One year after Blaze Bernstein’s killing, his parents and Orange County community members assess its impact

On Jan. 10, 2018, Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators found 20-year-old Blaze Bernstein’s body in a shallow grave near Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch.

Officials determined he had been stabbed 20 times, killed in an act of rage. Bernstein was gay and Jewish, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.

And for most of 2018, a year that saw a surge in anti-Semitic hate crimes including the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that left 11 dead, and hate incidents against members of the LGBT community, Bernstein’s killing became a reference point for members of both communities who felt targeted in such an environment.

The Orange County District Attorney in August filed a hate crime charge against Samuel Woodward, 20, the man accused of killing Bernstein. Prosecutors point to a mountain of evidence showing Woodward was a member of Atomwaffen Division, a violent hate group that promoted, among other forms of hate, anti-Semitism and homophobia.

A year later, Bernstein’s parents, Gideon and Jeanne, say all they want to see are acts of love and kindness done in the name of their first-born.

Their Facebook Page “Blaze it Forward” has more than 2,000 members. This page has become a refuge of sorts for people who seek acts of kindness and those who want to perform such acts.

One woman posted on the page saying she paid an elderly woman’s grocery bill at the supermarket “in honor of Blaze.” Another said someone paid for her food at In-N-Out and she did the same and “Blazed it forward.” Yet another man said he was going to get a “Blaze it forward” tattoo.

“We wanted to take our tragic situation and use our platform to encourage people to perform acts of kindness instead of dwelling on what happened to us,” Jeanne Bernstein said.

Her husband said his family has received a “big, giant, global bear hug from people from all walks of life.”

“In a time when we lost control over our lives and momentarily lost hope in humanity, this massive, positive community response has given us hope that we can make a difference,” he said.

Backdrop of fear

Bernstein’s killing dealt a massive blow to the LGBT and Jewish communities in Southern California, even as officials were trying to pinpoint a motive.

During the preliminary investigation, they attempted to connect the dots between the incident, Bernstein’s religion and sexual orientation, and Woodward’s membership in a neo-Nazi hate group whose heroes are Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson and Timothy McVeigh.

The killing and its chilling circumstances helped shed light on the “silence around being gay,” said Laura Kanter, director of policy, advocacy and youth programs at the LGBT Center OC in Santa Ana.

“I feel like there’s still not enough attention given to discussing the conditions that led to Blaze’s murder,” she said. “What are we doing to help LGBT youth feel like they don’t have to hide and they can feel safe in their own communities?”

Over the last year, Kanter has been involved in breaking conservative Christian groups’ resistance to sex education curriculum that is inclusive of LGBT students.

“We’re still having this battle over sex ed and there are still people trying to fight reducing shame, stigma and bullying of LGBT folks,” she said. “Isn’t that what led to Blaze’s murder?

“Blaze wasn’t murdered because he was gay. He was murdered because of hate and homophobia.”

Bernstein’s killing deepened concerns over surging anti-Semitism in the Jewish community, said Wendy Arenson, executive director of the Jewish Community Foundation of Orange County. Gideon Bernstein is chair of the organization’s board of directors.

“Our families have been friends for years,” she said. “We took trips together, played board games and had dinners together. We don’t know if Blaze was killed because he was Jewish. But, his murder has left members of our community deeply concerned, especially in light of the increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in Southern California and nationwide.”

“Blaze wasn’t murdered because he was gay. He was murdered because of hate and homophobia.” 

Arenson said her family lit an extra candle for Bernstein the Friday night, on Sabbath, the week Blaze disappeared.

“We’ve continued lighting that candle for Blaze every week,” she said. “It’s our way of recognizing that he is with us in spirit.”

She calls the Bernsteins “kind, phenomenal people.”

“I look at them as role models,” Arenson said. “To take such a horrible tragedy, to go beyond your personal grief and send out a positive message to the world – is simply astounding to me.”

‘It was a hate crime’

Jeanne and Gideon Bernstein say they believe their son’s killing was a hate crime.

“The man accused of the crime was anti-Semitic, anti-gay,” Jeanne Bernstein said, adding that her son’s murder brought notoriety to the hate group to which Woodward belonged.

Hate crime experts who tracked social media in the days and weeks after Bernstein’s murder and Woodward’s arrests saw neo-Nazis’ messages of celebration congratulating Woodward for killing a person who was both gay and Jewish.

Jeanne Bernstein says she can’t forget the two words she saw posted on social media by a neo-Nazi group member mocking her son’s murder: “LOL OC.”

She says she still gets trolled by neo-Nazis on Instagram.

“It’s disappointing, and it tells me there are not enough consequences for this type of behavior,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do.”

Jeanne and Gideon Bernstein say seeing people perform acts of kindness in Blaze’s name and watching the Blaze it Forward movement grow continues to give them comfort.

Through this social media page, they’ve witnessed one of Blaze’s former classmates from the Orange County School of the Arts come out to his parents as a gay man. His parents wrote to the Bernsteins that this changed their family dynamic for the better.

“We have a lot of work to do.” 

Others see a need and fill it. One woman contacted a victim of domestic violence who had posted on the Facebook page and took the family shopping for furniture and a new computer.

These acts of kindness they witness on a daily basis, the Bernsteins say, have given them comfort and the opportunity to escape the reality of their circumstances.

Memorials

Community members have also created a memorial of sorts for Bernstein. Last year, the city of Lake Forest, as part of its “Expand the Forest” program, worked with the family to plant a tree at Borrego Park where Bernstein’s body was found.

The area around the tree has been left open for community members to place stones memorializing Bernstein.

“People are creating works of art with these rocks,” Jeanne Bernstein said. “There are so many of these stones, so colorful, so beautiful. Every one of those rocks represents someone who cares about us, my son and what happened. It tells me that people are good, people care and they want to reach out.”

The couple has also devoted time to their two other children, Blaze’s brother and sister.

“We’ve actually done more traveling in the last year so we don’t dwell on the past,” said Gideon Bernstein, adding that they just returned from a trip to Spain. “We want to continue to live our lives. We want to distract ourselves with positive things.”

And that’s why the Bernsteins say they don’t go to court hearings.

“We’ll help the D.A. in any way we can and we will be in court when we have to be,” Gideon Bernstein said. “But, personally, I don’t feel like that’s the best use of my time.”

For now they’re looking forward to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which they are dedicating as “Blaze it Forward Day,” committing to a day of service in memory of their son.

Blaze Bernstein was buried on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, last January.

SCNG staff writer Jeong Park contributed to this report.