Who We Are

Just Vision's Key Personnel

Board of Directors

Review Committee

Advisory Council

Just Vision's Key Personnel

Ronit Avni, Founder/Executive Director, Encounter Point Film Director/Producer

Ronit Avni is an award-winning filmmaker, human rights advocate and media strategist with an expertise in Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution efforts. Ms. Avni is the Founder and Executive Director of Just Vision, a non-profit organization that researches, documents and creates media about Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders in nonviolence and peace building.

Ronit directed and produced the documentary film, Encounter Point, which received the 2006 San Francisco International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary and was an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival, Hot Docs, Atlanta, Vancouver, Dubai and Jerusalem International Film Festivals. Encounter Point has screened at the International Finance Center, the United Nations and in Gaza, Tel Aviv, Jenin and more than 200 cities worldwide and won 5 international awards. Ronit appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005 with her colleague, Joline Makhlouf, and her work was featured on Oprah.com, and on Christiane Amanpour’s show, Amanpour, on CNN.

Ms. Avni is currently producing a new documentary film, Budrus, which received the competitive 2009 Sundance Documentary Fund award, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture documentary filmmaking grant and was featured as a work-in-progress at Independent Film Week’s Spotlight on Documentaries series and at the Good Pitch at Silverdocs. Budrus premiered at the Cultural Bridge Gala at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2009, followed by a keynote address by Her Majesty Queen Noor.

From 2000-2003, Ronit co-produced short videos and online video advocacy features in collaboration with filmmakers in Senegal, Burkina Faso, the United States and Brazil while working for Peter Gabriel’s human rights organization, WITNESS. WITNESS advances human rights advocacy using video and communications technology. Ronit has trained non-governmental organizations from Honduras to the Gambia to produce videos as a tool for public education and grassroots mobilizing, as a deterrent to further abuse and as evidence before courts and tribunals. She wrote and produced a short documentary film, Rise, with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. She co-edited the book, Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism (Pluto Press, UK), with staff from WITNESS. Ronit’s essay, “Inverting the Shame-Based Human Rights Documentation Model in the Context of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,” was published in the spring 2006 edition of American Anthropologist.

Ronit has been recognized with a variety of honors, including: a 2009 Young Global Leaders Award sponsored by the World Economic Forum, the 2005 Auburn Seminary’s Lives of Commitment Award and a Joshua Venture Fellowship for young, Jewish social entrepreneurs. She is currently a United Nation’s Global Expert through the Alliance of Civilizations, a resource for journalists looking for reliable, thoughtful commentators on issues pertaining to East-West divides. Ronit has lectured at universities across North America. Ronit’s op-eds have been published in the Huffington Post, Ha’aretz and the Washington Post.

Ronit graduated with honors with a BA in Political Science from Vassar College. She received a Burnam Fellowship to intern at B’Tselem: the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Concurrently, Ronit volunteered for the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI).

Julia Bacha, Senior Producer and Media Director, Encounter Point Co-Director, Writer/Editor

Before joining Just Vision, Julia Bacha co-wrote and edited the critically acclaimed documentary, Control Room (Magnolia Pictures, 2004), about Al Jazeera’s coverage of the latest war in Iraq. She was nominated to the 2005 Writer’s Guild of America Award for her work on this film. Control Room won the Grand Jury Prize at Full Frame Film Festival and was broadcast on the BBC, Sundance Channel, HBO Latin America and many other networks around the world. Julia was the assistant editor for the Brazilian production Casamento de Romeu e Julieta by acclaimed director Bruno Barreto. She was also the editor of National Geographic’s Conjoined at the Head, and additional editor on the films Swimmers (Sundance 2005) and Room (Cannes Director’s Fortnight and Sundance 2005).

