General 1 — Jen Kiok

Yachatz:

Jewish Ancestral Healing for Collective Liberation

Facilitator: Kohenet Jen Kiok

Guest Teachers: Jo Kent Katz*, Aidan Orly

Yachatz is the ritual of breaking the middle matzah during the Passover seder, representing the brokenness of hearts, of lineage, of relationship to land and home. While we cannot put the pieces back together, by honoring the fragments, we can move towards wholeness.

Yachatz: Jewish Ancestral Healing for Collective Liberation invites participants to examine the places where whiteness & white supremacy entered our lineage and where Jewishness was lost, stolen, erased. This course centers the belief that in order to dismantle white supremacy and work towards collective liberation, we must begin with ourselves. We will approach the work of dismantling racism, antisemitism and white supremacy through the lens of ancestral healing.

In these times in which we are witnessing a white nationalist takeover of our government, in which Jewish trauma is being weaponized and the definition of antisemitism is being co-opted, we will peel back these layers to better understand them.

We will begin by looking at the social, political and historical context for how European Jews assimilated into a Christian dominated white culture in the United States, gaining race and class privilege while losing connection to their culture. From there we will embark on a journey together, looking for the places in our own lineage where whiteness & white supremacy entered and where Jewishness was lost, stolen, erased.

Together we will examine ways in which we have been taught to embody white supremacy and we will create a community where we can begin to repair and reclaim the broken pieces of our lineage. Finally, we will draw on the support of our bright and benevolent ancestors as we discern our most aligned next steps towards justice and solidarity with all those who are marginalized in these times of unravel.

Course Overview

Session 2: March 23rd | Resilience & Loss - Retracing our path to Whiteness

In Session 2, we will dive back into our Family Timelines, asking the question how & when did our family (or some members of our family) become categorized as white? How close can we get to the moment where that happened? How have we been taught to embody whiteness and at what cost? And how does Christian hegemony play into all of this?

Session 3: March 30th | Transcending Jewish Trauma

In Session 3, guest teacher Jo Kent Katz will join us for an exploration of the Transcending Jewish Trauma map, which she created. The course materials will give us context for understanding how these patterns play out in our own lives. Jo will lovingly guide us through using the map as a tool to identify and transform inherited patterns.

Session 4: April 6th | How did we get here? Israel & Palestine, Zionism, Anti-Zionism & Doikeyt

In session four, we will be joined by guest teacher Aidan Orly to explore the ways in which unprocessed Jewish trauma has been weaponized by the US & Israeli governments. We’ll also look at the often invisible forces of Christian Hegemony & Christian Zionism at play in orchestrating this time we are living in. How did we get here? How has this trauma impacted our own lineage? How can we work towards collective liberation within this context?

Session 5: April 20th | Envisioning Olam-Haba, the World to Come

Session five will focus on integrating this work into our personal and collective work for liberation & justice. How do we stay focused on a vision for the world we dream of even & especially in these times we are living through? How can anchoring in the support of our well ancestors resource us for these times?

Throughout this course, we will:

Focus on regulating our nervous systems and resourcing ourselves as we navigate the ancestral trauma that may be showing up in our bodies in these times.
Investigate where healing is available to us, individually and collectively.
Invite emotional complexity, including grief, longing, and the joy that comes with liberation.
Make space for the collective grief, fear, rage we are holding as Jews in this moment as we continue to bear witness to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to the rise of fascism in the US and globally.
Look at the intersections of Christian Zionism, Christian Hegemony and anti-semitism, investigating some of the ways Jewish ancestral trauma has been & continues to be weaponized by the US over the past 75 years.

Methodology includes:

Readings, audio recordings, personal inquiry and radical genealogy, optional chevruta (learning partner), exploring patterns of Ancestral trauma and anchoring in Jewish time.

This course centers healing and connection to Ancestry, especially the connections that may feel out of reach. Join us as we lean into each other and away from isolation as we learn to orient and resource our bodies, minds and spirits in these times.

Who is this course for?

This course is being held as a caucus for anyone who has Jewish and European ancestry and benefits from white privilege. We welcome Jews who are Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, who come from multi-faith families, or were adopted into families with Jewish and European ancestry. For more information on this caucus, see our Course Structure & Community Agreements.

This course grew out of Jen Kiok’s longtime work with White Awake and was originally designed as a next step for Jewish participants of White Awake’s Before We Were White: ancestral healing for collective liberation course, placing that content into a specifically Jewish context. It is a good next step for participants of that course or for people who have a foundational understanding of racism, anti-semitism and white privilege.

