.jpg/2000px-Shatzi_Weisberger_3_(cropped).jpg)
Recent from talks
Shatzi Weisberger
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Shatzi Weisberger
Joyce "Shatzi" Weisberger (née Schatzberg; June 17, 1930 – December 1, 2022) was an American death educator, activist, and nurse based in New York City. After a 47-year career in nursing, she began engaging in public death education and end-of-life advocacy. Throughout her life, Weisberger was involved in several activist movements, including the civil rights movement, anti-nuclear movement, ACT UP, and campaigns against police brutality. In her later years, she was affiliated with the New York chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, expressing opposition to Zionism.
Shatzi Weisberger was born Joyce Schatzberg in Brooklyn on June 17, 1930. She did not have a close relationship with her parents, and was once kidnapped by her father after her mother came out as a lesbian. She grew up in a small apartment with her mother and her partner, unaware of their romantic relationship of more than 40 years. She spent time in the foster care system as a result of her father's homophobia. She attended summer camp as a child.
Weisberger's great-grandfather was Samuel Gompers, a founder of the American Federation of Labor.
Shatzi Weisberger worked as a nurse for 47 years, specializing in both obstetrics and end-of-life care. Her nursing career coincided with the peak of HIV/AIDS-related deaths in New York City during the 1980s, a period during which she provided home care for individuals dying from the disease.
Weisberger began her nursing career after obtaining a master's degree in psychiatric nursing. However, she later became critical of the psychiatric practices at the time, which she described as unethical. This led her to speak publicly about the need for mental health care reform.
In the 2010s, after being present during a close friend's final moments, she turned her focus to death education and advocacy. She trained in thanatology, hospice care, and what she called the "art of dying." Weisberger organized "death cafés"—informal gatherings that foster open conversations about mortality and dying in a supportive environment.
Weisberger was a political lesbian for some time, a member of ACT UP, and a part of the public opposition to nuclear technology as a member of Dykes Opposed to Nuclear Technology. One of her earliest acts of activism took place at a die-in in New York City, where she cried because she felt that she was "in the right place doing the right things with the right people". She was jailed as a result of her actions against nuclear weapons. In addition, Weisberger was an organizer with the Independence Party of New York City (which broke away from the Independence Party of New York) for 25 years.
Weisberger was present at numerous protests and demonstrations in New York, leading The Advocate to describe her as "a fixture". She was active in protests against police brutality in the United States, supported abolition of the police and of prisons, and was associated with anti-Zionism. At one Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020, which occurred on her 90th birthday, she was dubbed "the people's bubbie" (a Yiddish term for a grandmother); she wrote a column in HuffPost stating that she wanted the police to be abolished for her 90th birthday, and that the "only way all people will ever be able to live and die as they wish is if we pursue abolition". She broke curfew to attend another Black Lives Matter protest. Her protest signs, such as one reading Jewish dyke standing with Palestinian queers, became well known.
Hub AI
Shatzi Weisberger AI simulator
(@Shatzi Weisberger_simulator)
Shatzi Weisberger
Joyce "Shatzi" Weisberger (née Schatzberg; June 17, 1930 – December 1, 2022) was an American death educator, activist, and nurse based in New York City. After a 47-year career in nursing, she began engaging in public death education and end-of-life advocacy. Throughout her life, Weisberger was involved in several activist movements, including the civil rights movement, anti-nuclear movement, ACT UP, and campaigns against police brutality. In her later years, she was affiliated with the New York chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, expressing opposition to Zionism.
Shatzi Weisberger was born Joyce Schatzberg in Brooklyn on June 17, 1930. She did not have a close relationship with her parents, and was once kidnapped by her father after her mother came out as a lesbian. She grew up in a small apartment with her mother and her partner, unaware of their romantic relationship of more than 40 years. She spent time in the foster care system as a result of her father's homophobia. She attended summer camp as a child.
Weisberger's great-grandfather was Samuel Gompers, a founder of the American Federation of Labor.
Shatzi Weisberger worked as a nurse for 47 years, specializing in both obstetrics and end-of-life care. Her nursing career coincided with the peak of HIV/AIDS-related deaths in New York City during the 1980s, a period during which she provided home care for individuals dying from the disease.
Weisberger began her nursing career after obtaining a master's degree in psychiatric nursing. However, she later became critical of the psychiatric practices at the time, which she described as unethical. This led her to speak publicly about the need for mental health care reform.
In the 2010s, after being present during a close friend's final moments, she turned her focus to death education and advocacy. She trained in thanatology, hospice care, and what she called the "art of dying." Weisberger organized "death cafés"—informal gatherings that foster open conversations about mortality and dying in a supportive environment.
Weisberger was a political lesbian for some time, a member of ACT UP, and a part of the public opposition to nuclear technology as a member of Dykes Opposed to Nuclear Technology. One of her earliest acts of activism took place at a die-in in New York City, where she cried because she felt that she was "in the right place doing the right things with the right people". She was jailed as a result of her actions against nuclear weapons. In addition, Weisberger was an organizer with the Independence Party of New York City (which broke away from the Independence Party of New York) for 25 years.
Weisberger was present at numerous protests and demonstrations in New York, leading The Advocate to describe her as "a fixture". She was active in protests against police brutality in the United States, supported abolition of the police and of prisons, and was associated with anti-Zionism. At one Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020, which occurred on her 90th birthday, she was dubbed "the people's bubbie" (a Yiddish term for a grandmother); she wrote a column in HuffPost stating that she wanted the police to be abolished for her 90th birthday, and that the "only way all people will ever be able to live and die as they wish is if we pursue abolition". She broke curfew to attend another Black Lives Matter protest. Her protest signs, such as one reading Jewish dyke standing with Palestinian queers, became well known.
Recent media