Debunking Viral Claim About the Talmud and Minors
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As part of rehabilitation program, James Finney-Conlon meets an antisemite guilty of performing a hate crime.
Growing up, James Finney-Conlon experienced his fair share of antisemitism. Classmates threw pennies at his feet and told him that he was going to hell because he wasn’t baptized.
James's mother’s family experienced Jew-hatred in Ukraine during the pogroms. They had been imprisoned for being Jewish but bribed their way out of prison by secretly transporting jewels hidden in a sanitary napkin. “It is a crazy reality that the only reason I am in America today is because my ancestors wore jewels inside their underwear.”
Since James grew up in an interfaith home, and often experienced hurtful comments from Jews and non-Jews alike, he bore the brunt of hate from both sides. “Jews told me I wasn’t Jewish enough, and Christians looked down on me for being a Jew. Though my father recently converted to Judaism, I still get comments about my last name and its non-Jewish origins. It's exhausting when people expect you to prove who you are.”
In high school he started a World Religions Club. “As someone who grew up not being recognized for who I was, I wanted to create a space where people could be educated and learn about other religions and not be judged.” His work as a teen was recognized by a Hindu temple and he was awarded a scholarship to continue his education in religious studies and politics.
In college, he volunteered with interfaith clubs and worked hard to ensure every faith was welcome on campus. He also volunteered in men’s and women’s prisons and spent his weekends helping convicts reconcile their past.
James Finney-Conlon
When a gunman massacred Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, James started to feel unsafe as a Jew in America. It was the deadliest attack on a Jewish community in the United States. James decided it was time to do something to combat all this hatred. He drew upon his high school and university experience to fight back, and realized he needed to better understand the mind of an antisemitic criminal.
Questions regarding those who committed hate crimes swirled in his mind:
Why do they do it?
When it is all said and done, do they feel like they accomplished something?
How does their crime affect their future life and relationships?
Do they feel like they stirred fear within Jews to flee this country?
He also wondered what District Attorneys were really doing about people who commit hate crimes.
James started volunteering for a pilot program called REACCH (Reconciliation Education and Counseling Crimes of Hate). He explained, “This is a victim-centered restorative justice pilot program for offenders convicted of hate crimes. The program was established in 2022 by the office of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón to give hate crime offenders the opportunity to atone.” With this program, convicted hate crime offenders who felt remorseful could get into counseling and understand the root of their hate. They work within a controlled setting and with a probation officer.
James explained, “This is a program for offenders convicted of hate crimes who feel remorseful and are open to understand the root of their hate.” The goal is to take that remorse and turn it into rehabilitation.
As part of this process, the convicted offender meets with one of their victims or a proxy victim. James volunteered to help design the program and to sit down with the first antisemite to go through the program. He met Robert, the first antisemite in the program.
James and his wife co-facilitating an inter-faith Passover Seder at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance
James is not allowed to divulge the crime that Robert committed. “Robert wasn’t involved in a hate incident. He was arrested for a hate crime, which is a very serious and severe crime that can put a person in jail for decades.”
The US Department of Justice defines a hate crime as a crime motivated by bias against race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. The "crime" is often violent, such as assault, murder, arson, vandalism, or threats to commit such crimes.
“I met Robert in a small, private conference room in Los Angeles.” James was shocked by how normal Robert looked. “He shook my hand and I quickly noted his reddened eyes and his distressed, clenched jaw. Robert was dressed like it was his day in court. He was a regular guy. He even grew up with some Jewish friends.”
There was no planning and no forethought behind the crime. He didn’t wake up thinking he would commit a hate crime that day. From their three-hour meeting James understood that Robert merely had massive pent-up anger and nowhere to place it. Jews became the convenient scapegoat.
It all began when Robert started watching YouTube videos that were talking about Jews and their over-involvement in media and government. He watched shows about the history of the Jews and why they were involved in such intellectual-type jobs. That led to content about how Jews are puppet masters secretly controlling the world.
Robert had an “aha moment” where he thought, “Omg, of course I hate the Jews!” The algorithms on YouTube and other social media platforms continued to feed him misinformation about the Jewish people and community. Finally, he decided, his anger and frustration had a target.
His anger bubbled up, unchecked. He did not have therapy or a healthy community to turn to for support or mental reframing. Instead, he kept it all in – until he snapped. The day of the crime, his only thought was about unleashing his anger.
Robert didn’t consider the aftermath of his actions. He never thought about the damage his actions would cause, or that his friends and family would now associate him with this rageful act.
James saw that you do not have to go to a KKK rally or a book club meeting about Mein Kampf to become an antisemite. Robert’s spur of the moment decision was a by-product of extremely poor management of his own negative emotions fed by a diet of hateful propaganda disseminated on YouTube.
James wants to help reform these antisemites and turn them into allies. “I am a volunteer. I do not get a penny out of this. I want some of these people who I see as monsters to become our allies and advocates in the future. I want them to talk to others who are on the verge of committing a hate crime. I’m hoping Robert will come out of his anonymity.”
Robert felt horrible about hating others, but at the same time he felt energized when he gave his hatred a destination and vented. James helped him understand that his hatred of others was really a spiraling of self-hate and is helping him find the tools to do teshuva, the Hebrew word for repentance and genuine change.
James saw the extent of damage Robert’s hate had done to his sense of self. “I have no words to describe the depth of remorse he held. I expected him to pick me apart and spew his hatred. Instead, he was picking himself apart. He was so angry with himself.”
James believes there is much more to Robert than his anger and hate.
Robert said that he cannot believe what he had become – a radical, hateful person who wants to cause harm. James believes there is much more to him than his anger and hate. “I saw him realize no matter how much good he will do moving forward, he will never be able to erase the damage he did to the Jewish community. He is truly sorry and wants to change.”
Outside his work with the DA's office, James leads Bridging Interfaith Community Los Angeles (BIC-LA), an interfaith dialogue network committed to tackling hate through empathy-building and anti-bias education. During his outings between Jews and other faith groups, James often confronts the topic of Zionism and Israel.
“By explaining the diaspora experience to non-Jews, I connect Zionism as the expression of the Jewish People's long-held desire to return to their homeland. It does not mean other people cannot have a home of their own. I've heard all the antisemitic tropes: people try to convince me that IDF soldiers are harvesting organs from the dead, competing on how many babies they can slaughter, and actively torturing civilians for pleasure."
James unfortunately has friends who refuse to listen to his perspective on the issue. “They tell me that because I am Jewish, I have committed genocide. They claim that I am guilty through association with Israel. They will not listen to me. I am willing to listen to them, but they will not listen to me in return.”
Throughout James's work, he realized many hate crime offenders and people who hold biases toward Jews rarely get a chance to meet a Jew who has experienced antisemitism. James strongly believes creating personal interactions between these groups is crucial to combatting antisemitism in today's world. “In a way, it feels like a severed link because all their remorse had no place to go. They often couldn’t reach out to the communities they terrorized. Many of them never have the chance to ask for forgiveness and will spend the rest of their lives in jail with no peace in their soul.”
This project caused him to think about what it means to confront inner demons and truly change. He believes there is more to the convicts than the harm they have caused.
“This project has shown me that even people that did unforgivable things can find a pathway to finding forgiveness, at least from themselves. It taught me a lot about people outside of prison. It has helped my heart grow.”
There is a line between free speech, and hate speech, and Anti-Semitic rhetoric is hate speech! I just visited the Houston Holocaust Museum, and the exhibits talked about how hateful rhetoric caused dictators, especially Hitler, to rise to power. We as a society need to realize that hateful words lead to hateful actions, and we need to stop the hate!
Great!
Google (YouTube) is a major antiSemetic, terrorism problem.
From October 7 on, going forward at least the following two months, Google, as an aggregate news source did three things with consistency:
1 ) They chose articles that predominantly favored the Gaza side; and,
2 ) They created a majority video link up to YouTube of graphic, heinous videos encouraging Jew hate, and as a terrorism how-to tool; and,
3 ) Selected articles with the majority readership commenting streaming back to foreign news sources in countries in Qatar (Al-Jazerra) and India.
Google also was blatantly anti America, anti Israel.
And who created Google? Larry Page & Sergey Brin, both secular Jews. What went wrong? What if they'd both been raised as OBSERVANT Jews???
Too bad. Too late. Should have thought about it first.
Adults don't intrinsically change. It is like the pig that appears kosher, but inside is not. Or, like Easu who appeared to his father righteous and just, but in reality was engaged in immorality, and deceit behind his back. He was also guilty of theft through deceit of the human mind by doing this to deny the truth trading it out for a presentation of his character that was a deceit. It is also bearing false witness direct against truth by trading it out by presenting a false front.
The number one desire of an inmate is to be set free. Someone egregious of a hate crime to the level of imprisonment knew exactly what they were doing, and chose it.
It is time to stop being naive, susceptible, vulnerable, and at risk.
If someone hates you, believe they mean it.
Ah, you disagree with the Torah. The great Rabbi 'Aqiva said about himself BEFORE he ever learned Torah that "if I had met a Torah scholar, I would have bitten him like a donkey." Donkey bites crush bones. Yithro worshipped all of the idolatries of the world before becoming a Jew, is that not change? Antoninus was a descendant of Esau, but he became a close partner of Rebi Yehudha HaNasi, the redactor of the mishnayoth. You've condemned men to not having free choice with your opinion. Are you sure you're right?
This man is doing essential work. I feel that any leader in the West, from mayor to president, should be totally aware and informed on the nature of anti-Jewish hate. The form of antisemitism we're witnessing now shouldn't be tolerated and immediately and properly dealt with. It's become a Left-Right political issue with the Left supporting Islamofascist antisemitism. Yes, there are pockets of anti-Islamic hate but which for some reason's called "Islamophobia". The post October 7th massacre hate-filled protests are a disgrace to our Judeo-Christian way of life and to those murdered and their survivors.
I experienced the same thing when I try to explain anything to someone they shutdown and are unwilling to listen. Glad you are doing things to open the doors of understanding thru dialogue. May the Almighty bless all you endeavors.
I cannot understand hatred of the Jewish People when Jesus, Mary, Joseph and all of the disciples were Jewish. How can anyone hate Jews and then pray to a Jewish Rabbi named Jesus. Look at the inventions and entertainment Jews have brought to the world.
This is different. I thought this was going to be another lovely useless description of an activist teaching out and covering wounds that cannot heal. But he is on to something- grasping the remorseful and helping them see self hatred and fear underlying their actions.
I can not understand hatred of a person, simply because of their faith, or where they were born. We each have no control over such things. For example I was raised a Christian, but discovered as a young man that my paternal grandmother was Jewish. I had no say in either situation. And I'm happy with who I am.
keep up the good work James.
Nice to hear your refreshing point of view, Doug