Announcing the 2022 Winners of the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prizes

YEVGENIA ALBATS, GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA AND SAM MULLER
AWARDED TÄLLBERG-SNF-ELIASSON GLOBAL LEADERSHIP PRIZES

Stockholm and New York, November 9, 2022—Today the Tällberg Foundation announced the winners of this year’s Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prizes, awarded annually to well established leaders working in any field and any country whose leadership is courageous, innovative, rooted in universal values and global in application or in aspiration.

The 2022 laureates:

Yevgenia Albats, Russia, for her passionate commitment to reporting truth in the face of repression and corruption, and for forcefully asserting her—and every Russian’s—personal responsibility to work for a democratic future in their country.

Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda, for her persistent, innovative leadership in developing new approaches to human/wildlife interaction at a time when the danger of zoonotic diseases is rising worldwide.

Sam Muller, Netherlands, for his innovative work in creating and implementing new, concrete concepts and ways of working for law practitioners that focus on solving people’s real needs and thereby reinforce their commitment to democracy.

“Converging crises are challenging all our societies. If we ever needed great leadership it is now,” said Alan Stoga, the Tällberg Foundation’s chairman. “What these three extraordinary individuals—working in dramatically different contexts on different kinds of problems—demonstrate is the power of courageous, creative, persistent leadership.”

The Prizes are made possible by the financial and moral support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos said, “What each of the most serious challenges humanity faces—such as climate change, the erosion of democracy, unmet mental health needs, the risk of future pandemics—requires is sound, selfless leadership. SNF is proud to support the Prizes in recognizing leaders whose practical optimism unlocks human potential to meet these critical challenges."

The Tällberg Foundation is deeply committed to the idea that great leadership comes in many different flavors. “What do a journalist, a veterinarian and a jurist have in common? Great leadership skills and the willingness to challenge the status quo with innovation and energy. The world needs as much of that as we can find,” concluded Stoga.

The winners receive a $50,000 cash award and the opportunity to participate in the Tällberg Foundation’s global leaders’ network. They will be honored in a virtual celebration on December 13. To register to participate, go to tallberg-snf-eliasson-prize.org.

The Tällberg Foundation separately recognizes and honors emerging leaders whose work has less track record and more potential. This year’s emerging leader laureates will be announced on November 16.

Prize winners are nominated through an online process open to anyone anywhere and are ultimately selected by a global jury. The Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize was established in 2015 and has honored 27 global leaders.

8th Newsletter for Our 2022 Program

October 2022 Newsletter

The 50:50 Startups 2022 Cohort concludes the program!

Join us in congratulating all participants and expressing utmost gratitude to those who made their journey happen.

Demo Day 2022

On September 28th, we held the concluding event of the 50:50 Startups program - the 2022 Demo Day!

Seven ventures pitched their deck, and two got the prizes. My Family presented by Jafar Mahfouz won the first prize consisting of $10,000 pre-seed investment🏆! And Abe's events presented by Ibrahim Handal and Ibrahim Tomizeh won the second prize - pre-seed investment of $7000 🏆

A huge thank to the amazing, and highly experienced Judges who joined us:
Rosa Azhari - President, Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem.
Shirley Shahar - Co-Founder at DANA Accelerator.
Aiman Abu Ammar - Senior Lecturer at Azrieli College of Engineering.
Haytam Kasem - Researcher at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

Many thanks to Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem and AtoBe Startup Accelerator for their incredible hospitality. And lots of gratitude to Michal Zur and Miriam Malis for supporting us throughout this journey.

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We are thrilled to share that Northeastern University will be giving a substantial scholarship, and bringing one of the 50:50 alumni to join their MBA program, after they got inspired by the 50:50 participants this year.

''I have followed your 50:50 program and could not be more impressed. What a thrill that the students were finally able to come to Northeastern" - Associate Director of Admissions at Northeastern University

To learn more about their journey in Boston? Check out this Article!

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2022 Cohort Testimonials

Hear what the participants of our third 50:50 Startups cohort share about their journey!

Crypto, being a 1 trillion dollar market, needs next gen inheritance solutions yesterday. At Q-Fi we are building a turnkey crypto inheritance solution for everyone, fiduciaries, individuals & access points for probate courts. Our product will offer a secure, easy, & fully regulatory compliant. We will also keep to the values of crypto & blockchain, offering full control of one's assets during their lifetime, industry leading security, & privacy features only possible with blockchain & cryptography tech. We have finished our MVP and will be starting a seed round early November."

We are happy to see our alumni grow and always support their development after completion of the 50:50 Startups program! To learn more please visit Q-Fi

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Stay Tuned!
Applications for 50:50 Startups 2023 are coming soon...

We are excited that the application round for our next 50:50 Startups cohort will start soon! If you are interested to apply and spread the news to potential applicants, tune in for our further communications on the matter. We will announce all the relevant to the application round information soon on our website. We are excited to start for our fourth cohort in 2023!

Visit our Website for More

Visit https://www.5050startups.org/ to learn more about 50:50 Startups!

Asad Badruddin

Asad Badruddin was a student of Sherman’s at Tufts University, taking the EPIIC program in 2010 and 2011. After graduating he started a non-profit that created entrepreneurship programs in Pakistan with more than a thousand participants. He has also worked at software companies including most recently at LinkedIn. His current role and work specializes in negotiations, inter-cultural communication and public private partnerships.

He is also a podcaster and writer: Asadbadruddin.com

The VIIF Frontline Report #7

Police raid a bar in San Salvador, El Salvador, looking for gang members on July 14, 2018. Photograph by Kimberly dela Cruz, who is a member of the VII Mentor Program.

Dear friends,

With the worldwide rise of populism, neo-nationalism, and autocracy there is much to do to challenge the emergence of anti-democratic forces and safeguard a world where ordinary citizens are treated with dignity and respect by their governments. This challenge is especially acute for anyone involved in journalism.

As my colleague David Campbell writes on VII Insider in an essay that details the shocking global anti-democratic trend, “addressing the challenge of democratic decline ….. demands much, much more than just arms-length coverage of the issue. Only journalism has the reach to demonstrate what is at stake if authoritarians take power. We need the practice of journalism to stand for democracy and be actively engaged in the fight for democracy. Now.”

Of course, Churchill reminded us democracy is flawed, but the alternatives are worse, as anyone living in a de-facto dictatorship, or a country run by kleptocrats, religious fundamentalists, or a military junta will attest.

