Polish skinhead couple discovers they are Jewish & clean up their act.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315093/Polish-neo-Nazi-skinhead-couple-discover-JEWISH.html



A married couple have revealed how they turned their backs on their violent neo-Nazi past – after discovering they were both Jewish. The one-time skinheads grew up as part of a hate-filled white power gang in Warsaw, the capital of Poland and once the site of the largest Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe. But now they are devout members of an Orthodox Jewish synagogue.
The truth about their roots had been buried by their parents to escape persecution from first the Germans and then the Soviet-controlled post-war government.

This is going to be a CNN special.

'Secret Jew' will air on CNN International's 'World's Untold Stories' in the UK on Tuesday, September 28 at 12.30pm and 5.30pm. Check the CNN website for listings in the U.S. at www.cnn.com/worldsuntoldstories

[proteus_lives]

1. Wow. I'm going to check this out.

[Raksha]

2. K & R, and bookmarking because I want to read this tomorrow.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. atleast they handled it better than Clayton Bigsby

http://cms.m1is.com/video.aspx?mid=d20a9950-fa1a-4abc-884c-85efcd4182f2

[JDPriestly]

4. And then when you think of all the Jewish people who converted

to Catholicism to avoid the inquisition, the Russian pogroms, Catholic persecution in East and Middle Europe (Germany, Austria), there are really a lot of people with Jewish ancestry who have no clue about it. The whole idea of anti-Jewish or anti-this or that culture or religion is foolish, just foolish.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. Felix Mendelssohn and all his descendants, for one.

LOTS of people. Pretty sad, considering the Jewish values of achievement and education.

[JDPriestly]

16. Of course, people takCe those values with them -- which is good.

In fact, that is what Christianity is supposed to be about -- Jewish values for non-Jews.

[Matariki]

5. Daily Mail is pretty much like the National Enquirer or Weekly World News.

but it's an amusing story.

[aquart]

6. They needed to be fanatic about something, it didn't matter what?

But I wonder how many were successful in burying their Jewish identity. More than two families, I'm guessing.

[AndyTiedye]

7. When I First Saw the Headline, I Assumed It Was From "The Onion"

[Ex Lurker]

9. just to be accurate, not all skinheads are nazis

there are anti racist skinheads out there.

[Posteritatis]

17. It's safe to assume members of "hate-filled white power gants" are not such people though. (nt)

[dmr]

10. This is fascinating to read. thanks for posting it. n/t

[pnorman]

11. Some years back, there was a brownshirt wannabe with the American Nazi Party.

He suddenly learned that he was of Jewish descent. If I recall correctly, he couldn't handle it and took his own life!

But it looks like this couple will end up as voices for the good. Best of wishes!

[JI7]

12. i wonder if the Parents brought them up to have Anti Jewish views just so nobody would suspect

that they really were jewish.

it looks interesting. i hope we can see it here.

i also wonder how they ended up together. were their parents friends and that's how they knew each other growing up or did they just meet on their own and they both just happened to have the same background.

[xchrom]

13. i read about this a few days ago -- a thing of beauty. nt

[howard112211]

14. I saw that show on CNN and that dude really pissed me off.

He came across as a uber hypocrit. After learning about his jewish roots, he couldn't just accept his roots and get on with his life and stop being a skinhead. No, he had to go 100% and become an ultra-ortodox Jew, like that would somehow make sense and make him somehow less an idiot. He said however that he holds no grudge against himself for the people he beat up during his skinhead life. He did not feel the need to, say, go and apologize to some of them.

He came across as someone who was just looking for a "tribe" to identify with. That Judaism accepted him is no surprise, since it lies in the nature of religons to be inclusive, but that he doesn't feel like he is mocking them is astonishing.

[unblock]

15. judaism is not a particularly "inclusive" religion and there isn't much choice about accepting him

judaism "accepts" you as jewish if your mother is demonstrably jewish or if you undergo an conversion. different groups within judaism have different standards for the conversion, but generally it's not easy and can require a full year of serious study.

in this case, the mothers were jewish, so there's really not any question from the religion's point of view. there's really no mechanism in judaism for denying them.

judaism does not generally seek to convert others, and in fact makes it rather difficult, and many jews are not particularly accepting of converts.


judaism also teaches that if you have wronged others, you must seek forgiveness from the people you have wronged.

[closeupready]

19. That last part about personally apologizing is the part I also didn't see him as having done.

If he hasn't done that on a face-to-face basis (where possible), then as far as I'm concerned, his conversion means nothing to me.

[Posteritatis]

18. The enthusiasm of a new convert can go pretty far at times

You see similar things in Christianity - someone who's a recent convert is often going to be "better" at going off in the crazy fundamentalist directions than people who were brought up in the faith and take it more for granted. Similar sort of thing can happen with other beliefs, with political views, hell, even things like tastes in music or art. I went through a similar process (from rather less irritating roots, at least), and have seen the pattern in a lot of other people.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

20. that, plus his new vocation....

Killing animals according to Kashruth (if I have the right word for Kosher Law?)

Anyway, someone who dedicated himself to hate and even acting it out...harming people for the sadistic thrill...something feels, umm...NOT so heroic about this.

[Swamp Rat]

21. k&r