(This article was originally published in The Jerusalem Post<\/a> on November 18, 2023, and is reprinted with permission.)<\/em><\/p>\n How did a group of Jews end up thousands of miles from their homes, only to die in one of the most infamous events of the 20th century?<\/p>\n The radio crackled to life with static, and a voice emerged from the jungle.<\/p>\n \u201cWe choose as our model not those who marched submissively into gas ovens but the valiant heroes who resisted in the Warsaw Ghetto. Patrick Henry captured it when he said simply, \u2018Give me liberty or give me death.\u2019 If people cannot appreciate that willingness to die if necessary, rather than to compromise the right to exist, free from harassment and the kind of indignities we have been subjected to, then they will never understand the integrity, the honesty, and the bravery of Peoples Temple nor the depth of commitment of Jim Jones to the principles he has struggled for all his life.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you copy? I am about finished.\u201d<\/p>\n Tropp was a member of Peoples Temple, a new religious movement led by the enigmatic Jones. Just a few months later, Tropp, Jones, US Congressman Leo\u00a0Ryan, and almost 1,000 others were lying dead after a mass murder\/suicide pact that has since entered folklore \u2013 prompting the infamous phrase \u201cdrinking the Kool-Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n Tropp was also Jewish.<\/p>\n Saturday, November 18, 2023, marks 45 years since the tragic events of Jonestown. Of the 918 souls to perish on that fateful day, of which over 300 were children, some 16 were Jewish. Some were minor members of Peoples Temple, while others had outsized roles in the dramatic events leading up to and during November 18.<\/p>\n So how did a group of Jews end up thousands of miles from their homes, only to die in one of the most infamous events of the 20th century?<\/p>\n To understand a bit more, some context of the times is needed. Founded in Indiana by the Rev. Jones, Peoples Temple struggled to find a significant following until they moved to California. Based in Ukiah, the Temple\u2019s followers spread throughout the state with chapters in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the 1970s \u2013 when the US struggled with a battle between love and peace and war and supremacy.<\/p>\n Jones\u2019s brand of fiery Pentecostalism mixed with a social dogma that was Socialism in the extreme: Church members were encouraged to give up their money and possessions by donating them to Peoples Temple and to join in with the social projects on offer. Communal homes were set up for members, and the whole setup had a familial feel. In the earlier years, Jones was especially commended for his embrace of African-American members and his attempts to dislodge the racial system that governed the times.<\/p>\n Along with threats from within the US, there was also the primary threat from without. Acronyms from the times such as MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), and KKK (Klu Klux Klan) were in use every day. The Cold War was in full swing, and it seemed that every day on Earth could be your last. Is it any wonder that people were looking for salvation and hope?<\/p>\n However, over the years, Peoples Temple developed from being a church to a more social-communal experiment that focused solely on Jones. Meetings became less about worship and the word of God and more about the gospel according to Jones. He also descended into drug abuse and led members in Jonestown in what were termed \u201cwhite nights,\u201d where all members would have to report to the pavilion in the center of the complex and listen to Jones babble through the night about the evils of the US and capitalism, and the end of the world.<\/p>\n \u201cWas Peoples Temple a church? It did indeed begin as a Pentecostal Christian church,\u201d Rebecca Moore, professor emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University, told the Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the move to California, it became more of a social movement. And that is when the majority of Jewish members joined \u2013 when it was clear that the Temple was engaged in social action and social service. It was engaged in racial equality movements, post-colonial movements, and African liberation movements.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s clear that those things appealed to Jewish members. It is also important to remember that at that point in US history, Jews and African Americans were still united and strong allies in the fight for racial equality and against bigotry and discrimination. In the 1960s and 1970s, Jews and blacks were just natural allies. And so it made perfect sense for Jews to join a black group, which was what Peoples Temple was.\u201d<\/p>\n Many audio recordings exist from Peoples Temples gatherings in the US and Jonestown.<\/p>\n There are numerous references to events like Masada when Jewish zealots participated in a mass suicide to avoid capture by the advancing Roman Army. The idea of revolutionary suicide was attractive to Jones, and it took years for him to indoctrinate people into his ideas.<\/p>\n People don\u2019t just willingly commit suicide en masse, there has to be some form of mental rationalization that allows people to believe what they are doing is right.<\/p>\n There are those alive who witnessed the events of Jonestown who do not consider it mass suicide at all but murder. Plain and simple.<\/p>\n Jones would often test members by offering them a drink, which he then claimed was spiked with poison and that they were about to die. It was all part of the normalization process.