In a time when Jewish trauma is being weaponized and used to justify the Israeli genocide against Palestinians, the book An Anti-Zionist Path to Embodied Jewish Healing: Somatic Practices to Heal Historical Wounds, Unlearn Oppression, and Create a Liberated World to Come presents a liberatory model for Jewish healing firmly rooted in Jewish spiritual values.
In this book based conversation the panel discusses the intersection of healing and activism that can make our organizing movements more healing and our healing more political to strengthen our collective work for a free Palestine and a Jewishness beyond Zionism.
Over the last year and a half, many of us activists and organizers have felt hopeless, despairing, and angry that we have not been able to stop this genocidal violence being carried out in our names. Sometimes we take these feelings out on each other by being overly critical and unkind, which leads to fractures inside our movements.
At this time of rising fascism when the Trump administration is exploiting the fractures on the Left to create division, we can incorporate body-based healing to strengthen our collective power that moves us closer to a liberated world and a free Palestine.
Wendy Elisheva Somerson (Wes) is a queer non-binary, disabled, cat- loving Ashkenazi Jewish somatic healer, writer, activist, and visual artist residing on Duwamish and Coast Salish land. One of the founders of the Seattle chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, they have been active in Palestinian solidarity work for more than two decades. As a politicized healer, Wes works at the intersection of personal and collective healing with individuals, groups, and organizations. They are the creator and facilitator of Ruach, an ongoing anti-Zionist, body-based Jewish healing group.
Cecilie Surasky is the Director of Communications and Narrative at the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) at UC Berkeley, a global research and advocacy organization focused on understanding the structures of exclusion and building a world where all people belong. Cecilie’s career spans decades of mobilizing politically marginalized communities, and she’s proud of her role in building a co-liberation movement as the founding communications and later deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). She draws from her own family’s journey with traumatic grief, belonging and resilience.
Penny Rosenwasser, Ph.D., is a lifelong heartfelt rabble-rouser for justice. A queer/lesbian white Jewish intersectional feminist, Penny is author of the award-winning Hope into Practice, Jewish women choosing justice despite our fears. She was a founding Board member and early leader of Jewish Voice for Peace, co-teaches an Antisemitism/Anti-Arabism class with a Palestinian colleague at City College of San Francisco, and serves on the Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. An educator, public speaker, fundraiser and facilitator, Penny organized events for the Middle East Children’s Alliance for 32 years and is a racial justice leader at Kehilla synagogue.
The post An Anti-Zionist Path to Embodied Jewish Healing: A conversation about the intersection of healing and activism with Wendy Elisheva Somerson (Wes), Cecilie Surasky, and Penny Rosenwaswer appeared first on KPFA.
