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In this book, two key leaders and former staff of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)—Rebecca Vilkomerson and Rabbi Alissa Wise—focus on the important role of anti-Zionist Jewish organizing within the broader Palestine solidarity movement, reflecting on their decade of leadership of JVP and drawing lessons especially relevant to those organizing from a position of solidarity.
Against the backdrop of rapid and often devastating political developments, they explore how JVP grew larger as the organization shifted to the left and helped to alter the public narrative about Palestinian liberation, while also navigating the tensions of organization-building and creating a space for Judaism liberated from Zionism. Their insights help contextualize the intense suppression of activism for Palestinian freedom, while illuminating the roots of today's flourishing Jewish solidarity with Palestinians worldwide.
In addressing their shortcomings and failures no less than their inspiring successes, Vilkomerson and Wise deliver an account of JVP's organizing during the 2010s that offers crucial strategic lessons for anyone engaging in the collective work of building organizations and fighting for justice as our movements evolve over time.
“It is very rare to have access to the internal dynamics of any political movement, more so when it is rife with internal fissures and external pressures that threaten to unravel it daily. Solidarity is the Political Version of Love provides that for us with biting nuance and tender self-reflection in regards to the transformation of Jewish Voice for Peace from a local anti-occupation Jewish organization into an international anti-Zionist Jewish organization leading a revival of Jewish leftist traditions. Situating themselves both within and adjacent to the organization, Rebecca Vilkomerson and Rabbi Alissa Wise have offered an enduring historical document for generations of anti-Zionist Jewish organizers to come.” — Noura Erakat, author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine
Rebecca Vilkomerson was the Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace from 2009-2019. She is now the Co-Director of Funding Freedom, organizing within philanthropy.
Rabbi Alissa Wise is a community organizer, educator, organizational consultant, and ritual leader with over two decades of movement-building experience. Rabbi Wise co-founded the JVP Rabbinical Council in 2010, and was a staff leader at JVP From 2011-2021. She is currently the Lead Organizer of Rabbis for Ceasefire which she founded in October 2023.