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the fact that they rehearsed actual suicide drills in the months preceding the congressman\u2019s visit would indicate to us that Jim Jones was planning some sort of mass event and that the arrival of the congressman was kind of the impetus for implementing the plan,\u201d Moore explained. \u201cIt didn\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n This took a long time to plan and to get people indoctrinated, so to speak, to kind of rehearse what essentially becomes a ritual, and as we rehearse and repeat rituals and habits, the unthinkable becomes routine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJones had been looking for an exit for a while,\u201d explained Fielding McGehee, research director at the Jonestown Institute. \u201cThere is evidence which shows a number of people weighing in \u2013 in the year or so before the deaths at Jonestown, about how they can go about doing this. One of the questions we\u2019ll never know is how seriously they were taking themselves. Was this performance for them?\u201d<\/p>\n Who were the Jews of Jonestown, and how did they end up participating in such a terrible event?<\/p>\n The\u00a0Magazine<\/em>\u00a0takes a look at some of the leading players and their roles in one of the most infamous \u201ccult\u201d stories of the 20th century.<\/p>\n Deborah Layton, who joined Peoples Temple along with her brother Larry, was among the organization\u2019s most high-profile defectors before the tragic events of Jonestown. Born on May 1, 1953, in San Francisco, California, Layton joined Peoples Temple along with her family in the early 1970s, initially attracted by the\u00a0social justice<\/a>\u00a0ideals promoted by the group.<\/p>\n Over time, Layton became increasingly disillusioned with the cult and concerned about the abusive and controlling behavior of Jones. In 1978, she decided to leave the organization and, in May, successfully returned to the United States. After her defection, Layton became a key eyewitness and whistleblower, providing valuable information about the inner workings of Peoples Temple.<\/p>\n Layton played a crucial role in alerting US authorities to the dangers posed by Peoples Temple and providing insights into the conditions at Jonestown. Her testimony and cooperation with law enforcement were instrumental in raising awareness about the cult\u2019s activities and contributed to the investigation that followed the tragic events in Jonestown.<\/p>\n In an affidavit from June 1978, Layton stated, \u201cThere was constant talk of death. In the early days of the People\u2019s Temple, general rhetoric about dying for principles was sometimes heard. In Jonestown, the concept of\u00a0mass suicide<\/a>\u00a0for socialism arose. Because our lives were so wretched anyway and because we were so afraid to contradict Rev. Jones, the concept was not challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDuring one \u2018white night,\u2019 we were informed that our situation had become hopeless and that the only course of action open to us was a mass suicide for the glory of Socialism. Everyone, including the children, was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came when we should have dropped dead, Jones explained that the poison was not real and that we had just been through a loyalty test. He warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Layton\u2019s testimony helped convince US Congressman Leo Ryan to travel to Guyana with several relatives of Jonestown residents to investigate the truth about the situation there. The group was part of a larger organization called the Concerned Relatives. Ryan had promised that anyone who wanted to leave Jonestown could depart with him back to the US.<\/p>\n \u201cHer defection was really one of the tipping points in the history of Jonestown,\u201d McGehee told the\u00a0Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n Larry Layton preferred peace to war. As a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, he worked in a county mental hospital to pass his alternative service. He was born to Lisa Layton, who fled\u00a0Nazi Germany<\/a>\u00a0in the 1930s \u2013 the Laytons had what could be considered an everyday life.<\/p>\n Along with his wife, Carolyn Moore Layton, Larry was church shopping around Ukiah in the late 1960s when a chance meeting with Jones led them to Peoples Temple. This decision would change their lives forever. Layton eventually brought his mother, Lisa, and his sister, Deborah, into the church, where they donated large sums of money and became firm believers.<\/p>\n Around 1971, Larry and Carolyn split in a quick divorce, after which she informed her family that she was in love with Jones and became his lover. Not to be outdone in loyalty, Larry remained firmly entrenched within the upper echelons of the Temple\u2019s hierarchy and eventually married another Temple member.<\/p>\n \u201cI did meet Jim Jones personally on one occasion, but my parents had much more contact with him and my sisters, mainly because they made a conscious decision that they would not criticize,\u201d Rebecca Moore told the Magazine. Her sister, Carolyn, was Layton\u2019s ex-wife.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were not going to publicly criticize Jim Jones or the Temple because they did not want to alienate my sisters. For that reason, they did not join the Concerned Relatives, the opposition group. They thought that if my sisters ever decided to leave, it would be much harder for them to come back home if my parents had been critical.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLarry Layton was enthralled with Jim Jones,\u201d author Annie Dawid, who has just published a novel on Jonestown, explained to the\u00a0Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was not powerful, you know, but there were all these \u2018beta males\u2019 who were part of Jim\u2019s circle.