Julia has spoken in numerous panels such as the New York Times’s "War Documentaries" (Los Angeles, 2004), the United Nation's panel about Al Jazeera International (New York, 2005), Hot Docs Film Festival’s “Activism on Film” (Toronto, 2006), Sao Paulo Film Festival’s “Understanding Between Cultures” (Sao Paulo, 2006), the Dubai Film Festival’s “Operation Cultural Bridges” (Dubai, 2006) and the United Nations’ Alliance of Civilizations (Madrid, 2008 and Lisbon, 2009).

Originally from Brazil, Julia came to New York to study at Columbia University. Alongside her academic studies, she pursued her interest in documentary photography by portraying life in Cuba, Kashmir, the Brazilian Amazon and the Blue Mountains in Jamaica. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Columbia University and was awarded the 2003 Phi Beta Kappa Prize.

Glenda Cognevich, Director of Finance and Administration

Prior to joining Just Vision, Glenda spent four years as the Chief Financial Officer for D.C. Central Kitchen, a domestic non-profit working with Washington, D.C.’s homeless population. She also served for five years as the Chief Financial Officer for Search for Common Ground, an international NGO working in the field of conflict resolution. Glenda was a member of the first group of Peace Corp Volunteers to work in the Soviet Union, volunteering for two years in Uzbekistan. This experience sparked her interest in international issues. The devastation of her hometown of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina changed her focus temporarily to poverty and race issues in the US, but she is excited to re-enter the field of international peace building.

Glenda holds a BS degree in Business Administration from the University of New Orleans and an MBA from George Washington University. She speaks Russian and hopes to learn both Hebrew and Arabic in the near future.

Jessica Devaney, Media and Communications Associate

Jessica graduated from Wake Forest University in 2006 with an MA in Religion and Society. In preparation for her interdisciplinary thesis, A Dialogical Roadmap to Peace: Israeli and Palestinian Feminists Building Bridges to Peace in the Shadow of the Wall, she was awarded a grant by the Department of Religion that enabled her to research Palestinian and Israeli feminist organizations and conduct interviews with numerous veteran feminist activists.

Jessica’s interest in alternative means of resistance and peace building led her to research and produce a short documentary video installation, Beauty in the Uprising, which, through interviews with Palestinian and Israeli artists and arts professionals, explores the role of art in resistance, conflict resolution, and social change. The film was exhibited in the summer 2008 exhibition, Multiplicitocracy, at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC.

Her broader commitment to dialogue and exchange is further demonstrated by her work with Native American communities in the U.S. Jessica has coordinated and led two student exchange programs in cooperation with reservations in Alaska and Arizona. In 2003, Jessica facilitated a group of Christian college students in a dialogue-as-praxis project rooted in the restoration of totem poles and religious artifacts destroyed by Christian missionaries decades earlier in a native community in Haines, Alaska. She then coordinated the 2006 Feather & Stone Exchange, a program fostering cultural and educational exchange between persons associated with the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona and non-native peoples in Winston-Salem, N.C., where Jessica was living at the time.

In addition to her role at Just Vision, Jessica is working toward an MA in Arab Studies at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Anat Langer-Gal, Education and Community Outreach, Israel

Anat previously worked with the Parent's Circle – Bereaved Families Forum, a grassroots NGO of bereaved Palestinians and Israelis working together to promote reconciliation as an alternative to hatred and revenge. While there, she assisted the Executive Director with fundraising and networking. Anat worked at the Israel Women's Network, Israel‘s foremost organization promoting women's rights, as Manager of Resources and Development. She continues to be a member of the organization. In 2005, she worked in Beit Issie Shapiro's fundraising department to produce its 25th Anniversary Gala with President William Jefferson Clinton as the guest of honor. Beit Issie Shapiro works to achieve an integrated society that ensures the rights of children and young adults with differing abilities and provides them with opportunities for growth and development.

Anat holds a BA in East Asian Studies and Chinese from Tel Aviv University. After her schooling, she traveled to China to study at the Beijing Language and Culture University.

