This poem is based on a wonderful, true story told by author Kathryn Watterson in her 1995 book “Not by the Sword”. An interview with Weisser and his nemesis Larry Trapp was published in Time Magazine, February 1992: The Cantor and the Klansman: WEISSER, TRAPP
When Michael Weisser, a Cantor and soon to be a Rabbi, moved with his family to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1991, he and his wife Julie began immediately receiving death threats from an unknown source. His phone tapped, he discovered they were coming from the Grand Dragon of the feared Ku Klux Klan. Instead of giving in to terror, Michael responded by sending messages of love back to his arch enemy. After discovering the man was ill and dying, having lost both legs to diabetes and with eyesight diminishing. Instead of celebrating his condition, Michael and Julie arrived on the doorstep with a meal, themselves, and a silver ring as a peace offering.
Not only do they build a lasting friendship with Trapp, who gives up the KKK, and its hateful ideology, but they take him into their home and nurse him until his life’s end.
Truth sometimes is stranger, and more kinder, than fiction.
Larry Trapp, formerly a cruel and hate-filled man, died in September 1992 - less than 1 year after that first dinner with Michael and Julie. He died in their home, lovingly cared for by the Jewish family he had despised.
The Weissers move him into their home. All 3 of their children grow up sitting across the breakfast table from a man who once mailed their family death threats. They care for him. They stay with him.
Larry Trapp dies in September 1992 - less than 1 year after that first dinner. He dies in a Jewish home, tended to by a Jewish family, after spending his final months trying to undo 20 years of harm 1 conversation at a time.
Kathryn Watterson told the full story in her 1995 book “Not by the Sword”. It remains in print.
Why did Weisser respond with Kindness?
Weisser was asked many times why he did it. His answer never changed, he saw a suffering man underneath the hatred, and he thought someone had to say so.
That is all it took. 1 phone call. A few weeks of messages. A pot of food. And the refusal - stubborn, patient, absolute - to become what hatred wanted him to become.
Share this with someone who needs a reminder that the most disruptive thing you can do in the face of hate is refuse to give it an enemy - because a cantor with a telephone and a casserole dish changed a man the whole world had written off.”
If only nations could respond in this way too!
THE POEM:
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KINDNESS AND THE KLAN The story of a man who refused to be afraid, and another who learned how to love. If only Nations knew what Michael knew. If only we knew too. Threats of murder, death and destruction so freely sent to the Jewish Cantor and his family. A Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon consumed by hatred, overpowered not by the sword, but love. Oh, if only the war machines of our nations were silenced. If only we could stop shouting abuse at each other, and respond as Michael did. If only we saw cold threats and cruel can never truly terrorise, when faced with the greater power of love, care, and compassion. Kindness is such a dangerous power. Michael’s miracle was to simply see what others couldn’t. To see his mortal enemy was just a man, sick and alone with no family to kindly tend his needs. So Michael’s family bravely became his. Living in their home, dining at their table, embracing their faith and enjoying their laughter and tears. No longer a fiery Dragon, but human through and through, he found a place to live and die in peace If only nations….
Please share with your friends.
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