Jalaja Bonheim agreed to answer a few questions for us about the Circlework she does, her childhood as a Jewish German, her work with Palestinian and Jewish women, and her upcoming book The Sacred Ego. We’re delighted to be publishing Jalaja’s book on July 28 and hope you enjoy getting to know more of her story here.
NAB: You’re German and you’re also Jewish. How did growing up as a Jew in Germany affect you?
Jalaja: After WWII both the German and the Jewish people were utterly devastated. And since I was both German and Jewish, the horror of recent events was really in my face. Yet in my family, nobody talked about it.
Then I discovered that terrible atrocities had occurred, and were still occurring, in many other parts of the world as well. So I figured something had to be terribly wrong with our species. Why else would we keep creating hell on earth? I asked many people, but their answers never satisfied me. That burning need for a deeper understanding sent me on a lifelong quest. Only after several decades of leading circle gatherings for people from all walks of life did the insights emerge that inspired me to write The Sacred Ego.
Sacred Beings and Peace-Makers: An Interview with Jalaja Bonheim– North Atlantic Books, July 2015