Monday, January 7, 2018: Memory, Trauma, and the Politics of Fear - Conversations with Rosalind Petchesky and Elizabeth Rosner

Conversation with Rosalind Petchesky

Women’s March leaders from left Tamika Mallory, Bob Bland, Carmen Perez, Linda Sarsour. Photo: Jody Rogac/TIME

What's all this about anti-Semitism in the Women's March? Rosalind Petchesky, MacArthur fellow, socialist-feminist scholar and activist with Jewish Voice for Peace, questions why accusations made nine months ago are suddenly hitting the mainstream media just weeks before the third national Women's Marches are scheduled to step off. Petchesky's Appeal to Jewish Women to Support the 2019 Women’s March and Its Leaders has been viewed over 15,000 times and shared widely on social media.

"In a climate of fear, violence, intimidation and rising fascism, the only way forward for a truly transformative Women’s March and movement is to unite the struggles to end violence, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, settler colonialism everywhere, including in Palestine, and the white nationalism that undergirds them all." - Rosalind Petchesky

Click here to listen to the entire show. 59:50 min

Also on today's show:
Elizabeth Rosner

Monday, October 29, 2018: Reflections on Pittsburgh

Prophetic and Profound

Prophetic and profound voices making sense of hate-driven violence and charting paths to liberation.

Click here to listen to the entire show. 59:50 min

We will listen to moving reflections on the latest mass shooting, this one at a Pittsburgh synagogue, and consider how fighting the patriarchy can bring an end to hate violence.

Also on today's show:

Ntozake Shange

Kshama Sawant

Monday, September 7, 2015: Community Solidarity

Michèle Sibony

As the prime minister of Hungary announces that his country will not accept Muslim refugees, Professor Paola Bachetta talks with Michèle Sibony, commentator and spokesperson for the French Jewish Union for Peace about Islamophobia and claims of rising anti-Semitism in France.  Sibony locates the roots of French Muslim resentment against Jews in the colonial history of both communities, but also talks about how her group and others have been able to break through that history of mistrust by simple demonstrations of solidarity.  They also discuss the specific targeting of Arab and Muslim women by neoconservative rhetoric and policies.

Click here to listen now. 59:50 min.

Also on today's show:
Historical Memory

Monday, March 9, 2015: Antisemitism in France

Kate Raphael talks to Annette Herskovits, a Jewish surveyor of the Nazi occupation of France,  who challenges myths about French antisemitism and talk about how French Muslims helped save Jewish lives.

Conscientious Projector Film Series Presents: The Mosque of Paris
Thursday March 12, 7 PM in the Fellowship Hall – 1924 Cedar St.

Join Ecumenical Peace Institute (EPI) and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists' Hal Carlstad Social Justice Center (BFUU SJC) in welcoming Annette Herskovitz, PhD.

Dr. Herskovits will tell the story of how she survived as a Jewish child in Nazi-occupied France and present a short film about how the Mosque of Paris sheltered Jews. She will also speak of the several hundred thousand Muslim men from the French colonies who fought the Nazis with the Allies and suffered disproportionate casualties. A slide show of personal and historical photos will accompany the talk.

For further information, call EPI 510-990-0374 or BFUU SJC 510-275-4272 or visit www.bfuu.org or www.epicalc.org.

Click here to listen to KPFA Women's Magazine. 59:50 min.

Also on today's show:
Trans VS Feminism

Monday, November 24, 2014: Women In Black

Silent or not, Women in Black is a Powerful Voice!

International Women's Day, March 8, 2002 [Photo by Donna A. Korones]

Next we meet members of the 25-year-old international peace movement, Women In Black. Every month women in 150 cities around the world stand on various street corners in a worldwide network for peace and justice. Founded in 1988 by Jewish Israeli women to protest the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Women in Black has gelled, migrated, and mutated into an international voice. Listen to women from the Bay Area tell their stories about standing together every month for 25 years.

Join the vigils:
Berkeley Women in Black every Friday from noon to 1 at Bancroft and Telegraph
San Francisco Women in Black - 2nd Fridays from 5:15 to 6:15 PM at Market and Montgomery
Bay Area Women in Black every Saturday from noon to 1 in front of the Grand Lake Theater

Come march with Bay Area Women in Black on Black Friday!

We hope to see many of you on Black Friday, Nov. 28, 2014, in San Francisco! Meet at 11:45 at the Powell St. BART station for a march to Union Square. Silent vigil there. Theme will be "Who Profits from our Holiday Purchases" and will focus on BDS. Signs will be provided + bring your own as well. Let us know if you can wear a puppet. Wear black!

Listen now or Get MP3.

Listen to entire show. 59:50 min.

