From Nazi Skinhead To Haredi, x2

“The lesson of Pawel’s story is that one should never lose hope,” he said. “The impossible just takes a little longer.”

From today's New York Times:

…[H]is sense of self changed irrevocably at the age of 22, when his wife, Paulina, suspecting she had Jewish roots, went to a genealogical institute and discovered Pawel’s maternal grandparents on a register of Warsaw Jews, along with her own grandparents.

When Pawel confronted his parents, he said, they broke down and told him the truth: that his maternal grandmother was Jewish and had survived the war by being hidden in a monastery by a group of nuns. His paternal grandfather, also a Jew, had seven brother and sisters, most of whom had perished in the Holocaust.

“I went to my parents and said, ‘What the hell?’ Imagine, I was a neo-Nazi and heard this news. I couldn’t look in the mirror for weeks. It was a shock and it still is a shock to me,” he said. “My parents were the typical offspring of Jewish survivors of the war, who decided to conceal their Jewish identity to try and protect their family.”

Shaken by the knowledge of his Jewish roots, Pawel said he decided to go see Rabbi Schudrich, who gave him a copy of the Hebrew Bible.

“I spent weeks cloistered like a turtle, questioning everything I had believed. I had a feeling deep inside of me that was so strong, that I had to do it, that I had to become Jewish. When I asked a rabbi, ‘Why do I feel this way?’ he replied, ‘The sleeping souls of your ancestors are calling out to you.”’

Pawel said his transformation was arduous, akin to being reborn. He said he forced himself to reread “Mein Kampf” but couldn’t get to the end because he felt physically repulsed.

At the age of 24, he was circumcised. Two years later, he decided to become an Orthodox Jew. His wife began to wear a sheitel, the wig Orthodox women wear to show modesty.

Today, they have two children, whom they are raising in a Jewish home. Pawel is also studying to become a shochet, a person charged with killing animals according to Jewish dietary laws. “I am good with knives,” he explained.…

Continue Reading…

Comments

[randomthought]

1. Does this remind anyone of the Chappelle Show where the blind KKK member just happens to be black?

2. I think being circumcised at 24 gets my forgiveness....

[Bilaam's Ass]

Feh, let him be with kolko and mondelowitz, balkany, et al in the ortho oilem.

[critical minyan]

really almost the same thing. head still shaved, racist idealogy, uniform, obsessed with hitler. he only changed the outfit, not the idealogy.

[george]

This article brings tears of joy/hope/gladness/pain to any normal person, Jew or non; evidently the posters here are not normal.

[harold]

A moving story, many thanks for the post.

[Yochanan Lavie]

I wonder how Pawel would feel about the NK Nazi Purim costumes.

[steve]

Nice story.

[who knows?]

Pawel's story is touching, but it also reminds me of ugly side of Orhodox Judaism:

Now imagine if he came to the same rabbi and found out that both although both of his father's parents are Jewish Holocaust survivors, also his mother's father is Jewish Holocaust survivor, but his mother's mother's grandmother on female side of course was not Jewish. He would be told that he is a non-Jew! This is halacha 101 for you.

One guy may have all Jewish ancestry exept one great grand parent on the wrong side and be told that he/she has no Jewish soul. The other guy will come to a rabbi from Neo-Nazi group and have one great grand parent on the right side Jewish, while all others may as well be SS members and he would be brought into Haredi community with open arms.

The very same guys who are bringing Pawel close are throwing under the bus tens of thousands of IDF paternally Jewish soldiers converted over the last 20 years.

[danny]

I was in Poland this past October with my family. In addition to Warsaw and Krakow, we visited my Grandfather's hometown of Bialystok. It's a very interesting place, and I'm drawn to go back for another visit.

The Poles we encountered were very friendly. While I'm sure that anti-Semitism still exists, we did not encounter any.

Thanks for posting this story. Very inspiring.

[critical minyan]

i doubt he would be able to get a good shidduch in brooklyn.

[klyaksa]

The fact is, this man exchanged one extreme ideology for another. As bad as the haredim have gotten, this is still a step in the right direction but a very small one. It seems to me that extremism draws to it people who are intellectually and emotionally stunted and, therefore, unable to think critically. They need to dissolve themselves in a fanatical belief that is bigger then they are in order to avoid having to think for themselves. This man was an extremist Jew-hater; upon discovering facts that made that view no longer possible for him, he became an extremist Jew. He still has the same qualities that made him turn to neo-Nazism but he channels them differently now. A fanatic is a fanatic.

