2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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created_at: '2017-11-16T11:24:16.000Z'
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title: On Being Jewish in State Prison (2009)
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url: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2009/david-arenberg-reflects-being-jewish-state-prison
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author: jacobr
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points: 85
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story_text:
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 42
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1510831456
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_jacobr
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- story_15711838
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objectID: '15711838'
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2018-06-08 12:05:27 +00:00
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year: 2009
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2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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David Arenberg had everything going for him. He was smart, the son of a
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research scientist and a teacher. He graduated in 1980 from the elite
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University of Chicago with a degree in psychology, and went on to become
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a left-wing tenants' rights organizer in New York City for seven years.
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But in 1987, he suffered a "personal tragedy" and a "political defeat"
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that he doesn't want to discuss but that prompted him to leave his
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organizing work. Always a moderate drug user, he says, he began abusing
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cocaine and "generally living a seedy life." His brother tried to rescue
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him by recruiting him to run a small trucking company in a western
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state, and for a time Arenberg did all right. But despite that work, and
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later taking up tenants' rights once more, he continued his drug use and
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also adopted a new line of work — using computers to engage in
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sophisticated financial ripoffs. Arenberg was arrested and jailed
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briefly for forgery in 1996, but only became an even more active con man
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when he was released. Finally, in 2001, he was arrested for driving
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under the influence. The arrest led to more serious charges of fraud,
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forgery, identity theft and vehicle theft, culminating in consecutive
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sentences totaling more than 13 years. Today, with about four years left
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to serve, Arenberg, 53, is trying to sort his life out. He sent the
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Intelligence Report the following account of his experiences as a Jew in
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a state prison — a harrowing tale of surviving severe prejudice in an
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unforgiving environment, but also the story of a remarkable journey of
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self-discovery.
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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I am always the last person to eat. It's part of a compromise I worked
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out with the skinheads who run the western state prison complex where I
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am incarcerated. Under this compromise, I'm allowed to sit at the
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whites' tables, but only after the "heads," and then the "woods," and
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then the "lames" have eaten. I am lower on the totem pole than all of
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them, the untouchable. I should feel lucky I'm allowed to eat at the
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whites' tables at all.
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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Not that there's anywhere else I could eat. The prison yard is broken
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down into five distinct racial categories and segregation is strictly
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enforced. There are the "woods" (short for peckerwoods) that encompass
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the whites, the "kinfolk" (blacks), the "Raza" (American-born people of
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Mexican descent), the "paisas" (Mexico-born Mexicans), and the "chiefs"
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(American Indians). Under the strict rules that govern interracial
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relations, different races are allowed to play on the same sports teams
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but not play individual games (e.g., chess) together; they may be in
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each others' cubicles together if the situation warrants but not sit on
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each others' beds or watch each others' televisions. They may go to the
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same church services but not pray together. But if you accidentally
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break one of these rules, the consequences are usually pretty mild: you
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might get a talking to by one of the heads (who, of course, claims
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exemption from this rule himself), or at worst, a "chin check."
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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Eating with another race, however, is a different story. It is an
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inviolate rule that different races may not break bread together under
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any circumstances. Violating this rule leads to harsh consequences. If
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you eat at the same table as another race, you'll get beaten down. If
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you eat from the same tray as another race, you'll be put in the
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hospital. And if you eat from the same food item as another race, that
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is, after another race has already taken a bite of it, you can get
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killed. This is one area where even the heads don't have any play.
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This makes it difficult for me, of course, to fit into the chow hall.
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Jews, as we all know, are not white but imposters who don white skin and
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hide inside it for the purpose of polluting and taking over the white
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race. The skinheads simply can't allow me to eat with them: that would
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make them traitors of the worst kind — race traitors\! But my milky skin
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and pasty complexion, characteristic of the Eastern European Ashkenazi,
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make it impossible for me to eat with other races who don't understand
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the subtleties of my treachery and take me for just another wood. So the
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compromise is that I may sit at certain white tables after all the
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whites have finished eating. In exchange, I must do free legal work as
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directed by the heads (Jewish lawyers, even jailhouse lawyers, are hard
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to come by in prison) and remit to them a portion of the legal fees I
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collect from everyone else I do legal work for on the yard.
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This compromise was brokered by the more "mainstream" Nazis on the yard,
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the Aryan Brotherhood. They became involved because when I first got
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here, one of the first cases I handled resulted in my getting a 21-year
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sentence for one of their members vacated. This gave me instant
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credibility: even if a "hands-off-the-Jew" policy could not be
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established, a "hands-off-the-Jewish-lawyer" policy could be and was. It
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was this factor, I think, more than any other, that has kept me safe
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here.
