14 | MAY 21 • 2020
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All three made their journeys at least in part aided by
Orthodox Jews they had befriended while still in hate move-
ments.
Since other formers have found media attention and
speaking engagements from their own high-profile exits,
some observers have questioned whether Schoep’
s trans-
formation is sincere. A recent New York Times article cast
doubt on his journey, emphasizing the relative quickness
between his formal exit from the NSM and the beginning
of his public outreach.
Complicating Schoep’
s rehabilitation is the fact that he
continues to defend himself in the Charlottesville lawsuit,
strongly denying that either he or the NSM played a role
in organizing the march or the violence that followed. By
his own admission, if the suit goes to trial, he could find
himself on the same side of the courtroom as people who
continue to actively preach hate and anti-Semitism. But
he’
s willing to do that.
“This is about being transparent, and if I go in and tell
lies about something that isn’
t true, then I have no honor,”
he said.
For his part, Eaton believes Schoep’
s conversion whole-
heartedly. “I’
ve done enough of these [hate group con-
versions] that I think I have a sense of what’
s sincere and
what’
s not,” he said. “And I do believe that Jeff is extremely
sincere about all this. Plus the fact that it’
s not like some-
thing you can do for a year and then renege on. You know,
he’
s chosen his path, and it’
s a good one.”
But maybe the right question isn’
t whether Schoep is
serious about leaving hate groups behind — by all accounts
he appears to be. Maybe the right question is what Jews are
to do with a man who once led calls for their extermina-
tion and is now suddenly appearing in synagogues, saying
he wants to lead people like himself away from what he
spent a quarter-century doing.
To this point, Schoep is especially interested in doing
work with Jews. It’
s why he agreed to be profiled by the JN
in the first place.
“The more I can reach out to the Jewish community, for
me, it’
s an honor,
” he said. “I’
ll always carry the burden and the
shame from my past and the things that I’
ve done, but if in some
small way… I can turn a negative into something positive, then
it’
s a good mission to be on.
”
COVID-19 interrupted Schoep’
s anti-hate tour before it could
really begin, but his first Jewish stop in February was already
life-changing for him. At Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob, Rabbi Ari
Hart welcomed him and showed him the congregation’
s Torah
scrolls, though Hart did not plan the visit.
Hart told the JN he still struggles with the question of how
to respond to figures like the one who entered his synagogue.
“On the one hand, we believe in teshuva [atonement] and
we should show the beauty and dispel the myths and lies
people say about our people,” Hart wrote in an email. “On the
other hand, we need to stay safe when we know that there are
so many out there who seek to do us harm.”
At his talk in Skokie, which was posted to YouTube, Schoep
confessed that, though he is free of it now, his anti-Semitism
was the very last prejudice to leave him. More than a month
after hearing that, Hart admitted, “I am still processing that
statement.”
But if others struggle with what Schoep stands for today,
Schoep himself is more confident than ever about his new
path. He has already seen enough of this new world, he says,
to reject the conclusions that informed his old one.
“I once believed, and many of the people in the movement
believe, that the Jewish people hate non-Jews,” he said, adding
that after he left the NSM, “a guy I once knew for years told
me the Jews will hang me one day, and hang all of us that
fought against them, and I would never be forgiven.
“That’
s the kind of message I get, but I don’
t believe it
anymore. I used to think that way, too, so now I try to fix
others’
way of thinking. If nothing else, it’
s less people hat-
ing each other.”
Schoep and Acacia Dietz, former National Socialist Movement propagandist,
look to leave their past behind. They have formed a new anti-hate group
called Beyond Barriers.
on the cover