The VII Foundation, through VII Academy, has trained over 700 majority world students from over 80 countries, in nine languages in three years. Many of our students live and work under regimes that suppress the media and extinguish the free flow of information and other fundamental human rights. Their bravery and their existence are essential. They are the ones bearing witness to invasion, violence, corruption, the impact of climate change, and the pillage of natural resources firsthand. Their work informs all of us.

Most of our training has taken place online throughout the pandemic. With the opening of our new campus in Arles – named after our late colleague Alexandra Boulat, and funded by our board member Jennifer Stengaard Gross and her family – we are now able to invite the most accomplished of our students to study with us in person. We are launching our first intake of students in 2023 and we can’t wait to see them here.

Gary Knight
CEO
The VII Foundation

Speak Out!

What kind of peace do young Bosnians live in today? What is their experience of the past, and what is their hope for the future? Are they afraid of a new war? How do they see their role in preserving peace?

Inspired by the lessons in the “Imagine: Reflections on Peace” book, eight young individuals from all across Bosnia and Herzegovina came to the National Museum in Sarajevo and worked with Nikola Vučić to improve their communication skills for debating difficult topics.

The discussion was broadcast on N1, a major national television channel in Bosnia, on September 27 and can be viewed here. We are grateful to The Foundation for Systemic Change (FSC) for making this event possible.

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Preparations for the first collection bearing Yves Saint Laurent's name, January 1962. Photograph by Pierre Boulat.

Yves Saint Laurent by the Boulats

“Yves Saint Laurent by Alexandra and Pierre Boulat” is a special exhibition opening in Sarajevo on November 4 at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Alexandra Boulat was one of the founding members of the VII Photo Agency, and our campus in Arles, France, is named in her honor. This exhibition showcases the work she and her father did covering Yves Saint Laurent over nearly four decades. Pierre Boulat produced his first story on Yves Saint Laurent for LIFE Magazine in 1962 when the designer created the first fashion collection in his own name. This cover story with 12 pages of photographs took a month to make and began a long association. This culminated in Alexandra Boulat taking over from her father and photographing Yve Saint Laurent’s presentation at the 1998 FIFA World Cup for Paris Match.

The exhibition has been made possible by the foundation leading a collaboration with the French Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the French Institute, Fondation Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent, the Association Pierre et Alexandra Boulat, and the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From Ismar Čirkinagić's "Herbarium" project.

Herbarium

The foundation has collaborated with visual artist Ismar Čirkinagić to produce new work for his ‘Herbarium’ project and exhibit it in Bosnia for the first time.

Čirkinagić, who was born in Prijedor and now lives in Copenhagen, began “Herbarium” in 2004. The project is based on a classical herbarium that classifies flora with the difference being that all the plants have been collected from the site of mass graves in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The plants are gathered, dried, and mounted behind glass along with information about the mass grave site. Čirkinagić has made 70 new pieces specifically for the exhibition in Sarajevo after traveling to Prijedor in April this year and collecting the last plants in August.

“The exhibition will open at the National Museum 30 years since the war started, a round number. Thirty years is not a little time. We are still living in the war in many ways. There are still traces of the war around us; we are still looking for bodies of people missing, discussing certain topics. There is, again, a new cycle of nationalism. We obviously didn't leave those demons from the past behind,” said Čirkinagić.

We are grateful for the support of our partners, the Danish Arts Council, Memory Module, KUMA International, the Museum of Contemporary art Ars Aevi, and The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The exhibition opens at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo on 13 November.

School students from Arles and region at VII Academy's Alexandra Boulat Campus. Photograph by Florent Demarchez / Workflow.

Visual literacy lessons in Arles

VII Academy’s Alexandra Boulat Campus in Arles recently welcomed school children for La Rentrée en Images, organized by Les Rencontres de la Photographie. Throughout September and October 11 classes – comprising nearly 300 school children aged 10 to 18 years from Arles and the region – participated in workshops and guided tours to teach them about the complexity of a journalistic image. Using Alexandra Boulat’s “Modest” – portraits and stories of women in the Middle East – students were instructed on how to better read and understand images. Philip Blenkinsop of VII Photo Agency showed his Southeast Asian reportage to emphasize, among other elements, the importance of captions.

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Kiley Knowles rides her horse through the Shell River (Anishinaabe Akiing/Minnesota, USA) during a women water protectors demonstration against Line 3 – commonly referred to by activists as “The Black Snake,” July 15, 2021. Photo by Chris Trinh.

Apply for the Foundry workshop

The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is coming virtually to the USA! This tuition-free workshop, hosted by VII Academy in partnership with PhotoWings, has met in over a dozen countries around the world, teaching people how to better document their own communities and interests and develop skills to help them in work and life.

Foundry alumni have won the Pulitzer Prize and their images have graced the pages of major publications including National Geographic, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. In 2021, participants gathered virtually from all over the world in Foundry’s first online workshop. We laughed, we cried, we debated — and we had a great time. In 2022, as usual, there are no tuition fees. Classes will be taught by Andrea Bruce, Vanessa Charlotte, Michael Robinson Chavez, Alan Chin, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Alison Morley, Christopher Morris, Brian Palmer, Nina Robinson, and Maggie Steber. Guests and portfolio reviewers include editors from print publications, curators, consultants, and agents.

Applications are open now. They close on November 4, 2022, at 2359 EDT. Residents of the United States with two years or more of experience as working photojournalists may apply. Applicants from underrepresented communities will be prioritized. Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis, so although applicants won’t hear if they’ve been successful until after the application deadline, early birds will get their first choice of instructor.

To apply, please complete this online form.

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VII Academy mentee Farshid Tighehsaz has won the third edition of the prestigious 6 Mois Photojournalism Award 2022. Farshid is a documentary photographer based in Tabriz, Iran. Farshid's work focuses on the experience of being human and the structural, cultural, environmental, and interior aspects that determine our lives. Farshid's prize of €10,000 will enable him to continue his project "Labyrinth" on the psychological situation of young people in Iran, a story of undoubted significance given the current protests in Iran.

Trump followers rally at the Washington Monument listening to President Trump addressing them on January 6, 2021. Photograph by Christopher Morris / VII.

We published a major article on the VII Insider blog this month on "Visual Journalism in the Age of Authoritarianism – What Can and Should You Do?" Written by managing editor David Campbell, it poses a crucial challenge:

"The decline of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism are global phenomena...I want to challenge existing and emerging visual journalists to think about how best to respond to these anti-democratic developments. It is something we all have to think hard about because...everything we do as journalists, photographers, artists, and critics depends upon having the cultural space to think, create and work freely."

VII Insider’s online community continues to provide an open platform for public debate and discussion, including on the war in Ukraine. On the VII Insider blog, you will find David's article along with the latest in the series on South American photographers by Arturo Soto.

