Confessions Of A Synagogue Skinhead
By David CheaterAll
Last weekend in Columbus Ohio around three hundred anti-fascism and anti-racism activists gathered to discuss our work in the last year and how to work together in the future. I was there as a visible kippa-wearing Jew. I'm also a Skinhead.
The roots of the skinhead movement lie in the youth cultures of Jamaica and its transplant to England. Back in the late sixties there was a division in the pop culture of Britain. The middle class kids who could afford to follow the latest craze in clothing, drugs and religion joined the Hippie culture. Let's face it, you need cash to go to some Ashram in India for a year and buy designer drugs. The lower class kids went to soccer games and dance clubs. Many adopted the look and the music of the Jamaican Rude Boys: Reggae, Ska, fedoras, thin ties, short hair and sunglasses. In 1969 the Skinhead look was the fad of the year. And like all fads the majority of kids moved on with three years.
In the late seventies there was a general revival in England of all the clothing/identity fads of the sixties as long-term identities. But this time around Skinheads were a distinct sub-culture among other subcultures. But it wasn't the same as in 1969. There was no continuity between the Traditional Skins and the Punk Skins. The Punk Skins were into shock value, much like Marilyn Manson today. In 1969 the skinhead movement had been diverse: some were political (all across the spectrum) most were apolitical. In the seventies that wasn't possible. There was a split between the right and the left Skinheads. Unfortunately, to sell newspapers, the British media focused only upon the neo-Nazi fringe within the broader Skinhead movement creating somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Young racists read about the "Skinhead Fascist Youth Cult" and went out and bought themselves a pair of boots and braces. Extremist bands, like Skrewdriver, were given free publicity by the media. Much like RaHoWa is given airtime today.
In 1978, when I was a teenager, I didn't know about all this fuss and fury. We were the only Jewish family attending my high school in rural Ontario. When I could start buying the clothes that I liked i gravitated toward the "Blues Brother" look when I dressed up and the boots, black vest and fedora look for every day. I hated disco music and so I listened to Reggae, Ska and rock. It wasn't until I moved to Germany that I learned that there was an entire community based around the same style that I had developed.
The Skinhead community was developing into various directions. For the first time urban youth in America adopted the Skinhead look in large numbers. Reggae and Ska became popular forms of music among white youth. Unfortunately, the media image created in England followed the Skinhead fashions as well. Skinheads were shunned, except by the far- right. Again the self-fulfilling prophecy came into play equating Skin- heads with White Supremacy.
In the mid-eighties I was returning to observance in the Jewish community. After my father's death in 1985 I went every day to a synagogue in order to say Kaddish. I studied all of the things I should have learned for my Bar Mitsvah; nigun, Hazzanuth and Talmudic study. I toned down the way that I looked so that people wouldn't get the wrong idea about me. I distanced myself from diehard Punks and Skinheads because I saw my Jewish self as antagonistic to what the Skinhead scene had come to represent.
Many leftist Skinheads chose to fight back against the stealing of their identity by the Fash. A New York Skinhead named Marcus formed SHARP (Skin Heads Against Racial Prejudice) in 1986. SHARP quickly spread through North America and Europe. Roddy Moreno, the led singer of Oppressed, brought SHARP to England. AFSA (Anti-Fascist Skinhead Alliance) formed to expel Boneheads from the scene. RASH (Red and Anarchist Skinheads) used their awareness of their working class backgrounds to extend into a political awareness of oppression and the need for unity. And of course, all of the Black Skins, Jew Skins and Queer Skins rejected the neo-Fash for personal survival.
I have been active in the leftist scene in Canada and then later in Germany since 1976. In 1993, out of the race riots after the Rodney King trail, new activist anti-racist groups formed in Toronto. After attending some of the demonstrations I got involved in the regular running of an anti-fascist group here in Toronto. This is where I met active anti-racist Skinheads, including other Jews. Together we've learned about living Tikkun in our daily actions. I've davened at demonstrations commemorating Kristalnacht. I even had the opportunity to hold a Kosher bar-b-que in front of a Holocaust deniers bunker.
In Columbus the only other openly Jewish people working on anti-fascism were two other Skinheads. The other Jews didn't want to be visible or make waves. I guess self-respect can take us all down the road less taken.
I'd like to thank the Skinheads who helped me with the history of the Skinhead movement: Particularly; Steve of ARA Skinheads and Dan and Grover from RASH. The mistakes are mine.
David Cheater is an undergraduate at York University in Toronto, Canada. | |
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