Joline Makhlouf, Encounter Point Film Producer

Joline worked as a facilitator at Face to Face/Faith to Faith, Building Bridges for Peace and Seeds of peace, all of which bring together youth from conflict zones around the world. She has worked with youth from Ireland, South Africa and Israel/Palestine, with a special focus on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Joline participated in a number of local and international conferences about conflict resolution and non-violence and lectured in girls' schools in rural villages in the West Bank regarding the advancement of women in the professional sphere.

Born and raised in Jerusalem, where she finished her high school education at Schmidt’s College, Joline later lived in Jordan, where she graduated from the Royal Jordanian Air Academy with commercial pilot license and a Diploma in aviation science. She has also received airline training in Canada at Flight Safety International. In 2003, she worked as a flight instructor at Mid East Academy in Jordan. For years she has worked in a family-owned Arabic music production company as Production and Distribution Manager.

Irene R. Nasser, Community Outreach and Content Manager

Prior to joining Just Vision, Irene worked as the Program Coordinator for the Division of International Politics and Foreign Policy at American University. As Program Coordinator, she organized and planned a Summer Institute on Human Rights, managed departmental operations, and served as a liaison for faculty and staff members. She has also co-facilitated dialogue groups concentrating on Arab-Jewish-American relations in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as US-Islamic Relations. In addition to facilitation, Irene is trained in conducting issue-based dialogue, program evaluation and assessment, and trauma management and response.

Irene received her MA-International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, DC. During her graduate studies, Irene focused on the intersection of conflict resolution and identity, and more specifically on the role of oral history in the formation of the identity of Palestinians in Israel. Irene received her BA in communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she conducted media analysis to investigate the role of media and education in the representation of conflict.

In 2006, Irene's internship with Shatil in Jerusalem entailed research on the methods and strategies that Israeli NGOs utilize to promote reconciliation and conflict resolution between Palestinians and Israeli Jews. The project included the collection and analysis of data as well as program evaluation.

A Palestinian citizen of Israel, Irene is fluent in both Arabic and Hebrew and is the co-author of "Textbooks as a Vehicle for Segregation and Domination: State Efforts to Shape Palestinian Israelis' Identities as Citizens" in the Journal of Curriculum Studies (Vol. 40, 2008).

Nahanni Rous, Education Director and Encounter Point Film Producer

Prior to joining Just Vision, Nahanni Rous lived in Jerusalem in 2002 on a year-long Dorot Fellowship, during which she interned with National Public Radio reporter Linda Gradstein, volunteered at Seeds of Peace, and studied Hebrew and Jewish texts. She worked as an editor and consultant for Jerusalem Stories, Portraits and Profiles of Jerusalem Residents, and wrote a monthly column about life in Jerusalem for the New Hampshire Jewish Reporter. Nahanni worked as a producer, writer, and reporter for WBUR Boston and WRNI Rhode Island public radio stations, and traveled across the United States in the fall of 2001 interviewing Americans about their reactions to September 11.

Nahanni graduated from Brown University with a BA in Comparative Literature. She is a member of the board of the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel, and a past board member of Community Music Works, an after school music program for kids in inner city Providence.

Rula Salameh, Education and Outreach Coordinator, Palestine

As a journalist, Rula often covered issues pertaining to Palestinian society and the broader Middle East, especially as they related to the political climate. She was one of the founders of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in 1993, following the Oslo Agreement. Rula recently served as the Middle East Liaison for Peace X Peace. She also spent three years as the Project Coordinator for the organization, Middle East Non-Violence and Democracy (MEND). Prior to this, she worked with the Irish NGO, Refugee Trust International, where she was responsible for establishing a computer lab and children's library in the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem.

Rula holds an international diploma in Computers in Business and Management from Cambridge International College. She also attended Birzeit University in the West Bank. She is a member of the International Federation of Journalists and sits on the Board of Palestinian Friends Without Borders.