Members of the VII Insider community get access to weekly live presentations and can view the video collection, which contains more than 120 recordings of educational discussions. Don't forget to check out the upcoming events.

VII Insider is a program of The VII Foundation in partnership with PhotoWings and VII Agency.

Rachel Korberg

Rachel Korberg is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Families and Workers Fund, a coalition of more than twenty diverse philanthropies working together to build a more equitable U.S. economy that uplifts all. Co-chaired by Ford Foundation President Darren Walker and Schmidt Futures CEO Eric Braverman, the more than $60 million fund invests and builds strategic partnerships to advance good jobs and deliver equitable, effective public benefits.

Previously, Rachel served in program leadership roles at the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation where she worked to advance economic opportunity, mobility, and equity. Earlier, she was vice president of a boutique investment firm and also a global development and humanitarian aid worker serving in communities coping with disasters. Her commentary has appeared in, or her work has been profiled by, the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, and more. She has been a featured speaker at the Federal Reserve, United Nations, National League of Cities, Aspen Institute, and many universities. In 2021, she received Crain’s New York’s award for notable leaders in philanthropy for her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a “Stevie Award” for female nonprofit executive of the year. 

Rachel is President of the Board of the Stonewall Community Foundation, one of the largest funders of LGBTQIA+ causes. She has a Master in Public Policy from Yale University, executive training in human-centered design from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University. Rachel also brings lived experience to her leadership of the Families and Workers Fund as a working parent, survivor of workplace sexual harassment, and a family member who has supported loved ones in navigating the inadequate public benefits system and a job market that too often writes off those who don’t hold college degrees.

Kim Berman

Kim Berman is an NRF-Rated scholar and Full Professor in Visual Art at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and Executive Director of Artist Proof Studio (APS), a community-based printmaking centre in Newtown, Johannesburg which she co-founded APS with the late Nhlanhla Xaba in 1991. Born in Johannesburg in 1960, Kim Berman has been an activist artist for over twenty years. Beginning with her study with Paul Stopforth at the University of Witwatersrand, (B.F.A), and continuing through her graduate work at Tufts University/the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (M.F.A, 1990), Berman has addressed the politics and social conditions in South Africa in her art both realistically and metaphorically. Her work was her artistic response to Apartheid and the anti-Apartheid struggle, the establishment of a democratic government, the testimonies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the ongoing challenges of poverty and disease.

In addition to serving as Senior Lecturer in Printmaking at the University of Johannesburg, Berman has founded three projects that have proven her faith in the vital role visual art can play in social transformation. The Artists Proof Studio, founded in 1992 in Johannesburg, now supports and educates over 100 young artists. Phumani Paper, a nationwide project using hand papermaking for poverty alleviation, employs several hundred people. Paper prayers, a nationwide paper and embroidery project for AIDS awareness, continues its grassroots work to support a population universally affected by the pandemic.

As she wrote in 2003: “In the 80s, while living and studying in Boston I was consumed by the drive to bear testimony to the aggression and violence of the apartheid regime. After 1990, the leadership of Nelson Mandela personified the concept of ‘ubuntu’ of the people working together. It is this spirit that has pulled South Africa from the brink of dehumanization into humanity and democracy- and it is this inspiration of reaching out to re-imagine a new identity for ourselves that is the challenge for South Africans.”

Kim is an extraordinary human rights activist. She is he author of Finding Voice: an autobiographical account of her work in “disenfranchised communities as a tool for political and social transformation in South Africa…She “documents the visual arts as a crucial channel for citizens to find their individual voices and to become agents for change in the arenas of human rights and democracy.”

I met Kim my very first year at Tufts in 1985 when she was a graduate student at the Museum School. We both were deeply concerned with apartheid in South Africa, and met in the context of her politics and I began to appreciate her extraordinary graphics and artistic skills. I asked her to create the graphics for the first 3 posters of my symposium efforts. Most notably International Terrorism, but subsequently the next three: the West Bank and Gaza strip, Foreign Policy Imperatives for the Next Presidency, and Covert Action. and Democracy. We maintained a close friendship over the years, and it was my privilege to honor her with a distinguished alumni award and to participate in a major exhibition of her work. On the occasion of my retirement and becoming Emeritus in 2016 she surprised me with an original print of the 1985-86 poster:

For Sherman, (from: State of Emergency 1985/EPIIC Terrorism) with my deep gratitude and respect for your EPIIC legacy that reaches across the world…

Berman’s art exemplifies this idealism but does not flinch from the enormous challenges the country continues to face. There are many ways I could seek to describe the uniqueness of Kim, whose friendship I cherish but there is no better way for people to understand her character and courage than in the words of Justice Albi Sachs:

I had the pleasure of meeting Albi and on several occasions cheering him on as he ran and completed the Boston Marathon.

I had the privilege and honor of honoring Kim in the context of the EPIIC program on the Politics of Fear as an example of fearlessness.

In 2014 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Institute, my students surprised me by raising nearly nearly a half a million dollars and endowing the EPIIC colloquium in my name. They created this large plaque to commemorate the occasion and presented it to me at the gala. 

This was the print created by one of Kim’s students, which arrived too late to be superimposed on the plexiglass. 

Kim further surprised me by giving me several of the large prints that sit at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, which show the women in the struggle against Apartheid. This hangs in my home in Truro.

My Duty to Not Stay Silent: A Documentary by Vladimir Kara-Murza

Dear Sherman,

On October 18, 2022, at 5:00 PM (EST) the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) will host a screening and discussion of My Duty to Not Stay Silent, a film by courageous Russian defender of democracy and human rights, and global advocate for justice and accountability, Vladimir Kara-Murza about Soviet dissident Father Georgy Edelstein.

Evgenia Kara-Murza, Vladimir Kara-Murza’s wife and Advocacy Coordinator for the Free Russia Foundation, will introduce the documentary and lead the discussion with RWCHR International Chair Irwin Cotler. The film screening will be taking place following a day of high-level meetings and advocacy. Professor Cotler and Evgenia Kara-Murza will also appear before the Foreign Affairs Committee. 

We hope that you can join us for this important event in support of the case and cause of Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was arrested and has since been imprisoned in Moscow for his public opposition to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

-About the Film:

“If we stay silent, we participate in the evil that is happening in our world. I must say what I think – and the results do not concern me.” This is the story of a remarkable man in a remarkably difficult era. It is a film about true tolerance and true faith, the relationship between Jewishness and Christianity, the collaboration between Church leaders and a totalitarian state, and the importance of speaking the truth – no matter the consequences. The documentary won two special awards at the 26th Stalker International Film Festival (Moscow, 2020).
 

