Maria Figueroa Kupcu

Maria is a senior advisor to boards and executive teams on strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, crisis and reputation. She draws on decades of experience reconciling public, private, investor and NGO positions in the arenas of environmental sustainability, climate risk and social impact.

Through her work, Maria helps clients to define and communicate ambitious leadership programs -- and to transform the decision-making, organizational culture and operational structures that enable these programs to succeed.

Her work has included: PepsiCo’s ambitious global Performance with Purpose effort, led by former CEO Indra K. Nooyi; Bloomberg Philanthropy’s pioneering work in climate finance and decarbonization ambition; the PwC-initiated CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion and many more.

Previously, Maria was a Partner at Brunswick Group, a global critical issues and financial situations advisory firm. Over 15 years, she helped establish and grow Brunswick’s Business & Society practice and launched four related offers: ESG, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Foundations and Nonprofits and Stakeholder Engagement. For six years, she was concurrently head of Brunswick’s New York office, the second largest in the global network. In this role, she led a team of over 200 client-facing and business services professionals and held numerous roles in the firm’s senior management team, including as founding co-chair of the U.S. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and as head of the New York Office’s Incident Management Response Team through the Covid-19 pandemic. As a senior global client relationship manager, Maria helped guide the firm’s approach to scaling client relationship management best practices. She is an avid mentor and an active teacher of her profession.

Maria began her career at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) contributing what became the Sustainable Development Goals. During this time, she used her grassroots organizing skills to mobilize Youth for Habitat II -- a global youth coalition that influenced international policy on youth economic development and entrepreneurship. The group continues today.

She is an experienced opinion researcher, learning the craft as Director of International Political and Corporate Campaigns for Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB). Here, she supported presidential and parliamentary races in the U.S., Ukraine, South Korea, and Zimbabwe. She has worked extensively with leaders to craft research-driven winning messages and strategies that build public support.

Maria graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School and Tufts University, where she was Chair of the Board of the Institute for Global Leadership from 2019-2022 and a board member since 2012. She also serves on the board of the Turkish Philanthropy Fund. In 2002, Maria and her husband founded Double Knot, the premier gallery of tribal carpets and textiles in New York City. She is the mother of two teens and loves to travel, cook and research her family history through its varied multi-cultural roots that include Italian, Filippino and Polish heritage.

Mary Kurey

Prior to starting my corporate career, I attended the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a minor in French. In 1984, I spent a year studying in Paris (Sorbonne) and have been a life-long Francophile. My career was spent with the same firm, under a variety of different names (Hewitt Associates, Aon-Hewitt and Alight).

I worked in Employee Benefits & HR Business Outsourcing providing consulting and management support to several global S&P 500 clients. I lead teams to set up and deliver systems and administration services for 401(k) retirement plans and later payroll services, corporate health plans, and compensation plans.

Throughout my career, I gravitated to the role of (and was assigned to clients as the) “problem solver.”. I was akin to Winston Wolfe (played by Harvey Keitel) in the movie Pulp Fiction. As “the cleaner,” I gathered the facts, collaborated with my team, and got the plan in motion. And, in the process, cleaned up the mess. Client relationships and employee relations get ugly when an implementation or a paycheck error isn’t quickly addressed and fixed.

I met my husband of 24 years, Peter, on a bicycle club ride in 1996. It was a Halloween ride that started on Shades of Death Road in New Jersey. (This is not a joke.) We started dating and realized that we both loved bicycling as well as cross-country skiing. We took up fly fishing together, which has taken us on many adventures, like fishing with an indigenous family on the tundra in northern Alaska, steelhead fishing in British Columbia and trout fishing in Montana. The rest, as they say, is history.

After over 30 years with my nose to the corporate grindstone, my nose was getting worn out as well as my enthusiasm for corporate life. Peter was feeling the same way, and we decided it was time to concentrate on doing what we loved most: Nordic skiing, bicycling, fly fishing, gardening and birding. We left suburbia in New Jersey and moved to Bozeman, Montana. It was like being thrown into the deep end of the pool in freezing water—in a good, invigorating way. Bozeman is an outdoor paradise as well as being a university town (Montana State University). Bozeman ticked off all of our outdoor boxes as well as being a cultural center for southwest Montana—really! While I enjoyed my career working in data and logic (and still do), what does it mean if you can’t connect it meaningfully to culture and how we live or want to live? I’m grateful for my lengthy career with the same firm and our retired life in Bozeman.

Walcott Prize Winner - MOSAB ABU TOHA

THIS YEAR’S WINNER:

Arrowsmith Press, in conjunction with Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and The Walcott Festival in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, are delighted to announce that the winner of the third annual Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry is Mosab Abu Tohafor Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear published by City Lights. The winner was selected by author Canisia Lubrin from a short list of twelve finalists.

About Abu Toha’s work, Lubrin writes:
Here is a book which revels at an impossible pitch, the potent will to live heart-first in confrontation with life under brutal siege. Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is a supertonic glossary of sorrows so extreme it bends the brace of language into fortifying, never-naïve, elegy. Toha’s meticulous, and often brief, lines thread his own breathing witness into a poetry of mighty resolve, insisting poetry itself be worthy of a Palestinian lament. Toha insists on these songs, holding each by their own powerful weight and bond, into this rippling of a future out beyond the page. This is a work of great restraint and abundant attention presented as always waiting in the routine arrangements of the day-to-day. Such grace and understanding, daring because necessary, necessary because how powerful it is to hear a voice cut so sharply through today. So haunting, so searing, and above all, so lit by Mosab Abu Toha’s vibrant—what else to call it?—love.   

Author Bio
Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, scholar, and librarian who was born in Gaza and has spent his life there. He is the founder of the Edward Said Library, Gaza’s first English-language library. Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is his debut book of poems. The collection won an American Book Award, a 2022 Palestine Book Award and was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry.

In 2019-2020, Abu Toha was a Visiting Poet in the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. Abu Toha is a columnist for Arrowsmith Journal, and his writings from Gaza have also appeared in The Nation and Literary Hub. His poems have been published in Poetry, The Nation, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Poetry Daily, and the New York Review of Books, among others.

Abu Toha will receive a $2,000 cash prize. Established in 2019, the annual prize is for a book in English or English translation by a living poet writing in any language who is not a US citizen (green card holders welcome) published in the previous calendar year.

