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This week at Aleph

Fri, 29 May 2026 12:07:00 PM

This week, we were deeply engaged in two alternative sentencing cases—both unique, both requiring extensive behind-the-scenes advocacy, and both resulting in outcomes that spared incarceration and opened the door to brighter futures for the individuals involved.

Programs such as these are not only compassionate; they are effective. Research from the The Pew Charitable Trusts has highlighted troubling national recidivism rates, with many individuals returning to the justice system after incarceration. Yet when intensive intervention, accountability, and strong community support are present, outcomes improve dramatically. Alternative sentencing programs built around structure, treatment, and mentorship can profoundly reduce recidivism and restore stability to individuals and families.

Client 1: Eric

Eric is a hardworking young man who struggles with mental health challenges and alcohol addiction. Following an incident at a party in January, he was arrested again on a disorderly conduct charge. Because this was not his first offense, he was facing a possible jail or prison sentence ranging from approximately six months in county incarceration to over a year in state prison.

The difference between remaining in the community and entering the prison system is life-altering. Extended incarceration often brings profound trauma for the individual, emotional and financial hardship for loved ones, disruptions to employment and housing, and long-term challenges with reentry and family stability.

The Aleph Institute intervened. After many hours of advocacy and coordination, the court accepted an alternative plan: 50 hours of community service in lieu of incarceration. Eric remained at home and connected to support systems instead of being removed from them.

An Aleph Institute caseworker helped ensure compliance with treatment and support programs, while arranging ongoing guidance and accountability through regular meetings with a Rabbi. Through professional counseling, mentorship, and structured support, Eric now has the opportunity to address the underlying challenges in his life while continuing as a productive member of society. All associated costs were covered by Aleph Institute.

Eric’s future is bright—not because his struggles disappeared, but because he was given structure, accountability, and support instead of trauma and isolation.

Client 2: Jon

Jon has struggled with mental health challenges since childhood. Estranged from his father and difficult to stabilize despite years of effort, his family had long struggled to find the right support system.

Although originally from Los Angeles, Jon moved to Pittsburgh in the summer of 2025 to live with a friend. Unfortunately, that living arrangement proved unstable and lacked the structure and positive influence he needed. After moving near a student residence, Jon had troubling interactions with local students, eventually resulting in serious criminal charges.

Community leaders and stakeholders became involved as concerns escalated. Jon ultimately fled the United States to Russia, where he later became involved with members of the Jewish community there. He was eventually extradited back to Pittsburgh to face legal proceedings.

At that critical moment, Aleph Institute helped facilitate a comprehensive reentry and alternative sentencing plan. With the support of dedicated volunteers—including attorney David Korman, who worked collaboratively with all parties involved—a path was developed that prioritized accountability, treatment, and stabilization rather than incarceration.

The goal was not to excuse harmful behavior, but to prevent the further deterioration of an already vulnerable individual while creating conditions for healthier long-term outcomes and community safety.

These two cases represent only a small glimpse into the work Aleph Institute undertakes every day. This program saves lives, preserves families, and strengthens communities. It saves the state millions of dollars otherwise spent on incarceration while providing essential support to individuals on difficult journeys and to family members whose lives are often shattered when a loved one enters the prison system.

At its core, this work is about giving people the structure, accountability, and support necessary to rebuild their lives—and helping families remain whole while that healing takes place.

Parole reform PA DOC

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 12:48:00 PM

Great news with the new policy which goes into effect immediately. with new guidelines for PA parole violations.

Read more: https://reformalliance.com/press-release/sb838-in-effect/

Prisoner Unfit for Trial

Tue, 17 Jun 2014 5:10:00 PM

http://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/6295320-74/dunn-jail-lerner#axzz34vuQ4i9x

We see regularly individuals who should not be incarcerated in the county jails, ending up there for long periods of time due to a system breakdown.

Dvar Torah

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 2:03:00 PM

In this week’s Torah Portion ‘Chukas’ we are told of the passing of Miriam, through whose merits the well of water which brought sustenance to the Jewish people – hence the name ‘Miriams well’ – ended with her passing.

The Torah continues that Moshe (Moses) seeing that there was no much needed water, took it on himself to pursue that issue as the Jewish people needed water.

The Rabbis teach us, that although Moshe had his primary work cut out – as the leader of the Jewish people he had his work cut out – however, if there was a need not being met i.e. there was no water it was his responsibility.