Adam Sitte, Development and Operations Assistant

Before joining Just Vision, Adam worked as a writer and analyst for the Gallup Organization’s Center for Muslim Studies. While there he wrote articles focusing on the Muslim world and contributed to the reports Muslim Americans: A National Portrait, The Gallup Coexist Index 2009: A Global Study of Interfaith Relations, and The Silatech Index: Voices of Yong Arabs. Concurrently, he was a childcare teacher for K-6 students and has previously served as an inner-city reading tutor and an English teacher for refugees in Cairo, Egypt. While in Egypt, he traveled to the West Bank and Israel, working with children and living in camps throughout the West Bank. He currently volunteers for the Muslim Public Service Network in Washington, D.C.

Adam graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2008 with degrees in American History and Languages and Cultures of Asia, as well as a certificate in Middle East Studies. He is a recipient of the William F. Allen Prize for historical essay and the Friends of the Library Award for non-fiction.

Lisa Zbar, Development Director

For 28 years with the Independent Production Fund, a non-profit public interest media company, Lisa raised funds for and produced media projects and national campaigns addressing various social issues. In 2002, Lisa directed The Islam Project, a multi-city, national campaign that features two public television programs as springboards for community engagement: Muslims (produced by the Independent Production Fund and aired on Frontline) and Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet. Lisa also produced American Muslim Teens Talk, which supports the work of immigrant relocation organizations, middle and high schools, religious organizations and community groups around the U.S. and abroad. It received a starred review from the Video Library Journal and aired on public television.

Board of Directors

Ronit Avni, Founder/Executive Director, Encounter Point Film Director/Producer

Michael J. Hirschhorn

Michael J. Hirschhorn is a strategy consultant to non-profit and grantmaking organizations. Previously, he was the executive director of Coro New York Leadership Center. He has also served as executive director of the Literacy Assistance Center, deputy director of Educators for Social Responsibility Metro and as an assistant to the Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools. Michael serves on the boards of several local and national non-profits along with chairing the board of the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, based in Baltimore, MD. Michael is a "visiting executive" at the Yale School of Management, where he advises MBA students interested in non-profit, public, and non-traditional private sector management. He holds an MBA and an MSW from Columbia University.

Stuart Levi

Stuart D. Levi is an attorney at Skadden Arps, where he heads Skadden’s Information Technology and E-Commerce practice. He has a broad and diverse practice that includes outsourcing transactions, technology and intellectual property licensing, technology transfers, strategic alliances and joint ventures. Mr. Levi also counsels clients on a variety of issues, including Web site and technology policies, intellectual property matters, privacy issues and legislative compliance. His background in computer science and the information technology industry allows Mr. Levi to understand the technology and business drivers underlying agreements and transactions in this area.

Jehane Noujaim

Jehane Noujaim began her career as a photographer and filmmaker in Cairo, Egypt. She attended Harvard University and was awarded the Gardiner Fellowship. She then joined the MTV news and documentary division as a producer for the series Unfiltered. Noujaim left her producing job at MTV to produce and direct Startup.Com, which played as part of Sundance's documentary competition in 2001. The film won numerous awards, including the Directors Guild of America and IDA Awards for best documentary. Noujaim has since worked in both the Middle East and the United States as a director and cinematographer on various documentaries, including Down From The Mountain and Only The Strong Survive. Her latest film, Control Room, screened at Sundance and Berlin in 2004. The Writer’s Guild of America recently nominated Jehane for co-writing Control Room in 2004. She was recently the recipient of the TED prize.

Janice Stieber Rous

Janice is the creator of Body Dialogue, a mind-body technique. She is the founder of the West Side Jewish Community School, a co-founder of the New York Havurah School and the former Director of Education at the Jewish Museum. An organizer of the Bavli Yerushalmi project, Janice co-founded a holistic medical center in lower Manhattan, Eleven Eleven Wellness Center. She served on the board of Project Kesher for 6 years. She lives part-time in Israel and the U.S.

