McVeigh documentary examines the rightward path of extremists
In the wake of dozens of recent bombing threats to synagogues and Jewish institutions throughout the United States, Barak Goodman’s new documentary, “Oklahoma City,” seems particularly relevant. The film traces how the deadliest domestic terrorist attack ever committed on American soil sprang from roots in the white supremacist movement.
The film includes familiar and not-so-familiar imagery of the April 1995 blast that destroyed Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and killed or injured more than 800 people: charred bodies being removed from the structure’s mangled remains; a surgeon amputating the leg of a trapped young woman, using his pocket knife to finish the job after his other blades break; a bystander remembering the children’s bodies lined up on the sidewalk as a nurse placed toe tags on their feet.
Bomber Timothy McVeigh, who acted with limited help from two accomplices, was executed by lethal injection in June 2001. “But you cannot exonerate the white supremacist movement for the Oklahoma City attack,” Goodman, who lives in New York, said in a telephone interview. “McVeigh was deeply influenced by the ideas and literature of the radical right.”
Groups such as Aryan Nations have long asserted that Jews run the U.S. government and that whites must save America by asserting their white Christian identity. In the 1980s, a paramilitary offshoot of that organization, The Order, named itself after the terrorist cell described in William Pierce’s novel “The Turner Diaries.” The book’s heroes violently overthrow an American government they perceive to be dominated by Jews. Members of The Order in real life robbed banks and armored cars to fund their attacks, and in 1984 four of them murdered Denver Jewish radio host Alan Berg.
McVeigh did not grow up in a white supremacist milieu, but he did develop from his grandfather an enthusiasm for guns and gun owners’ rights while growing up in Pendleton, N.Y. Tall and thin, McVeigh was often bullied by his classmates, who called him “Noodle McVeigh,” leading him to develop what the film describes as his lifelong hatred of bullies.
McVeigh began to see the federal government as the most extreme of bullies while serving in the Army in Iraq, the documentary asserts. Back in the U.S., he became increasingly hostile toward the establishment after he was rejected from an elite Army training unit. His stridency grew even stronger when he was unable to find work despite his military experience. McVeigh then discovered far-right government conspiracy theories and became enamored of “The Turner Diaries,” which he began selling at gun shows around the country. It was at these shows that he met members of white supremacist groups and eventually visited some of their paramilitary sites.
The documentary details how McVeigh became livid upon learning of the deadly confrontations between antigovernment groups and law enforcement in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and at the compound of the apocalyptic Christian Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the following year. When the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act passed in November 1993, an enraged McVeigh was spurred to action.
He built a five-ton fertilizer bomb, placed it in a Ryder rental truck, parked the vehicle in front of the Oklahoma City federal building and lit two fuses. Moments later, the explosion killed 168 people and injured 675 others.
While McVeigh’s primary motivation was his hatred of the U.S. government, whether he was also racist “has been a controversial area,” Goodman said. The filmmaker said he agrees with Leonard Zeskind, author of “Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement From the Margins to the Mainstream,” whom he interviews in the documentary. “[Zeskind] argues that McVeigh was quite racist and quite anti-Semitic,” Goodman said. “I don’t think you can possibly go around sharing ‘The Turner Diaries’ and touting it as a great book unless you also harbored some of those beliefs.”
Goodman, 53, grew up in a Philadelphia-area home where Judaism was inextricably linked to social justice and civil rights. That philosophy, he said, has strongly influenced the more than 30 documentaries he has produced since attending Harvard and the Columbia School of Journalism. Goodman earned an Academy Award nomination for his 2001 film, “Scottsboro: An American Tragedy,” which recounts how nine African-American teenagers were falsely convicted of raping a white woman in Alabama in the 1930s.
When Mark Samels, an executive producer of PBS’ “American Experience” series, approached Goodman to write and direct “Oklahoma City” about two years ago, the filmmaker quickly signed on. He was intrigued by Samels’ idea to trace McVeigh’s roots to the far right, and he also remembered his shock upon seeing television images of the bombing.
