There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart

Description

“A poem and a love note, a prayer song and a protest, an attempt to mend a burning world with the best of Jewish, anarchist, and Jewish anarchist traditions.” —Dan Berger, author of Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era

Through stories at once poetic and poignant, There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart offers a powerful elixir for all who rebel against systemic violence and injustice. The contemporary renewal of Jewish anarchism draws on a history of suffering, ranging from enslavement and displacement to white nationalism and genocide. Yet it also pulls from ancestral resistance, strength, imagination, and humor—all qualities, and wisdom, sorely needed today. These essays, many written from feminist and queer perspectives, journey into past and contemporary trauma in ways that are humanizing and healing. They build bridges from bittersweet grief to rebellion and joy. And via concrete illustrations of how Jewish anarchists lovingly transform their own ritual, cultural, and political practices, they clearly illuminate the path toward mending ourselves and the world.

Cindy Milstein is author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations and editor of the anthologies Taking Sides: Revolutionary Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism; Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief; and Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy.