Video: Book Talk: "Days of Awe" by Atalia Omer

How can narratives serve as sites for critical justice work and peacebuilding? What can Jewish tradition offer anti-occupation social justice movements? These are some of the many pertinent questions explored by Atalia Omer in her latest book, “Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians.” In this webinar, Omer discusses the aim of the book in which she traces the diverse social movements which have shaped the development of American Jewish solidarity with Palestinians, in conversation with Rabbi Brant Rosen and Dr. Sara Roy.

At the heart of Omer’s work is the idea that social movements can become religio-cultural spaces where the distinction between religious tradition and social justice movement is blurred, leading to the transformation of both. Such spaces foreground the opportunity for critical caretaking. Rabbi Brant Rosen discusses the importance critical caretaking has had on his own work and the formation of Tzedek Chicago, a congregation seeking to exist within the space Omer describes. Dr. Sara Roy offers key reflections on the importance of contextualizing modern movements in the longer history of Jewish solidarity and activism.

This event took place on September 17, 2020.