What should communal repentance look like this Yom Kippur, the first Day of Atonement post #metoo? What confessions are in order? What sins have we sinned? #ittakesavillage
Merissa Nathan Gerson is a trained rape prevention worker and sex educator. Her writing on sexuality and Judaism appears in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New York Observer, Tablet, Playboy, Elle, and others. She holds an MA in Jewish Studies from The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California with a focus on sex and gender as well as inherited trauma. Merissa has studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, The Jewish Theological Seminary, The Academy for Jewish Religion, Hebrew College, Naropa University, Middlebury's Hebrew Language School, The Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute and with many rabbis across the country including the great Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Her work focuses on the inheritance of trauma and memory and how this impacts tradition. You can find out more about Merissa and her work at KenMeansYes.org, an initiative to raise up consent as a Jewish value.
