In the season of miracles, TM Garret lights the way out of darkness.
As a neo-Nazi growing up in Germany, TM Garret adorned his body with white supremacist tattoos and T-shirts. Since converting to Judaism last Hanukkah, he now wears a big Star of David.
“The enormity of his change is not just the conversion but his self-extraction from a violent subculture to which he was a devout and devoted adherent,” marvels Rabbi Cantor David Julian of Or Chadash in Memphis, Tennessee.
“And then to flip completely over to a nonviolent and totally antithetic culture to which he had had these inborn hatreds… to choose Judaism as the pathway that resonated the strongest with him.”
The rabbi taught and guided Garret through the conversion process and was inspired by his sincerity and enthusiasm.
In a recent interview, Garret reflected on his unlikely metamorphosis. “I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a phase,” he says. “I made a very conscious decision.”
Ku Klux Klan Leader
Garret began his descent into the dark side at age 13. He would tell Holocaust jokes as a way to fit in with his German peers. He had always felt like “the weird kid” in school due to many factors, including his parents’ alcoholism and divorce. Bullies picked on him until he proclaimed himself a Nazi at age 15. A budding career as a neo-Nazi singer/songwriter at age 19 garnered more attention and applause.
By age 23, he had arrived—as a full-fledged white supremacist and a Ku Klux Klan leader in Europe. The labels came with personal tension. He feared going to prison for his activities. Then he started questioning long-held beliefs.
Light Conquers Darkness
His metamorphosis had begun. Light was starting to penetrate the cracks in his armor in the early 2000s.
Garret and his then-wife had a Turkish Muslim landlord whose kindness surprised them. The shaky racist foundations were crumbling. Garret became open to learning about people he had hated, beginning with Muslims.
By 2006 he was shifting from neo-Nazi chants to American country music. Born Achim Schmid, he moved to America in 2012 and was told the only people able to pronounce his first name would be Germans, Jews and Arabs. So his stage name, TM Garret, stuck.
Living in Memphis, he started getting to know African-Americans and Jews for the first time. The second phase of his evolution from hatemonger to peacemaker had begun.
“I still had to overcome many prejudices. Even though I didn’t feel like a hateful person anymore, the pictures of how I saw many minorities were stuck in my head.
“There were many people that I once had declared to be my enemy, and while I had the opportunity to explore some of them, I had no relationship with the Jewish community until 2018. I knew some Jews, but I never had meaningful conversation with them about being Jewish or my past.”
During a trip to Los Angeles that year, a friend suggested he visit the Museum of Tolerance, the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “It was my first time reflecting on my past. I saw how important it was to make amends,” Garret says.
Side Curls and Gefilte Fish
Little did Garret know where his personal journey would take him. He asked the Wiesenthal Center for help to create a program for college students as a form of amends for his past behavior. One of the first campuses he visited was Appalachian State University in North Carolina.
In the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and antisemitic graffiti defiling their campus, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Hillel and others put on a program called Two Days Against Hate. The organizers asked him to speak about his experiences with hate groups and give insight into how to counter hate.
The AEPi fraternity brothers invited him to dinner. “I didn’t know what to expect. I never had dinner with Jews before. Would they all wear payot (side curls) and eat gefilte fish? Again, my ugly past had a predisposed way of creeping into my idea of how this would go and what they would think of me.
“To my surprise, none of them wore payot and no gefilte fish was served. I began to realize that the Jewish community was just as diverse as any other.”
Garret was further amazed when one of the AEPi brothers asked, “TM, how can we continue your mission?” The irony was not lost on him. A young Jewish leader was asking a former neo-Nazi for advice and guidance.
These days Garret uses his incredible story as a platform for interfaith dialogue and human rights work. Before the Covid pandemic, he organized the Memphis Peace Conference.
Recalls Rabbi Julian: “After the event, which featured swamis, Native Americans and everyone in between, we spoke. One thing led to another, and I suggested he come to visit us at synagogue.”
Hello, Yom Kippur
“His first appearance was on Yom Kippur in 2019,” says Rabbi Julian. “He was naturally a person of interest that day; people spoke to him at length.”
Garret later learned that the rabbi had vetted him with the Wiesenthal Center to make sure he was on the level.
When curious congregants inquired about his faith, Garret would respond, “I think I’m a compassionate deist with a tendency toward Judaism.” That tendency blossomed during services and Shabbat dinners.
He felt he had come home.
The Jewish rituals and sense of community spoke to his soul. Garret embraced the ethics that aligned with his own newly found ones. The 49-year-old grandfather learned that the “chosen people” bear a responsibility to be a light to the world. As he puts it, “We have to be good people in this life, for this life. This is not a test for the afterworld.”
Garret’s connection to Judaism marinated for four years as he kept learning, questioning and growing. He finally took the plunge and converted in December 2023. The timing was no coincidence.
“He was into dedication,” says Rabbi Julian, “and Hanukkah is the season of rededication. He’s been greatly accepted into our community and is one of the most regular attendees at our services.”
Garret’s next chapter involves publishing his book, “Rewired,” and public speaking at synagogues, mosques, churches, schools and law enforcement departments across the United States to help people understand the roots of hate and how to respond to it.
He’ll also be cheering on his wife, Carmen, as she follows her own slow and deliberate path to a Jewish conversion.
Confronting Antisemitism Today
Garret has “walked the walk” of hate and emerged as a peacemaker. “Antisemitism has always been there. It’s just more pronounced now. It’s come up to the surface, people feel more comfortable expressing it,” he says.
He offers the following ideas for navigating these troubled times:
- Understand that people have fears often based on ignorance. You have to create awareness when you hear or see signs of antisemitism.
- Pick your battles. Don’t go to a university protest. Talk to people in a different environment.
- Adopt one person at a time. Be a listener. Learn the art of civil discourse. It might be really hurtful to hear what they say. But if you’re not interested in them, how can they be interested in you? Win their trust.
- Show compassion and respect. They will be completely thrown off, thinking, “You’re not the Jew I expected. You’re different.”
- Humanize them so they can humanize you.
- Show empathy but not sympathy. For example: “I know you’re not anti-Semitic, but you’re doing something anti-Semitic and probably not aware of it.”
Featured image by John Sklba
[Copyright Ronda Robinson, December 1, 2024]