TURNING HIS LIFE AROUND

Neo-Nazi Who Inspired ‘American History X’ is Now Jewish: Report

Frank Meeink said he made the change in part after he discovered his own Jewish ancestry.

The man who inspired the main character in the film American History X, a former neo-Nazi who once raged that Jewish people were the “root of all evil” and had a swastika tattooed on his neck, says he’s now an observant Jew himself, the New York Post reported Tuesday. Frank Meeink, 48, was the inspiration behind the skinhead character played by Edward Norton in the 1998 film, which earned Norton an Oscar nomination for best actor. Meeink told the Post he’s turned his life around since the death of loved ones in recent years, getting his swastika tattoo removed and actively speaking against antisemitism and race violence—two things he was a face of in the late 1990s. Meeink credited his faith in getting him through his recovery, saying he converted to Judaism after learning of his own family’s heritage and with the help of a “recovery rabbi” at a rehab clinic. He said he hopes to be the focus of a another film someday soon, which would serve as a sequel to American History X that’d document his recovery and new life motto, “Love is more powerful than hate.”