\u201d<\/p>\n Layton was to play a significant role in the events of November 18. As Congressman Ryan speedily prepared to leave after a knife attempt on his life, Layton suddenly appeared, climbing onto the truck as it prepared to depart, much to the suspicion of the defectors. How could such a devoted member be prepared to leave Jones and Jonestown?<\/p>\n \u201cI think Larry is going to do something,\u201d Jones was heard saying after Layton left Jonestown. \u201cHe\u2019s very loyal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Larry Layton was carrying a pistol and as the group arrived at the Port Kaituma airstrip to travel back to Jonestown, several armed Peoples Temple members arrived from Jonestown and opened fire as people stood waiting to board the plane. Already aboard, Larry Layton leaned out and began firing indiscriminately. In the attack, Congressman Ryan was killed, along with three journalists \u2013 including two from the accompanying NBC News team \u2013 and one of the Temple defectors was killed. Layton was also injured in the incident.<\/p>\n Layton was arrested at the airstrip and charged with attempted murder. Following his acquittal by a Guyanese jury in May 1980, he was extradited to the US, where he was indicted \u2013 and eventually convicted \u2013 for conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the murder of Ryan. After 18 years in federal prison, he was released on parole in 2002. He was the only person to face legal consequences in the United States for the events in Jonestown.<\/p>\n \u201cSharon Amos and her three children have the distinction of being the only ones outside of Jonestown and Port Kaituma to die on November 18,\u201d McGehee stated.<\/p>\n Born Linda Sharon Silverstein, Amos joined Peoples Temple in California and quickly rose to become a confidant and trusted lieutenant of Jones, so much so that she became a member of \u201cthe staff,\u201d Jones\u2019s inner circle made up primarily of white, college-educated women, and was Peoples Temple representative in Georgetown. Famously, when based in the US, members of the staff would visit other members\u2019 homes and gather information on them that could be used later by Jones to impress or coerce.<\/p>\n After the defection in 1973 of Peoples Temple member Linda Swaney, Jones declared her persona non-grata and Amos dropped \u201cLinda\u201d from her own name, going only by Sharon so as not to offend her beloved leader.<\/p>\n Permanently stationed in a house at Lamaha Gardens, Peoples Temple headquarters in the city, she was the eyes and ears for Jones in the goings-on of the Guyanese government, and the person who people turned to if they wanted to get near Jonestown. Amos would regularly meet with Soviet officials to discuss a potential defection, as Jones was convinced that his group would find happiness and a better life in the USSR. She was also at Lamaha Gardens when Congressman Ryan arrived and viewed the congressman with suspicion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe importance of Sharon Amos is that she was a liaison between People\u2019s Temple and the government of Guyana,\u201d Moore states. \u201cThe People\u2019s Temple office in Georgetown acted as a kind of mini embassy and Sharon Amos was, I\u2019d say, the ambassador for People\u2019s Temple to the government of Guyana. So she had a very important role in really representing the interests and concerns of people\u2019s Temple to people in the government.\u201d<\/p>\n As the events of November 18 unfolded, Amos was in radio contact with Jones when she found out what had happened to Ryan, and, still in Georgetown, she dutifully carried out Jones\u2019s instructions to the last. Instead of taking poison, she slit the throats of her three children, Liane, 21; Christa, 11; and Martin, 10. She then turned the knife on herself.<\/p>\n \u201cSharon Amos is really difficult. I mean, the doctor is like the worst Jew [in Peoples Temple], right?\u201d Dawid said. \u201cShe\u2019s second worst.\u201d<\/p>\n The doctor<\/strong><\/p>\n Larry Schacht was a drug-addled dropout who found salvation when he discovered Peoples Temple. Unlike those looking to build a better world and a socialist utopia, Schacht, from a middle-class Jewish family in Houston, ultimately began life in Peoples Temple in San Francisco by looking out for himself.<\/p>\n Chosen by Jones as a suitable candidate for the role of mission doctor in Jonestown, strings were pulled by Jones, and Schacht was sent to study medicine in Mexico before completing medical training in Guyana.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image-9.jpeg\")
<\/a>These words were spoken by Harriet Tropp in April 1978 from the middle of the jungle in the South American country of Guyana.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image-13.jpeg\")
<\/a>The defector<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image-14.jpeg\")
<\/a>The lieutenant<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/PT1200jpeg.jpg\")
<\/a>Three members of the Layton family moved to Jonestown when Jones set up the commune. Lisa Layton, Larry\u2019s mother, died of cancer in October 1978 in Jonestown \u2013 one of only eight people to die there of natural causes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image-12.jpeg\")
<\/a>The ambassador<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image-11.jpeg\")
<\/a>\u201cJones was like his rehabilitator,\u201d Dawid told the\u00a0Magazine<\/em>. \u201cHe was like his God and he had gotten him into med school by pulling some strings, so I could see why he was so grateful to Jim Jones for like fixing up his life when his life had fallen apart.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image-10.jpeg\")
<\/a>The chronicler<\/strong><\/p>\n