What You Will Receive:

Our hope is that this course offers you a container for your own learning and healing journey towards collective liberation. In addition to the experiential learning you will do through our class sessions and homework, participants are invited into (optional) Chevruta, or learning partnerships where you can choose to meet with another participant parallel to the class experience. Specific assignments will be given for sharing with your Chevrutah, if you choose that option. Finally, wherever you are in the world, if you are looking for resources to plug into Jewish Justice community, or next steps on your healing journey, Jen Kiok, the course instructor, is here to support you by suggesting resources in your area.

*The curriculum of this course was developed by Jen Kiok in partnership with Jo Kent Katz.

Group Participation:

You are encouraged to sign up for this course with a group or a trusted friend from your community – attending with others not only strengthens your personal growth but also enables you to bring this learning back to your local organization or institution. Sign up together and use code COLLECTIVE for 15% off at checkout.

March 16, March 23, March 30, April 6 & April 20

Sundays, 4-6pm ET (1-3pm PT)

Suggested $175-375 registration fee

10% of course proceeds will be redistributed to Palestinian led organizing in Palestine & BIPOC led racial justice organizing in the United States

No one turned away for lack of funds. Sessions will be recorded. Live attendance is encouraged but not mandatory.

Questions? Email info@jenkiok.org

Register Here

Meet the Facilitators

Testimonials

Session 1: March 16th | Orienting to the Journey

In Session 1, we begin to lay the social, political and historical context for how European Jews assimilated into a Christian dominated White culture in the United States, gaining race and class privilege while losing connection to their culture. The course materials will provide frameworks that we will apply to our own lineage through a family timeline activity.

“I learned about the roots of ancestral trauma and the ways in which it has led needlessly to oppression of others. I gained the experience of feeling seen and safe while being challenged to relearn much of what was never taught to me as a Jew growing up. I feel more knowledge about my own “ancestral best practices” and those in my family. I leave with a deeper passion and commitment for collective liberation and no longer doubt that this is possible”.

- Anonymous

Lead Facilitator:

KOHENET JEN KIOK (she/her) is a queer white Ashkenazi Jew of Polish and Lithuanian descent, co-conspiring with her ancestors on the path to collective liberation. Jen is a mother, a daughter/caretaker, an ancestor in training, an educator, a community leader, a dancer and an ordained Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess). For over 20 years Jen has served in leadership roles building intergenerational communities, rooted in arts and culture with an explicit commitment to racial justice. Jen served as ED of Boston Workers Circle, Center for Jewish Culture & Social Justice from 2015-2021.

Guest Teachers:

JO KENT KATZ (she/her) is an Intuitive healer, a social justice educator, an ordained Kohenet, and an auntie. She is a political educator who centers healing, and a healing practitioner who believes in collective liberation. As a white, queer, cisgender, able-bodied, assimilated Ashkenazi Jew, Jo is committed to reclaiming Ancestral connection, healing inherited legacies, and bolstering our collective capacity to dismantle racism and all forms of oppression.

AIDAN ORLY (they/he) is a writer and fundraiser and has worked at Political Research Associates, a social justice research and strategy center to counter Right-wing movements, for over six years. Aidan regularly writes and speaks about Christian Zionism. Living on Lenape Land in Brooklyn, NY, Aidan is also finishing a Master’s Degree in Near Eastern Studies at NYU this spring , and loves biking, dancing, and gardening, among much else!

“It's hard to put into words how grateful I am for this class. The lapse in religious tradition in my family (an attempt to keep my family safe after members were killed in the Holocaust) has kept me from feeling like I belong in Jewish spaces, even radical ones. No longer. Thank you for all the history, for all the truth, for all the love. So much just makes SENSE. My personal learning is rippling out into my family…. It's rippling out into my ancestors. For the first time in my life, I FEEL WITH MY BODY like I belong to a team. I FEEL IN MY BODY our shared goal, and I feel my team members stretching back into the past and future, stretching sideways all over this earth. It's a holy shit type of shift.”

-September (he/she/any)

“I really appreciated a safe space to be exploring a Jewish identity and lineage while also honoring the heartbreak and fracturing that's happening at this time. I really admire how the space was held with clarity and humanity. The session on Christian Zionism was also mind blowing and so important.”

-Allie Armitage

“This course has given me so much - a reconnection to my Jewish roots (outside of whiteness), affirmation that my queer anticapitalist identity has a valid place in Judaism and vice versa, and a community to connect with. It has also provided me with information, history lessons, and frameworks for speaking with family about the current genocide in Gaza and violence in Israel-Palestine- to help us "keep the door open" as we navigate some complex truths.”