Sarah Brammer-Shlay

Sarah Brammer-Shlay is a first-year rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia and a founding member of IfNotNow. 

In this interview, Sarah explains how she went from feeling like a "bad Jew" for thinking critically about Israel, to directly confronting the violence of the occupation. As a radical rabbi-to-be, she reflects on the High Holidays, and shares her vision for the Jewish community she hopes to lead.

This episode of Unsettled is hosted by Emily Bell. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Recorded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 16, 2017, and edited for length and clarity.

Sarah Brammer-Shlay currently lives in Philadelphia, PA and is in her first year of rabbinical school at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Although originally from Minneapolis, Sarah spent the last five years living and working in Washington, D.C. Sarah was a founding member of IfNotNow in 2014 and has remained a leader in the movement with a focus on strategy and action. She also has been both a participant and a trip leader with Center for Jewish Nonviolence delegations in Palestine. She has worked on a variety of justice issues including labor, abortion access, animal rights and marriage equality. 

REFERENCES

Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
IfNotNow
J Street
"Boys Drawn to Gaza Beach, and Into Center of Mideast Strife" by Anne Barnard (The New York Times, July 16 2014)
Center for Jewish Nonviolence
"Israeli cops assault American Jewish activists in Jerusalem Day protest" by Natasha Roth (+972, May 24 2017)
"Israeli Police Broke My Arm, But They Can’t Stop Me From Resisting — Or Speaking Out." by Sarah Brammer-Shlay (The Forward, May 30 2017)

SARAH RECOMMENDS

The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood by Rashid Khalidi (2007)
The Crisis of Zionism by Peter Beinart (2013)
The Gatekeepers directed by Dror Moreh (2012)