Elisa Hategen - From Hate to Hope: A Former Neo-Nazi turned Jew speaks about Radicalization and Extremism
Elisa Hategan is a writer, speaker, educator on far-right extremism and Executive Director of the Changemaker Project. She serves as Regional Coordinator for Central Canada and the US at Against Violent Extremism (AVE), a global network of former extremists and survivors of violence who educate against radicalization and empower others to leave hate groups.
Recruited as a teenager to become the poster girl of Canada’s most dangerous white supremacist group in modern history, the Heritage Front, and groomed to be a neo-Nazi leader by Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, Elisa’s powerful testimony against Heritage Front leaders led to the group’s collapse. She is the author of the 2014 memoir Race Traitor: The True Story of Canadian Intelligence's Greatest Cover-up. After discovering her father was Jewish, she converted to Judaism.
The inspiration for the 1998 CBC movie White Lies, Elisa has written articles for Maclean’s Magazine, Global News and Canadian Jewish News. She has been a keynote speaker for community groups, Jewish organizations, high schools and universities across North America.
Her website is http://www.elisahategan.com/