History Lives Within Our Bodies

We will gather together to respond to these guiding questions by engaging in a deep read of Wendy Elisheva Somerson's An Anti-Zionist Path to Embodied Jewish Healing -- a book that grapples with the way that history lives within our bodies (and will be reenacted until we heal) and explores an emergent Judaism beyond Zionism. Together, we'll create space to co-metabolize our grief and moral injury, be more attuned and responsive with ourselves and each other, and feel a sense of belonging that is created not by militarized nation states but by our shared care and collective healing. 

We chose the title People of the Body and the Book because Jews are known as the people of the book - for our highly intellectual and intellectualized way of being in the world - sometimes to our own detriment. Learning to be in our bodies and healing through the body is very much what Wes’s book is about, and what Wes believes is needed to bring about authentic Jewish healing from Zionism and in general. As Naomi Klein said in her endorsement of the book, “this may well be the missing piece for breaking the pattern of violence undergirding Israeli apartheid and occupation.”