The film will be screened in Russian with English subtitles.

Date: October 18, 2022

Time: 5:00PM

Location: 180 Wellington Street, Room 325, Ottawa, ON

Sincerely,
The RWCHR

Opportunities for Young Professionals in Arms Control

The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP), the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), and International Student/Young Pugwash (ISYP) cordially invite you to the event “Engagement Opportunities in Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation for Young Professionals and Students.”

The event is dedicated to young individuals interested in learning more about youth-led groups and youth-oriented initiatives in the field of nuclear arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation.

The event will be held on Wednesday 19 October 2022 from 15:00 to 17:00 CEST / 09:00 to 11:00 ET / 23:00 to 01:00 ACT, online via Zoom.

The event will feature representatives of several youth-led and youth-oriented initiatives, including International Student/Young Pugwash, Pugwash National Groups, the EU Non- Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium, Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation/Istituto Affari Internazionali, the Emerging Voices Network, Project on Nuclear Issues, Youth for Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, Youth for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and Reverse the Trend. Participants will also have the chance to interact and ask questions to representatives in breakout sessions.

A tentative agenda can be seen below.

Please register for the event here.

The URL to join the event will be shared in the confirmation of registration email. We kindly ask you not to share the URL to join the event as the event is invitation-based only.

For any questions, please contact: office@isyp.org.

New York meeting on assessing the NPT Review Conference

On 11 October 2022 Pugwash organized a side event on the margins of the meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, with the co-sponsorship of the Mission of Brazil to the UN. The meeting was held at the Brazilian Mission to the UN with the topic of “Assessing the NPT 10th Review Conference”.

Panelists were the Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the UN and the Head of the delegation of the United Kingdom to the Conference on Disarmament. Participants discussed the outcome of the Review Conference and prospects for the forthcoming new review cycle.

Stefan Forbes

Stefan Forbes is the Emmy-nominated director of Hold Your Fire, produced with Fab 5 Freddy, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Forbes also directed the award-winning one-hour documentary One More Dead Fish, about environmentally friendly handline fishermen in Canada who seized a federal building and barricaded themselves inside for 26 days.

Forbes also directed Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, about controversial political operative Lee Atwater, a Critic's Pick in The Washington Post, NY Times, and London Sunday Times. The Washington Post called it "One of the greatest political movies ever”. Boogie Man won the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Documentary, the George S. Polk Award for Excellence in Journalism, the IDA Emerging Filmmaker Award, and was nominated for the WGA Award.

With his socially conscious production company InterPositive Media, Mr. Forbes has written and directed Emmy-nominated national PSA campaigns featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlize Theron, Mike Myers, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Broderick, and others, as well as producing and directing many music videos. Formerly a cinematographer, he shot five feature films and created a look for several hit TV shows.

Jeanne Marie Penvenne

Jeanne Marie Penvenne is an historian of colonial era Mozambique. Her work includes urban and labor history, African intellectual history, oralcy, and gender in Southern Africa. Her books, African Workers and Colonial Racism; Mozambican Strategies for Survival in Lourenço Marques, Mozambique 1877-1962 and Women, Migration & the Cashew Economy in Southern Mozambique, 1945-1975 were both finalists for the African Studies Association and African Studies Women’s Caucus best book prizes, the Herskovits Award and Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize, respectively. Her books, articles and chapters in edited collections have been translated into French and Portuguese.

She served on the editorial advisory boards of The Journal of African History and The International Journal of African Historical Studies, and was an inaugural member of the research editorial board of Lusotopie: Enjeaux Contemporains dan les Espaces Lusophones.  Her international research won support from the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright Regional Research Program, Fulbright Hayes, Mellon Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, Troy Foundation and Gulbenkian Foundation.

She is Professor Emerita in the College of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University.  From 1994 to 2018 she was core faculty in History, International Relations, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Africana Studies. She holds all three Tufts University Awards for Outstanding Teaching and Advising in the Arts & Sciences. She has held a Research Appointment in African Studies at Boston University since the 1980s, and was a Visiting Professor of History at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique in 1977, 1992-92 and 2004-05.

At Tufts she founded the Senior Honors Thesis Exchange, the Tufts Africa Forum and co-founding the International Research Colloquium to encourage undergraduates to explore research across Tufts’ schools and research institutes, and while studying abroad. These initiatives served students in History, Political Science, and International Relations, but also provided student opportunities across Arts and Sciences.

Penvenne was elected to the Faculty Executive Committee and was a founding member of Tufts Task Force on Work / Life Issues and the Task Force on Research Abroad. These task forces were initiated by Provost Jamshed Bharucha to build synergies, incorporate best practices, and enhance transparency among Tufts schools, institutes and programs.

Personal Statement:

My work focuses on Southern Mozambique, its colonial capital city Lourenço Marques (today Maputo), My books draw out the lives of ordinary Mozambican people who are ignored in the archival record, and often simply enumerated in printed materials. Oral history and the gendered nature of memory and narrative are of particular interest. My journal articles and book chapters develop the lives of the city’s intellectual elite, their families and struggles, as revealed through the window of Mozambique’s colonial era newspapers, published in Portuguese and XiRonga. Oral histories frequently disrupt and belie received and archival narratives. I deposited all my oral history recordings in Mozambique’s national archive and African Studies Center so that future generations of Mozambican historians can bring their questions and insights to the material. My current work surveys Mozambique’s labor history, contextualizing it within Southern Africa and the former Portuguese Empire. I am also interested in the many ways contemporary Mozambican fiction and oral histories intersect.

Jeanne is a long-time personal friend and was a staunch ally of the Institute for Global Leadership.

In the decades I taught, mentored and programmed at Tufts, she was among the most assiduous, caring of Tufts professors, who unstintingly gave of her time and effort on behalf of her students. A noted fastidious researcher, she imparted this exacting and rigorous quality to her advisees.

Professor David Guston, myself, and Duncan

And she cared about people. I remember well one occasion when one of our wonderful common students, Duncan Pickard, was advised to abandon his senior honors thesis because his core advisor , Felipe Fernández-Armesto had left the University for a prestigious post in Madrid . Jeanne salvaged the situation by organizing the thesis defense through the Fletcher School’s international telecommunications facility in April 2010. And she gave us all handmade ties.

She was unfailingly scrupulous in her conduct and expectation of others. She suffered no fools, and magnificently, and at times courageously, led with a manner that I can best describe as "quiet steel." Jeanne always conducted herself with reserved dignity.

