I confess to taking deep breaths sometimes when I got a phone call at the newspaper from Al Weissberg.
During my years at the paper I took enough of his calls to predict that he probably wanted to discuss one of four things:
1. I’d made a mistake in a column or story and he’d called to point it out. “I’m sure you’ll want to write a correction,” he’d say.
2. I’d written something he liked and he’d called to say so.
3. I hadn’t written about something, but he called to tell me why maybe I should.
4. I’d written something about which he completely disagreed and he called to explain, point by point.
For example, we differed greatly on whether the roof should or should not come off The Mall in downtown Redding. I said yes. He said no.
We differed on whether old downtown Redding had an escalator. I believed it didn’t (I wanted to believe, but never found proof); he believed it did. In fact, he said it was in the old Penney’s.
Al Weissberg also called to chat occasionally about the many hats he wore; not so much about him, but what those organizations were doing for the community.
There was the Shasta Community Concert Association president Al Weissberg, who brought the Boys Choir of Harlem to Redding.
There was the Writers Forum Al Weissberg. There was the champion for downtown development Al Weissberg, the supporter of local businesses Al Weissberg and the helper of Redding’s downtown train depot Al Weissberg.
There was the civil rights activist Al Weissberg, awarded a Shasta County Citizens Against Racism award 10 years ago.
There was the ardent supporter of libraries Al Weissberg, which earned him the Library’s 2001 Volunteer of the Year award.
By the way, if you’re familiar with the organization New Library Now!, credit Weissberg for that title from when he said so inspiringly, “We need a new library now!”
There was the setting-the-record straight Al Weissberg. If he believed a newspaper review was unnecessarily critical, he’d spell it out in an articulate letter to the editor. If he thought a photograph was in the wrong place, or showed the wrong subject, or the right story subject in the wrong way, he’d call and say so, backed up with multiple reasons.
A classic Al Weissberg moment happened after the Record Searchlight published a photo of then-President John F. Kennedy at Whiskeytown, without a photo credit. Weissberg wrote a letter citing the identity of the photographer: Joe Mazzini of Montgomery Creek, then a Central Valley High School student.
Even with all those hats, he might have been best known throughout the community as the Jewish Al Weissberg, a respected elder in the Jewish community, a bright, educated, opinonated co-founder of Temple Beth Israel.
Consequently, he was often reporters’ go-to guy for all things Jewish related. I sought him out many times myself as a source to locate people for Jewish food stories, or to learn background about Shasta County’s first Jewish cemetery.
He never dodged calls for comments about Passover or Hannukah or concentration camps, or the movie Schindler’s List, or the new Jewish Temple, or racism, or the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, or the news that Joseph Lieberman was Al Gore’s running mate, or the mystery of the Jewish pioneer baby grave, or the concept of Jews for Jesus or his thoughts about Christians who follow Jewish customs.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons everyone took his calls. He’d taken lots of ours. It was only fair.
Besides, he was admirable; soft-spoken but strong-minded. And he had a way of punctuating his words by bobbing his head forward on his outstretched neck, as if his body couldn’t keep up with wherever his mind and all those ideas were taking him.
Weissberg was forever sticking up for the perceived underdog, even, sometimes, when the person was no longer alive to appreciate his efforts.
Such was the case when Weissberg wrote a letter to the editor after Russell Thompson, part of a prominent Redding family, died. Weissberg was bothered when Thompson’s passing didn’t make front page news.
An excerpt of Weissberg’s letter said: “Editor: It would be unique almost anywhere for a person to pass away in the house where he or she was born just two years short of a full century earlier. When the person has been a prominent citizen of the community, the obligation to pay such tribute becomes the greater. For myself, I like to remember sitting on his front porch with him a few years ago and discussing his recollections of Jewish families in Redding during the early part of the century.”
Al Weissberg died this morning of cancer. He was 88. He leaves his wife Muriel, their children Robert and Judy, and four grandchildren.
Al Weissberg leaves a hole in the community that cannot be filled.
He leaves many telephones silent. He leaves many letters to the editor unwritten.
The north state will not be the same without him.
As I remember Al Weissberg, I’ll remember some of his words, which now seem applicable to him, now that he’s gone:
“When the person has been a prominent citizen of the community, the obligation to pay such tribute becomes the greater.”
This tribute if for you, Al Weissberg.
Shalom. May you rest in peace.
Al Weissberg’s memorial service information:
When: 10:30 a.m., Sat., Feb. 16
Where: Pilgrim Congregational Church, 2850 Foothill Blvd. in Redding
Arrangements: By Allen & Dahl Funeral Chapel in Redding (243-1525)