Haroon Sugich

Haroon Sugich is Chief Operating Officer of Trans-Arabian Creative Communications (TRACCS) and Managing Director in the United Arab Emirates. An Arab-American writer and filmmaker born and raised in Santa Barbara, California and educated at UCLA and the California Institute of the Arts, Haroon Sugich has worked in a wide range of media for over 35 years and is today considered one of the leading public relations strategists in the Middle East and an expert in cross-cultural communications. In a varied career that has taken him from Hollywood to London to Fez to Cairo to Mecca to Mumbai to Delhi to Dubai, and many ports of call in between, he has authored and edited books, written and directed films, published newspaper columns, conducted television and radio interviews, created crisis management protocols and issues management programs, led training seminars and lectured on communications. In 1997 he co-founded Trans-Arabian Creative Communications (TRACCS) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and has been instrumental in building the company from a tiny public relations practice into a dynamic regional communications force operating throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Having lived in Mecca, Saudi Arabia for 23 years and traveled extensively throughout the Arab and Islamic world, Haroon has developed a deep knowledge and understanding of the religious, social, cultural, educational and political issues that have formed both public policy and popular attitudes in this rich, complex and volatile part of the world. He is dedicated to bringing cultures together through communications and works as a strategic communications advisor for influential religious scholars and social institutions dedicated to peace and knowledge.

Hanan S. Watson

After a long and productive career in executive search and human resources, which included working for the international management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, as well as founding and running her own business, Hanan retired from the business world and has dedicated herself to working for peace. Her activism had started early in life and had been limited only by the need to balance family and working career. Among her volunteer activities are leadership of the Peace Task Force of the Unitarian Church of All Souls, a congregational group whose mission is to present programs to the public that increase awareness of current events, and present information and analyses that go beyond reports presented by the mainstream media. She is also a volunteer adult literacy tutor with Literacy Partners. Previously, she served on the boards of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, New York Chapter; One Stop Senior Services; and The Associated Blind. Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, Hanan grew up in Jordan and Lebanon, and obtained her BA and MA from the American University of Beirut. She has lived in New York since 1966.

Advisory Council

Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Dr.

Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer is Professor of International Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University's School of International Service in Washington, D.C., where he also serves as Director of the University's Peacebuilding and Development Institute. Dr. Abu-Nimer was a 2007-08 Jennings-Randolph Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, where he conducted research on the evaluation of peacebuilding interventions, and the 2005 recipient of the Morton Deutsch award from the Society for teh Study of Conflict, Violence and Peace. He is the author Dialogue, Conflict Resolution and Change: The Case of Arabs and Jews in Israel (SUNY Press, 1999), Reconciliation, Justice and Coexistence in Interethnic Conflicts (Lexington Books, 2001) and Islam and Nonviolence: Theory and Practice (University of Florida Press, 2003).

Deanna Armbruster

Deanna Armbruster is the Executive Director of the American Friends of Neve Shalom, Wahat al Salam. Deanna is a journalist who received a B.A. from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and a Master’s Degree from California State University, Northridge. She has received multiple honors from the Hearst Newspaper Foundation and in 1998 she received the Outstanding Work in International Reporting Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Deanna recently completed a book focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The work, entitled, Tears in the Holy Land (www.arnicapublishing.com), is co-authored with award-winning journalist, Dr. Michael Emery. It interweaves photographs with oral histories of both Jews and Palestinians who share the story of the conflict through their own personal stories.

“My work on the book, Tears in the Holy Land, is the beginning of a long journey opening many new worlds to me. Through my eyes and in my heart, the people of the Middle East - whether Christians, Muslims or Jews - are just people. People that are all searching for the same sense content, love and happiness in their lives. By creating a space for developing deeper understanding and respect for one another, we can work together toward peace. As we embark on a new millennium, it is easy to see that many people have been building bridges to peace; but now, we must stretch our faith and cross those bridges together.”