It was her criticism that I always took to heart. It was always meant to improve.

We shared a love and admiration of our colleague, priceless Gerald Gill, who Jeanne ensured was well remembered by their department, and Tufts as a whole.

It is my belief that Jeanne was among the most admired faculty at our University, and for very good reason.

Anne-Marie Codur

Thank you Sherman for this invitation to this wonderful gathering of Convisero!

My name is Anne-Marie Codur. I am a scholar, teacher, performing artist and activist, with a French and American citizenships, and a bi-cultural upbringing, Catholic on my father’s side, Jewish on my mother’s side with family roots in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco. After a PhD in economics at Sciences Po Paris on the systemic approach of Sustainable Development, I moved to Boston for a Post Doc at Harvard University, where I met and joined in 1997 the founding members of the University of the Middle East Project (UME), an educational NGO devoted to peace education in the Middle East and beyond. I met Sherman in the early years of UME, around 1998, and he was a great mentor and advisor to all of us, as we were developing the first programs for high school teachers from Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, studying together and forming strong personal and professional ties. The UME network of alumni includes today more than 1000 teachers as well as dozens of NGO leaders, from throughout the MENA region. My passion for building peace bridges between Israelis and Palestinians also brought me to organize several workshops with peace activists from both sides, as a member of the academic board of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, a think tank based in DC and devoted to the teaching of strategic nonviolence to audiences of activists and dissidents from around the world.

And all along, I kept a foot in academia, as a Research associate at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, developing policy briefs, teaching modules and textbooks on environmental issues, in particular on climate change policies.

But my true self and greatest passion is music, and particularly singing. After graduating from the Conservatory in Paris in Piano and Voice, I continued in the Opera program of the New England Conservatory in voice studies. As a lyric soprano, I performed in small-scale Opera productions and also gave a series of recitals, of arias and French chansons, in France, and in the Boston area. Recently, I composed a cycle of ten songs “Somewhere beyond the fences: a journey through promised and forbidden lands” with lyrics in English, Hebrew and Arabic, a musical dialogue between two women, one Jewish and one Palestinian, on both sides of the wall… I performed several of my songs for several audiences of activists in the Middle East, in France, and in Brazil, in particular in the gatherings of the global citizen network “Dialogues en humanité” which brings together peace activists, climate activists, and concerned citizens from all walks of life, on four continents, in Lyon, Berlin, Brussels, Rabat, Dakar, Porto Novo, Bangalore, Auroville, Chandigarh, and Salvador de Bahia.

Moving forward, my desire is to integrate further my intellectual passions as a scholar and activist with my artistic carrier as a singer, by creating musical performances that educate audiences as much as they entertain and move them.

When you feel so multidimensional as I felt growing up, it is very hard to fit in the “boxes” that society likes to lock you into. I have resisted all my life to be labelled “an economist” just because I happened to have a PhD in that discipline, and I have struggled to follow all my passions at the same time, as an artist as much as an intellectual…

So when I met Sherman, the man with the thousand passions, and the unlimited energy to pursue them all, it was a true revelation! Meeting a wonderful like-minded and like-hearted man like Sherman was a living proof to me that you can (and should) live a life led by your passions to good in the world, to pursue peace, even against all odds, and to share with generosity and selflesness that passion and wisdom with the next generations. It is an honor for me to be part of this community of friends and colleagues of Sherman’s united in that same desire to make the world a better place.

Preserving and Promoting Freedom of the Press: An International Symposium

Across the world, the right to capture and disseminate news and other forms of media is under attack. The lives of journalists and photographers are on the line as well as the state of democracy and freedom around the world.

Please join Tisch College of Civic Life and The Institute for Global Leadership at the “Preserving and Promoting Freedom of the Press” symposium to discuss the state of freedom of the press on a global scale, bringing in the perspectives of journalists, leaders, and advocates in the field. The symposium will include four panels over three days with refreshments to follow each event.

This three-day symposium will include reporters from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, contributors to the Washington Post, National Geographic, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Time and The Guardian and leaders and analysts from the Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN America, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, the International Women’s Media Foundation, Alliance for Securing Democracy, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and many other organizations.

View speaker bios and additional information.

Symposium Schedule:

Thursday, October 13, 2022, 7:00pm, Cabot 206
Welcome and Introduction
Welcome: Taina McField, Associate Dean for Strategy at Tisch College
Introduction: Gowri Kashyap, South Asian Regional Committee

“Freedom of the Press under Authoritarian Regimes”
Panelists: Rana Ayyub, Fahim Abed, Adefemi Akinsanya, Olga Churakova (virtual), David Maas, Sherif Mansour (virtual)
Moderator: Emma Jennings, Oslo Scholars/Middle East Research Group
Refreshments afterward

Watch "Freedom of the Press under Authoritarian Regimes" on Zoom

Friday, October 14, 2022, 3:00pm, Cabot 206
“Journalism in an Era of Misinformation & Disinformation”
Panelists: Matthew Cooper, Tiffany Hsu, Allison Lee (virtual), Ilya Lozovsky (virtual), Bret Schafer (virtual), Michael Zwirn
Moderator: Paloma Delgado, Latin American Committee/EPIIC
Refreshments afterward 

Watch "Journalism in the Era of Misinformation and Disinformation" on Zoom

Saturday, October 15, 9:30am, Barnum 008
“Coffee Chat with Christina Goldbaum”
Panelist: Christina Goldbaum, NYT correspondent in the Kabul, Afghanistan
Moderator: Francisco Salazar, EPIIC

Watch "Coffee Chat with Christina Goldbaum" on Zoom

Saturday, October 15. 10:00am, Barnum 008
“Chronicling War and Occupation”
Panelists: Mike Eckel, Moises Saman, Justin Shilad (virtual), Lauren Wolfe
Introductory Presentation: Ron Haviv, VII (virtual)
Moderator: Riya Matt and Janya Gambhir, SARC 

Watch "Chronicling War and Occupation" on Zoom

Saturday, October 15, 2022, 11:30am, Barnum 008
“Women in Journalism Around the World”
Panelists: Molly Ferrill (virtual), Elisa Lees Muñoz, Vivian Salama, Nichole Sobecki (virtual)
Moderator: Carolina Hidalgo-McCabe, Middle East Research Group/EPIIC and Samantha Karlin, NeuroLeadership Institute Facilitator

Watch "Women in Journalism Around the World" on Zoom

Lunch: 1:15pm, Curtis Hall

This wonderful symposium designed by the student leaders and membership of the current vibrant groups of the Institute for Global Leadership with the mentorship and critical support of Heather Barry, represents the first in what I hope will be a series of ongoing quality programs resonant of the 30 years that I recognized such student work during my directorship. I could not be more proud of the continuity that this autonomous student work represents.

