About Penny

In addition to her most recent book, Hope into Practice, Jewish women choosing justice despite our fears, Penny Rosenwasser is the author of Visionary Voices, Women on Power: Conversations with shamans, activists, teachers, artists and healers, and Voices from a ‘Promised Land:’ Palestinian & Israeli peace activists speak their hearts. A life-long heartfelt rabble-rouser for justice, she earned her Ph.D. at the California Institute of Integral Studies (San Francisco) in Transformational Learning & Change.

Penny is former Jewish Caucus Chair of the National Women’s Studies Association and a founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Center for Jewish Non-Violence. She teaches an Anti-Semitism/Anti-Arabism class with a Palestinian colleague at the City College of San Francisco and was Events Coordinator for the Middle East Children’s Alliance for 32 years. She is also a leader at Kehilla Community Synagogue, where she is active on the DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) Team, and facilitates the on-line monthly White Folx Decentering Whiteness Affinity Group.

Hope into Practice has been reviewed in the following national journals: JewishCurrents.org, The Progressive Magazine, Tikkun.org, and Lilith. Penny has been touring and doing workshops with Hope into Practice for nearly four years — including these universities: Harvard, Princeton, Brandeis, Hebrew College, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, DePaul, U. of Minnesota, Agnes Scott, U. of Victoria, Montana State, Syracuse U., the California Institute of Integral Studies, University of San Francisco, CSU Northridge — and synagogues or synagogue/Jewish-related events in Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta, Ann Arbor, Madison, Seattle, Vancouver, Ithaca, Olympia, Oakland, Philadelphia, Bozeman (MT), Ukiah (CA) and Cotati (CA).

Transplanted to Oakland, California from Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., Penny is also a member of the European American Collaborative for Challenging Whiteness, and works as an event organizer and fundraiser. A former performing folk musician, KPFA radio host/producer, women’s music networker, festival organizer, and diversity workshop leader, she’s been active on issues ranging from ending nuclear power and weapons, to feminism and queer liberation, to peace and racial justice, especially focusing on Israel-Palestine—including leading four women’s peace delegations to that region. She has published in Lilith, Tikkun, Bridges, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Feminist Studies Quarterly, Alternet, PlanetOut, Creation Spirituality, off our backs, and the San Francisco Bay Times. And she loves fooling around on the ukelele, drumming on the dumbek, and snorkeling in search of sea turtles and spotted eagle rays.