Gillian Caldwell

1Sky Campaign Director, is a film maker and an attorney with thirty years of experience advocating for social justice in the United States and around the world. She is the outgoing Executive Director of WITNESS, which uses the power of video to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. Gillian led WITNESS’ rapid expansion during her decade of leadership and helped produce numerous documentary videos for use in advocacy campaigns around the world. She is also co-editor and author of a book published by Pluto Press called Video for Change: A Guide to Advocacy and Activism (2005). Gillian was formerly the Co-Director of the Global Survival Network, where she coordinated a two-year undercover investigation into the trafficking of women for forced prostitution from Russia and the Newly Independent States that helped spur new anti-trafficking legislation in the US and abroad. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Echoing Green Fellowship (1996-1998), Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Award (2000), Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Award Winner (2001-present), Tech Laureate of the Tech Museum (2003), Ashoka: Innovators for the Public as a special partner (2003), Journalist of the Month by Women’s Enews (2004), Skoll Social Entrepreneurship Award (2005-present). She received her BA from Harvard University and a J.D. from Georgetown University, where she was honored as a Public Interest Law Scholar.

Sandi DuBowski

Sandi DuBowski is a filmmaker/writer based in New York. His film, Trembling Before G-d, had a World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and was the recipient of twelve awards including The Teddy Award for Best Documentary at the Berlin Film Festival, The Mayor's Prize for the Jewish Experience at the Jerusalem Film Festival, The GLAAD Media Award for Best Documentary, and a nomination for the 2002 Independent Spirit Awards for the IFC/Directv Truer Than Fiction Award. Launched at Film Forum to incredible audience, critical, and box office response, the film released theatrically in the United States, Israel, Canada, Germany, South Africa, and UK. DuBowski has led 800 post-screening Q & A’s and dialogues across the globe over the past four years with the film. DuBowski is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation's Film/Video/Multimedia Fellowship, in-kind support from Skywalker Sound - a division of Lucas Digital, Ltd. as well as over 35 foundations DuBowski is developing a number of other documentary and narrative projects including producing In the Name of Allah, about Islam and homosexuality which will premiere in 2007. The project is shot in Egypt, Turkey, France, Lebanon, US, Pakistan, UK, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Bangladesh, and India and and is a co-production with five international broadcasters - MTV-LOGO, UK’s Channel 4 in the UK, France-Germany’s ZDF-Arte, and Australia’s SBS.

Hanna Elias

Hanna Elias graduated from the University of California Los Angeles Film School in 1991. He directed several short films, including "The Mountain" (1992). In 1997 he directed and produced the children's television program "Sesame Street" in Palestine, then from 1998-1999, he worked for the United Nations on a series of promotional films on women in Palestine. He recently directed the Olive Harvest, with a Palestinian cast and Israeli crew. The Olive Harvest screened at the San Francisco Film Festival and won both the Jury Prize and the Best Arabic Film prize at the 2003 Cairo International Film Festival.

Judith Helfand

Judith Helfand has worked as a documentary producer and educator for the past ten years. With veteran documentarian George Stoney, she co-produced and co-directed the Uprising of '34, which explores “hidden” labor history, class and power in the American South. It was broadcast on public television's P.O.V. and voted one of the ten best documentaries of 1995 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her next film, A Healthy Baby Girl, was broadcast on P.O.V. and won a 1997 George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Journalism and Public Education. Jewish Women International named Judith “one of the Jewish women to watch for 5759” for her community organizing work. Her film, Blue Vinyl, won numerous awards, including: the Documentary Award for Excellence in Cinematography at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, First Prize Award for Best Documentary 2002 at the Bermuda International Film Festival, Audience Award 2002 at the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, and the Santa Cruz International Film Festival.

