HOPE into PRACTICE

Penny Rosenwasser is a founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace and the author of “HOPE into PRACTICE: Jewish Women Choosing Justice Despite our Fears”, a book to help Jewish woman find the courage to speak out about issues of Israel/Palestine.

Rosenwasser says the book is about liberation – linking personal healing with activism for justice and weaves a stories with themes of anti-Semitism, racial justice, healing internalized anti-Semitism & ancestral trauma, human rights in Israel-Palestine, and Jewish multiculturalism.

Anti-Semitic attacks have been on the rise in the last 12 months. In Colorado, reported anti-Semitic attacks doubled in the first 9 months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, according to the Anti-Defamation League, with 46 incidents in Colorado compared to 23 for the same time frame last year.  “Of course, African Americans are by far the most at risk, and so African American Jews are really at risk, but Jews are imperiled in this country in a way that we haven’t been since the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, along with women, along with LGBTQ folks and this has all I think been unleashed by this new administration that has clearly white supremacists, white nationalists at the top of the power structure.”

On Wednesday December 6th, Donald Trump announced that the US would officially recognize Jerusalem, something which Rosenwasser says is a major set back for the peace process.   “It’s a huge slap in the face to Palestinians who have been under this brutal military occupation from Israel since ’67, and actually their land was possessed starting in 1948, and I along with many others working for  human rights and security and dignity for Palestinians as well as for Jewish Israelis…so to make this kind of move, I mean it really sets back whatever peace process has still been happening.”

Much of Rosenwasser’s work is about healing internalized anti-Semitism & ancestral trauma and working towards human rights in Israel-Palestine and beyond. She will host two events in Boulder based on her book Hope into Practice.

Interactive Book Talk & Conversation with Penny Rosenwasser, author of Hope Into Practice: Jewish Women Choosing Justice Despite our Fears
Thursday, December 7
7:00pm
Congregation Nevei Kodesh
1925 Glenwood Dr, Boulder
Wheelchair Accessible

When I Dare to be Powerful Workshop
Saturday, December 9
10am – 5pm
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone’s Beit Kesem (Address given upon registration)

This workshop focuses on empowering ourselves and our work in the world by examining internalized messages from society that can hold us back from being effective activists and having the biggest lives possible. For Jewish women and gender-queer & trans folks (gender identities that are targets of misogyny). All ages 18 and over welcome. Folks with all sorts of relationships to your Jewish identity are welcome! The workshop will include a light lunch and snacks and will conclude with a brief havdalah ritual.

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