What were some themes you felt were important to focus on in this book? The idea of white supremacists taking over the country and setting up 21st century ghettos was striking. They just can’t fit into the orthodox world. I wanted the character to represent the ambivalence I see in many of these young people. As an observant Jew, I’ve also seen a lot of young people get kicked out of orthodox life for various infractions and attitude problems. I wanted to bring this experience to life in the character.

I have also felt that a great injustice has been visited on a generation of young Americans who were recruited to serve the US, but lost to forever wars and forgotten when they returned to civilian life. Through this experience, I’ve seen the potential for greatness that often hides inside the addict, waiting to come out. It’s not my job, but the work has come into my life. I have been involved in helping recovering drug addicts throughout the last 20 years. What were some ideas that guided his character development? Zack is an intriguing and well developed character. This would be the ultimate “suits not boots” strategy for them, as they might call it. I became intrigued with the possibility of a secret white supremacist group seizing power behind the scenes. These groups make no secret of their goal of driving the Jews (and a lot of other non-white groups) either out of the country, into slavery or death. I got the idea for this book when I started to see white supremacists become more vocal and visible in American politics, and face remarkably little official pushback – at least from the current president. What was the inspiration for setup to this dystopian thriller? Judenrein follows a man with a checkered past who must stop a world changing conspiracy.

Judenrein by Harold Benjamin