A former heir to a racial nationalist movement reconsiders the ideology he once helped spread.
Such a powerful read about the real victory of vulnerability and the true heroes among us:
āMatthew, who almost always wore a yarmulke, had experienced enough anti-Semitism in his life to be familiar with the KKK, David Duke and Stormfront. He went back and read some of Derekās posts on the site from 2007 and 2008: āJews are NOT white.ā āJews worm their way into power over our society.ā āThey must go.āMatthew decided his best chance to affect Derekās thinking was not to ignore him or confront him, but simply to include him. āMaybe heād never spent time with a Jewish person before,ā Matthew remembered thinking.
It was the only social invitation Derek had received since returning to campus, so he agreed to go. The Shabbat meals had sometimes included eight or 10 students, but this time only a few showed up. āLetās try to treat him like anyone else,ā Matthew remembered instructing them.Derek arrived with a bottle of wine. Nobody mentioned white nationalism or the forum, out of respect for Matthew. Derek was quiet and polite, and he came back the next week and then the next, until after a few months, nobody felt all that threatened, and the Shabbat group grew back to its original size.ā