At Aleph Institute we meet the needs of water and shelter daily for those re-entering society, three people this week were provided shelter for thru the efforts of our staff. One of them a family of four is out of living in a hotel and into a more stable environment.

Good Shabbos

KOI program

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:46:00 AM

On Sunday July 22 the KOI group took another trip to PNC Park. The attendees were not only the kids but the parents too. They were able to relax and enjoy a day at a ballgame. People who had never met before, understood no matter what they have been through it was a new beginning. I was able to look around at the group and see people talking and laughing, just being able to have fun.

Prior to the game a friend was able to provide hotdogs, chips and bottled water for everyone. Then before going into the stadium they were given their tickets and more water to keep hydrated.

After the game was over there were about 15 from our group who stood around giving each other hugs. They did not care who the person was but they all knew each one was special just being part of our group.

Thanks to Kathleen for thig great program.

Jimmy

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 3:08:00 PM

Jimmy just left my office! And what a scary story!

I see a lot of ex inmates, people who have committed various crimes, people who are accused of committing various crimes and people who made mistakes which crossed into the criminal realm and have had to face the music.

But Jimmy’s story takes the cake.

Jimmy was referred to me by Rabbi Eli Siedman, who said Jimmy had a run in with the law twenty five years ago, and has had a problem finding a job! I offered to meet with him, and Jimmy was in my office two hours later.

Jimmy suffers from severe bi-polar and is mentally challenged, a hundred years ago he would have been a easy candidate for one of the state hospitals, however in today’s society given the right support there is no question a person of his mental capacity has the potential of leading a good productive life – we all know people like Jimmy in our community working in various capacities.

However when he was a teenager or his early twenties Jimmy completed three different credit card applications, all the same day, one was for ‘Donald Duck’ the second was for ‘Mickey Mouse’ and the third was for ‘Mendel Mouse’, he awarded these three characters their own social security number and guess what, three weeks later he had the three credit cards in his possessions.

Strangely the day they arrived he notices a black van in the parking lot of the apartment he lives in, he was living there with the help of his parents who were paying his rent and helping out with his needs. He knocks on the window of the van with darkened windows to tell them he knows why they are there. They ignore him, and yes a week later there are five guys at the door of his apartment. They found the three envelops with the credit cards still inside. Jimmy said to me in the office “I would never have used them, that would be stealing and I am not a bad guy, am I Rabbi” “no Jimmy, you’re not a bad guy”, he spent the next month in jail, as his sister refused to post the $500 bond, as she decided to teach him a lesson, and he was then given two years probation!

However it is now twenty four years later: Jimmy cannot find any employment. If the job application asks, have you been convicted of a felony? He must check the “yes” box. And this is not any felony, this is credit card fraud!!!!!

Jimmy will start our computer training course Monday morning, and I have spoken to a business owner who has agreed to hire him. “No Jimmy, you’re not a bad guy” I am still trying to figure out here who the bad guy is?

Ban the Box

Fri, 8 Jun 2012 2:24:00 PM

I was interviewed by Essential Public Radio (NPR affiliate) yesterday with regards to ‘Ban the Box’ (http://www.essentialpublicradio.org/story/2012-06-07/ban-box-11348), the issue is crucial.

At Aleph our programs include helping those who get out of prison finding employment, without employment there can be no rehabilitation, in addition to allowing the individual to being able to pay his or her bills they have to be able to hold their head high, being a productive member in the community requires the individual to work and be able to live life as we know.

The government has to do more with reducing the liability exposure for employers. Expungement of criminal past should be more available and to a broader population, especially today as criminal records are so assessable via the internet.

Society has to be more forgiving, with over one and a half million people in PA alone who have been convicted of a crime, our choice is either to be more forgiving and provide employment or face desperate individuals who have no legal way of providing the basic necessities for themselves and their families!

If you have employment opportunities in your business or a business you work for, please call our office with information, we have individuals who are ready to work and deserve a second chance.

Change coming to PA prisons and probation!

Thu, 7 Jun 2012 11:21:00 AM

Prison in Pa after decades of growing are now hopefully going to be turning the tide, currently there are over 58,000 men and women in the state’s prisons, however due to the rising costs (over $74,000.00 a year to house those in the geriatric prison). Pennsylvania (both sides of the aisle) is now ready to change the way business has been done, it’s time to emphasize less the punishment and more the rehabilitation.