Also on today's show:
TELL NO LIES
Leslie Feinberg

Monday, October 6, 2014 Show: Challenging Anti-Semitism and Internalized Oppression

This Monday we look  at an issue that affects us all;  how internalize oppression prevents us from healing and  keeps us from being the best activists we can be.  In her new book "Hope Into Practice : Jewish Women Choosing Justice Despite Our Fears," activist, author and teacher Penny Rosenwasser  shows how working through internalized oppression, we can link personal healing with social justice—enabling us to fight more effectively to change systems that are immoral and unfair. 

Penny Rosenwasser takes on the most explosive issues today—racism and anti-Semitism, victimization and privilege, and Jewish politics around Israel and Palestine and  makes the crucial point that Jewish liberation is interconnected with the liberation of all oppressed people, whether they are African-American, undocumented immigrants, queer or transgender, homeless, or Palestinian.   Join us on KPFA's women's Magazine on Monday October 6th from  1-2pm as we  talk with Penny Rosenwasser and find hope thru practice. 

We'll be offering Hope into Practice as a thank you gift for your pledge to KPFA during this hour. I hope many of you will donate to show your support for feminist programming and progressive, community-controlled radio.  But whether you can give or not, please don't miss this hour of great conversation and stirring footage.

Listen to entire show. 59:50 min.

April 14, 2014: The German Doctor: An Interview with Lucia Puenzo

THE GERMAN DOCTOR:  Kate Raphael talks with filmmaker and novelist Lucia Puenzo, whose film THE GERMAN DOCTOR (WAKOLDA), adapted from her novel, opens next week.

An article in the New York Times over the weekend talked about something called "slow cognitive tempo," a new form of Attention Deficit Disorder which scientists are studying and doctors are busy diagnosing and medicating in kids.This is really nothing new but the stage is different, jobs are much fewer and it is harder and harder to make one's way in the world.And of course drug companies are always manufacturing new products and finding new uses for old ones to treat these supposed diseases and paying doctors to prescribe them and give out samples, and parents are not encouraged or educated to challenge the wisdom of doctors, and so on and so on.

This overdrugging of kids in order to make them fit into an ever narrowing box of acceptable behavior and capabilities is a form of social engineering that makes it possible for us to do less of the more overt types, but is no less harmful and it raises some tough questions of who is culpable and for what.  It's easy to say that the people who design experiments on developmentally disabled people are evil.  But I think most parents who give their kids Ritalin so they can do better in school and stop getting in trouble are really trying to do right by their kids.  And most of the doctors who prescribe these drugs, and the scientists who research these supposed disorders, are also trying to help.

These are some of the questions at the heart of the new film by Argentine director Lucia Puenzo.  The film is called in English THE GERMAN DOCTOR, and it opens on April 25 at the Embarcadero and the Albany Twin.  It deals with the time that Josef Mengele spent in Argentina after the war.  Lucia Puenzo is the author of five novels and the director of two previous films,  Her debutfilm, XXY, won numerous awards including the Critics' Week grand prize at the 2007 Cannes film festival.  The German Doctor is based on her novel, WAKOLDA, which is also the name of the film in Spanish.

Listen now:





or Get MP3 13:20 min.

Click to hear entire show. 59:50 min.

Also on today's show:

Tara Dorabji talks with Shailja Patel, whose one-woman show Migritude, is now a book published by Kaya Press, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this week with a reading at City Lights.

Filmmaker and activist Tracey Quezada talks about what's wrong with the criminal justice approach to child sexual assault and what we can do to address this public health problem as a community.

Nov. 11, 2013: Hope Into Practice: Jewish Women Choosing Justice Despite Our Fears

Activist, author and teacher Penny Rosenwasser discusses her book, Hope Into Practice. The book explores the origins and expressions of anti-Semitism and how its legacy still prevents Jewish American women from becoming the best activists we can be.   The book contains personal stories of ten Jewish women, including Rosenwasser, blended with scholarship, exercises for healing and an action-oriented Reader's Guide.

Penny Rosenwasser is the author of two previous books, Voices from a Promised Land: Palestinian & Israeli Peace Activists Speak their Hearts, and VISIONARY VOICES, Women on Power: Conversations with shamans, activists, teachers, artists and healers. She's also a former KPFA radio host, founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace, and long-time staff member of Middle East Children's Alliance.

Listen now:



Or Get MP3

Penny celebrates the release of Hope Into Practice Monday, November 18 at  7 pm
Kehilla Synagogue, Social Hall
1300 Grand Avenue
Oakland (Lake Merritt area)

Hear more about the book, engage in lively discussion, enjoy wonderful music, sample taste treats Wheelchair accessible.

Also on this show:  Eating Disorders: Not Just a Teen Problem

Listen to the full show, including a tribute folk music legend, Faith Petric