EASTHAMPTON, MA, November 19, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Yael Petretti has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Early In her professional career, Ms. Petretti earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations from the University of California, Berkeley. Always fascinated by other cultures and peoples, she traveled to over twenty countries to learn about them, settling in Jerusalem in 1978.
While working for a small, nonprofit peace organization as executive director, Ms. Petretti found that many in the peace community were not really very peaceful in their approach to conflict. When she received an invitation to attend an introductory workshop in Compassionate Listening in 2001, she set out on a path to become a true peace maker. The Compassionate Listening principle that one must be able to listen to others, even in the heat of conflict, resonated deeply with her especially as she was living in the Middle East, a region torn by hatred and violence. She trained with the Compassionate Listening Project, becoming a certified facilitator in 2004, helping Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians come together to share their personal stories. For two decades, she organized and led numerous Compassionate Listening delegations, made up of participants from all over the world, through Israel and Palestine to hear from the people there what their lives were really like and what they wanted for their futures. She was a founding member of the "Oz Ve'shalom" ("Strength and Peace") movement which dedicated itself to ending the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian lands before it merged with the well-known J Street.
Since her return to the United States In 2010, she has offered workshops in Compassionate Listening to people in all walks of life. Ms. Petretti has given keynote speeches and presentations at such institutions as Brandeis University, the Karuna Center for Peace-Building, the National Council of Jewish Women and has given a number of radio interviews about her work. Driven to reach an ailing and divided nation, she co-authored with practitioners of different faiths "Making Peace with Faith: The Challenges of Religion and Peacebuilding." Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.
Ms. Petretti continues to incorporate the practice of Compassionate listening in her dally work at the Treehouse Community in Easthampton, MA. Since 2013, she has been a volunteer facilitator of the Alternatives to Violence Project in a men's high-security prison where the experiential workshops seamlessly blend AVP curriculum with Compassionate Listening group learning. Witnessing the stark inequity of the prison system and the justice system as a whole, she has sought more ways to work for racial and social justice. She initiated and led the first Compassionate Listening delegation to Alabama in January 2020, inviting participants to open their eyes to their own implicit biases and how they can help dismantle the white supremacist culture which permeates every corner of the United States. She is planning more domestic listening delegations to give all Americans a chance to tell their own stories.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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