Sheriff Bill Kolender says humor about his being one of the first Jews to rise to the top levels of law enforcement has helped to defuse many a ticklish situation over his career spanning more than a half century.

About five years after he became San Diego’s first Jewish police chief, he recalled, he gave a speech and “this one guy gets up being really nasty.  He said, ‘what’s it like being a Jew and being chief of police?’  I said, ‘to be real honest with you, in the last few months, crime has gone up slightly in San Diego, but for the first time in the city’s history, we’re making a profit.’  Everybody laughed but him.”

More recently, during his ten-year tenure as San Diego County’s sheriff, “I gave a speech in Oceanside to about 300 people....This guy gets up and he is not nasty, but he is very accusatory.  I have a very diverse department. I have four assistant sheriffs, two are women, one is Jewish.  My number two is Mexican. ....I have gays, lesbians, I do not care.  So he stands up.  ‘I want to know how you are on affirmative action.’  I said, ‘well, sir, the Jewish guys are doing really good!”

Another time,  before he became San Diego’s police chief, he met with a group of influential African Americans who were concerned over the Watts riots that summer of 1965.  The meeting was tense because of the possibility of civil disorder spreading from the streets of Los Angeles. One person at the meeting “points at me and says, ‘you’re a typical nazi cop.’ I said, ‘well, sir, then I have to be the first Jewish nazi you have ever seen’ and I want you to know from then on everything was fine. They laughed, and that was the end of the conflict.”

Kolender related these anecdotes on Thursday, Dec. 16, during a panel discussion on “Jews and Law Enforcement” that was sponsored jointly by the host Tifereth Israel Men’s Club and the San Diego Jewish Times.  

Fellow panelists were Morris Casuto, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, and Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, who resigned as senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Am to start a foundation to take emergency response team members to Israel and Ireland to learn about coping with terrorism.  Zuckerman continues to serve as a chaplain with  the San Diego Sheriff’s Department.

Casuto told of walking one day from Horton Plaza to the Hall of Justice for a meeting, when suddenly a police patrol car swerved onto the sidewalk in front of him.  “I said, ‘good morning officer, what may I do for you?’”  The officer responded, “We just had a flasher call and you match the description.”  

Casuto related that “at first I was a little taken aback, but I figured he must know me. I said, ‘it is nice to see you again.’  And he said, ‘Mr. Casuto, it is nice to see you as well,  You taught my hate crimes class at the Academy.’  And I felt for my pacemaker and it was still there, and I said ‘you really shouldn’t do something like that to a person of my age, unless you are prepared to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He turned pale and drove away.”

Zuckerman said humorous situations can occur, even at horrible events like a bad traffic accident.  There was a time when a young girl had smashed her car into a tree, and “one of the members of Temple Solel was driving by—a doctor—and tried to help.”  In his capacity as a chaplain, Zuckerman was doing a ride along, and “I came running out, and he says, ‘Officer! Officer!…er, Zucky?!” 

The rabbi spends Tuesday mornings with the sheriff’s deputies assigned to the Emergency Response Team.  “There isn’t a Jewish person in that division, but every Tuesday they get bagels and cream cheese, and no one is complaining!” Zuckerman said.  —Donald H. Harrison