To learn more about this book or to purchase it, visit: https://citylights.com/general-poetry/things-you-may-find-hidden-in-my-ear/

Submissions for the 2023 Walcott Prize are now open. To learn more, visit:
https://www.arrowsmithpress.com/walcott

Solidarity: a path to liberation -- Combatants for Peace

Watch the Recording 


Moderator, A'ida Shibli, began the conversation by inviting us to think of our time together as a "ceremony." Through deep listening, silence, and searching, we found comfort, connection, and direction. Moderator, Stephen Apkon, discussed how each time Palestinians and Israelis choose to stand together, especially in times of intense trauma, it is a heroic and sacred act. He reflected, "[Through CfP] I've learned the importance of nonviolence in the work to end the occupation, and I've learned the importance of not dehumanizing anyone because when we do, we dehumanize ourselves." 

 

It was humbling and powerful to hear from CfP's Palestinian and Israeli activists about their commitment to interdependence.

 

CfP Israeli Co-Founder, Avner, shared, "We must be open to all of this suffering, to the pain of all people, and be able to hold it...This very sensitivity to human life is our engine and our generator. This very sensitivity has extended our sense of self...To bomb 'them' is to bomb Souli and Rana, and it is to bomb myself...

 

CfP Palestinian Co-Founder, Souli, encouraged us to hold fast to our values, not simply during times of comfort, but in the face of immense challenges and great suffering. When reflecting on "another way", Souli shared, "I feel this voice is really loud now and I feel this can offer an alternative to other people - rather than the voice of darkness or the voice of us vs. them."

 

Many of you have asked for CfP's recent statement and the poems read during the meeting. Please find links below:

CfP's recent call to actionMahmoud Darwish PoemLeah Goldberg PoemAs a bonus, Stephen Apkon, Director and Producer of "Disturbing the Peace" has generously offered free access to the film

Support Combatants for Peace

Combatants for Peace invites us to reject dualistic thinking and choose a third way - a path of safety, dignity, and liberty for all who live on the land. Thank you for your incredible solidarity and support during this time. We will move forward together - holding fast to our values and shared humanity. 

 

Podcast - Can Violent Extremists Leave Their Past?

Guest host Michael Niconchuk looks for answers with experts Juncal Fernandez-Garayzabal and Noah Tucker.

Violent extremism is growing globally. It doesn’t know religion or creed. Where once it was confined to specific ideology or identity groups, at least in public discourse and discussion, now it appears across societies, across cultures and across borders. Violent extremist ideologies and actions are becoming part of the global fabric.

Why do people get involved in this type of violence? How can they disengage? Can violent extremists be helped to reenter society integrated in healthy, socially positive, empowered ways to engage as productive and peaceful citizens?

In this episode of New Thinking for a New World, guest host Michael Niconchuk looks for answers. Mike, a Tällberg Foundation board member, serves on the Advisory Board of the Counter Extremism Project and is a program manager at the Wend Collective. His guests are Juncal Fernandez-Garayzabal, development and program manager at the Counter Extremism Project, and Noah Tucker,program associate at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs Central Asia Program.

Can violent extremists once again become productive citizens? Can you imagine someone with that history living next door to you? Let us know what you think by commenting below

Listen to the episode here or find the New Thinking for a New World podcast on a platform of your choice (Apple podcastSpotify, Google podcastYoutube, etc

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Juncal Fernandez-Garayzabal, Ph.D., is Counter Extremism Project’s (CEP) Development and Program Manager, but she is also one of the co-founders of Parallel Networks, a 501C3 non-profit organization set up to combat polarization, hate and extremism in the United States. Juncal has gained professional experience researching conflicts, forced migrations, organized crime and security. Her research has developed through collaboration in projects with institutions like Georgetown University, the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and UNICEF Madrid. She also gained hands-on experience in peacebuilding while in Latin America and Africa, where she provided psychosocial support to internally displaced populations and other victims of extremism and violence in post-conflict settings. Since 2019 she has been working to build the capacity of several countries, including the United States, the Republic of the Maldives, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan to effectively rehabilitate and reintegrate individuals returning from conflict areas and those convicted for extremism-related offenses.

Noah Tucker is a program associate at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs Central Asia Program. He was previously Executive Editor for the Not in Our Name film and television series, the first region-wide project designed to prevent violent extremism in Central Asia through community dialogues in areas most directly affected by recruiting to Syria. Noah has worked as a consultant on multiple collaborative projects for government, academic and international organizations to identify the way social and religious groups affect political and security outcomes in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Recent publications include “Uzbek Women in the Syrian Conflict: First-Person Narratives and Gendered Perspectives on Mobilization and De-Mobilization.” Noah has worked on Central Asian issues since 2002—specializing in religion, national identity, ethnic conflict and social media—and received an MA from Harvard in Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies in 2008 and is currently a recipient of the Handa Studentship at the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews (Scotland). He has spent some six years living and working in in the region, primarily in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and works in Russian and Uzbek. He most recently conducted fieldwork and training to support reintegration efforts for returnees from the Syrian conflict in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in October 2023.

ABOUT OUR GUEST HOST

Michael Niconchuk is a researcher and practitioner at the intersection of psychological trauma recovery, migration, and violence prevention. Trained in security studies, international relations, and social cognition, Michael has worked for more than a decade in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Balkans to support local capacities to offer evidence-based care for persons affected by violent conflict, extremism, and displacement, including extensive work on innovative community programs and policy to support the healing and wholeness of folks affected by the Syrian conflict as well as the return and rehabilitation of the families of foreign terrorist fighters in the Middle East. He is the author of The Field Guide for Barefoot Psychology and numerous publications on mental health, identity-based violence, and migration.

Ryan Svetanoff

Ryan Svetanoff is a Chemical Technician for the Chemistry Undergraduate Preparations Laboratory at Purdue University. In this role, he collaborates with professors, course coordinators, and head teaching assistants to provide impactful educational experiences for more than 5,000 students every year. Ryan provides services to not only ensure current teaching objectives are met in the laboratory setting, but also to allow instructors to have the freedom to develop new experiments to further grow their courses. Ryan oversees more than 100 teaching assistants every year, serving as a role model for them exemplified by the recognition he received with the Professional Achievement Award from the Purdue College of Science in just two years of his early career. Ryan received his BS in Chemistry from Purdue University on a full ride through the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship, MS in Management, cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, and a MS in Kinesiology from Indiana University.

Ryan also had a role in the Pugwash ecosystem where he was the President of the Purdue University chapter during his undergraduate studies. Through this involvement is how he and his sister Rachel met Sherman, keeping in touch today.

