A former skinhead converted to Judaism after learning of his Jewish ancestry through DNA testing. As a teenager, Frank Meeink was an infamous neo-Nazi, and he spent some time in prison. While in prison, he interacted with people from different backgrounds and began to change his views. Now, at age 48, Frank speaks out against violent white supremacy and hatred, and is also a practicing Jew.
His story was also told in a book published in 2010, Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story as Told to Jody M. Roy, Ph.D.
According to the New York Post, Frank discovered his Jewish ancestry through a 23andMe DNA test after a friend told him that he "looked Jewish."
The outlet reported that Frank's maternal great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Zellman Rementer, was Jewish. Though he was raised Catholic, he is now a practicing Jew.
More from LittleThings: Rebel Wilson Reveals The Name Of The Actor 'A–hole' She Wrote About In Her Book
In the 1990s, his life was much different. He grew up in South Philadelphia and was first exposed to neo-Nazi rhetoric when he was 13 years old. While visiting family, he learned that his 17-year-old cousin was a skinhead. He didn't really know what that meant, and learned about it through his cousin and his cousin's friends.
"When they would say these bigger words, like multiracial and multiracial society, I had no idea in depth what that meant. When I asked, they would say about blacks and whites not getting along, and I understood what they were talking about," he previously told NPR, describing his interactions with his cousin and his cousin's friends, who were all several years older than he was.
Going to school in Philadelphia was a challenging experience for Frank, and his parents never really asked him about it, he told NPR. His cousin and his cousin's friends would ask him questions about his experience at a time when he was vulnerable and impressionable.
"When I look back on that now, that was finally someone saying to me, 'How is your life? How are you doing? How is your school?' Because my parents never said, 'How was school today? What'd you learn?' They never did that. For once, someone's asking me how my life is," he previously told NPR.
Within a couple of years, Frank became one of the most prominent neo-Nazis in the US. He was a skinhead gang member with a swastika tattoo. He went to prison at age 18 for aggravated kidnapping. After his release from prison, he eventually started working at an antiques store that was owned by a Jewish man, the New York Post reported.
His boss at the antique store was a kind and accepting person, which also started to influence Frank's perspective and later prompted him to have his tattoo removed. But it was the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 really pushed him to start speaking up against the movement he was once part of.
"That day it switched. I felt OK on the outside, but I felt so evil inside," he previously told NPR. "I had no one to talk to. … So I went to the FBI and … I told them my story. I said 'I don't have any information on anybody, but I just need to let you know what it's like.' And of course they wanted to listen, because the Oklahoma City bombing had happened."
Frank Meeink's story reportedly provided inspiration for American History X, the 1998 film about neo-Nazis.
In more recent years, Frank has spoken up about white supremacy and law enforcement. “I know that there are neo-Nazis who I used to run with who are now cops,” he told the Daily Beast in 2020. “And that’s just in my crew. Imagine how many neo-Nazis and white nationalists have been becoming cops? Three of the people in my crew alone became cops.”
At the time, Frank said "we need to get all these white nationalists out of the police force."