“So much terrorism has happened since in this country, but at the time, this was utterly new within our shores,” Goodman said. “We’d seen these kinds of things happening in Lebanon, but nothing remotely like this had ever happened here in my lifetime. So what we really tried to get across in the film was how people had no context or experience with anything like this.”
As research for his documentary, Goodman conducted about 100 interviews throughout the country, including conversations with an Anti-Defamation League expert, law enforcement officials, first responders, survivors and others. He also perused 65 hours of audiotaped jailhouse interviews with McVeigh, some of which are heard in the film.
Regarding why McVeigh committed his crime, Goodman said, “I think he had a grandiose notion of his own destiny that was totally at odds with the reality of his life. His anger was partly because his circumstances didn’t match his self-regard. He was a smart guy — he had a high IQ — but he had washed out of the military, he was unemployed, and he had had no success with women, even though he thought he was a hot deal. I think a lot of guys who fall under the sway of these right-wing ideologies are looking for something to match their sense of grandness in the world.”
These days, the American public’s focus may be on radical Muslim terrorists, but more than 400 militant white supremacist groups now exist across the country, Goodman said. “The FBI will tell you that they are as aware of the domestic as the foreign terrorists,” he added. “They’re very frightened by them.”
President Donald Trump’s racist, xenophobic rhetoric “has provided a kind of catalyzing effect for their ideas … now there’s a kind of license for them to come out and talk more openly,” Goodman added. “[White supremacists] have exchanged their camouflage for suits and ties, but they’re the same people with the same ideas…. We ignore the terrorists in our midst at our own peril.”
“Oklahoma City” will open Feb. 3 in Los Angeles theaters and air Feb. 7 on PBS.
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The Federation’s lay and professional leadership felt that none of the three publications adequately served the community, and in 1983, a six-person committee set to work to explore the creation of a newspaper.
As editor, Lichtenstein made it his priority to publish as many diverse viewpoints as possible, recruit talented writers and columnists, and insisted, at all times, on good writing.
“It became easier to line up Hollywood celebrities as the paper kept gaining exposure and credibility,” she said.
Brennglass soon became publisher, and, over the decade of his tenure, he stabilized the paper, which slowly established a solid reputation and started to make a profit. After Brennglass’ death in 1997, Hirsh, an influential businessman and Democratic heavyweight, took over as publisher.
“[N]o other Jewish institution can offer this breadth of Jewish experience in such a convenient and mobile package,” Suissa wrote of the Journal. “This makes Jewish journalism — whether offered digitally or on paper — the ultimate modern-day vehicle to ignite Jewish sparks and keep us continually connected to our community, our tradition and one another.”
In another category are the long-range investigative and analytical stories, such as the lengthy survival battles of the Los Angeles-area Jewish community centers or the successes and weaknesses of institutions such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, American Jewish University and Federation.
Aharon first got involved in March of the Living as a student at Milken Community High School in 2004; now she’s been responsible for sending some 200 students from more than 20 local high schools to Poland and Israel each year as director of March of the Living for Builders of Jewish Education in Los Angeles. The students visit concentration camps alongside Holocaust survivors. Aharon, who holds a Jewish studies degree from Indiana University, grew up as a camper and counselor at Camp Ramah in Ojai and continues to return there each summer to train senior camp staff.
Actress, writer, showrunner
The Grammy-winning arranger from Brentwood is one of the masterminds behind Pentatonix, a hit a cappella group that performs songs from bands such as Daft Punk and which will perform for three nights at the Hollywood Bowl this summer. The son of local philanthropists Steve and Julie Bram, he attended the USC Thornton School of Music and has a resume that includes credits on the movie “Pitch Perfect” and its sequel, on which he Bram worked as the on-set music director, vocal coach and vocal arranger. He’s also worked on NBC’s “The Sing-Off.” — Ryan Torok, Staff Writer
Brezhnev is the founder and chief executive of Hacker Fund, a nonprofit that throws hackathons for students to learn entrepreneurship and tech skills, empowering them to create social change. A graduate of UCLA in communication studies, Brezhnev also is a motivational speaker and founder of Silicon Beach Sports League, a nonprofit that encourages its members to socialize and stay fit. A second-degree black belt in judo, he is a former champion of a Soviet martial art and combat sport known as sambo.
