Veninga Lecture: Life after Hate

Veninga Lecture on Religion and Society: ‘Life after Hate: The Unlikely Bond of a Sikh and a Former White Supremacist’

A former white supremacist and a Sikh whose father was murdered in a race-based attack headlined the ninth Veninga Lecture on Religion and Society on September 23.

As a young man in Milwaukee in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Arno Michaelis had been a leader of a worldwide racist skinhead organization. His life turned around when he became a single parent and was shown kindness and forgiveness by the people he had once hated. Pardeep Singh Kaleka had lost his father in the August 5, 2012, mass shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

In the midst of his grief, Kaleka reached out to Michaelis to try to understand the mindset of the white supremacist who had taken the life of his father and five others. The two quickly formed a strong friendship and created Serve 2 Unite, an organization that engaged students in creative service learning with a global network of peacemakers and mentors to divert young people from extremist ideologies, gun violence, substance abuse, and other forms of self-harm.

Together with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robin Gaby Fisher, Michaelis and Kaleka authored the book, “The Gift of Our Wounds: A Sikh and a Former White Supremacist Find Forgiveness After Hate,” published in 2018. WIPPS collaborated with the Central Wisconsin Book Festival, and this Veninga Lecture was also the kickoff event for the 2019 festival. This event was held in September of 2019.