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The [Aryan
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Brotherhood](/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2005/fall/smashing-the-shamrock)
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(AB) is the political rival of the skinheads. They are the old guard,
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the white leadership that has run the yards for years. They control the
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drug markets, the poker tables, the tattoo shops. Their membership
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consists mostly of long-term inmates who have been on the yards for 15,
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20, 25 years. Their average age is probably well over 40. By contrast,
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the skinheads have a much younger membership (albeit also with long-term
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sentences) that is rapidly advancing upon AB turf. So the AB's "defense"
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of me has a political component as well: I am the enemy of their enemy
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and therefore their friend. The AB understands that I provide a service
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they can exploit. But they also perceive the skinheads' hatred of me and
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realize they can use championing my cause to their advantage. So they
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allow me to stay on the yard, taking credit for my providing legal work
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and inadvertently discrediting the anti-Semitism of the skinheads in the
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process.
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This was all allowed to happen because the AB, notwithstanding the
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swastikas, lightning bolts and KKK hoods tattooed on their arms and
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their vile racist rhetoric, are not fundamentally ideological. Their
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racism derives primarily from economic considerations: by enjoining the
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different races from trading with each other, they enforce their share
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of the highly lucrative drug market. The price of drugs on the yards is
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10 times higher than it is on the street, and the AB is the largest
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single supplier, with drugs smuggled in not only by would-be recruits
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trying to "earn their ink" by getting their girlfriends to hide them in
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their body cavities when they come to visit, but by guards who are in
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their employ (and sometimes in their membership) as well. The Raza's
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drugs may be cheaper and better, but because of the segregation, they
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are not available to the woods.
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The skinheads, by contrast, claim to be fundamentally ideological. They
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exist as a political entity dedicated, they say, to organizing to fight
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the big war, the race war, which will reassert white political dominance
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in the world. They therefore take the public position that they do not
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approve of drugs, and they try to foster the image that they are serious
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warriors, that they keep their minds clean and spirits pure by reading
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Nietzsche and Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, and that their bodies are highly
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trained fighting machines that will kill the enemy without a second
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thought. Every afternoon you can see them marching around the yard in
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locked step, their polished boots gleaming in the baking sun, with
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"SKINHEAD" tattooed on their foreheads and "SHAVED FOR WAR" carved on
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the backs of their skulls and encircling swastikas made up of
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interlocking axe handles. I used to wonder why skinheads made such a
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fuss over insisting that whites fold their clothes in a specific way and
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display them on their shelves. The party line is that we do this because
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other races look to us as setting the standard, and it is therefore our
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burden to do so. But I finally figured out the real reason: the
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skinheads want the whites to appear totally disciplined, a tight
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fighting unit ready to spring into war at the drop of a hat. Uniforms
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that are folded and pressed maintain this posture.
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The skinheads are so ridiculous, both in the way they present themselves
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and in their social views, that it is easy to caricature and dismiss
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them. But that would be a mistake. The skinheads are the fastest growing
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segment of the prison population. If at one time they were a fringe
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group within prison, that is no longer the case.
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**I grew up in a Chicago suburb, Evanston, Ill., next door to Skokie,**
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the infamous site of an attempted march by Nazis in the late 1970s
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through a city with a large Jewish population, including a high number
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of concentration camp survivors. Because Evanston and Skokie shared a
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high school, I knew many of these survivors, whose children were friends
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of mine. When the Nazis threatened to march, these were the people who
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were prepared to take their places on the front lines, baseball bats in
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hand, ready to meet the fascists. There is no question in my mind that
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the Nazis ultimately backed down at the last minute not because they
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were put off by the Skokie City Council when it hastily enacted an
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ordinance preventing the march, nor because the Anti-Defamation League
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made the Nazis "irrelevant" by advising people to ignore them, nor
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because the ACLU helped the Nazis "make their point" that free speech is
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allowed and this made the march moot. Rather, it was because they were
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afraid of the Jewish and other anti-fascist demonstrators who organized
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against them and made it clear that they were going to offer armed
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resistance. The Nazis knew that if they came to Skokie, no amount of
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police protection could keep them safe.
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This was the climate I grew up in. My parents were left-liberals,
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one-time fellow travelers of the Communist Party who had become more
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conservative over the years but in whom political activism, especially
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against fascism, was instinctual. And it was one of their guiding
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principles that there is no debating with fascists. Fascists are not
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interested in ideas but in political power. So every time the Nazis did
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publicly organize since then, I was there to oppose them, not with the
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force of my intellect but with the strength of my fists.