Michael Linick

Michael Linick is a Senior Defense and Political Science Researcher at The RAND Corporation, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown. A retired Army Colonel, with 30 years as an Infantry and Force Management officer, Michael’s research focuses on finding ways for the Army to function more effectively and efficiently, on Active Component/Reserve Component integration, on personnel policy, and on how to best tailor the Army to meet current and emerging strategic challenges. He has worked with the Offices of the Secretary of Defense on a variety of personnel policy issues, on developing new ways to measure strategic readiness, and by providing advice and counsel to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense on how to restructure their department to better meet Iraqi security needs. From 2017-2020 he directed The RAND Army Research Division’s Personnel, Training, and Health research portfolio. Michael teaches graduate courses in “Strategy, Policy, and Military Operations” and in “Insurgency and Counterinsurgency” in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service’s Security Studies Program.

Michael has extensive experience with wargames, as a hobbyist, as a Soldier, and at RAND.Michael was one of the lead designers for a game called “Hedgemony: A Game of Strategic Choices”, RAND’s first ever policy game published for sale to the general public. This game, which was designed to support development of the 2018 National Security Strategy, exposes players to the difficulty of balancing a constrained budget with the demands of a wide variety of world crises, and the need to look to both near term and long term readiness; balancing the size, readiness, posture, and modernization of the force to achieve strategic goals. He has been part of the design team supporting the first ever policy level gaming for the U.S. Coast Guard, and for several tactical and operational games used to better understand combat between modern armies.

During his military career, Michael served in a variety of Infantry positions in Korea, Germany, Kosovo, and across the United States. As a Force Management officer, Michael was the Chief of Force Management for both the senior ground headquarters of Operation Enduring Freedom (CFLCC, 2001-2) and the senior headquarters for Operation Iraqi Freedom (MNF-I/USF-I, 2009-10). He developed and wrote the Army’s first equipping strategy in 2008, and coordinated the Total Army Analysis process for the Army from 2010-2013.

Michael is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz (BA in Politics, 1983), Georgetown University (MA in National Security Studies, 1996), Catholic University (MA and PhD. Candidacy in World Politics, 2005) and the Army War College (MA in Security Studies, 2006), as well as a wide variety of military schools. He was a co-founder of Georgetown’s National Security Studies Quarterly (now known as the Security Studies Review), and its first Senior Editor. His military awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.

Debra Linick

Debbie Linick’s federal government and non-profit service spans four decades of work in international diplomacy and federal resource management as well as non-profit advocacy, fundraising, and strategic leadership.

Debbie started her career within the Department of Defense as a Presidential Management Fellow (previously “PMI”). She served as an agreements negotiator for the U.S. Army in Europe (USAREUR) and contingency operations budget director for Operation Enduring Freedom supporting the mission in Afghanistan during 2001-2002. At the United Nations she represented the U.S. position in the working group for contingency operation reimbursement models. Her federal government service culminated in an assignment with the U.S. Department of State, overseeing non-proliferation assistance programs in the Former Soviet Union (FSU). Her government service included projects and travels in Moldova, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Russia, Kosovo, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Haiti, the United Nations, and other deployed environments.

Debbie’s non-profit work includes advocacy, fundraising, strategic leadership, and community relations for a variety of groups with local, national, and international focus. She served for a decade lobbying on behalf of the Jewish community in D.C. and Virginia and overseeing their community relations with interfaith partners, the media, schools, and law enforcement. Debbie chairs a Development Committee for the Educators’ Institute of Human Rights, “Where the world’s teachers partner to end hate,” and co-chairs legislative and regulatory work for the Refugee Physicians’ Advocacy Committee.

She leads partnership and fundraising efforts for Specialisterne North America (SPNA) and Specialisterne Global (SPG) which help expand employment opportunities for neurodiverse individuals. Outside of her day jobs and volunteering, Debbie started “Pictures with Prose,” a digital storytelling and portrait photography service inspired by her work and volunteering with Holocaust and cancer survivors, blended and new immigrant families, as well as many other everyday heroes.

Debbie is a former Dean's Scholar from Georgetown University's School of Business, where she earned her M.B.A. in 1993 and a graduate of Tufts University where she graduated magna cum laude with a major in International Relations and proudly participated in Sherman’s 2 nd Symposium, Foreign Policy Imperatives for the Next Presidency” in 1988. Debbie earned Phi Beta Theta honors for her Associates Degree in Photography in 2015. 

Debbie lives in Springfield with her husband Michael. Their many children, biological, adopted, steps and exchanges, are launched around the world. They report their parents as being terrible “empty nesters” as they continue to follow the tradition of Abraham and Sarah in keeping their tent open on all sides to guests for varying stays.

Jessica Berlin

Jessica Berlin is a foreign policy analyst, founder of CoStruct, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at the pan-African fintech company Bridge Technologies. She previously lived and worked in Afghanistan, China, Myanmar, Rwanda, the UK, including with the US Senate, US Department of Defense, and the German development agency. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Jessica has emerged as a prominent German foreign policy commentator. Her analyses have been featured by DW News, BBC, CNN, the Washington Post, Al Jazeera English, ZDF, ARD, France 24, Tagesspiegel, NZZ, Bild, et al.

The first half of Jessica's cross-cutting career was spent working with government agencies, think tanks, and NGOs on security, foreign policy, and economic development. Following these formative experiences she decided to pave her own way, founding the strategy consultancy CoStruct to build bridges between the public and private sector to scale sustainable business and technology solutions in developing and emerging markets. Over the past 9 years as founder and managing director of CoStruct, Jessica has advised government agencies, foundations, tech companies, and investment funds in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and was co-founder of the MakerNet digital distributed manufacturing alliance.

In the lead up to and aftermath of the 2021 fall of Kabul to the Taliban, Jessica paused her CoStruct work to voluntarily assist evacuation efforts for her friends, former colleagues, and other Afghans who had worked with international organizations. This crisis was closely followed by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in winter 2022, during which Jessica again voluntarily mobilized evacuation and crisis response efforts. Since spring 2022, Jessica put her normal work on hold to devote herself full time to supporting Ukrainian victory efforts. Her work for Ukraine was profiled by the German paper Berliner Zeitung.

A frequent public speaker, her TEDx on the transatlantic democratic crisis has been described as "one of the most powerful and inspiring TED talks.” She holds an MSc in Political Economy of Emerging Markets from King’s College London and a BA in International Relations from Tufts. At Tufts Jessica was a freshman member of the 2004-2005 EPIIC Colloquium and engaged member of the IGL community. She went to South Africa for a symposium on international conflict resolution and the UAE for a women's rights conference; organized and led a five-student team independent research project to Rwanda; was a member of NIMEP; and co-founded the Tufts Collaborative on Africa, a student group focused on African politics.



The View from My Window in Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha

Illustration by Jan Robert Dünnweller

It is Thursday, October 12th, and half sheets of paper are falling from the sky in Beit Lahia, the city in northern Gaza where my family’s house is. Each sheet is printed with an Israeli military emblem, along with a warning: stay away from Hamas military sites and militants, and leave your homes immediately.