• Sherman Teichman Founding Director Emeritus The Institute for Global Leadership

Teny Oded Gross

A veteran of the Israeli Defense Force and of trying to build peace between Palestinians and Israelis, Teny began his career in ending violence as a senior street worker for the city of Boston. He was later recruited for the position of CEO at the Nonviolence Institute in Providence, RI. Teny has a Bachelors in Fine Arts from Tufts, a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard, and a fellowship in Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management from Harvard Business School.

I first met Teny at Brookline’s Temple Israel’s gathering to support Soldiers against Silence, a conscientious objectors group of former Israeli soldiers opposed to the occupation of Palestine. In the Q&A session we made sense to one another and began to talk. 

Teny was a Tufts University senior majoring in philosophy, but also enrolled in the Tufts University Museum School for the Arts, concentrating in photographic arts. I asked him to consider joining my EPIIC Colloquium that year, 1989, on “Transformations in the Global Economy.” (link) He brought a very distinctive, wise sensibility to our class . He was a bit older, and certainly  more mature than his peers. An officer and veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, after his service he had taken off to tour Europe as a motocross racer and mechanic.

He never lorded his obvious talents over his fellow students. He was chosen by his peers to introduce and dialogue with the Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen (link), at the EPIIC symposium of that year. (Professor Sen was my inaugural Doctor Jean Mayer Award for Global Citizenship, the first recipient of the award I gave in honor of my friend, Jean, the President and Chancellor of Tufts University. Professor Sen, a valued colleague of Jean’s, was known, as recorded in a New York Times article, as the moral conscience of the dismal science, economics.)

Teny and I had long conversations over that first year, on Israeli politics, inequality, sports…whatever, often in my car, droving him home. I was soon to learn that Teny was a photographer with a distinctive social conscience and consciousness. Teny, an Israeli of Serbian-Croat background, went to live in the Ella Baker House (link) in Dorchester and used photography with young, at-risk African-American street kids, teaching them to document their lives in exhibitions of their work and as a means of communication. He entered their world to counsel them on what he was passionate about: social justice, equality, and non-violence.

As a Harvard’s Divinity School graduate and was very involved with the inner city clergy of Boston as a street minister. He was featured in this 1999cCommonwealth cover story, “The Word on the Street: Boston’s street ministers reach out to youths in trouble - How to save souls? Start by saving lives.” 

Teny left Boston to assume the directorship of Providence Rhode Island’s ’s Institute for the Practice and Study of Nonviolence. This article from Rhode Island Monthly (April 2006), “The Reluctant Warrior, spoke of him appropriately as “intrepid” and as the “prophet of Providence.”

This Harvard alumni magazine article “Taking it to the streets” speaks to his passion for mentoring and the efficacy of nonviolence. Teny was a frequent participant in many of our Tufts Institute for Global Leadership programs. He worked closely with “street bangers,” former gang members who had been released after serving their prison terms, as his front-line troops.

Our students worked meaningfully with his street workers. One, special man was  David Cartagena, who passed away in 2010. My son Nathaniel who worked on researching the school-to-prison pipeline with him, wrote this eulogy for David:

The loss of such a man as David is unthinkably tragic, both for those he loved and inspired and for those he never got a chance to influence. The Tufts community was fortunate enough to hear David speak about youth and the urban poor during the 2008 EPIIC Global Poverty and Inequality Symposium and again in 2009 when he addressed the challenges of urban crime and violence at EPIIC’s “Cities: Forging an Urban Future” symposium. David was tireless in his pursuit of peace. He spread his infectious enthusiasm and unflinching commitment to nonviolence from Providence, Rhode Island to Portland, Oregon, reaching all the way to Antigua, Guatemala. Charming and intelligent, David was equally comfortable helping gang members turn their lives around, a path he himself followed, or conversing with heads of state as he did during the Project on Justice in Times of Transition’s “Leaders of the Present” Conference. Today there is a little less joy, a little less love, and a little less courage for us as a community to draw on. David was an extraordinary man who rose from difficult circumstances to make a difference for everyone around him. His impact as a peacemaker, as a leader, as a father, as a friend and as a person will never be forgotten and together we must strive to keep his legacy alive. David often spoke about the need to reach out and touch others with love. David lived these words, advocating for kids that had no one else to help and encourage them. Now, we as a community must not allow this responsibility to go unfulfilled.

Teny is tenacious and powerful, modest and thoughtful. He is to my mind, a quintessential Trebuchet mentor.

Gabriel Koehler-Derrick

I am an Assistant Professor, tenure track, in the Department of Political Science at NYU Abu Dhabi. I received my Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University in June 2020  and was a postdoctoral research associate at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

My research focuses on state building, economic development, and the politics of religion, with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa and has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, International Organization, Terrorism and Political Violence, and International Studies Quarterly.

From 2010 until 2014, I taught in the Social Sciences Department at the United States Military Academy and worked in the Combating Terrorism Center. Prior to West Point, I completed a Master's degree in International Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Political Affairs, and received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Tufts University.

Justin Hefter

Justin Hefter has dedicated his life to protecting young people who stand up for democracy and human rights in some of the most dangerous countries in the world. To that end, he has co-founded two nonprofit organizations: The 30 Birds Foundation and The African Middle Eastern Leadership Project (AMEL). The 30 Birds Foundation has evacuated more than 450 schoolgirls, family-members and activists for girls education from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and is working to secure the educational futures for Afghan women. The AMEL Project provides young activists with the tools, networks and support to promote dignity and rights across Africa and the Middle East. In addition to his work with 30 Birds and AMEL, Justin supports human rights cases independently as a consultant, advocate and public speaker. He has consulted on cases of activists from Yemen, Sudan, Uganda, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Nigeria and Vietnam. He is widely known for his efforts to help the peace activist Mohammed Al Samawi escape from extremists during Yemen’s civil war in 2015, as told in Mohammed’s memoir and soon-to-be film The Fox Hunt.

