Yael Petretti

Before earning a Bachelors Degree in International Relations at UC-Berkeley, Yael had already become passionately involved the struggle for civil rights during the 1968 Poor People’s March on Washington, helping build Resurrection City and tutoring children of color whose schools were just being desegregated in southern Virginia. Certified as aCompassionate Listening (CL) facilitator in 2004, she led and co-led a number of CL delegations to Israel-Palestine where she lived for 29 years. She co-authored “Making Peace with Faith: The Challenges of Religion and Peacebuilding" (see Chapter 4). She currently lives in New England where she facilitates CL trainings and volunteers as an Alternatives to Violence facilitator in a men's high security prison. Witnessing the “new Jim Crow” there has brought her around full-circle to rejoin the struggle for racial/social justice here in the U.S. In January 2020, she initiated and co-led the first domestic CL delegation, “Listening in the Heart of Alabama.” She looks forward to many more such trips to explore the perfect “marriage” of Compassionate Listening and anti-racism (and all other “isms”).  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★