From Hate to Hope

I met many interesting people during my professional association with the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance. Two of them, Matthew Boger and Tim Zaal, will now be introduced to all of you. Their unique relationship will be profiled on the Oprah Show this Thursday, April 5, 2007.

I first met Matthew, a gay man, when he was a museum volunteer. I remember him well because of his interesting upbringing. He was one of many children to a Catholic Brazilian mother and a father who was a member of the Bay area’s infamous Hell's Angels organization. Not long after my departure as museum manager, Matthew became a manager himself.

I probably met Tim Zaal during one of many conversations in our employee lunchroom. A large imposing man with a shaved head and a walking stick, Tim is a former Neo-Nazi skinhead who speaks to students and at-risk youth weekly about the dangers of following a path of hate. Now married to a Jewish woman, Tim was once a high-ranking recruiter for California’s Skinhead movement.

While Matthew and Tim were at the Museum, they discovered that they actually knew each other in a past life. In their youth, both men were members of two very different underground circles that hung out at the same Hollywood hot dog stand. Tim was a skinhead, and Matthew was a young gay runaway. That’s just the beginning. It turns out that Tim participated in a brutal attack one late night at Okie Dogs – a confrontation that left Matthew battered and passed out in a nearby alley.

The experience was a turning point for both young men. For Tim, it was an escalation into the violent Skinhead movement. For a Matthew, it was a harsh realization that his gay identity made him a continual target for hate – This just after his mother closed her door on his own son.

Over twenty years later, their relationship has taken an unusual turn. They speak about their path of growth and forgiveness at the Museum of Tolerance. Now they will share their unlikely friendship with Oprah on Thursday.

Check your local listings.

http://www.museumoftolerance.com/site/c.juLVJ8MRKtH/b.1415309/k.C753/Calendar/apps/cd/content.asp?event_id={8451D43E-1857-4FE2-AC04-48786C11D200}&content_id={524BE7E0-BEFE-4568-B917-8BDFF2F96E88}&seid=