When I go downstairs, I find my parents and siblings packing their bags. Local schools, many of them run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, are already crowded with displaced families. But my uncle has called my mother to say that we can stay with his wife’s family in Jabalia camp, the largest of Gaza’s refugee settlements and home to tens of thousands of people.

My wife, sister-in-law, mother, sisters, and children travel to the camp by car. My older brother, brother-in-law, and I ride our bicycles. On the road, we see dozens of families, walking with whatever they can carry. Israel will soon tell more than a million residents of northern Gaza to evacuate immediately, an order that the U.N. calls “impossible.”

That night, around 8:30, a blast lights up the apartment where we have taken refuge. Dust fills every corner of the room. I hear screams as loud as the explosion. I go outside, but I can hardly walk because the lanes are filled with stone and rebar. My brother-in-law’s car, about fifty metres away, is on fire. Nearby, a house is burning. On the second floor, which no longer has any walls, I can see an injured woman hanging over the edge of the building, holding a motionless child.

The houses in Jabalia are so small that the street becomes your living room. You hear what your neighbors talk about, smell what they cook. Many lanes are less than a metre wide. After two days in the camp, on Saturday morning, my family has no bread to eat. Israel has cut Gaza’s access to electricity, food, water, fuel, and medicine. I look for bakeries, but hundreds of people are queuing outside each one. I remember that, two days before the escalation, we bought some pita. It is sitting in my fridge in Beit Lahia.

I decide to return home, but not to tell my wife or mother, because they would tell me not to go. The bike ride takes me ten minutes. The only people in the street are walking in the opposite direction, carrying clothes and blankets and food. It is frightening not to see any local children playing marbles or football. This is not my neighborhood, I think to myself.

On the main street leading to my house, I find the first of many shocking scenes. A shop where I used to take my children, to buy juice and biscuits, is in shambles. The freezer, which used to hold ice cream, is now filled with rubble. I smell explosives, and maybe flesh.

I ride faster. I turn left, toward my house.

Iwas born in Al-Shati refugee camp, which is one of the eight camps in the Gaza Strip. In 2000, just as the second Palestinian uprising started, my father decided to move us to Beit Lahia. When we arrived at our new house, there were no windows and the floor had no tiles. The water pipes in the kitchen and bathroom were exposed.

In 2010, my father took out a loan to buy the land next door. With my mother, he planted fruit trees—guava, lemon, orange, peach, and mango—and vegetables. As a hobby, he started raising hens, ducks, rabbits, and pigeons in the garden.

After I got married in 2015, I built my apartment on top of theirs. My wife and I could see the border with Israel out our bedroom window. My children could see our neighbor’s olive and lemon trees.

In 2021, when I returned from a fellowship in the United States, my parents generously refreshed my apartment, buying new plates, glasses, rugs, and a desk. They had shelves installed for all the books I brought back. They also had the ceiling painted with a pattern that I love. In the center is a big brown-and-yellow star, and around it are little triangles, circles, and a rainbow. The shapes and colors seem to embrace and coexist with one another, like strangers who share the same floor of a building. The moment I saw it, I knew how much love my parents had for me.

I expect to be the only person on my street, but as I approach my building, I am surprised to find my neighbor Jaleel. He has a cigarette in one hand and a watering can in the other. As he waters his strawberry plants, he tells me that his wife and sister-in-law are inside, doing laundry, filling water bottles, and stuffing food into plastic bags. His family is sheltering in a school. It has no clean water and the toilets are dirty, but they have no other options.

I am relieved to find my building still standing. I walk up the stairs to my third-floor apartment, stopping first in the kitchen. The fridge and freezer doors are open, just as we left them. There has been so little electricity that everything perishable has started to rot. But the bread is holding up.

I go into my library, where I normally work on my poems, stories, and essays. I have spent hours here, reading writers like Kahlil Gibran, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mary Karr, and Mahmoud Darwish. Everything is coated in dust. Some of my books have fallen off the shelves. A window is broken. I take some candy out of my desk drawer, for the kids.

Finally, I go into the living room. As always, the windows are open. I wish I could close them, especially on freezing winter days. The shock wave that follows explosions, however, would shatter the glass—and who now has the money to repair windows in Gaza? The curtains, which blow madly toward me during bombings, flutter in the breeze.

I sit on the couch and stare up at the colorful shapes on my ceiling. They still shine with fresh paint. Three lamps dangle down at me—two that are connected to the electrical grid, and a third that runs on battery power, for when the electricity goes out. None of them are working now.

Afternoon comes with an unusual heat. Outside, instead of the usual sounds of motorbikes and ice-cream trucks, I hear the whirring of drones. There are no students coming home from school, no cars taking families to the beach, no birds chirping in our garden trees. I hear ambulances and fire trucks, news on the radio, and sporadic blasts, which sometimes become incessant. All mingle in a strange new soundtrack.

A fly seems to be stuck in my living room. There is not much point in shooing it, but I open the window all the way, pulling the curtains aside. Then, suddenly, an explosion shoves me back. It shakes the earth, the house, my heart. Books tumble from my shelves.

I grab my phone and take some pictures. Two bombs have landed about fifty metres from each other, perhaps two kilometres away from where I am standing. Have they hit a farm, a tree, a home, a family? It is not only the explosions that kill us but also the smashing of houses that used to protect us from the elements.

Birds soar into the sky; one falls before rising. Maybe a stone has landed on its back. Who will dress its wounds? We barely have doctors for people.

I return to the couch. Notifications on my phone share breaking news: “Two big explosions in Beit Lahia. More details soon.” I wonder what has happened to the fly. Perhaps it was a warning to both of us: don’t move.

One idea in particular haunts me, and I cannot push it away. Will I, too, become a statistic on the news? I imagine myself dying while hearing my own name on the radio.

I remember a day in 2020, when my wife and I experienced a snowstorm in Syracuse, New York. People came out of their houses, wondering aloud whether the electricity had failed. I think of how my wife and I smiled. I told her, “If they were to live in Gaza, they would spend most of their time outside their houses, wondering.”

I’m still looking at the ceiling. No flies anymore. I make some tea but forget to sip it. Now dust from the two explosions is settling on the couches, rug, and table. I close the windows a little, leaving some space for air.

I have forgotten to mention the dogs barking. I don’t usually hear them, but since the Israeli attacks have escalated, they have been making noise. At night, they seem to cry.

The ceiling appears to be staring at me. I shut my eyes. When I open them, the big star, the circles and triangles, and the rainbow have not moved. The way they cling to the ceiling reminds me of a baby on its mother’s breast. For a moment, I wish that I were a baby.

