Why This Jewish American Activist Stands With Palestine - YES! Magazine Solutions Journalism

Dec 6, 2023

Mass protests against Israel鈥檚 assault on Gaza have been ongoing in the United States. According to Penny Rosenwasser, a founding board member of , a majority of the high-profile demonstrations have been led by Jewish Americans like her. Still, commercial media in the U.S. have tended to underplay Jewish American sentiments against Israeli militarism.

Rosenwasser is author of an award-winning book, . She is a racial justice leader in her Oakland synagogue and co-teaches an Anti-Arabism/Antisemitism class at City College of San Francisco with a Palestinian colleague. She recently wrote a powerful op-ed for YES! about how her commitment to the tenets of Judaism compel her activism, and spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about why she is personally moved to speak out in solidarity with Palestinians.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent 麻豆社事件 Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.