Judith is co-founder of Working Films, a new non-profit organization based in North Carolina that is dedicated to linking documentary filmmaking to long-term social change. Judith directs the My House Is Your House Campaign - a consumer organizing initiative for Blue Vinyl. She is an adjunct professor at New York University's undergraduate film and television program.

Ned Lazarus

Ned Lazarus is a Ph.D. Candidate in International Relations, and Adjunct Professor of Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University in Washington. D.C. A 2007-08 "Peace Scholar" Dissertation Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, Ned's current research is a long-term evaluation of U.S.-based peace education programs for Israeli and Palestinian youth.

Joshua Levine Grater, Rabbi

Rabbi Joshua Levine-Grater is the spiritual leader of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center in Pasadena, CA. He spent two years as the Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellow at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in Manhattan, where he trained and worked as a social justice coordinator. Rabbi Joshua then brought his message to the small town of Kingston, NY. He serves on the National Advisory Board of the Tikkun Community, on the Education Committee of Brit Tzedek V'Shalom and is one of the co-chairs of the Southern California Rabbinic Council of Americans for Peace Now. He is also on the Rabbinic Advisory Board for Eilat Chayyim, the Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center, where he received training as a Jewish meditation teacher. Rabbi Joshua is active in interfaith work and has spoken in New York and Pasadena churches on Judaism and social justice. He worked actively with Congressman Maurice Hinchey of New York on Middle East affairs and received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for those efforts.

Rabbi Joshua speaks regularly about the need for Judaism to reflect the social values of peace, human rights, justice and compassion. He has been published in Tikkun, the Forward and Socialaction.com. His first book, L'Vakesh Kedusha, Seeking Holiness, is due out in late 2004. Rabbi Joshua received his B.A. in English and Literature from Lee College and his Masters and Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

Sami Michael

Sami Michael is a Nobel Literature Prize nominee. Born in 1926, in Baghdad, Iraq, he joined a leftist underground group at the age of 15, fighting for human rights and democracy. In 1948 Michael was forced to flee to Iran. In 1949 he immigrated to Israel. Sami Michael studied hydrology at the British Institute, worked as a field hydrologist for 25 years, and then pursued degrees in Psychology and Arabic Literature at Haifa University. In 1974 he published his first novel in Hebrew, entitled, “Men are Equal – But Some are More.” Since then, Michael has published 11 novels, 3 non-fiction works focusing on cultural, political and social affairs in Israel and 3 plays. His novels explore the dynamic, intersecting relationships between Jews and Arabs, Muslims and Christians, nationalists and communists, men and women. In recognition of his work, Michael received The Prime Minister Prize (1981, 1998); the Italian Association for the Promotion of Peace in the Middle East (Italy, 2001); Rotary prize (1998); Honor prize (Germany, 1996); The Israeli Literature prize by The Ministry of Education, Science and Art Prize (1994); WIZO Prize (Paris, 1993); The ACUM Award (Israel, 1993), Brener Prize (2004), EMET Prize (Israel, 2007) and several others. Michael received honorary doctorates from Hebrew University, Ben Gurion University and Tel Aviv University for his literary contributions to Israeli society. In 2001, Sami Michael became the president of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.

Wissam Nasr

Wissam Nasr was most recently the Executive Director of CAIR-NY, the New York chapter of the largest Muslim civil rights group in the country. He remains on its executive board, and volunteers his time with a number of Muslim community based organizations in New York. In 2000, he was awarded Amnesty International's Ralph Bunche Fellowship to write a curriculum on the death penalty. He was also a New York City Teaching Fellow, where he taught special education at the most diverse school in the city (2003) and Coro New American Leadership Fellow in which he studied immigrant advocacy models (2005). He was born in Egypt and raised in New York City.

