Not by the Sword: How a Cantor and His Family Transformed a Klansman

When hate crimes seem to dominate today's headlines, Not by the Sword tells the inspiring true story of how a Jewish cantor and his family changed the life of a virulent white supremacist leader. The riveting account begins in 1991, when Cantor Michael Weisser receives his first threatening phone call from Larry Trapp, Grand Dragon of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Nebraska. Trapp, a wheelchair-bound amputee holed up in a cramped apartment filled with automatic weapons, Nazi paraphernalia, and stacks of hate literature, had for years led a campaign of terror in Lincoln, Nebraska. But Cantor Weisser and his wife Julie refused to be intimidated by Trapp's escalating threats. Instead, they made a stunning offer of friendship; after an emotional confrontation with the Weissers, Trapp shocked everyone - including himself - by resigning from the KKK and breaking his ties with other neo-Nazi leaders. Not by the Sword recounts Larry Trapp's life as a racist, his startling transformation in response to the Weissers' kindness, and his subsequent crusade to redeem his past by apologizing to his victims and speaking out publicly against racism and bigotry. Kathryn Watterson movingly describes how one family, along with other individuals from the Jewish, African American, and Asian American communities in Lincoln, feared, fought, and then forgave a man who had tried to destroy them. This gripping tale gives the reader an inside view of hate mongering, and offers a powerful testament to the triumph of the human spirit and the transforming power of love and tolerance.

About the Author :
Kathryn Watterson, an award-winning author and journalist, teaches writing at Princeton University. Among her several books is Women in Prison: Inside the Concrete Womb, also published by Northeastern University Press. Her short stories, essays, and articles have been published in a variety of national journals, magazines, and newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Times. Winner of the Christopher Award

Review :
"'He changed his mind and he changed his life, ' marvels Author Kathryn Watterson, whose latest book tells the extraordinary tale of Trapp's conversion. In the course of researching Not by the Sword, [she] discovered that most people who engage in virulent race hatred were abused as children. Full of self-loathing, 'they stay in the perceived wrongs that have been done them, ' she said, 'but the fact that their hatefulness is defensive doesn't mean it's less dangerous."--David O'Reilly, The Philadelphia Inquirer "Kathryn Watterson's Not by the Sword tells an astonishing story of daring and resourcefulness in making contact with another who would negate one's very right to exist. Michael Weisser, the cantor at B'nai Jeshurun synagogue, had been the recipient of chilling threats from Larry Trapp, the Grand Dragon of the KKK in the state. Not surprisingly, [Weisser's] initial reaction was fear and anger. But Weisser and his wife Julie decided that the wisest course, and the one truest to what Weisser had been preaching in his sermons, would be to meet hate with love and understanding. Watterson's account of the events is fascinating, and the story itself is so extraordinary that one cannot but be gripped by it."--Paul L. Wachtel, The Washington Post Book World "This rare investigation of American hate-mongering provides a unique glimpse as well at the power of tolerance and love. Once Watterson places us inside the Lincoln, Nebraska apartment of the 'Klansman' of the subtitle, it's almost impossible to put this book down."--Patricia Holt, San Francisco Chronicle "Watterson has written one of the most powerful, painful yet healing stories about our most explosive issue--race. Her book [Not by the Sword] is not only literally true, but also symbolically true for us as a people - if we acknowledge and transform who and what we are."--Professor Cornel West, Author, Race Matters