Former skinhead preaches social justice at Santa Rosa synagogue

A week after a hate-fueled shooting at a synagogue in Poway left one person dead, members of the Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa and others in the community gathered Saturday night in a show of action to confront the rise of white supremacy hate groups in the United States.

The messenger who provided a roadmap on how best to challenge such extremism and foster more inclusivity had unique insight into the movement. Arno Michaelis was a founding member of what became one of the largest skinhead organizations in the country - the Northern Hammerskins - before leaving the extremist movement after ?eight years to become a social justice advocate.

More than 200 people attended the event that also featured a screening of the film “White Right - Meeting the Enemy,” a documentary where a Muslim filmmaker meets with neo-Nazis and white nationalists to understand the motivations behind the resurgence of such extremism. The film also included footage of the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“It’s great to see so many people here to grapple with a really, really challenging subject,” said Rabbi George Gittleman. “The program couldn’t be more timely.”

Hate lurks even in a progressive place such as Sonoma County, Gittleman noted. He noted that a Jewish teenager last week spoke during a Holocaust remembrance event at the synagogue of the “anti-Semitic acts and words every day” at her high school.

“It was shocking to me,” Gittleman said. “The truth is that kind of experience, that kind of behavior is on the rise even in Sonoma County.”

In an interview, the heavily tattooed Michaelis spoke of proactive ways to confront such hate, which he said should address mental health. Those drawn to extremism typically are emotionally damaged, he noted.

“The fact is they are suffering. They are miserable. If you are happy and well adjusted, you got no reason to act that way,” said Michaelis, a 48-year-old Wisconsin resident.

The uptick in hate activity has come amid a wave of demographic and social changes in the United States along with economic disruption that upended many careers and fields. “It’s the human condition to be afraid of change,” Michaelis said.

Still, he is hopeful the tide can be turned on rising extremism. He noted the response within the Sikh community after a gunman in 2012 killed six members at a temple in Wisconsin. The temple has since doubled its membership to around 1,000 families. Michaelis has formed a nonprofit - Serve 2 Unite - with a man whose father died in that shooting.

“We’re not going to be crushed. We are going to thrive in spite of you,” he said.

The program, which was open to all members of the local community, was sponsored by the synagogue’s social action committee and had been planned before the April 27 Poway shooting, said Bruce Berkowitz, co-chairman of the group. However, many members of the congregation had already been very mindful of the threat against American Jews after the October 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting that killed 11 people.

“You don’t have to wait until your synagogue is being burned down,” Berkowitz said. “Nobody can be a bystander anymore.”

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 707-521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.