I hear another blast but don’t see any smoke. Panic runs through me. When you can’t see the explosion, you feel like you’re blind. I think of the refugee camp where I left my family, imagining my seven-year-old daughter, Yaffa. She never asks me, “Daddy, who’s bombing us?” Instead, she cries and tells me, “Daddy, it’s a bomb! I’m scared. I want to hide.”

I call my wife, Maram. She tells me that everyone is “fine.” Our kids “are watching videos on YouTube,” she says. That’s the only thing that can distract them from the explosions.

From the kitchen, I fetch twelve eggs, some beef and chicken, and the bread. I don’t take any pots or pans, for fear that Israeli drone operators would mistake them for guns or rockets. I take an extra charger from the library. Before I can leave, I notice the pile of books on my desk. It seems to be waiting for me to take one, to carry it to the garden for an afternoon of reading among the fruit trees. How I wish that I could drink some lemonade or guava juice now.

More notifications are lighting up my phone. Sometimes I decide not to check the news. We are part of it, I think to myself.

I catch my breath on the couch one more time. I cannot take my eyes off the ceiling. I imagine it falling in on me, just as so many homes have fallen in on so many families in the past seven days, killing them in the rubble of their own rooms. What will kill me? The little triangles? A piece of rainbow? The brown-and-yellow star?

Then I ride back to Jabalia camp, feeling the eyes of bystanders on my plastic bags of food. I can see from the way they look at me that they, too, would like to return to their homes and fetch what they need.

As I approach “our” house, I wind through streets that are strewn with stones and shrapnel. I ride slowly and carefully, hoping that my tire won’t burst under the weight that I’m carrying. Families are walking around, and children are playing hopscotch in the lanes. I can only imagine their panic at the sound of a tire popping.

Dahlia Shaham

Dahlia Shaham was born and raised in the city of Haifa, and lives there today with her family. She holds an LLB in Law and Latin American studies from the Hebrew University (2003), an M.A. of Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University (2009). Before embarking on her Rabbinic path, Dahlia worked in policy research and advocacy NGOs working to promote sustainability and peace in Israel and the Middle East.

Dahlia received her Rabbinic Ordination from the Hebrew Union College (2019). Her rabbinate is guided by passion for peace and justice, faith in the healing power of prayer and music, and devotion to her homeland those who dwell in it.

As a rabbi, Dahlia leads holiday and life event services and teaches in “Or Hadash” congregation in Haifa and “Kedem” congregation in Melbourne. She brings her rabbinate to diverse and creative settings including publicist writing, women circles, playback theater, nature Minyans, music and spoken word performance and writing.

Dahlia volunteers on the executive board of Rabbis for Human Rights. With her life partner, Aran, she directs Hamam al Pasha – a historic building in downtown Haifa, which offers a womb-like space for culinary, cultural and spiritual celebrations. She enjoys communing with nature, dance, music and exploring the world together with Aran and their son Nouri. 


I first met Dahlia when she applied as my teaching assistant for EPIIC’s Global Cities colloquial/symposium year. What was noteworthy about Dahlia's service in this role was how thoroughly she took her responsibilities. Her intelligence, enthusiasm, and intellectual curiosity were self-evident, but most importantly was her human and emotional intelligence and caring extension to our students. 

Dahlia’s MA thesis was on the economic and political relationship between Israel and the Gulf states. Her brilliance and personality were acknowledged by her peers at the Fletcher Graduate School when she was chosen to give the commencement day address on an especially meaningful anniversary of the school.

She was important to our Institute's NIMEP, exploring Israel with Amit Paz and Hannah Flamm during the bloody Cast Lead operation in December 2008.  As she expressed it: "I can't quite find the words for it, but it was painfully inspiring."

While we had many conversations about Israeli politics, both internal and external, what I enjoyed most about Dahlia was her sensitivity and total openness to human experience. While I knew subsequently that she worked for REUT on sensitive political issues, it became no surprise to me to learn of the pastoral and spiritual route she has taken. 

I had the pleasure of meeting her husband, delightful Aran, with whom I jousted frequently since he was a chef and I had no such skills, and he was an avowed Lakers fan, and I was a Celtics fan. They were my first guests at my Truro home. It was fun to hear from Dahlia that she recalled what she describes as a "fascinating lesson you gave Aran and me about baseball down in front of the Green Monster. I realized then that the thrill of the game was about waiting for a breakthrough against the odds - much like politics!”

The serendipity of our recent renewal took place with this picture: it turns out that Dahlia will officiate at the bar mitzvah of Ido, the delightful youngest son of my close friends Shai and Yael Schubert. (pictured below)

Global Maritime Accord Academy: Part 2

See the youtube link here

The Global Maritime Accord (GMA) is the first integrated and coordinated approach towards the harmonized administration and governance of the oceans, especially the Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. The GMA Academy (GMAA) is the learning, teaching, research and exchange platform for drafting the GMA.

GMA and GMAA are focused on the health of oceans in a globally shared effort. They aim to strengthen and support the implementation of the Intergovernmental Conference on legally binding instruments under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the safeguarding of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Members of the Accord development effort include oceanographers, lawyers, environmentalists, diplomats and military security experts, from Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Germany, India, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Kenya, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and United States.

UN Watch Brings Wife of Jailed Russian Dissident to Address United Nations

UN Watch Brings Wife of Jailed Russian Dissident to Address United Nations

GENEVA, September 22 — UN Watch today brought the wife of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for criticizing Putin’s war on Ukraine, to address the United Nations.

"Such a powerful appeal for freedom in Russia," tweeted British Ambassador Simon Manley, who heard the speech in the council chamber.

Russia is currently running for a seat on the 47-nation council, in elections that will be held by the UN General Assembly on October 10th.

Last week, together with two other human rights groups, UN Watch published amajor report urging countries to oppose the candidacies of Russia, China and Cuba. 

Following is the text of Evgenia Kara Murza's UN address today:

“I am a Russian citizen and Advocacy Director at the Free Russia Foundation, and I am honoured to address the United Nations on behalf of UN Watch.

Recently, my husband Vladimir Kara-Murza, a great Russian patriot, was sent to a prison camp in Siberia for 25 years for stating the fact: the Russian state is leading a criminal war of aggression against Ukraine and is using repression against tens of thousands of Russian citizens to prevent them from exercising their right to free speech guaranteed by the Russian Constitution.

I have come here to ask the Russian government: Would a strong leader attack a peaceful neighbor? Would a strong leader need to close down all independent media and persecute all organizations involved in the defense of human rights?