Emad Omar

Mr. Emad Omar is a freelance consultant in conflict resolution and media. He served, from 1997 to 2007, as a Senior Advisor for the Search for Common Ground's Middle East and Partners in Humanity programs, and the Executive Editor of the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) . He is also a human rights and peace activist, journalist, analyst, writer and has an experience in the fields of statistics, demography, training and research. Previously, he worked for Kuwait University as an Instructor and personal computer Center Manager. He has also served at the United Nations ( ESCWA), and as Regional Advisor for the Middle East Human Rights Core Working-Group project. Mr. Omar has authored many books among them are The Questions of Human Rights and NGO Capacity Building Handbook, both of them have been used by many activists and NGOs in the region as key references . Mr. Omar has authored, translated, revised and edited numerous books, op-eds, papers, technical documents and dictionaries. He used to write a periodical column for al-Ahram al-Arabi weekly magazine and the Palestine Times daily newspaper and still write a periodical column for Sharqiyat women magazine. He served as a Judge for the Eliav-Sartawi Awards for Common Ground Journalism in the Middle East 1999-2005. Omar is a member of the Strategy Group Middle East.

Abderrahim (Rahim) Sabir

Abderrahim (Rahim) Sabir is a Senior Program Associate with Human Rights Education Associates. Mr. Sabir spent eight years working with Amnesty International at the International Secretariat in London and later as the Chair of the North Africa coordination Group at Amnesty International, USA. Rahim consulted with many NGOs, including: the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Women Learning Partnership, the American Bar Association, Sisterhood is Global, and Freedom House. He is a Board member of the Arab Commission for Human Rights.

Rahim received a Master’s degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of America and attended the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies for a course on the Intercultural Dimension of Human Rights and International Law; He received a Bachelor's degree in French literature. He published articles and essays in Arabic, English and French, including: Militant Islam and Political Violence, an essay in a collection of writings entitled, Lifting the Spirit: Writings on Human Rights distributed at the Conference of the Parliament of World Religions in Cape town, South Africa and Morocco’s Civil Society, published in Al Bayane Al-Thakafi, a bi-monthly magazine in Morocco.

Marieke van Woerkom

Marieke van Woerkom is a freelance consultant who has worked in the field of cultural exchange, conflict transformation and human rights for over ten years. She holds a double Masters in Cultural Anthropology and International Relations from the University of Amsterdam, with a specialization in group identity and intergroup relations. As a program director, facilitator and educator, she has designed, implemented and supervised hundreds of trainings, dialogues and related programs that raise awareness, promote understanding and empower diverse groups of people to make positive change in their own lives and that of their communities. Marieke has worked with groups of Arab, Israeli, Cypriot, Balkan, South Asian, American and European participants in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. In New York City, where she lives, she works in the public schools to help create more conducive learning environments. She also works with various cross-cultural groups, designing curricula, facilitating dialogues, and debriefing audience reactions to theater performances and movie screenings.

Marieke is trained as a mediator and has participated in group process work trainings around the world. She is well versed in Theater of the Oppressed techniques, Open Space Technology, and uses story telling and the arts in her workshops as needed. Past and current clients include Seeds of Peace, Children of Abraham, Winter Media, Just Vision, Columbia University's Project Tolerance, Hostelling International, Global Youth Connect, Backward Society Education, American MidEast Leadership Network, RebuildingHope Sudan and Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility.

Lucas Welch

Lucas Welch is the President & Founder of Soliya - a nonprofit organization using new media technologies to develop a global network of young adults and empowering them to bridge the divide between the "West" and the "Arab & Muslim World." The primary way in which Soliya achieves this goal is through its "Connect Program" - a unique cross-cultural education program that enables university students in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, Europe & the United States to engage in intensive facilitated dialogue and collaborative media production, all in a rich online environment as part of an accredited course.

Prior to his work with Soliya, Lucas worked as a producer for ABC News with Peter Jennings, conducted research at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard and taught new media at Birzeit University. He is a TED Fellow, a "Global Expert" for the UN's Alliance of Civilizations Initiative, and an Echoing Green Fellow.