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April 23, 1999/7 Iyar 5759, Vol. 51, No. 30
Shooting motives examined, as hate claims young victims
MATTHEW DORF
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Now that hate has once again claimed the lives of innocent students, dumbfounded activists, teachers, clergy and politicians are searching for ways to stem the tide of teenage violence.
"We need to sort out what's around in our world that's facilitating this kind of thing happening," Rabbi Fred Greenspahn of Congregation Beth Shalom in Littleton, Colo., said April 21 in a telephone interview, one day after two heavily armed students opened fire in their suburban Denver high school, killing at least 12 students and one teacher, before killing themselves.
In Denver, the Jewish community canceled its planned celebration of Israel's Independence Day on Wednesday evening, April 21, choosing instead to hold a memorial service for the victims, although none were believed to be Jewish.
Police identified the perpetrators as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both of whom authorities said were members of a group known as the "Trenchcoat Mafia." Classmates at Columbine High School told local media that members of the group had been obsessed with World War II Germany and had spoken openly about April 20 being Adolf Hitler's birthday. Reports said that members of the group wore Nazi symbols and painted graffiti, including swastikas, in the school's bathroom.
Dr. Carl Raschke, author of "Painted Black," which explores violent youth culture, told the Denver Post it appears that the group operates under "a heavy code of neo-Nazism." That the massacre occurred on Hitler's birthday "probably explains a lot more than we want to imagine," he told the newspaper.
"These kids see themselves as young storm troopers," said Raschke, a professor of religious studies at the University of Denver. "They want to honor the memory of the master, and these kids seriously look to Hitler the same way that young blacks look to Martin Luther King and the way many Christians look to Jesus."
Although the students may have had neo-Nazi ties, they apparently did not target Jews in the shooting. Aaron Cohn was hiding under a table in the Columbine High School library when one of the perpetrators pressed a gun to his head.
"All jocks stand up. We're going to kill every one of you," the gunman said, according to Cohn. Cohn told local media that his life was spared when the shooter shifted his attention to a black student nearby and fired, saying, "I hate niggers."
Another student, Jenni LaPlante, told the Denver Post she had asked members of the six-member strong group, "'Why do you guys wear all that German stuff? Are you Nazis?' And they would say, 'Yeah, Heil Hitler.' "
Only a handful of Jewish students attend the high school, according to local residents.
Although "Trenchcoat Mafia" appears to have adopted some neo-Nazi ideology, it does not appear to be central to their beliefs, according to local Anti-Defamation League officials in Denver who have been in touch with the local police. The police said they found hate material in the suspects' homes.
And two months earlier, researchers at the Simon Wiesenthal Center had come across two Internet sites promoting anarchy that were apparently linked to the Littleton student group.
"There have always been misfits and outsiders at schools, but what we seem to be getting now is a whole subculture coming together on-line and magnifying the chances of mayhem," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal Center.
The Wiesenthal Center on April 21 sent a letter to President Clinton, urging him to recommend a national curriculum on tolerance and civility for all of America's schools.
Many others, like the Littleton rabbi, are searching for answers. "It's important for us to understand this does not only happen in places we associate with violence," said Greenspahn, who said he planned to hold a discussion about the shooting during services this weekend. "This is not a problem of them, it's a problem of us."
Matthew Dorf writes from Washington, D.C. JTA correspondent Tom Tugend in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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