Would a strong leader subject his own citizens to mind-boggling propaganda, arbitrary detentions, torture, punitive psychiatry, and decades-long prison terms for questioning state policies? Would hundreds of thousands of people flee a country led by a strong leader who enjoys the support of his population?

No. Vladimir Putin is no leader. He is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court, as a criminal.

Putin’s Russia definitely has no place on the United Nations Human Rights Council.

And I call on the international community to not let him and his government get away—yet again—with the crimes they are committing against both the Ukrainian and the Russian peoples.

For as long as Putin’s government is allowed to stay in the Kremlin, the war will go on. Vladimir Putin in not a leader but a bully, and if we want peace, this bully needs to be stopped.”

click for video

UN Watch and Russian Human Rights

Evgenia Kara-Murza spoke today on behalf of UN Watch, a leading voice at the United Nations for human rights in Russia.

Prior to his imprisonment, UN Watch worked closely with Vladimir Kara-Murza, one of the most well-known Russian dissidents, and hosted him several times at the UN.

In November, Evgenia Kara-Murza received UN Watch’s 2022 Morris Abram Human Rights Award on behalf of her husband. 

Hear Their Voices - Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights

On September 23, 2001, Eritrean authorities rounded up ten independent journalists as part of a brutal crackdown on free speech and human rights.

Twenty two years later, Dawit Isaak, Seyoum Tsehaye, Amanuel Asrat, Dawit Habtemichael, and their colleagues are still in jail. 

To honour this solemn anniversary, we’re launching
Hear Their Voices - a global advocacy campaign on behalf of these men, the longest detained journalists in the world.

They have been held incommunicado for 22 years without charge or trial, and without access to family, consular assistance, or the right to legal counsel.  

Four of the journalists’ families have come together to ask the Eritrean government and the international community to take action on behalf of their loved ones. 

For 22 years, their hearts have been aching.

At a minimum, they want to hear their voices again.

Standing alongside these families and a global coalition of advocates, we are demanding that the Eritrean regime prove that these journalists are still alive.

We want to #HearTheirVoices.

Our call  is amplified by Dr. Mohamed Babiker, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Eritrea, whose office recently issued
this scathing report on the human rights situation in the country, noting that its widespread and systematic practice of enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity.

“Let their families, and let all Eritreans, hear their voices. After 8,000 days of incommunicado detention, I urge the Eritrean government to provide information about the whereabouts of Dawit Isaak and his colleagues.”
- Dr. Mohamed Babiker, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Eritrea

Spread the word.

*
Click here to share your own message of support for Eritrea’s missing journalists, using the hashtag #HearTheirVoices. 

“If the international community cannot hold Mr. Afwerki’s regime to account, how can we secure justice and accountability in a rules-based international order in the face of even bigger challenges? As long as Mr. Isaak is detained, the fundamental rights and freedoms that form the bedrock of democracy will only continue to erode.”

- Irwin Cotler (International Chair) and Judith Abitan (Executive Director) in this powerfully worded
opinion piece focused on the case of journalist Dawit Isaak, a dual Eritrean-Swedish citizen

Solomiya Ivakhiv

Ukrainian born Solomiya Ivakhiv is an accomplished concert violinist, chamber musician, collaborator, educator, and champion of new music. Concertizing internationally, her wide range of repertoire includes the premiere of numerous new works for violin.

Her solo album, Ukraine: Journey to Freedom – A Century of Classical Music for Violin and Piano, was featured in the Top 5 New Classical Releases on the iTunes billboard.

Dr. Ivakhiv showcases the poetic and rhapsodic style of Ukrainian, American, British, and French composers on her soon-to-be-released album Poems and Rhapsodies. The album includes American Rhapsody, a lyrical romance for violin and orchestra portraying the beauty of the American landscape written by Grammy winning-composer and fellow UConn professor Kenneth Fuchs.

solomiyaivakhiv.com

PERFORMANCES

Dr. Ivakhiv has performed solo and chamber music at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, CBC Glenn Gould Studio, Curtis Institute Field Concert Hall, Italian Academy in New York City, Pickman Hall in Cambridge (MA), San Jose Chamber Music Society, Old First Concerts in San Francisco, Astoria Music Festival (Portland), Tchaikovsky Hall in Kyiv, Concertgebouw Mirror Hall, and at UConn’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts.

She has made solo appearances with the Istanbul State Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Henderson Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hunan Symphony Orchestra in China, the AACC, and the Bach Festival Orchestra.


MASTER CLASSES AND COLLABORATIONS

A dedicated educator, Dr. Ivakhiv has conducted master classes and coached chamber music at Yale, Columbia, Penn State, the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Curtis SummerFest, the University of Maryland, Bard College Prep, SUNY – Fredonia, Oberlin, and Guangzhou and Hunan Conservatories (China). She regularly collaborates with high schools in outreach programs throughout the United States and is a member of the Connecticut Chapter  of the American String Teachers Association.

Dr. Ivakhiv is Artistic Director of the Ukrainian Institute’s Music at the Institute (MATI) Concert Series in New York City, a position she has held since 2010. She collaborates with other musicians regularly on the series.

AWARDS

2019 Alumni Excellence Award from the Curtis Institute of Music

Silver Medal, Global Music Awards, for Ukraine: Journey of Freedom – A Century of Classical Music for Violin and Piano (2016)

University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts New Scholar Award 2016

Fritz Kreisler Gold Medal from the Curtis Institute of Music (2003)

Second Prize, Sergei Prokofiev Competition (2000)

Honorable and Mrs. Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen Fellowship (2001 Tanglewood Music Center)

Honored (Merited) Artist of Ukraine 2021

Solomiya Ivakhiv and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy

It has been my privilege and honor to have met and hosted wonderful Solomiya, whose personal warmth and verve are matched by the passion and sensitivity of her musical performance. I was introduced to her by a friend, Julie Skolnik, the founding director Mistral Music, on whose board Iris and I have served. 

I was fortunate to grow up with a cultured father, who introduced me to violin performances of Heifetz, Oistrakh, and Piatigorsky. Listening to Solomiya’s interpretative artistry and beginning a friendship is wonderful. 

Solomiya and Remi

She loves Remi, and over wine, we learned that we both love the concept of serendipity. When I returned home after an absence, Solomiya had positioned a vase of sunflowers in our kitchen.  I realized we both treasure the presence of the vibrant flower that Ukrainians view as a symbol of peace and resilience.  I learned that the national flower of Ukraine also represents renewal and hope, They have planted around the land of Chernobyl nuclear disaster. and help to extract toxins from the devastated soil.

