Alana Elias Kornfeld, an assistant editor at Beliefnet.com, details a Polish man's journey from being a neo-Nazi skinhead to his current life as an ultra-Orthodox Jew living in Warsaw. The amazing thing about it though, is how little distance lies between the two points in that journey.
No, I don't think that being an ultra-Orthodox Jew and a skinhead are the same thing, but the "juice" of being one or the other, the attraction to that kind of intensity and total way of being, the energy of giving one's self over to a cause or belief, may be. Even the 32 year old subject of the interview, who chooses to remain anonymous, recognizes that. He says: "I'm a very weird man and there is no medium for me. I'm an extreme man."
He remarks that his journey has taken him "360 degrees". In other words, like all 360 degree journeys, you arrive back where you began. If his had been a journey to some diametrically opposed position, then it would have taken him 180 degrees, not 360. Whether consciously or not, this anonymous Pole also demonstrates that at some point, all totalitarian ways of being, are in some way the same.
Imagine if the most extreme representatives of any cause appreciated that which they shared with those they most opposed. Imagine if hard core conservatives and hard core liberals, be it in politics or religion, could understand that the nature of hard core anything is fundamentally similar - that it's never about the rightness of the cause, when we are that absolute in our views, but the buzz of absolutism that fires us up.
I love this article, not because it's a "man bites dog" story that surprises, but because it's just the opposite. It makes us realize that the shift this new Jew has experienced is really quite typical, a story of bouncing from one extremist view to another - a story of redeeming one's self from a fanatical position by adopting a new fanaticism.
I do hope that this guy one day discovers that those aren't his only choices. And that has nothing to do with wanting him to loose his long beard or black hat. It has to do with hoping that if chooses to wear them, it will be because he loves wearing them and not because he thinks that everything else is fake or wrong.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
When I read the article about the skinhead turned Orthodox Jew, my reaction was the same as Rabbi Hirschfield's. Since the man noted his own need to be extreme, I naturally assumed he had taken on the most exteme form of Judaism. Extremists scare me. They are rigid and intolerant at best. At worst, they are the ones who create inquisitions, holocausts and suicide bombers. I suspect fanaticism is rooted in fear. Such people are afraid of having their world view challenged, afraid that some other group's ideas might be attractive and sound after all. So, they reject out-of-hand all that is different. Some may also have a fear of loss of control or a feeling that everything around them is chaos. Rigid thinking imposes order on chaos and relieves one of having to ask questions. This is why some fanatics kill. They cannot stand to have their ideas questioned because they fear the doubt it might create in their own minds.
Lucy
As soon as I saw the headline for this post, I thought, "From one fanaticism to another." And then I was happily surprised to see my thought elaborated upon in the post.
I hope this man finds some peace in his life somewhere. Going to extremes must be a difficult way to live.
Shabbat shalom, y'all.
Since we are a People who have often suffered to the hands of Extremists, we should know more about them. There was the 1950 book, Authoritarian Personality, funded by the AJ Committee, but I am uncertain whether it recognized that the extremes on the Right and the on Left shared the same characteristics.
Realy I dont know if I can belief a skinhead became jewish I think we have to wacht those people I am not confident they never liked jewish people intil now.
The dictionary defines "totalitarian" as, "of or relating to centralized control by an autocratic leader or hierarchy." It goes further, involving, "subordination f the individual to the state and strict control of all aspects of life and productive capacity of the nation esp. by coervice measures".
While such may well be the aspiration of the skinheads, to describe ultra-Orthodox Jews as "totalitarian" is nothing less than extraordinarily hateful. To lecture others about Tisha B'aAv and the teachings of the Talmud on the causes for the Temple's destruction while describing your fellow Jews in such despicable terms ("totalitarian", "extremist", "fanaticism") is the height of hypocrisy.
At the same time, everything the fellow in the aricle says about himself demonstrates the opposite of your claim. He has clearly developed into a tolerant and thoughtful person. He says, "I am calmer and I've learned to keep quieter and think about the words that I say to people." Also, "it's always worth to devote yourself to become more knowledgeable and not to follow the crowd--to think and to listen to yourself. We can just hate without knowing who we hate and it's easy to do so, but it's better to get to know the person and then decide. I am teaching my kids not to use the words "hate" and "hatred." There is no such a thing that you "hate" somebody or something."
These are not the statements of an extremist, fanatic, or "totalitarian". They are precisely the opposite from a skinhead.
The fact that he used the phrase "360 degrees" rather that "180 degrees" was an obvious, and common, slip of the tongue.
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