"Here goes, then. This is a painful and well-nigh insuperable step for me: yielding up so much that has been suppressed to a blank sheet of lined paper. The thoughts in my head are sometimes so clear and so sharp and my feelings so deep, but writing about them comes hard. The main difficulty, I think, is a sense of shame. So many inhibitions, so much fear of letting go, of allowing things to pour out of me, and yet that is what I must do if I am ever to give my life a reasonable and satisfactory purpose." (9 March 1941)This is the first paragraph in Etty's diary. Writing those lines was the beginning of her spiritual process. This course will attempt to use writing as our way to evoke and stay with our inner voice. We will start the course on Etty's birthday 15.1 and will celebrate her life and her inspiration.
We will have six meetings touching these topics:
Session 1: Writing as a form of meditation.
Session 2: Reading and Writing as complementary actions.
Session 3: Being redeemed by an image
Session 4: Writing as a form of resistance
Session 5: Writing as a form of prayer
Session 6: Writing as a form to open to insights and gratefulness.
Who is Etty Hillesum?
Etty Hilllesum is a Jewish Dutch woman who died in Auschwitz at the age of 29. She left diaries and letters that she wrote in the last two years in her life. Her writings present a process of a young woman who searched for her inner freedom, chose to believe in the humanness of all people, even those who were so-called “enemies”, carried a vision of a better future in her heart no matter how hard life seemed on the outside.
Who are we?
We are passionate women and peace workers who work for social change and global healing. Dina, (Palestinian), is a lecturer and a writer on the issues of women empowerment and women sexuality. Emma Sham-Ba, (Israeli), is a Rabbi, a poet, and an artist. Three years ago we created the Etty Hillesum Cards in the three languages English, Hebrew, and Arabic because we wanted to share the huge inspiration she gave us with others.
To know more about our project, you can visit our website: https://www.ettyhillesumcards.com/
There is also a movie about Etty Hillesum and our work, you can watch the trailer here:
https://www.ettyhillesumcards.com/the-film
The course will be in English. All the meetings will be recorded and available to the course participants.
We will use a protected online discussion platform to share our texts and reflections between the lessons
More information will be sent after registration.