Justin has won several awards for his work, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Medal of Valor and the American Jewish Committee San Francisco’s Lloyd Sankowich Award for Outstanding Leadership. Justin is a Seeds of Peace GATHER Fellow, an Ariane de Rothschild Accelerating Humanity Fellow, a member of the Schusterman ROI Community for Jewish leaders, and a member of the American Jewish Committee’s Interfaith Steering Committee. Prior to launching AMEL and 30 Birds, Justin was the co-founder and CEO of Bandura Games, a video game startup he cofounded with Israeli and Palestinian partners that developed video games to connect kids from across conflict zones. Justin’s work has been featured in multiple books, including The Fox Hunt by Mohammed Al Samawi and See, Solve Scale: How Anyone Can Turn an Unsolved Problem into a Breakthrough Success by Brown University Professor Danny Warshay. He currently serves on the board of directors for AMEL, 30 Birds and the American Jewish Committee San Francisco. He has previously served on the board of Stanford University Hillel. Justin holds a BA in Public Policy from Stanford University and a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. At Harvard, Justin worked closely with Professor Ronald Heifetz as a course coach, co-teaching Adaptive Leadership to Harvard graduate students.

The 30 Birds Foundation is a nonprofit that evacuates primarily minority schoolgirls and their families from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. After helping more than 450 people escape the country, the Foundation is working to ensure the evacuees are able to continue their education and advocacy in support of democracy and human rights. Furthermore, 30 Birds is exploring innovative ways to continue to support the education and careers of women and girls who have been left behind.

The African Middle Eastern Leadership Project (AMEL) is a nonprofit founded in 2017 that operates an online university for human rights activists. AMEL trains, connects, and protects the next generation of young leaders who are advocating for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, religious freedom and other human rights causes across Africa and the Middle East. AMEL recruits the top young activists from across 40+ countries in the MEA region, and then brings in seasoned experts and activists who have found success in the field to teach on democracy, human rights, genocide-prevention and the Holocaust, digital security, physical security, non-violent movement building, trauma-therapy and self-care.

José María Argueta

José María Argueta, the ambassador and permanent representative of Guatemala to the Organization of American States (OAS), has a long history of government service. Former ambassador to Japan and Peru, he was Guatemala’s first civilian national security advisor under President Ramiro de Leon Carpio and secretary of strategic intelligence during President Otto Pérez Molina’s first two years in office.

He coauthored and implemented both the widely recognized ESTNA Methodology, a conflict resolution method that was instrumental in the peace processes of Guatemala and El Salvador, and the “Crisis Committee,” designed to institutionalize the presidential decision-making process. As ambassador to Japan, he coauthored the Central America-Japan Initiative, which resulted in the 2005 “Tokyo Declaration,” and as ambassador to Peru, he helped negotiate the release of hostages at the Japanese Embassy in 1996.

He has served as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank, Harvard University’s Center for Conflict Resolution, and the National Endowment of Democracy and sits on the International Advisory Board of Beyond Conflict, which assists leaders in divided societies struggling with conflict. Previously, he was a scholar/practitioner in residence at Tufts University’s Institute for Global Leadership.

The author of The Enlightened Dissent Methodology: A Leadership Methodology for Peace Building (2008), Argueta has written extensively on the root causes of social conflict.

I had a wonderful working and personal relationship with José for decades. He is known affectionately as “Chema” to his friends. Charismatic and courageous, he created our “Poverty and Power” research initiative at the Institute. We initially called it “Oligarchy and Corruption”, until we quickly realized how it would endanger both the students researching conflict areas and inequalities, and their interviewees. Chema was an INSPIRE fellow, a mentor for students of all Institute projects. He particularly participated in our “Iraq: Moving Forward” conference. He is a wonderful, compassionate teacher and the quintessential mentor.  

Neil Blumenthal

Neil Blumenthal is a co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. In 2015, Fast Company named Warby Parker the most innovative company in the world.

Prior to launching Warby Parker in 2010, Neil served as director of VisionSpring, a nonprofit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own businesses selling affordable eyeglasses to individuals living on less than $4 per day in developing countries.

He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. He serves on the board of RxArt and on the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council.

A native of New York City, Neil received his BA from Tufts University and his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

This is from an interview with Neil:

How did your time at Tufts influence your later work, both with VisionSpring and Warby Parker?

I think that Tufts in particular takes a global view and very much takes a view of action. So it’s one thing to be aware of challenges throughout the world, and it’s another thing to take steps to work to resolve those challenges and I think that’s a very Tufts thing, something that’s prevalent throughout the Tufts community. And I think about my classmates and it’s often a Tufts student that was the first to go out and not just pay lip service to changing the world but actually working to make it happen. I [studied] abroad, I went to Argentina and Spain, immediately after school, it was actually Sherman [Teichman] who helped me think about what, at the moment, I was most passionate about, and at the time it was international affairs and like many Tufts students I was an International Relations major, and a dual major with history. I wanted to, in the most basic terms, get people to stop killing each other so we could focus on the big issues like health and education, so I went over to the Netherlands, and did some graduate coursework on negotiation and conflict resolution, returned to New York to work at a think tank that came up with policies to resolve deadly conflict, before meeting Jordan Kassalow and starting at VisionSpring. 

Did you have a favorite class or professor at Tufts?

I think there were two classes. One was EPIIC, through the Institute for Global Leadership with Sherman Teichman. And then the second, this was a class called The Nuclear Age, and it was taught by Martin Sherwin and was also co-taught actually with a physics professor, so it was both sort of a history and a physics credit.

Any words of advice for the young and naïve?

One is the obvious one, always follow your passion. But in order to do that you need to discover what that is and part of that is doing things that you may like or dislike, to really get at the heart of it. But you should be thinking that everything you do, hopefully, opens more doors and if you have that frame of reference, hopefully you’ll create more and more opportunities for yourself.

This article from moneyinc on 10 things you didn’t know about Neil speaks to his interest in foreign policy and conflict resolution. These comments are germane to what we did together when he was an undergraduate. 

6. He Was Passionate about Foreign Policy

In an interview with startups.com, the CEO said he had been passionate about foreign policy and global affairs; therefore, he majored in International Relations and History at Tufts University, Massachusetts. He was hopeful that he would change the world by working at the State Department, so he took the Foreign Service exam. He later worked on negotiations in the Netherlands, believing that the only way he would let people focus on significant issues like health and education was to stop people from killing each other.

9. He was Disappointed after Learning about How Foreign Policy Works

While Blumenthal wanted to influence change directly, he realized that coming up with policies that would never be implemented was a waste of time. He became disillusioned while working at a think tank because it dawned on him he would be sitting in an office for the rest of his career, developing policies and passing them on to those who were supposed to implement them. His need to solve problems directly, therefore, led him to think about becoming an entrepreneur.

Neil recently delivered the COVID-delayed Tufts class of 2020 commencement talk and he called me the night before to reminisce. 

