Red Emma’s

Embedded in the political theory and practice of Jewish anti-Zionism, it invites readers of all backgrounds to build an embodied sense of safety that has the power to make militarized borders, policing, and nation-states obsolete. We need the resources offered in this book: from understanding geopolitical impacts of intergenerational trauma, to self-regulation in conflict, to transformative approaches to harm, to cultivating long-haul relationships, to building solidarity across our movements. The book’s framework is situated in the lineages of healing justice and politicized healers including many antifascist Ashkenazi Jewish practitioners in 1930s Europe.

Today, as the terms “somatics” and “trauma” have been mainstreamed, TAKING THE STATE OUT OF THE BODY is a timely offer to move from individual awareness to collective action. Weaving anti-imperialist orientations to historical events with embodiment theory, each chapter opens with a connection to a plant or body part and closes with a guide to practices that fuel resistance and resilience. This book will equip you with the tools you need to move from rugged individualist models of self-help/preservation to liberatory frameworks of collective care and joint struggle.

This event is co-sponsored by Jewish Voices for Peace.

Eliana Rubin builds transgressive relationships with bodies, land, and lineage through their work as a somatic practitioner, politicized facilitator, anti-Zionist organizer, full spectrum doula, land steward, and queer pleasure instigator. They run a somatic facilitation practice with Sanctuary Embodied aimed at resourcing organizers and trauma survivors in developing embodied leadership and power for movements for justice. She sees individual clients, partners, and friends for embodied counseling and ritual support. She also co-facilitates group spaces for communities, teams, and social justice organizations. She has simultaneously organized with the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and trained as a practitioner and lead teacher with Generative Somatics, both starting in 2014. Eliana helped to found Makom, one of the first anti-Zionist Jewish congregations established in the U.S., led by queer and trans people in Durham, North Carolina. She has a Graduate Degree in Embodiment Studies from Goddard College where she explored the intersections of somatic methodologies, polyvagal theory, and internationalist anti-imperialist politics. At her core, Eliana loves her people, her gardens, and the dance floor.

Ariana Katz is the founding rabbi of Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebl, a warm and joyful new congregation in Baltimore, MD. Rabbi Ariana graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in the spring of 2018. She is a queer white Ashkenazi femme 4th-generation Philadelphian who sees rooted ritual and radical organizing as her Jewish legacy. Rabbi Ariana was the creator and host of KADDISH, a podcast about death and identity, and co-host of the forthcoming podcast GOD CRUSH with Pastor Lura Groen. She is the co-author, with Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, of FOR TIMES SUCH AS THESE: A RADICAL’S GUIDE TO THE JEWISH YEAR, out March 2024 from Wayne State University Press. She is passionate about abortion clinic escorting, diaspora-made Judaica, radical Jewish calendars, care webs, and queer aesthetics.