meyer kahane was the founder of the jewish defense league, of the ultra right nationalist group emerging in the u.s. his death astonished the country, but it was the image of the gunman that stunned zach s mother. authorities say he is 35-year-old sayyid nosair. i was sleeping in my bedroom, and my mother came flying in and said we had to leave. we all piled into my uncle s car, and he drove us to his apartment in brooklyn. and there were already two detectives waiting there. zach s father was now in jail being charged with murder. i couldn t put together how i could have a loving father that could also be capable of such terrible things. as a child, zacha new little about the man his father was accused of killing, rabbi meyer kahana. to others, he was controversial, radical, and often made
headlines. i want to make it clear to those dogs that are standing there, there is no such thing as an arab village in the state of israel. it as jewish village that is temporarily inhabited by arabs. after you visited your father for the first time in prison, what did he say to your family about what he had done or what he didn t do? he said he was innocent. that s all i needed to hear. but even if he did what he did, there was a way for me to justify the assassination by saying, well, kahana was atmosphere a bad man and he deserved it. at 7 years old you re impressionable and you can t possibly believe your father could do anything wrong. yeah, well, you know nothing. and you assume that everything your parents tell you is the truth and is in your best interests. and like i said, it wasn t the man that i knew. once your father s image started to appear in the news, how did that affect you? it was a very scary time. my mother did everything she could to shield us. but it
people wanted revenge against my father for killing meyer kahana. there were threats made. they wanted to kill his family for killing their leader. at trial, with no reliable eyewitnesses, the jury acquitted sayyid of rabbi kahana s murder. but seeking the maximum penalty sentenced him 7 to 22 years for gun possession, coercion, and assault. when it came back not guilty for the kahana assassination, there was a huge sense of relief in our family because it was like, okay, our father is going to come home someday. that never happened? no. no, it didn t. like a regular movie night. but if you re a kid with diabetes, it s more. it s the simple act of enjoying time with friends, knowing you understand your glucose levels. i m alphonso, and there s more to me than hiv. there s my career,. my cause,. my choir.