Beyond our wonderful teacher/mentor, and student relationship, there were some other truly unexpected pivotal moments in my life with Neil.

When my son Nathaniel was considering business school, I introduced him to Neil who had graduated Wharton and was already taking Warby Parker on its great trajectory. He reinforced Nathaniel's decision. He ultimately applied and graduated from Columbia Business School.

Five years ago, Neil alerted Nathaniel that he was going to deliver a talk on entrepreneurship at CBS. Nathaniel arrived at the Columbia auditorium early, deposited his backpack under a prime seat and left. When he returned a winsome young woman, who was considering CBS had taken his chair. With the auditorium still quite empty, with people slowly gathering, Nathaniel sat down next to her. Now five years later, they are husband and wife. 

I joke about them as "the lion and the lioness," as she graduated Columbia's graduate school of Public and International Affairs (SIPA).

Kelly is Director of Projects at IUNU, (“you knew”), an industrial computer vision company connecting plants, facilities, and people through a single interface, LUNA turns commercial greenhouses into precise, predictable, demand-based manufacturers. 

Nathaniel is currently the Head of Strategy & Business Development at Master & Dynamic. and the creator of Stance.

Don't miss it - register today for American Complicity in the Israeli Occupation!

Don't miss our special educational series on American Complicity in the Israeli Occupation. 

Our first conversation, with Peter Beinart, contributing opinion writer at The New York Times, and Nizar Farsakh, Founding Chair of the Museum of the Palestinian People. Will be held on:

Monday, October 3
7:00pm ET / 4:00pm PT. 

If you want to attend but can’t make the time, a recording will be made available for everyone who registers in advance. 

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Talk 2: The Evangelical Community

featuring:
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis and Lisa Sharon Harper

In what ways, both public and private, is the American Evangelical Community supporting and sustaining the Occupation?

Tuesday, October 18, 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT

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 Talk 3: Midterm Elections

featuring:
Matt Duss, Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders

How will this upcoming American election influence the future of Israel, Palestine, and the Occupation?

Wednesday, November 2, 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT

P.S: We are excited to share that this past year, CfP launched the Palestinian Freedom School (Madraset al-Huriyaa). Our current class is composed of 26 emerging Palestinian activists ages 17 to 28. These young leaders come from all over the West Bank to learn creative non-violent methods, organize mass action, and advocate for the Palestinian cause. This month, the cohort met for the fourth time and our young leaders gathered in Ramallah for an intensive training on using social media as a powerful tool for nonviolent civil resistance.  

CfP was able to launch the Palestinian Freedom School because of your generosity, compassion, and commitment to peace. We are so grateful that you are a part of the Combatants for Peace family and we can't wait to see you soon! 

In solidarity and hope,

 Beth Schuman

 Executive Director
 American Friends of Combatants for Peace

New year, new hope?

Dear Friends,

In Israel, we are busy preparing for the High Holidays. Deciding where to have our festive dinner, remembering whose turn it is to host, dipping our apples in honey and pausing to reflect on the year that was. We have to admit, we started the year more enthusiastically than we are ending it. The Hebrew year 5782 brought with it a new ‘Government of Change’ - one that would restore democracy, that promised better times ahead, and that would make ending the occupation a priority and a reality. It wasn’t an easy task and we relied on a small number of minority parties to make a dent in the wall of right wing nationalistic rhetoric. It didn’t work.

Once again, the occupation was put on the political and social back burner, settlements expanded and the Palestinian 2022 death toll in the West Bank is the highest it has been for seven years. The Israeli coalition government crumbled as violence took hold, and politicians were reminded once again that the occupation cannot be ignored, and that restoring democracy inherently begins with ending the military rule of one people over another. Israelis go back to the polls again in November and our hope is to elect strong leaders who have the courage to make ending the occupation a national priority and who will break the ugly status-quo. 

As Yair Lapid said on the UN stage yesterday “Peace is not a compromise”. We couldn’t agree more! But neither is human rights, access to water, and freedom of movement. We were cautiously optimistic to hear the words ‘Peace’ and ‘Palestinians’ in the same sentence, but now we need action, and to take positive steps to end settler violence, evacuate illegal outposts, and get back around the table for direct peace talks.

One thing we do know, is that regardless of who is in power, we have to be the change we want to see. We will continue to unite Israelis and Palestinians and create friendships, coalitions and partnerships that many people think are impossible. We are a model of togetherness that we are repeatedly told can’t happen - yet here we are!

On that note, we finally got to spend quality time together, in person! We held our annual bi-national movement meeting, and for anyone who thinks Palestinians and Israelis are only destined to be enemies, see the photos below. We are forever each other's partners for peace.

In Peace & Solidarity from Israel/Palestine,

Rana Salman

Palestinian Director

 Yonatan Gher

  Israeli Director

Israeli - Palestinian All Movement Meeting

We met last week in Beit Sahour, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, for our annual bi-national members and staff meeting. Dozens of Israelis and Palestinians filled our conference suite, to come together for the first time since Covid kept us apart. We hugged and caught up on our lives, our frustrations, and our hopes for the future. 

Throughout the two days that we were together, we listened, we shared, we argued and we debated the issues that matter to us most. We talked about the urgent need to encourage young people to join us, and how women must be at the center of peace making. We looked for ways to spread our message of non-violence, and ultimately, how we can end the occupation once and for all.

We heard from our Palestinian colleagues and friends about their lives in the Jordan Valley, Jericho, Hebron and Nablus. How they live without access to water or electricity, stuck between checkpoints and humiliated by permits. We can't sit back while this continues. 

We have a plan, and we intend to do whatever it takes to change the system, to bring about peace, and to deliver equality, justice and freedom for all.

The Art of facilitation workshop

Combatants for Peace volunteers took part in a creative, unique event hosted in Lublin, Poland. The workshop was designed to strengthen and promote leadership skills for activists through the medium of art, theatre and performance.

Participants included Ukrainian refugees and female Armenian educators amongst others, and together the group heard personal stories, and designed protest actions as a team. Liat, a CfP member and one of the event organisers shared this reflection following the workshop;

"There are two significant sentences that stayed with me from the workshop that I would like to share: the first was Ayman's sentence - who concluded the workshop by saying that his heart was opened to the story and situation of other countries at war, and that his head was opened to the desire to learn and know more. The second sentence was said by one of the Ukrainian participants "I used to have no problem cooperating with Russians, today I can't imagine how we will bridge the gaps. I am glad that there is a living example of Israelis and Palestinians here and I would love to hear about your path."

Our ongoing work depends on people like you, who share our vision of peace, reconciliation and justice.

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