The trio co-founded the Righteous Conversations Project in 2011 while they were juniors at Harvard-Westlake School. The organization, which has had more than 700 program participants, connects teens and young adults to Holocaust survivors through oral histories that inspire collaborative art projects, photography and filmmaking. Feiler’s grandmother, Helen Freeman, survived Auschwitz, and Lepor serves on the “3G” Third Generation Holocaust survivor board at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Hutman was the youngest national staffer on President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and interned for Vice President Joe Biden.
In 2014, Greller put on an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and knew it was the future. The same year, he took over virtual reality and augmented reality strategy at Beverly Hills-based William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, one of the world’s largest and most influential talent agencies. The position puts him in the top echelon of a rapidly growing media industry. Last year, Greller, who graduated from USC in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, was one of seven agents named as Variety’s New Leaders in 2016. — EA
These sibling bandmates from the San Fernando Valley make up the band Haim. They began playing together as kids in a family band with their Israeli father, Mordechai. Things got serious upon the band’s 2013 debut release, “Days Are Gone.” The acclaimed album features ’80s-style pop-rock and lyrics on hit songs “The Wire” and “Falling” exploring relationship woes relatable to 20-somethings. They’ve appeared on the stages of major music festivals and joined Taylor Swift’s list of BFFs. Their sophomore album reportedly features collaborations with Israeli-American Grammy-winning producer Ariel Rechtshaid. — RT
The son of San Fernando Valley State Sen. Bob Hertzberg is composer-in-residence for Opera Philadelphia and Music-Theatre Group. Hertzberg has two degrees from Juilliard (where he studied under the tutelage of Jewish composer Sam Adler) and has been described as a “gifted young composer … with a vibrantly personal style” by The New York Times. His music has been performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, and by the likes of the New York City Opera, the Kansas City Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony.
A New York native and former Broadway performer, Kramer was named Eater’s NYC Chef of the Year in 2013. Both she and Hymanson worked at Glasserie in New York before coming to L.A., where they were named to Zagat’s 30-Under-30 Los Angeles list in 2015 after opening Madcapra, a casual falafel shop in Grand Central Market. The buzz generated earned them their big break when superstar restaurant group Jon & Vinny helped them start a second Middle Eastern-influenced restaurant, Kismet, which just opened in Los Feliz. — EG
About a year and half ago, Yadegar was working in retail and her cousin, Iloulian, was buying clothing wholesale and selling it online. Then, over lunch one day, they decided to start a fashion brand that would cater to Orthodox Jewish tastes — that is, modest without sacrificing style and elegance. They began sketching designs on the back of a napkin for what would become their fashion brand, RaJu. Now, the brand is available online and in 20 retail locations from Los Angeles to Canada and London. — EA
While at Yeshiva University in New York City, this Houston native joined the school’s 12-member a cappella group, the Maccabeats. With an eclectic mix of musical styles, the Modern Orthodox singers became an overnight sensation after their Chanukah video parody, “Candlelight,” went viral in 2010. Jacobson performed with the group on six continents, including an appearance at the White House, before moving to L.A. in 2015. Now he’s teaching at Shalhevet High School, where he’s also communications director, while continuing with the Maccabeats and embarking on a solo career, with a pop music album in the works. — Naomi Pfefferman,
At 13, Jonas began performing with the street dance troupe Calypso Tumblers on the Venice Beach boardwalk. He went on to accompany them on an international tour and, after being mentored by the legendary choreographer Donald Byrd, founded Jacob Jonas The Company. It creates original work based on real-life experiences by melding such diverse forms as breakdance, modern dance and ballet. Film, photography and social media enhance Jonas’ work. He was named best new choreographer by Dance magazine two years ago and best new force in Los Angeles dance for 2016 by LA Weekly. — NP