She has already assumed her mentor's role, reaching out to invite Olli as her guest to her concerts, and I am dreaming and conspiring in my mind to create a future Carnegie Hall, Music for Life International benefit for Ukrainian refugees. I sit on their Board as their strategic Adviser.

Honouring the Trail-Blazing Work of Irwin Cotler

An excerpt from the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights:

We are delighted that Irwin Cotler, our Founder and International Chair, was just awarded the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor, one of the country’s highest civilian awards. It recognizes those who “have made an outstanding contribution to the State of Israel or to humanity.” 

The award honours Irwin’s “unique contribution to the Jewish people” - a contribution celebrated by
this short, moving video.

“[Irwin Cotler] is a world-renowned human rights advocate who has made a special contribution in the field of the struggle for human rights, and in the fight against antisemitism, hate crimes, and racism in general.” - Office of President Isaac Herzog

We invite you to congratulate Irwin for this acknowledgement of his decades-long career in tireless defence of human rights, including by combating antisemitism and other forms of hate.

Through
your support, we can continue our critical work and build upon the inspirational legacy of our founder. Any contribution goes a long way.

On the Meaning of this Award

"Over the past few years, I have had the immense privilege of working closely with Professor Cotler, including on issues relating to Israel, antisemitism, and the global Jewish community. Over the course of those short years alone - in his role as both International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and Canada's Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism - Professor Cotler's tireless contributions have been more than deserving of the Presidential Medal.

And yet, the past few years are merely a glimpse - a microcosm - of Prof. Cotler's lifetime of work on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people. He has been a lifelong advocate for peace and human rights in Israel and the surrounding region. He played a role in the peace process between Egypt and Israel, was deeply involved in organizing humanitarian rescue efforts for both Soviet and Ethiopian Jewry, and has served as a trusted advisor and mentor to Israeli and Jewish leaders across decades and disciplines.

Professor Cotler represents the very best of what Israel and the Jewish people have to offer. He represents an aspirational Israel - one that is Jewish and democratic, prosperous and peaceful. At this juncture, his leadership is more valuable than ever, and the Presidential Medal of Honour is recognition of that."

- Noah Lew, Special Advisor to Irwin Cotler

Ben Harburg

Ben is a Managing Partner at MSA Capital, a global investment firm with over $2 billion in assets under management. Mr Harburg also leads MSA Novo, the emerging markets-focused franchise of MSA. Ben has significant investment and operations experience in Greater China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.  

 He sits on Boards of Directors of various private and public companies and foundations such as the National Committee on US China Relations and the Asian Cultural Council, and the Carnegie Endowment’s Tsinghua Center. 

 He was a Neubauer Scholar at Tufts University (where he studied International Relations), a Fulbright Scholar at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (where he was based in the Department of Islamic Sciences and Oriental Philology).

 His passion is soccer and he is a co-owner of Cádiz Club de Fútbol, a team playing in Spain’s First Division (La Liga). 

Ben’s recent contribution to Foreign Policy titled “America Can’t Stop China’s Rise. And it should stop trying”, in collaboration with Tony Chan and Kishore Mahbubani can be found HERE.

Ben was an extraordinarily accomplished, dynamic student at the Institute.  

I first met him as a high school senior who had been accepted to Tufts University, among many other quality schools. I was an advisor of the Neubauer Scholars Program, incentivizing promising young students to come to Tufts judged to have the capacity for “transforming intellectual leadership.” The scholars were to be offered $10,000 over four years to enact individualized plans of academic study and available to underwrite domestic and international research internships.  Ben was accompanied by his father, Fred Harburg, and I was assigned to conduct their University tour. I suddenly felt like a football coach, trying to recruit a star athlete. I was successful, and it began what has now been decades of a warm, unique relationship. 

In his first year, Ben enrolled in my Institute’s EPIIC program's 2002-2003 colloquium on Sovereignty and Intervention. EPIIC students are encouraged to pursue in-depth research projects, and Ben joined with two other colloquium students in creating The Sovereignty Exchange. Their objective was to gain a “clearer understanding of what sovereignty means in an interdependent and rapidly evolving international system.” Ben traveled to an annual meeting of ex-presidents and former prime ministers in Madrid, where they were able to discuss these issues with luminaries such as President Mary Robinson of Ireland and President Cesar Gaviria of Colombia. Other notable interviewees for the project included former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos and MIT professor Noam Chompsky. 

Presenting his work, he successfully applied for a position with the Hague Office of the Prosecutor on the Slobodan Milosevic case at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. I vividly remember the phone call I got from a very surprised and embarrassed official at The Hague. Ben had accurately described himself as a first-year student. They assumed that meant the first year of law school, their prerequisite for the position. It took some convincing to allow Ben the chance to prove himself. He ultimately received a very high evaluation. 

It was the beginning of a very interesting array of challenging projects that Ben would undertake during his undergraduate era - serving as the counter-terrorism portfolio manager for the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels, where he collaborated with terrorism experts from Europe and North Africa to analyze global trends and develop counterterrorism policy objectives for the alliance; and working on security sector reform in the Balkans while working on the Kosovo Desk at the Office of South Central European Affairs at the U.S. State Department.  

His interest in conflict and terrorism developed while he was working for the Basque conflict resolution NGO, Elkarri, in the summer of 2003 in San Sebastian and as a student research associate for the International Security Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, concentrating on North Korean and Iranian nuclear policy.  I also introduced him to a new program I helped to advise, Humanity in Action, with Judy Goldstein, and he became one of their Fellows in 2005 and previously served on their Board of Advisers.  

Ben was not all-mind. He captained the Tufts Varsity Crew team, and he introduced me to the erg, and I positioned a Concept 2 machine in my office.  Ben graduated from Tufts University magna cum laude in 2006 with a BA in International Relations. He held the Neubauer scholarship to extremely high standards in its first year, enabling me to hold successive classes to the same bar. Upon graduation, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Germany, where he studied the radicalization of Muslim youth in Germany and homegrown terrorism. 

Ben has a clear sense of accountability. He became a critical supporter and underwriter of future generations of Institute students, providing advice and funds for their research travel. He was at times a funder in moments in extremis, when unusual demands were made on our finances. There was one glaring unexpected moment when a new administration stopped supporting the Bacow administration's enlightened policy, where graduating seniors were supported for their culminating post-graduation summer senior research trips, many of which were derived from their senior honors theses.   

One of my most fulfilling aspirations is being able to mentor the children of my alumni, usually university or high school students, in this case, it will be his and Jenny's child, Tiger, a precocious 12-year-old!  

Graziella Reis-Trani

Graziella Reis-Trani is the global alumni leader, ICEO at LHH and an executive and leadership development coach at GRT Coaching

As a coach, she empowers leaders to uncover unconscious patterns in their beliefs, behaviors and language to increase their impact by establishing new ways of being that bring self-awareness, emotional intelligence, confidence and better relationships.

