at school. He shouldn't have been previously arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. But did the police have license to kill Black because he may have been a bad kid? It is easy to ensure the safety of a straight-A Boy Scout who never leaves the house at night The test of our system is whether it provides justice in more difficult cases. It has failed if it protects only the innocent from injustice. Almost as disturbing as the shooting was the complacency in the black community.

While most black people I talked to-believe Black was killed because he was black, there was little outcry. REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NAACP spoke up at a city council meeting to demand an independent investigation of the shooting. But for the most part the local black leaders were too busy with the political machinations of the corning elections to take the time to speak out The hallmark of the 70s: Individual interests take priority over all others. Which left the organized protest to a mostly white and Asian group of revolutionary vultures who thrive on the misfortunes of blacks, Chicanos and the poor. They used the Black shooting as an excuse to launch a rhetorical tirade that had little to do with him.

How often can black people be used by groups who are anxious to paternalistically design our future for us? their rally I overheard a young Asian man say something about these "handkerchief-head niggers." No matter how revolutionary, no one who is not black can use that word without offending me. And while there are a number of blacks who I think have forgotten their less fortunate brothers, I contend that the young Asian man does mk have the knowledge nor standing to criticize their actions, just as I don't have the right to criticize the leaders of Chinatown. questions remain about the circumstances of Black's shooting. The police said they found the pellet gun ort the hood of the car Black was standing near when they shot him. Members of the Black family said witnesses, never located by the newspapers, told them Black had put his gun on the car before he was shot If he had the gun in his hand, as the police said, how did it get on top of the car after he was hit by four bullets? Melvin's family said some of the witnesses have changed their stories or refused to come forward because they fear police.

I talked to one in the housing project who changed her story and denied she saw anything after being signaled by her husband. "I don't know anything. I wasn't involved," she said nervously. I don't know what she saw or what she feared, but she obviously was afraid of something. Black, 15, was shot down in front of the housing project where he lived.

He left a trail of blood and brains as he ran behind the complex, up and down stairs, trying to get home. He didn't make it He died alone, on the bottom steps of the stairs to his apartment Does anyone care? Volunteers needed" Wan! Ad Supermarket Phone 777-7777 to place your ad 3 PIECE PIPeT -140 PC. "Ny WRENCH SET I COMBINATION JT SOCKET SET $4 (J00 1 Heavy Duly -m AIR HOSE JJSM ...10 with 2 Brass vi comp. value XS Fittings '1U mcthicwis $31.25 Vi" DRIVE 10 PC. IMPACT SOCKET SET ADwrInch fe BSSF WKtlMUM 15 j-wVI Hra 23.99 Drop Forged I MMMMWW I Alloy Steel VJ 1 1 II REG.

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