Regarding "Little Rock Redux" by Katherine Haynes Sanstad, Commentary in Berkeley Daily Planet Aug 5, 2005.
This is an open letter from Alan Gould to Beth El congregants and in particular to the African-American, Jewish sons of Katherine Haynes Sanstad:

Dear sons of Katherine Haynes Sanstad,

Your mother is right to teach you to hold your head high and be proud of your heritage. But she has done your new neighbors a great disservice when she claims that you are unwanted in our neighborhood and even likens us to racists.

I hate to say it, but your mother is using a terribly misdirected strategy to attack your new neighbors. Unfortunately we have seen this tactic often in the past 6 years that we have tried to establish a rational discourse with the Beth El leaders, those your mother refers to as the elders. We have been called antisemites and likened to Nazis. Those neighbors who are Jewish, of whom there are many (including me), have been called self-hating Jews. Rabbi Raj, at a public meeting, made reference to kristallnacht which was when Nazi's destroyed Jewish synagogues and homes and beat and murdered Jews in 1938.

[If you do not know about kristallnacht, see http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/knacht1a.htm ]

Whether he intended it or not, this was viewed by many to imply that opponents of the Beth El synagogue project were antisemites, and akin to Nazis.

My involvement in the opposition to the project actually began long before that when I saw the original plan for your new synagogue that called for a 33-space parking lot to be positioned over the culverted part of Codornices Creek. Several of us neighbors advised that was not an enlightened step, that it was environmentally unsound, and contrary to the "Core Values" of the neighborhood [see http://loccna.katz.com/docs/corevals.html ]. But it took 3 years of bitter struggle and hearings all the way to City Council before Beth El elders saw fit to change the plan to something where they still have about the same number of onsite parking spaces, but not on top of the creek. I believe they are still quite resentful that they were forced to place their parking lot elsewhere than where they originally wanted, directly over the creek per their original plan. Please understand that my opposition has been opposition to the project, not opposition to you, or the congregation, or judaism, or Beth El. Your mother may not have told you this, but the Beth El elders signed a legal agreement with LOCCNA (your new neighbors) that spells out ways that the project should proceed for the benefit of all involved. It has provisions for creek rehabilitation, for a Traffic and Parking Management Plan, and for joint committees to discuss solutions to problems that arise.

Your mother said,

"...neighbors don't want fellow Berkeley citizens to park on public streets in accordance with existing parking regulations."

This is a very bad mischaracterization of our concerns. She missed the main point. Suppose a new neighbor were to come into your neighborhood and announce that they intended to have parties every weekend, often with 150 or more guests. Suppose they then announced that it was their goal to use no more than half of the free parking spaces in the neighborhood. You and your neighbors would very likely object strenuously to this. Yet when your real new neighbors object to Beth El's Parking Plan that has a stated goal of using no more than 50% of the free parking spaces in the neighborhood, your mother says the

"...hostility of the opposition to Congregation Beth El ... is extreme, even by Berkeley standards."

"...It is a campaign complete with a proliferation of signs on Oxford and Spruce Street lawns. Obviously those signs are meant to foment public opinion against our 60-year-old North Berkeley institution, but they have an additional, vulnerable audience: The children and youth of Congregation Beth El."

The intent of the lawn signs is not to "foment public opinion against" Beth El. We found in the past that the Beth El elders were reluctant to listen to or respond to our concerns unless there were some sort of device to remind them of our concerns in an ongoing way. Lawn signs turned out to be effective to that end, much as people in anti-war marches carry signs to get their message across in a visual way. The current Parking Plan that your elders submitted and had approved by the City is considerably better than what they originally proposed, precisely because we took great pains to make them listen to our concerns, and not just brush us off as pesky and hostile neighbors. There remain a few serious flaws in the plan, and the lawn signs will probably remain at least until those flaws are corrected and Beth El members and guests prove that they can act responsibly and not inundate the neighborhood with parked cars.

Your mother said,

"...Ironically, our North Berkeley neighborhood is giving them an object lesson in rising above public hostility."

We would hope that you and Beth El elders would not feel compelled to rise "above public hostility" but rather to listen to and work with your new neighbors to establish harmonious relationship.

Your mother said,

"What will I tell my sons in Berkeley in 2005 as they face the hostility of our North Berkeley neighbors? 'You have a right to be here. Our congregants have worked long and hard and negotiated in good faith with the neighbors. We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore Codornices Creek and to build the first geothermal facility in Berkeley. We have rejuvenated land that had lain unkempt since well before I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley in the late '70s. We have built in full accord with zoning regulations and struggled to satisfy requirements that no other institution in Berkeley has had to meet. We have significantly reduced our impact on parking in the neighborhood by providing 31 on-site spaces, a drive-through, and alternate parking options. And yes, we are still not wanted, have not been wanted for 10 years.'"

