“Wounds into Wisdom:” Reb Tirzah Talk at Boulder Book Store

“Suffering trauma is tragedy enough, but burying tragedy only creates a magnet for more suffering. This book is for anyone who has suffered trauma, either directly or in a family whose generational trauma is buried.”

– Gloria Steinem

Our past does not simply disappear. The lasting effects of individual trauma are widely recognized. But what about the consequences of extreme trauma on an entire ethnic group? On Tuesday, April 2nd at 7:30 pm at Boulder Book Store, Tirzah Firestone will discuss “Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma“ (April 2, 2019, Monkfish Book Publishing Company/Adam Kadmon Book), a book that addresses the impact of both collective and personal trauma in a dramatic portrayal of the lasting effects of extreme stress on the descendants of those who first suffered it. The book reports on new research in neuroscience and clinical psychology in accessible terms, and then demonstrates how trauma can be healed and transformed into usable wisdom.

Fusing science, psychology, and ancient Jewish wisdom, “Wounds into Wisdom” offers a roadmap for Jews—and all people and groups with trauma history—who wish to seize their power and change their future. Gripping case studies and interviews with trauma survivors and their descendants from around the world demonstrate what Viktor Frankl called “the uniquely human potential to transform personal tragedy into triumph.”

Author Tirzah Firestone, Ph.D., is also a psychotherapist, and founding rabbi of Congregation Nevei Kodesh in Boulder, Colorado. Having studied and counseled hundreds of Jewish families and individuals for over thirty years, Tirzah Firestone brings to life her case studies and interviews with real people who have surmounted their tragedies. Trauma legacies, Firestone posits, transfer from generation to generation, and Wounds into Wisdom offers encouragement and solutions to stop the negative effects of our historical traumas from continuing on to future generations.

Importantly, the book focuses on the impact of collective trauma in the world today, as populations are dislocated by war, poverty, government policy, and climate change—and provides a template for people everywhere to emerge from tragedy and reshape their destinies. Relevant not only to the catastrophic past, but also to our current world of turmoil and displacement, “Wounds into Wisdom” is an essential book for our times.