We at Aleph Institute, with over twenty years of working with this population, maintain that the focus has to be on rehabilitation, and that means working with the individual on case by case basis, holding their hands.

We work with the individual helping them with productive employment, housing, medical help, ensure they have decent clothing and that they have food and most important they feel part of a community which is there to help them and work with them thru their transition to being a productive part of the community.

The government would be far ahead of the game, both fiscally and productively, with working with agencies like Aleph in making this world a better place.

10 years for theft of meat worth $80

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 7:27:00 PM

Just another case where someone is incarcerated for a ridiculously long time, here this individual is not a threat to society.

Prison has become the easiest solution for all ills of society, at a terrible cost to the taxpayers and a great cost to the family of those incarcerated. The long term damage created by incarceration is incalculable the affects are for generations.

This individual and society would be so much better off if he was sent for evaluation and ordered to partake in programs at a local faith based agency. He needs counseling and support.

The story is told of someone who came to the Rabbi and asked if it was permissible to use milk as a substitute for the four cups of wine on Passover, the Rabbi went and delivered some wine and meat, with the explanation that not only did he not have wine for the holiday he evidentially did not have any meat (or chicken).

Read the article (click here: http://www.wpxi.com/irresistible/22187105/detail.html).

Guidelines revisited

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 7:33:00 PM

The Post Gazette reports today that the state is revisiting the whole sentencing guidelines and incarceration frenzy there has been for the last twenty or so years.

The Aleph Institute and other faith based agencies have a proven successful track record of lowering recidivism. This success rate is documented and recognized by the prison officials nationwide.

The courts should be encouraged and required to work with the community based agencies, as an alternative to imprisonment, or in more severe cases together with imprisonment.

Besides being financially more effective alternatives to imprisonment provide necessary rehabilitation of the individual, helping them become productive members of society. In addition it does not have the negative impact on the many family members on the outside affected, and certainly does not have the negative influence on the children of these individuals, as some experts fear we are seeing now as second generations of those incarcerated are imprisoned.

The focus should begin to be rehabilitation and the community based agencies is the address.

See the article: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10002/1025303-454.stm

Job Search

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 6:47:00 PM

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/11/12/out-of-prison-out-of-a-job-out-of-luck/

Our re-entry programs help ex-inmates daily get jobs and ease the return to society, with the help of businesses (like the Used Appliance Warehouse on the Southside) who partner with us in providing jobs for those returning to the community; we are able to save lives.

Fortunately this week we helped one inmate returning to NY (from a Western PA prison) with housing and a job thanks to the Fortune Society, in another case we were able to help a young man who has returned to this community last week after five years in prison with employment, unfortunately a third person this week we were unable to help Jeremy (name changed) who wants a position more than minimum wage, the economy is a difficult one, and we are so far unsuccessful with finding him a better position.

If you or you know someone who is ready to hire a young man, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We are preparing a website with resumes to make it easier for employers to choose from, for that purpose. The Talmud teaches us, one of the greatest forms of charity is providing employment for a person!

Please help us in that endeavor.

Crime Drop

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 7:02:00 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09360/1023714-53.stm

The numbers of the Jewish inmates incarcerated at the county jail has been more or less the same; we have seen a rise in Jewish inmates over the last few years, but nothing significant in the last year. Compared to the numbers of the rest of the population I think we have stayed in line.

The fears of increased prison population many in the community were predicting due to the new casino on the north side did not come about, our number have not reflected that and to date we have not seen an increase in people in the community seeking services for problems associated with gambling, more then we already were seeing.

Building Bridges

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:22:00 PM

The Prison Society won funding from the recently announced ‘Second Chance Act’ for funding of a program in PA for “Building Bridges”. The program will begin with two prisons, to have sixty inmate and sixty mentors, in each institution. The inmates will have nine month to go to the end of their sentence, upon their return to society the mentors will continue working with these individuals as they begin life once again.

The goal is to provide for a stable and trusting support and with the help of an institution on the outside to track them, the results should be a lot better then the national rate of recidivism of over seventy eight percent.

Mr. Jonathan T. Backers has been hired by the Prison Society to lead this program “Building Bridges”. The two institutions chosen to implement the program will be SCI Pittsburgh – a prison for men in Pittsburgh and SCI Muncy – a women’s prison in central PA.

