[Antiracism] Radical forgiveness and reconciliation

[Cate Woolner]

This was shared by a fellow Victim/Offender Dialog facilitator. Cate


As a Jew, this story touches me very deeply. I want to share it. 
Warmly, Marty 


In her book, Not By the Sword, Kathryn Watterson tells the story of  Michael 
Weisser, a Jewish cantor, and his wife Julie. They had just  moved to their 
new home in Lincoln, Nebraska in June 1991, when their  peaceful unpacking 
was interrupted by an ominous threatening phone call. 

Shortly after, they received a package of racist flyers with a card  
announcing, "The KKK is watching you, scum." The Weissers called the  
police, who told them it looked like the work of one Larry Trapp, a  
self-described Nazi and Grand Dragon of the local Ku Klux Klan.  Trapp, in 
fact, had been linked to fire bombings of African-American  homes in the 
area and a center for Vietnamese refugees. The 44-year- old Trapp was 
wheelchair bound and suffering from diabetes, yet was a  leader of the white 
supremacist movement in the area. At the time, he  was making plans to bomb 
B'nai Jeshuran, the synagogue where Weisser  was cantor. 

Julie Weisser was frightened and even infuriated by the hate mail,  but she 
also felt a spark of compassion for the man in the wheel  chair who lived by 
himself in a one-room apartment. She decided to  send Trapp a letter every 
day with passages from the Proverbs. When  Michael saw that Trapp had 
launched a TV series spewing hatred on the  local cable network, he called 
the Klan hotline and kept leaving  messages: "Larry, why do you hate me? You 
don't even know me." 

At one point, Trapp actually answered the phone and Michael, after  
identifying himself asked him if he needed a hand in doing his  grocery 
shopping. Trapp refused -- politely -- but a process of  rethinking began to 
stir in him. For a while he was two people -- the  one still spewing hateful 
invective on TV, the other talking with  Michael Weisser on the phone 
saying, "I can't help it. I've been  talking like that all my life." 

One night, Michael Weisser asked his congregation to pray for someone  who 
is "sick from the illness of bigotry and hatred." That night,  Trapp did 
something he'd never done before. The swastika rings he  wore on both hands 
began to itch, so he took them off. The next day  he called the Weissers and 
said, "I want to get out, but I don't know  how." Michael suggested that he 
and Julie drive to Trapp's apartment  so they could "break bread together." 
Trapp hesitated, then agreed. 

At the apartment, Trapp broke into tears and handed the Weissers his  
swastika rings. In November, 1991 he resigned from the Klan, and  later 
wrote apologies to those groups he had wronged. On New Year's  Eve, Larry 
Trapp found out he had less than a year to live and that  same night, the 
Weissers invited him to move in with them. Their  living room became his 
bedroom and he told them, "You are doing for  me what my parents should have 
done for me." 

Bedridden, Trapp began to read about Gandhi and Martin Luther King,  and 
learn about Judaism. On June 5, 1992 he converted to Judaism --  at the very 
synagogue he had once planned to blow up. Julie quit her  job to care for 
him in his last days, and when Larry Trapp died on  September 6th of that 
year, it was with Michael and Julie holding his  hands. 




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


As a Jew, this story touches me very deeply. I want to share it.

Warmly, Marty




In her book, Not By the Sword, Kathryn Watterson tells the story of Michael Weisser, a Jewish cantor, and his wife Julie. They had just moved to their new home in Lincoln, Nebraska in June 1991, when their peaceful unpacking was interrupted by an ominous threatening phone call.

Shortly after, they received a package of racist flyers with a card announcing, "The KKK is watching you, scum." The Weissers called the police, who told them it looked like the work of one Larry Trapp, a self-described Nazi and Grand Dragon of the local Ku Klux Klan. Trapp, in fact, had been linked to fire bombings of African-American homes in the area and a center for Vietnamese refugees. The 44-year-old Trapp was wheelchair bound and suffering from diabetes, yet was a leader of the white supremacist movement in the area. At the time, he was making plans to bomb B'nai Jeshuran, the synagogue where Weisser was cantor.

Julie Weisser was frightened and even infuriated by the hate mail, but she also felt a spark of compassion for the man in the wheel chair who lived by himself in a one-room apartment. She decided to send Trapp a letter every day with passages from the Proverbs. When Michael saw that Trapp had launched a TV series spewing hatred on the local cable network, he called the Klan hotline and kept leaving messages: "Larry, why do you hate me? You don't even know me."

At one point, Trapp actually answered the phone and Michael, after identifying himself asked him if he needed a hand in doing his grocery shopping. Trapp refused -- politely -- but a process of rethinking began to stir in him. For a while he was two people -- the one still spewing hateful invective on TV, the other talking with Michael Weisser on the phone saying, "I can't help it. I've been talking like that all my life."

One night, Michael Weisser asked his congregation to pray for someone who is "sick from the illness of bigotry and hatred." That night, Trapp did something he'd never done before. The swastika rings he wore on both hands began to itch, so he took them off. The next day he called the Weissers and said, "I want to get out, but I don't know how." Michael suggested that he and Julie drive to Trapp's apartment so they could "break bread together." Trapp hesitated, then agreed.

At the apartment, Trapp broke into tears and handed the Weissers his swastika rings. In November, 1991 he resigned from the Klan, and later wrote apologies to those groups he had wronged. On New Year's Eve, Larry Trapp found out he had less than a year to live and that same night, the Weissers invited him to move in with them. Their living room became his bedroom and he told them, "You are doing for me what my parents should have done for me."

Bedridden, Trapp began to read about Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and learn about Judaism. On June 5, 1992 he converted to Judaism -- at the very synagogue he had once planned to blow up. Julie quit her job to care for him in his last days, and when Larry Trapp died on September 6th of that year, it was with Michael and Julie holding his hands.
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