Katzman of New York and Stratton of Ohio are two of the co-founders of the L.A.-based funk band Vulfpeck. The four-person band is a throwback to the era of great rhythm sections and has developed a strong following among millennial music fans, selling out shows at major venues nationwide and becoming a staple of large-scale music festivals such as Bonnaroo in Tennessee and Outside Lands in San Francisco. Vulfpeck was on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” after the release of their second album, “The Beautiful Game,” in October. — Julia R. Moss, Director of Community Engagement
As a 6-foot-10 forward on the nationally ranked UCLA Bruins basketball team, this Israeli-American has been lighting up Pauley Pavilion this season. The freshman is averaging nearly 17 points and nine rebounds per game. Born in Israel to a father, Brad, who played professional ball there. Leaf committed to the Bruins after playing at Foothills Christian High School in San Diego County, where he won All-America honors playing under his father. Before joining the Bruins, he played on behalf of Israel in the FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship league competition. — RT
Beverly Hills High School senior Noah Lee was elected international president of United Synagogue Youth (USY), the youth group of the Conservative movement, during the 66th annual USY international convention last year in Dallas. His term began the day after his Dec. 28 election and lasts one year. Lee, who attended day school at Temple Beth Am’s Pressman Academy as a child, said he is hopeful about the future of the Conservative movement, and that during his tenure, he intends to promote values such as inclusion and the giving of tzedakah. — RT
Matloob always has been interested in entertainment, so it was a dream come true that after graduating from USC, she went on to work with celebrities like the Kardashians, Nick Cannon, Kelly Osbourne and Snooki, creating editorial and visual content for their online properties. Today, she is the owner of her own digital media company, Intelli Agency. Matloob also taught social media to students at Sinai Temple’s Chai School for Jewish teens, and runs a course on cause marketing at American Jewish University’s MBA program. — Kylie Ora Lobell, Contributing Writer
After graduating from New York University with a master’s degree in organizational behavior, Marvazy began a career in human resources, including a stint as talent recruitment and professional development manager at Hillel International. But it wasn’t until he returned to Los Angeles after a decade that he found a job that truly merged his personal and professional lives. An Iranian American who is gay, Marvazy’s current work as assistant director for JQ International, a Jewish LGBT group, enables him to act as a resource for others in that community struggling with their sexual or gender identity. — EA
Melamed was born in Los Angeles to parents who fled Iran shortly after the Islamic Revolution there. A graduate of USC, she took over the executive director position at 30 Years After in 2015. Her duties include helping to connect and educate more than 10,000 Iranian-Jewish young professionals in the U.S. and abroad, often through political and civic activities. She also facilitates the Legacy Project, a documentary short films project dedicated to preserving the history of Iranian-American Jews. — EG
Oved served as student regent on the University of California Board of Regents from 2015 to 2016, a nomination that saw pushback from pro-Palestinian elements in the UC system. In that role, Oved, an observant Jew, lobbied the regents to pass a statement of principles against intolerance that condemned anti-Semitism. He also pushed successfully for the creation of a new student adviser position on the board and brought visibility to middle-income students struggling to pay for their education. He begins law school at UCLA in August. — EA
A 2011 graduate of Harvard-Westlake, Platt received a Teen Choice Award nomination for his role as the “Star Wars”-obsessed character Benji Applebaum in “Pitch Perfect.” In 2014, Platt put off attending Columbia University when he was cast in the role of Elder Cunningham in the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon.” Last year, Platt landed the lead in the new Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” for which he won an Obie Award during an off-Broadway production. Platt also has appeared in a number of other musicals, including “Caroline, or Change,” “Wonderland” and “Hair.” — JB
Chloe Pourmorady picked up a violin at the age of 9 and hasn’t put it down since. The 26-year-old Los Angeles native, who went to Sinai Akiba Academy, started out in the school orchestra there playing Jewish music, then went on to study at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), where she got a degree in violin and played classical music in the chamber ensembles. 