Mr. Backers asked the Aleph Institute to provide the Jewish component for ‘Building Bridges’ to give the Jewish men and women incarcerated the opportunity to benefit from what promises to be a great program.

In addition Aleph has agreed to be involved with the developing of this program as it gets formed, especially as Aleph has been working with many volunteers and the prison system in PA for close to twenty years.

Moving PA inmates out of state

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 2:55:00 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09356/1022675-454.stm

With over 55,000 inmates in the PA state prison! It is high time emphasis be given to rehabilitation; one key element of rehabilitation is the strengthening of ties between family and inmate.

Over ninety percent of those incarcerated are going to return to society and unless we make serious inroads and work with those incarcerated, they are more than likely going to end up back in prison. The current national rate of recidivism is 79%!

Separating these men and women from their family is only going to worsen the minimum support network that they have. Their families for the most part don’t have the resources or are not healthy enough to travel long distances.

Story of man in prison

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 2:02:00 PM

A Jew in Prison

A Reflection on Anti-Semitism on the Yard

David Arenberg had everything going for him. He was smart, the son of a research scientist and a teacher. He graduated in 1980 from the elite University of Chicago with a degree in psychology, and went on to become a left-wing tenants' rights organizer in New York City for seven years. But in 1987, he suffered a "personal tragedy" and a "political defeat" that he doesn't want to discuss but that prompted him to leave his organizing work. Always a moderate drug user, he says, he began abusing cocaine and "generally living a seedy life." His brother tried to rescue him by recruiting him to run a small trucking company in a western state, and for a time Arenberg did all right. But despite that work, and later taking up tenants' rights once more, he continued his drug use and also adopted a new line of work — using computers to engage in sophisticated financial ripoffs. Arenberg was arrested and jailed briefly for forgery in 1996, but only became an even more active con man when he was released. Finally, in 2001, he was arrested for driving under the influence. The arrest led to more serious charges of fraud, forgery, identity theft and vehicle theft, culminating in consecutive sentences totaling more than 13 years. Today, with about four years left to serve, Arenberg, 53, is trying to sort his life out. He sent the Intelligence Report the following account of his experiences as a Jew in a state prison — a harrowing tale of surviving severe prejudice in an unforgiving environment, but also the story of a remarkable journey of self-discovery.

I am always the last person to eat. It's part of a compromise I worked out with the skinheads who run the western state prison complex where I am incarcerated. Under this compromise, I'm allowed to sit at the whites' tables, but only after the "heads," and then the "woods," and then the "lames" have eaten. I am lower on the totem pole than all of them, the untouchable. I should feel lucky I'm allowed to eat at the whites' tables at all.

Not that there's anywhere else I could eat. The prison yard is broken down into five distinct racial categories and segregation is strictly enforced. There are the "woods" (short for peckerwoods) that encompass the whites, the "kinfolk" (blacks), the "Raza" (American-born people of Mexican descent), the "paisas" (Mexico-born Mexicans), and the "chiefs" (American Indians). Under the strict rules that govern interracial relations, different races are allowed to play on the same sports teams but not play individual games (e.g., chess) together; they may be in each others' cubicles together if the situation warrants but not sit on each others' beds or watch each others' televisions. They may go to the same church services but not pray together. But if you accidentally break one of these rules, the consequences are usually pretty mild: you might get a talking to by one of the heads (who, of course, claims exemption from this rule himself), or at worst, a "chin check."

Eating with another race, however, is a different story. It is an inviolate rule that different races may not break bread together under any circumstances. Violating this rule leads to harsh consequences. If you eat at the same table as another race, you'll get beaten down. If you eat from the same tray as another race, you'll be put in the hospital. And if you eat from the same food item as another race, that is, after another race has already taken a bite of it, you can get killed. This is one area where even the heads don't have any play.

This makes it difficult for me, of course, to fit into the chow hall. Jews, as we all know, are not white but imposters who don white skin and hide inside it for the purpose of polluting and taking over the white race. The skinheads simply can't allow me to eat with them: that would make them traitors of the worst kind — race traitors! But my milky skin and pasty complexion, characteristic of the Eastern European Ashkenazi, make it impossible for me to eat with other races who don't understand the subtleties of my treachery and take me for just another wood. So the compromise is that I may sit at certain white tables after all the whites have finished eating. In exchange, I must do free legal work as directed by the heads (Jewish lawyers, even jailhouse lawyers, are hard to come by in prison) and remit to them a portion of the legal fees I collect from everyone else I do legal work for on the yard.