Graziella has spent over 15 years working as a corporate alumni leader in three top global law firms before joining LHH to serve as the global alumni leader for the International Center for Executive Options. During this time, she has coached associates and alumni around professional development and career transition, developed multi-year alumni strategies, identified and executed alumni focused activities that supported business development and recruiting objectives. Graziella also helped design and launch an award-winning internal Coaching Office while serving as a Coaching Office Steering Committee member, mentor and coach.

Prior to that, Graziella spent a few years working at the United Nations, at not-for-profits (the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the US Committee for UNDP), UN agency (UNDP) and the UN Secretariat (DPA, DPI).

Graziella holds an M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University’s School of International Service, a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University and a certificate in Women’s Entrepreneurship from Cornell University. Graziella completed her coaching certification at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) and currently holds an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential from the International Coaching Federation.  

While at Tufts, Graziella became involved with the Institute for Global Leadership her freshman year, when she worked for the IGL during their annual symposium. She continued her involvement by organizing an event with QUNO ahead of the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racial Intolerance. Graziella participated in the 2002-2003 (Global Inequities) EPIIC class, which explored the relationship between globalization and inequality. Inspired by that class and her experience at the UN, Graziella helped organize an IGL delegation to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Graziella was born in Brazil and raised in NYC, having also lived in Boston and Washington, DC. This international upbringing has given her a great appreciation for exploring different countries and cultures any chance she gets. She loves music (especially live!), from classic rock and 90s pop to opera and classical and is always up for going to show or concert.

I met Graziella when she was a first-year Tufts student and work-study student at the Institute for Global Leadership. 

 Impressed by her discriminating demeanor, intellectual curiosity, and her organizational skills, always problem-solving with a ready smile, I hoped to attract her to EPIIC. 

Several years later, she found its topic relevant to her concerns and shone brightly as an important member of the Global Inequities colloquium and symposium. At my Institute, dedicated to nurturing leadership, it was immediately clear she was a confident and sensitive leader. 

I recognized Graziella's deep concern for environmental justice, water rights, and preserving nature, prioritizing sustainability. She conducted valuable independent research on the relationship of water and conflict. She could at once be thoroughly passionate yet always thoughtfully determined in an utterly steady and calm manner. 

She was a frequent and prized volunteer. As Vice President of the International Club, she was responsible for setting up university-wide culture shows and was extolled as one of the finest host advisors for Tufts International Orientation. 

Graziella's deep capacity, actually her strong instinct, is to help nurture and care about people, and she has dedicated herself to furthering principled policy at numerous NGOs.  

I knew of her love for music and saw her intermittently, especially at our IGL Carnegie Hall benefit concerts by Music for Life International, supporting Syrian refugees, or for the UN agency concerned with preventing gender-based violence and protecting women.  

A fiercely independent and powerful advocate for women's empowerment, she possesses a deep sense of justice and commitment to equality and equity. 

Graziella is an impressive, thoughtful, and compassionate person. A highly sought-after corporate alumni leader, executive coach and mentor, she is the quintessential Convisero member, fusing knowledge, acumen, human and emotional intelligence skills, and integrity in a superbly professional manner.

Thom Kidrin

I’ve known Thom Kidrin for decades. He is one of the most innovative, imaginative, entrepreneurial and over the horizon thinkers that I know. He is also one of the more fun people to be around. Chairman and CEO of Real Brands Inc. and President and CEO of World’s Inc will give you some insight on how he is avant garde. 

But most importantly in my life, Thom was a lifelong friend and advocate of “Hurricane” Rubin Carter who spent 19 years in prison for twice being wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. And a forceful advocate for the remarkable John Artis, one of the most decent, courageous and honest people I have ever met. 

Thom Kidrin, Rubin Carter, and my wife Iris Adler

Thom was an indomitable supporter of Rubin and John during their time in prison and after, and has continued to honor their legacy since Rubin passed from prostate cancer in 2014 and John died in 2021. Thom managed to get the attention of Muhammed Ali, Jimmy Carter, and the NAACP in order to support freeing Rubin and John. While many gave up support after Rubin was convicted for the second time of the same crime, thinking that the court could not be wrong twice, Thom stuck with him. 

Rubin, knowing that he was not meant to be there, refused services from the prison, including eating the food being served. Thom would take a train once a month from Manhattan to Trenton to deliver 25 lbs canned food to Rubin in prison, the maximum amount allowed. If the box of food exceeded 25 lbs, the guard would take out the heaviest cans, remarking that Rubin will “lose some weight this month.” 

Thom also brought Rubin books, at first law books that Rubin would read to try to get himself out. But later, Thom convinced Rubin that he needed to free his mind because he was not going to be able to free himself through reading books on law. He started to bring him different kinds of books, ones on philosophy and metaphysics, ones like Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning that had a profound impact on my life as well. Thom said that his goal was to provide Rubin with food for his mind, body, and spirit.

Thom has continued to tell Rubin’s story in whatever medium he can. While Bob Dylan’s song Hurricane is the song that most people would attach to Rubin and John’s story, Thom also wrote a song representing the case a year before Dylan. During his second trial Rubin would enter the floor to speak to the lyrics of Thom’s song: 

Life…in the Trenton Penn

A fortress of misery

Stripped of human dignity

But he would never fade away

He couldn’t fade away

His efforts continue today. Thom co-wrote a musical with Peter Allen dictating Carter’s story and is now the lead in an effort to make a documentary series that uses 40 hours worth of tapes which only the BBC had used previously, telling the story in visual form. 

I worked with Thom, Rubin and John to bring their archives to Tufts, where they now exist in the Tufts Digital Collections and Archives. It was through Thom that Iris and I met Rubin and hosted him in our Truro home. I invited Rubin as a paragon of dignity and ethics to Tufts and honored Rubin posthumously with John present with a Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award. 

Months before his death, I hosted John and two extraordinary advocates, the authors of Justice on the Ropes at the Brookline Booksmith store for a book signing.

Now, while the archives are well presented at Tisch Library, the explicit intent of the archives was not to remain passive but to be actively utilized in campus programming and more importantly to inspire students to actively work on death row cases and on behalf of people unjustly accused and convicted. This responsibility contractually lies with the Director of the Institute for Global Leadership, but has remained fallow since I retired in 2016. With the incorporation of elements of the Institute into Tisch, given civic mandate and its highly successful Tufts University Prison Initiative at Tisch (TUPIT), Thom and I are intent on reviving its original intent. 

More information can be found here.