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PARK CITY, UTAH (JTA) — A story about a Jewish neo-Nazi skinhead won the top honor for dramas at the Sundance Film Festival.

"The Believer" tells the story of a man who was dedicated to Judaism as a youth, questions it as he grows older, then hides his background when he falls in with anti-Semitic fascists. Jurors at the Utah festival, which focuses on independent films, gave "The Believer" the grand jury prize on Saturday night.

In related news, seven Israeli feature films will be shown at the international Czech television and film festival, which runs until the beginning of March. The festival will also feature two programs of short films by Israeli students.

Defendant leaves trial, slurs Jews on way out

ST. LOUIS (JTA) — A pastor known for his anti-Semitic views walked out of his trial in Missouri on kidnapping charges, leaving jury selection up to the judge and prosecutor.

"If you are not going to listen to my evidence, you can take me back to my cell and you can run this Jewish fiasco the way you want," said the Rev. Gordon Winrod, 73, who chose to represent himself in court.

Winrod faces up to 30 years in prison on charges that he kidnapped six of his grandchildren in the mid-1990s and hid them on his farm.

Groups band together to halt convert confab

MIAMI (JTA) — Several Jewish groups joined a coalition of religious organizations concerned about the plans of an evangelical group to hold a conference in West Palm Beach, Fla.

The Chosen People Ministries is holding the three-day conference beginning Feb. 8 "with the goal of making Jews' conversion to Christianity a priority," according to the coalition.

The umbrella group seeking to stop the conversion ministry includes the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, as well as the local chapters of the American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League.

Philanthropy to fund synagogue renewal

NEW YORK (JTA) — A philanthropy promoting synagogue renewal allocated more than $565,000 in funding to 25 U.S. communities.

Among the largest recipients of Synagogue Transformation and Renewal's first round of grants are a multi-synagogue effort to provide leadership training for Boston Jews in their 20s, a project in which Orthodox rabbis serve as an educational resource to the Boca Raton Jewish community, and expansion of a home-based outreach project for unaffiliated Jews in Portland, Ore.

Founded in December 1999, STAR was founded by a triumvirate of businessmen-turned-philanthropists — Edgar Bronfman, Charles Schusterman and Michael Steinhardt.

Cops in L.A. boasting new hate crimes unit

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has formed a special unit to investigate and combat hate crimes.

The LASD works closely with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and the Anti-Defamation League and numerous community-based organizations committed to fight racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and bigotry in all its forms to develop policy and victim assistance.

The new unit will coordinate information on hate crimes throughout the county. More information can be found at http://www.lasd.org.

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