This compromise was brokered by the more "mainstream" Nazis on the yard, the Aryan Brotherhood. They became involved because when I first got here, one of the first cases I handled resulted in my getting a 21-year sentence for one of their members vacated. This gave me instant credibility: even if a "hands-off-the-Jew" policy could not be established, a "hands-off-the-Jewish-lawyer" policy could be and was. It was this factor, I think, more than any other, that has kept me safe here.

The Aryan Brotherhood (AB) is the political rival of the skinheads. They are the old guard, the white leadership that has run the yards for years. They control the drug markets, the poker tables, the tattoo shops. Their membership consists mostly of long-term inmates who have been on the yards for 15, 20, 25 years. Their average age is probably well over 40. By contrast, the skinheads have a much younger membership (albeit also with long-term sentences) that is rapidly advancing upon AB turf. So the AB's "defense" of me has a political component as well: I am the enemy of their enemy and therefore their friend. The AB understands that I provide a service they can exploit. But they also perceive the skinheads' hatred of me and realize they can use championing my cause to their advantage. So they allow me to stay on the yard, taking credit for my providing legal work and inadvertently discrediting the anti-Semitism of the skinheads in the process.

This was all allowed to happen because the AB, notwithstanding the swastikas, lightning bolts and KKK hoods tattooed on their arms and their vile racist rhetoric, are not fundamentally ideological. Their racism derives primarily from economic considerations: by enjoining the different races from trading with each other, they enforce their share of the highly lucrative drug market. The price of drugs on the yards is 10 times higher than it is on the street, and the AB is the largest single supplier, with drugs smuggled in not only by would-be recruits trying to "earn their ink" by getting their girlfriends to hide them in their body cavities when they come to visit, but by guards who are in their employ (and sometimes in their membership) as well. The Raza's drugs may be cheaper and better, but because of the segregation, they are not available to the woods.

The skinheads, by contrast, claim to be fundamentally ideological. They exist as a political entity dedicated, they say, to organizing to fight the big war, the race war, which will reassert white political dominance in the world. They therefore take the public position that they do not approve of drugs, and they try to foster the image that they are serious warriors, that they keep their minds clean and spirits pure by reading Nietzsche and Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, and that their bodies are highly trained fighting machines that will kill the enemy without a second thought. Every afternoon you can see them marching around the yard in locked step, their polished boots gleaming in the baking sun, with "SKINHEAD" tattooed on their foreheads and "SHAVED FOR WAR" carved on the backs of their skulls and encircling swastikas made up of interlocking axe handles. I used to wonder why skinheads made such a fuss over insisting that whites fold their clothes in a specific way and display them on their shelves. The party line is that we do this because other races look to us as setting the standard, and it is therefore our burden to do so. But I finally figured out the real reason: the skinheads want the whites to appear totally disciplined, a tight fighting unit ready to spring into war at the drop of a hat. Uniforms that are folded and pressed maintain this posture.

The skinheads are so ridiculous, both in the way they present themselves and in their social views, that it is easy to caricature and dismiss them. But that would be a mistake. The skinheads are the fastest growing segment of the prison population. If at one time they were a fringe group within prison, that is no longer the case.

I grew up in a Chicago suburb, Evanston, Ill., next door to Skokie, the infamous site of an attempted march by Nazis in the late 1970s through a city with a large Jewish population, including a high number of concentration camp survivors. Because Evanston and Skokie shared a high school, I knew many of these survivors, whose children were friends of mine. When the Nazis threatened to march, these were the people who were prepared to take their places on the front lines, baseball bats in hand, ready to meet the fascists. There is no question in my mind that the Nazis ultimately backed down at the last minute not because they were put off by the Skokie City Council when it hastily enacted an ordinance preventing the march, nor because the Anti-Defamation League made the Nazis "irrelevant" by advising people to ignore them, nor because the ACLU helped the Nazis "make their point" that free speech is allowed and this made the march moot. Rather, it was because they were afraid of the Jewish and other anti-fascist demonstrators who organized against them and made it clear that they were going to offer armed resistance. The Nazis knew that if they came to Skokie, no amount of police protection could keep them safe.