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But despite my lifelong opposition to Nazis, this opposition stemmed
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from political, not religious, considerations. I grew up with
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essentially no identity as a Jew. My father, while of German-Jewish
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origins (and a World War II vet), was a stone atheist and a scientist,
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and my mother, while being a little fuzzy on the God question, sided
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with my father in not providing my brother and me with any religious
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training. I did not attend shul on the high holidays or go to Hebrew
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school. Instead, I went to socialist summer camp where I was taught that
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the most important spiritual value is "thou shalt never cross a picket
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line."
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Nor did the neighborhood I grew up in or the schools I went to do
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anything to confer a sense of Jewish identity on me. Although Evanston
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was not as heavily Jewish as Skokie, my neighborhood was at least a
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third Jewish and the high school even more so. But being immersed in a
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heavily Jewish environment did not have the effect of enhancing my
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identity as a Jew; if anything, it made being Jewish taken for granted
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and therefore largely irrelevant. Jews were everywhere and represented
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all perspectives. We were jocks and nerds, boozers and freaks,
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businessmen and scientists, Republicans and radicals. Our Jewishness was
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not a common denominator to us (because it was too common a denominator)
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and therefore being Jewish was no big deal.
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Similarly, when I moved to New York City after college, I lived in a
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heavily Jewish city in which I was part of the majority. If it was
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something of a thrill to be living in a city where everything shut down
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on Yom Kippur, the main identity I felt as a Jew was no identity: being
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Jewish was as common and therefore as taken for granted as finding a
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taxicab on Fifth Avenue.
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I suppose this paradoxical lack of a Jewish identity in people who live
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in an overwhelmingly Jewish environment is characteristic only of those
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for whom the environment is a privileged one. When Jews living together
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is a feature of their oppression rather than privilege, such as in the
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case of those who were forced to live in the shtetls of Russia or in the
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concentration camps of Nazi Germany, Jewish identity becomes something
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that is not shunned but clung to. The practice of Judaism now becomes a
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raison d'etre, a thing which gives life meaning. If you are oppressed
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because of your race, religion or national origin, you seize that
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heritage as something bigger than yourself to give you the will to go
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on.
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When I went to prison, it was the first time in my life that I really
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stood out as a Jew. Jews are virtually unheard of in the state prison
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system, and if going to prison was a cultural shock and eye-opening
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experience for me, meeting a Jew was a cultural shock and eye-opening
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experience for a good number of young men on the yard, some of whom had
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never traveled more than 50 miles from their backwoods homes. I suppose
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it should not have come as a surprise to me, then, that anti-Semitism
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would be so rampant. Nevertheless, I was shocked by the blatant hatred
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(and misperceptions) of Jews. All the old stereotypes — of Jews being
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stingy, greedy and dishonest, of Jews controlling the world's money
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supply, of Jews running the entertainment industry and establishing the
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cultural standards of the world (thus allowing the proliferation of
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homosexuality and interracial relationships); in short, all the old
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stereotypes about Jews which I never really believed existed — were in
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full force and effect on the yard. I have been able to remain safe, but
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only because I reached an accommodation with my Nazi tormentors limiting
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my presence and activities on the yard. But the bottom line is, I am,
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and will remain, a pariah.
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Thus, it was precisely my own oppression by skinheads and others when I
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went to prison that has caused me to discover a Jewish identity and has
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allowed me to come into my own as a Jew. I had dealt with Nazis before,
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as I mentioned above, but only in the aggregate, when I was part of a
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large force opposing a clearly unwelcome and alien presence. But on the
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prison yards, if Nazis are not in the mainstream, certainly hatred of
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Jews is taken for granted. And for most of the time I have been in
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prison I have been the only Jew here. As a result, the isolation and
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extreme prejudice against Jews here has finally forced me to consider
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myself to be, for the first time in my life, fundamentally a Jew; that
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is, I am a Jew before I am a socialist, an activist, a lawyer, a convict
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or a musician.
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When I first came to jail, I tried to hide my Judaism. I even thought
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about changing my name so it would sound less Jewish. Not any more\! The
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oppression I suffered, the alienation and loneliness I felt, and the
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spiritual thirst that is starting to be quenched, have caused me to
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finally come into my own. I am a Jew\! And this has become my
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fundamental defeat of the Nazis. Because I have finally come to this
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bone-deep understanding, I will walk out of the prison gates as a
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changed man, a man who has returned to the mark after having strayed for
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so many years. I will have finally come home.
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