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Synagogue vandal repents and seeks to make amends
RANDI BAROCAS
Staff Writer
William Laven's mother didn't raise her son to be a Jew-hater. But for many years, Laven says that's exactly what he was.
It was during his freshman year at what he refers to as "the predominately black" South Mountain High School that Laven says he began a long relationship with a group of Skinheads who espoused hatred of minorities.
But it wasn't until Laven turned 21 that his hate-motivated behavior caught up with him and he found himself serving four months in jail in connection with the June 1995 defacing of Beth El Congregation in Phoenix. Released from jail last May, Laven is now completing the rest of his sentence - three years' probation, 200 hours of community service and $700 restitution to Beth El Congregation. He contends he has changed his ways, and that he wants to make amends to the Jewish community he hurt.
"I want to help the Jewish community (and) help myself out by making me spiritually better," he says. "The more I help, the more I believe I will be spiritually healed (and be able to) put this farther behind me. ... I affected the Jewish community outright, and as my obligation, I should help the Jewish community."
One problem he faces, however, is that Maricopa County issues a list of county-sanctioned agencies at which defendants such as Laven can fulfill their community service hours. Laven says there are no Jewish agencies on his list.
Although there are "some" Jewish agencies on the county's master list of 1,546 sanctioned organizations, none of them were listed as options on Laven's much smaller list, says Armando Gandarilla, supervisor of community service for the Maricopa County Probation Department.
"In the case of sex offenders, we don't put them to work around parks or anywhere there are children. For this individual, I would be concerned that even though he says he has turned his life around, that he might damage the Jewish facilities," Gandarilla explains. "It's a very tricky situation."
While Rabbi Rick Sherwin of Beth El Congregation says he would be happy to work with Laven if his intentions are sincere, Laven cannot fulfill his community service requirement at the synagogue unless a synagogue representative goes through a formal interview process with the county probation department to become an approved agency, Gandarilla says. All county-sanctioned agencies must have liability insurance and provide someone to supervise the volunteer hours.
Sherwin says he would have no problem letting Laven work off his community service hours at Beth El, but he said the synagogue does not have the manpower during the summer months to supervise Laven's time there. So at least for now, Laven has been fulfilling his community service obligations by cleaning out buses for Phoenix Transit.
If Laven later is allowed to work off some hours helping the synagogue, rather than cleaning, mowing lawns, painting and doing odd jobs, Sherwin says he would like to have Laven "share his perspective and perception, both as it was (as a Skinhead) and as it now is, with students and parents in our education program."
"I can teach about anti-Semitism and hate groups," says the rabbi, "but someone who has been there and understands that thinking, but who has stepped out of it, can be far more influential than I could ever be.
"I think it would be more helpful not to describe what a Skinhead is, but to describe what he saw when he was there," Sherwin continues. "That (insight) to the mindset could be very helpful."
Laven agrees, and says he already has given talks about his experiences as a Skinhead to students at Gilbert High School.
And in a recent interview with Jewish News, Laven explained how he was programmed to hate, and how committed he is now to educating others about the dangers of such groups.
'Right into the rhetoric'
As a young teen who "felt out of place" at South Mountain High School surrounded by African-American students, many of whom he says resented white people and felt that they were oppressed, Laven says it was easy for him to believe the Skinheads' rantings. As a freshman, he says he was approached by Skinheads unabashedly spewing hate.
"They came up to me and were like, 'You're a white man, right? What do you think about all these (blacks and Hispanics) taking what is yours rightfully?' They went right into the rhetoric," Laven says, noting the derogatory names for those groups that were actually used.
Despite his initial shock at their open speech, Laven says he began hanging out with the group. And once inside, he says he was exposed to a constant barrage of anti-Semitic and racist propaganda that fed his developing white supremacist beliefs. (Ironically, as Laven's mother pointed out during a recent interview, her son is one-quarter Native American, and is therefore "impure" in the eyes of the very Skinheads with whom he consorted.)
"I went on hanging out with them for a while, and I started reading the material they put out. I watched videos ... on Skinheads," Laven says. "It just progressed from there. We'd go out drinking every night. I'd sneak out of my house and drink, party and get stupid. (We were) just looking for trouble."
While some members of his group, which included up to 25 people at any given time, hated blacks most, Laven says he took a particular dislike to Jews, a prejudice that obviously contributed to his decision to participate in the vandalism at the synagogue.
On June 2, 1995, Laven and two other vandals spray-painted red graffiti reading "Dirty Jews go to Auschwitz," swastikas and other Nazi-related symbols on the northern exterior wall of the Conservative congregation's home at 1118 W. Glendale Ave. in Phoenix.
It wasn't until seven months after the Beth El incident, Laven says, that he decided to remove himself from the Skinhead circle and re-evaluate his hatred for minority groups.
"I started changing my life around. I started doing some soul-searching," he says. "Between then, I changed my thinking."
The change, Laven admits, didn't happen overnight.
"I figured out the people were idiots," he says of his Skinhead friends.
Laven cites as his turning point an instance in which a group of his fellow Skinheads beat and stabbed a Mexican man in the Cave Creek area because he didn't speak English. Laven says he was not a party to that particular crime but it had a big impact on him.
"I started getting tired of it. I realized there was more fighting within our people than with our supposed enemies," he says.
Laven started re-evaluating his role in the vandalism at Beth El and says he wanted to "clear his conscience" of the crime.
The vandalism case had gone unsolved until October 1997, when Laven approached Jacob Berger, Beth El's former executive director, and implicated his acquaintances Michael Slaven and Heather Stewart in the crime, neglecting to mention his own role. An investigation by Maricopa County Attorney's Office investigator Al Shearer led to the Oct. 28 indictment of all three.
Laven says he didn't admit his own wrongdoing initially out of fear that he would not be allowed to enter the Navy - something he says has been his "lifelong dream."
His attempt to conceal his own wrongdoing backfired however, and he ended up receiving the stiffest penalty of the three tried in the case.
Asked if he believes people like Laven can realistically alter their behavior, Rabbi Sherwin responds, "Absolutely. Jewish tradition is very supportive of the concept of t'shuva - poorly translated as 'repentance.' Its literal meaning is turning, that you turn in a different direction."
Sherwin says Laven has apparently expressed a willingness to go beyond words and take action to demonstrate his changed mindset.
"What impresses me (is that) Mr. Laven has gone from being a Skinhead and hating specific groups to wanting to give support to the general community. It's an understanding that the love must be for all on an equal level. And that's impressive."
"We (Jews) believe that people can turn and do better as they move forward in life," the rabbi adds.
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