YOUR FACILITATOR: Yael Petretti

Bringing people together comes naturally to Yael. This theme has run through everything she has ever done and continues to be what most inspires her passion in life.

Both before and after earning a degree in International Relations at UC Berkeley, Yael traveled widely to meet people of other cultures and creeds.  She organized citizen diplomacy groups to travel to other countries, giving Americans the chance to build real friendships with people they would otherwise have never understood. She served on the Israel-Palestine Working Group at the United Nations and facilitated a number of Compassionate Listening trainings in the United States before returning to Israel in 2007.

As a licensed tourist guide living in Israel, she has facilitated encounters between her tourists and the various religious and ethnic groups who inhabit the Middle East: Bedouins, Druze, Israelis, Christian and Moslem Palestinians. Appreciation of cultural diversity, friendship and mutual respect are her deepest values.

Yael's work as a certified Compassionate Listening(SM) facilitator provides the perfect tool for bringing people together: the practice of listening and speaking to one another from the purest places of the heart.

Past Trainings and Presentations

Trainings:

Journey of the Heart: Israel and Palestine Compassionate Listening Delegation- May 2010
Treehouse Community, Easthampton, MA - February, 2010
Westport, CT – February 2010
Kids4Peace, Atlanta, GA – February 2010
First Congregational Church, Old Lyme, CT - February 2010
Treehouse Community, Easthampton, MA
Rolling Ridge Retreat Center, North Andover, MA – July 2009
Libi Center, Jerusalem – February 16, 2009
Jerusalem and Sde Boker, Israel - January 17 & Feb. 5, 2009
Aravah Institute – Spring 2008
IPCRI Peace Education Conference – January 2008
Monroe Congregational Church – Spring 2006
Oakland Greek Orthodox Community Center –  2006
Spiritual Community Forum, New Haven CT - 2006
Israel/Palestine ten-day delegation – November 2004

Keynote Speeches and Presentations:

Brookline, MA - January 2010
Temple Beth El, Sudbury, MA - February 2010
UCC in Devon, CT - February 2010
First Congregational Church, Old Lyme, CT, July 2009
Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, January 2007
National Council of Jewish Women, May 2005
Whitney Center, New Haven, CT, April 2005
Community Center, Hamden, CT, October 2004
Peace Educator’s Conference, Greenwich, CT, June 2003
Southern Connecticut State University – Jewish Women Peace-Makers, Oct. 2003
International Women’s Day, New Haven, CT, March 2003