[levi]

They are actually very similar ideologies:

Kultur = Blut und Boden

[Simcha]

From one crazinest to another.

[WoolSilkCotton]

The extreme swing makes me think of the other current thread here, where people are wondering about why someone would become a Chabad/hasidic BT, and then leave it after a period of time.

Perhaps when such a person achieves intellectual and emotional maturity through a prolonged period of introspection and personal growth, he/she no longer finds that extremes are needed for personal fullfilment.

[state of disgust]

What impressed me is the man wants a job to earn a living!

[libby in the hood]

He states that he "is good with knives" As a skinhead he carried knives. Now he is using the knives for a different purpose...it is very creepy.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

1. Does this remind anyone of the Chappelle Show where the blind KKK member just happens to be black?

Ha! For some reason, that reminded me of a friend who married a giyoret of Italian and Polish ancestry.

He says his brother-in-law is always angry but he doesn't know why.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

What impressed me is the man wants a job to earn a living!

He'll never fit in.

[randomthought]

uh equating 'extreme' judaism with nazis is baseless... I'm not saying you don't have a Jewish Soul but come on, to make that comparison, I'd wonder how in touch you are with it .... ............ ...........

[Chayim]

This is not news. I have studied in bais medrash with ex ne nazi who had a German father and was not a Jew at all to start with. I asked him what motivated him to become a black hat yeshiva man and he told me when he was in the Arlington Virginia nation white peoples party,they would read Jewish material like the Talmud etc. He was impressed and decided to leave the neo nazi movement and become a chareidi jew.
You have sons of actual nazis who also became chareidi Jews and their fathers freaked out seeing their sons and little grandsons sporting peyos and tzizos.
CHAREIDI POWER NUMBER ONE

[Judah]

He would probably be more comfortable in Israel. That way he could fight for the purity and hegemony of his own people in his own land again.

Everyone needs their own homeland. Herzl told us so. A place we can go and be in charge without other races or religions intermeddling. As long as they are willing to be a submissive minority everything will be fine. But only one homeland per person. Where is yours?

[Der Heiliger Rebbe]

Interesting point, Judah: in judaism he has more of an outlet to enact his racial theories than in his small town subculture

Tizku lemitzvos ken yirbu mazel tov baruch hashem

[Isa]

In my community of old...
There was this racist hater [Jewish of course]
And someone said " If there was such a thing as a Jewish KKK he [the racist] would be it"

[Shlepper]

Certain people are commenting about Pinchas (Pawel's) journey from one extreme to the other, but most of the commenters here also seem to be commenting from one extreme to the other about him or his community.

As far as people like "who knows?" and their comments, anyone who knows the community in Poland knows that if his mother's mother had not been Jewish, that the community would have accepted him, and his own personal issue would then have been to decide to go through conversion or not.

(Shmarya, even though you obviously post some "good" stories among the negative ones, maybe you should start tagging which are which so some of the peanut gallery know whether to cheer or bay for blood.

I assume this is an example of a good story of a Jewish community accepting someone from completely the outside without any hint of corruption or greed, and in turn encouraging that person to become a better person and a better Jew. I will admit to being biased as I have met the individual.)

[Dr. Dave]

He states that he "is good with knives" As a skinhead he carried knives. Now he is using the knives for a different purpose...it is very creepy.

In the gemara in Shabbat 156a R' Ashi says that someone who is born under the sign of Mars (?on a Wecnesday) will be either a surgeon, robber, butcher or mohel.

Maybe he is fulfilling his destiny?

(I was born on a Wednesday and I am a surgeon.)

[Mr. Apikorus]

O.J. Simpson was born on July 9th, 1947. Guess what day of the week that was?

[Russian PhD]

From Neo-Nazi to Chabad... Nu, shein, not so big change. Just change "Jews" by "Gentiles" and ese verca in every place, and you will have hard time to distinguish between Tanya and Hebrew translation of Main Kampf or between German translation of Tanya and Main Kampf.

[Ambien]

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