14 | MAY 21 • 2020 

continued from page 13

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