Yes, you have a right to be here. Nobody disputes that. We had hoped we could welcome you with open arms. We still do. The geothermal heating of your building is certainly an innovative and welcome feature. The dollars they have spent in rehabilitating Codornices Creek is appreciated, but I hope you are aware that the creek rehabilitation job is not completed, and to be honest, many neighbors doubt your elders commitment to preserving the Creek greenway, having seen them fight so hard to put a parking lot over the creek and having seen the property stripped of about 90% of the trees that were there. The land that your mother refers to as "unkempt" was viewed by many of us as a vital part of the Codornices Creek corridor, home to many essential plants and animal life.

Your mother said,

"...And please, be especially polite to those who are acting so ugly to you."

I suppose by "acting so ugly", your mother is referring again to those dastardly lawn signs. I urge you to really read the signs and understand what they are saying. They do not say "We don't want you here." They say "Honor your agreements. Minimize parking impacts. Restore the Creek and greenway. Respect your neighbors." I do wish your mother could understand what the signs are really saying. With any luck, there will come a time when we secure outside funding to daylight Codornices Creek on Beth El's property. But this cannot be done without Beth El's consent and cooperation. In our agreement Beth El promises to provide that cooperation. We sincerely hope that Beth El will honor the agreement.

The agreement also provides that Beth El will minimize the parking impact on the neighborhood. We feel that a parking plan with a stated goal that allows 50% of the free parking spaces in the neighborhood to be used by Beth El members and guests does not minimize parking impacts--and is not in accord with our agreement. There are a number of serious flaws in the parking plan that HAVE been corrected, and we appreciate that. In earlier drafts, the threshold number of members/guests for implementing parking minimization measures was set at 200, which was in conflict with the 150 set in the Beth El - LOCCNA Agreement. Also, the Beth El elders made the wording of "events" to refer to only non-religious events, which would have excluded most events from consideration. Beth El is, after all, a religious institution! But in bottom line, the Beth El elders' attempt to restrict the plan to apply only to non-religious events was in clear conflict with what was stated in our agreement which said the plan should apply to events--ALL events, and they finally had to acknowledge this. I feel that we should be able to work out the remaining issues and then focus on actually successfully implementing the plan.

Your mother said,

"Some may say, 'But this is different. We are not attacking your children, we are attacking Beth El.' ... Those signs need no ethnic epithets to scream 'We don't want you here!' Our children can read. Our children know."

This is classic "straw man" argument. We are not attacking Beth El, and we never have. Your mother chooses to take our criticism of the development plan as an attack on Beth El, but that is most certainly not our intent. It is criticism of the development plan and urging to improve the plan. And about "ethnic epithets," all I can say is just read the signs at face value--that is our only intent. Reading ethnic epithets into it is falling into the trap of calling your neighbors antisemites and racists, which is just not true.

Your mother said,

"Although my husband and I never dreamed that we would be giving our children the same instructions in Berkeley, Calif., in 2005 that parents gave their teenagers in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957, we are thankful that we have elders among the Congregation Beth El community who opened hostile communities to Jews and African Americans and Asians and Latinos across the United States--elders who have consistently fought for justice for all and prevailed. My sons come from and live among people who know how to persevere, to survive, and to thrive."

From where I stand, I do not know about the Beth El elders efforts to open hostile communities across the US, but I can sure see how they have done their part in creating a hostile community in your new neighborhood.

It's ironic to me that your mother uses the Little Rock parents as an analog to your current situation with lawn signs. You see, I was growing up in Little Rock from 1955-1959. [Warning, major digression approaching...] Though I was only in elementary school, I was still aware of a major impact of the racial struggle and desegregation efforts had serious impact on my family. Images of fire hoses and irate, indignant, violent and ugly white folks are emblazoned in my memory. My oldest brother was in high school and as the high schools closed, one by one, due to aborted attempts at desegregation, he had to attend a series of high schools further and further remote from where we lived in Little Rock. His education was virtually wrecked. My parents joined organizations that fought for desegregation and defended teachers who were being intimidated and harassed for taking positions in support of desegregation. The name of one of those groups was STOP (Stop This Outragious Purge).

Ultimately my parents decided, for the sake of education for their children, to move away from Little Rock, to Denver Colorado. I remember my 4th grade class giving me a "going away" party and being totally surprised and deeply moved by their love and concern for me. As I recall, they gave me a little model dinosaur skeleton as a going away gift, but it's their emotional gift that made the biggest impression on me. Oddly enough, when I got to Denver, I was an outcast for a while, not only because of being a stranger, but because my southern accent marked me as "different". I learned quickly to lose my accent and ultimately became accepted and made new friends. But I think that experience gave me a taste, albeit a minuscule taste, of being an object of prejudice. I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this, except in an attempt to create a bridge, and let you know that I'm not opposed to YOU. I too "yearn for shalom/peace some day", and wish that the Beth El elders and neighbors can come to terms so that we may turn our full attention to other important matters, such as improving education, peace in the middle east, and developing ways of living in harmony with our environment.

Sincerely,

Your neighbor, Alan Gould