This was the climate I grew up in. My parents were left-liberals, one-time fellow travelers of the Communist Party who had become more conservative over the years but in whom political activism, especially against fascism, was instinctual. And it was one of their guiding principles that there is no debating with fascists. Fascists are not interested in ideas but in political power. So every time the Nazis did publicly organize since then, I was there to oppose them, not with the force of my intellect but with the strength of my fists.

But despite my lifelong opposition to Nazis, this opposition stemmed from political, not religious, considerations. I grew up with essentially no identity as a Jew. My father, while of German-Jewish origins (and a World War II vet), was a stone atheist and a scientist, and my mother, while being a little fuzzy on the God question, sided with my father in not providing my brother and me with any religious training. I did not attend shul on the high holidays or go to Hebrew school. Instead, I went to socialist summer camp where I was taught that the most important spiritual value is "thou shalt never cross a picket line."

Nor did the neighborhood I grew up in or the schools I went to do anything to confer a sense of Jewish identity on me. Although Evanston was not as heavily Jewish as Skokie, my neighborhood was at least a third Jewish and the high school even more so. But being immersed in a heavily Jewish environment did not have the effect of enhancing my identity as a Jew; if anything, it made being Jewish taken for granted and therefore largely irrelevant. Jews were everywhere and represented all perspectives. We were jocks and nerds, boozers and freaks, businessmen and scientists, Republicans and radicals. Our Jewishness was not a common denominator to us (because it was too common a denominator) and therefore being Jewish was no big deal.

Similarly, when I moved to New York City after college, I lived in a heavily Jewish city in which I was part of the majority. If it was something of a thrill to be living in a city where everything shut down on Yom Kippur, the main identity I felt as a Jew was no identity: being Jewish was as common and therefore as taken for granted as finding a taxicab on Fifth Avenue.

I suppose this paradoxical lack of a Jewish identity in people who live in an overwhelmingly Jewish environment is characteristic only of those for whom the environment is a privileged one. When Jews living together is a feature of their oppression rather than privilege, such as in the case of those who were forced to live in the shtetls of Russia or in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, Jewish identity becomes something that is not shunned but clung to. The practice of Judaism now becomes a raison d'etre, a thing which gives life meaning. If you are oppressed because of your race, religion or national origin, you seize that heritage as something bigger than yourself to give you the will to go on.

When I went to prison, it was the first time in my life that I really stood out as a Jew. Jews are virtually unheard of in the state prison system, and if going to prison was a cultural shock and eye-opening experience for me, meeting a Jew was a cultural shock and eye-opening experience for a good number of young men on the yard, some of whom had never traveled more than 50 miles from their backwoods homes. I suppose it should not have come as a surprise to me, then, that anti-Semitism would be so rampant. Nevertheless, I was shocked by the blatant hatred (and misperceptions) of Jews. All the old stereotypes — of Jews being stingy, greedy and dishonest, of Jews controlling the world's money supply, of Jews running the entertainment industry and establishing the cultural standards of the world (thus allowing the proliferation of homosexuality and interracial relationships); in short, all the old stereotypes about Jews which I never really believed existed — were in full force and effect on the yard. I have been able to remain safe, but only because I reached an accommodation with my Nazi tormentors limiting my presence and activities on the yard. But the bottom line is, I am, and will remain, a pariah.

Thus, it was precisely my own oppression by skinheads and others when I went to prison that has caused me to discover a Jewish identity and has allowed me to come into my own as a Jew. I had dealt with Nazis before, as I mentioned above, but only in the aggregate, when I was part of a large force opposing a clearly unwelcome and alien presence. But on the prison yards, if Nazis are not in the mainstream, certainly hatred of Jews is taken for granted. And for most of the time I have been in prison I have been the only Jew here. As a result, the isolation and extreme prejudice against Jews here has finally forced me to consider myself to be, for the first time in my life, fundamentally a Jew; that is, I am a Jew before I am a socialist, an activist, a lawyer, a convict or a musician.

When I first came to jail, I tried to hide my Judaism. I even thought about changing my name so it would sound less Jewish. Not any more! The oppression I suffered, the alienation and loneliness I felt, and the spiritual thirst that is starting to be quenched, have caused me to finally come into my own. I am a Jew! And this has become my fundamental defeat of the Nazis. Because I have finally come to this bone-deep understanding, I will walk out of the prison gates as a changed man, a man who has returned to the mark after having strayed for so many years. I will have finally come home.

Printed with kind permission of Southern Poverty Law Center