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Romanoff’s first young adult novel, “A Song to Take the World Apart,” was named one of the best books of 2016 by SparkNotes. Her follow-up, “Grace and the Fever,” will be published by Knopf Books for Young Readers in May. A graduate of Yale University, Romanoff’s work as a freelance writer — often about feminism, television and the intersection between personality, technology and culture — has appeared in BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, Elle and Rolling Stone. Romanoff was the program coordinator at the Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center for 2 1/2 years. — OG
The Jewish quarterback in the modern era of the NFL is a rare breed. There have only been two: Jay Fiedler, a mostly unheralded eight-year veteran, and Sage Rosenfels, a career second-stringer. Not exactly the types to pile up records and invade living rooms with commercial appearances.
Sofer has performed at nationally recognized venues, preserved traditional Jewish music and given back to people in need. Founder and bandleader of Mostly Kosher, a Jewish folk music group that recently had a two-month residency at Disneyland as part of the Festival of Holidays, he plays multiple instruments. Sofer has a performance degree from the Bob Cole Conservatory at CSU Long Beach, and is co-founder and director of the Urban Voices Project, an adult music program and community choir for Skid Row residents. — KOL
San Fernando Valley native Steinfeld, who has appeared in more than a dozen films, received an Oscar nomination for her role in the 2010 remake of “True Grit.” She also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the coming-of-age film “The Edge of Seventeen.” As a model, Steinfeld has been the face of Miu Miu and Max Mara. And after covering the song “Flashlight” in “Pitch Perfect 2,” she was signed to Republic Records. Her most recent release, “Starving,” a collaboration with artists Grey and Zedd, peaked at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. — JB
In 2010, when she was an undergraduate at UCLA, Sumekh co-founded an organization to alleviate hunger in L.A. by asking students to donate their unused meal points. She’s since become executive director of that effort — now called Swipe Out Hunger — and expanded the program to 23 universities, providing more than 1.3 million meals. Included in this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list of social entrepreneurs, she was invited to the White House in October for a tech summit. This year, she will participate in The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’ New Leaders Project.
The 10 Israeli soldiers who traveled to Los Angeles in June with the fledgling organization Lev Chayal had been variously blown up, run over and crushed by rubble. One has his own death certificate as a souvenir of the time his heart stopped. But you wouldn’t know it to look at their smiling faces in photos taken at Knott’s Berry Farm, in the Dodgers dugout and posing on Hollywood Boulevard. The young men were enthusiastic and humbled by the experience — much like the two women responsible for bringing them there, Chaya Israily and Brocha Yemini. The plan was simple: Create an opportunity for wounded Israeli soldiers to come to L.A. and relax while enriching the local community through their presence and their stories. Since the June trip ended, Israily and Yemini have begun planning for another one in February. 
Simone Zimmerman looks, on paper, like so many young Jewish professionals from Los Angeles: 10 summers at Camp Ramah in Ojai, leadership training in the United Synagogue Youth, a family that’s active in the community. In 2014, she was one of the founders of IfNotNow, a network of progressive millennial Jews that protests the Jewish establishment for what it sees as its commitment to the unacceptable status quo in the Palestinian territories. Then, in April, Zimmerman, then 25, found herself in charge of Jewish outreach for the Bernie Sanders campaign. Five days later, she was suspended after establishment figures including Morton A. Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, and Abe Foxman, former head of the Anti-Defamation League, called for her ouster. Her experience earned huge visibility for IfNotNow, she said; it now boasts 700 leaders in eight cities, including Los Angeles.