Before I drove to meet a convicted antisemite, I carefully tucked my ancestral silver kiddush cup into my coat pocket. I needed him to see something Jewish and beautiful. Then I entered an uncertain and frightening space.
I am a volunteer with the Reconciliation Education and Counseling Crimes of Hate, a victim-centered restorative justice pilot program for offenders convicted of hate crimes. Known as REACCH, the program was established in 2022 by the office of County District Attorney George Gascón to give hate crime offenders the opportunity to atone. Rather than serving a prison sentence, offenders instead enroll in probation and participate in one year of counseling, anti-bias education and victim reconciliation in a controlled setting.
Towards the end of the program, the offender meets a “peer victim” — if not the direct victim of the crime, then someone from the same group — to address their own crimes and seek reconciliation. The theory is that offenders who are educated about the consequences of their hate crime will be less likely to commit another one. I am the first Jewish person to participate as a REACCH peer victim.
I have personally experienced antisemitism and as a , I do not feel safe. I decided to volunteer for the program because I knew in my heart that some of the people who I think of as monsters must regret what they have done, and thought maybe it would heal me and heal them if we could meet. I met Robert in a small private conference room in .
