About the Contributors
EDITORS
Dr. Carole Monica C. Burnett serves on the Board of Directors of the Jerusalem Peace Institute. She is the Advocacy Outreach Coordinator at the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF) and the co-Chair of the HCEF Research and Publication Committee. She is the editor of the Fathers of the Church series, an expanding collection of early Christian texts translated from Greek, Latin, and Syriac, published by the Catholic University of America Press. Burnett is co-editor of What Jerusalem Means to Us: Muslim Perspectives and Reflections. She has retired from teaching Church History at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology of St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore, as well as Greek and Latin at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Saliba Sarsar is co-Founder and President of the Jerusalem Peace Institute. He is Professor of Political Science at Monmouth University and Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton University. His teaching and scholarly interests focus on the Middle East, Palestinian-Israeli affairs, Jerusalem, and peacebuilding. His most recent authored books are Peacebuilding in Israeli-Palestinian Relations and Jerusalem: The Home in Our Hearts. His most recent edited books are The Holy Land Confederation as a Facilitator for the Two-State Solution and What Jerusalem Means to Us: Christian Perspectives and Reflections. His most recent co-edited books are Inequality and Governance in an Uncertain World: Perspectives on Democratic & Autocratic Governments; Democracy in Crisis Around the World; Continuity and Change in Political Culture: Israel and Beyond, and What Jerusalem Means to Us: Muslim Perspectives and Reflections. Dr. Sarsar is the recipient of the Award of Academic Excellence from the American Task Force on Palestine, the Global Visionary Award and the Stafford Presidential Award of Excellence from Monmouth University, the Humanitarian Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice, and the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation Award.
AUTHOR OF THE PREFACE
Rateb Y. Rabie, KCHS is the Founder and President/CEO of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF), Founder and President of the Know Thy Heritage (KTH) Leadership Initiative, and co-Founder of the Jerusalem Peace Institute and Chair of its Board of Directors. Born in Amman, Jordan, to Palestinian parents, he is co-founder and past national president of the Birzeit Society and co-founder, Vice President, and Treasurer of the Institute for Health, Development, and Research in Palestine. He is also a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre and a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus, founder and co-chair of the Holy Land Outreach Committee of the Knights of Columbus, Maryland State Council. He is recipient of the Faith and Tolerance Award from the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee. Sir Rateb is committed to improving the living conditions for Palestinian Christians in their homeland, preserving Palestine’s Christian heritage, and strengthening the identity of Palestinian Christians in the worldwide diaspora.
AUTHORS OF THE ESSAYS
Dr. Yael S. Aronoff holds the Michael and Elaine Serling and Friends Endowed Chair in Israel Studies and serves as the director of the Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel at Michigan State University, and a professor of Political Science at James Madison College at Michigan State University. Her primary research and work focus on Israeli politics and foreign policy, Israeli society and culture, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and efforts to resolve it, and Israel’s asymmetric wars. She is particularly interested in peace negotiations and the conditions under which wars end, as well as the means and limits of war. Among Aronoff’s publications are the book, The Political Psychology of Israeli Prime Ministers: When Hard Liners Opt for Peace, and the co-edited book, Continuity and Change in Political Culture: Israel and Beyond. Her current book project is titled, The Dilemmas of Asymmetric Conflicts: Navigating Deterrence and Democratic Constraints. Dr. Aronoff has published in Foreign Policy, Israel Studies, Israel Studies Review, and Political Science Quarterly; she is past President of the Association of Israel Studies and has given over 100 public lectures.
Dr. Aleen Z. Bayard is on the faculty of Northwestern University, where she teaches courses on leadership and organizational change. Through her studies in peacebuilding, she earned her doctorate in Values Driven Leadership from Benedictine University. Dr. Bayard is the founder of a consulting practice supporting organizations committed to enriching and empowering the workplace as a source of individual and societal transformation. Outside of her academic and professional activities, she invests her energy in causes to achieve social justice and peace on a global scale. She is happily married and is a proud mother of two sons.
Dr. Elan Ezrachi is a Jerusalem-based consultant and independent scholar of the relations between Jewish Diasporas and Israel. His book, Awakened Dream: 50 Years of Complex Unification of Jerusalem, was published in 2017. Dr. Elan served in various executive roles, including Director of the International Department of Melitz –Center for Jewish Zionist Education, Director of the Charles Bronfman Mifgashim Center, Executive Director of Masa Israel Journey, and Director of the International School for Jerusalem Studies at Yad Ben-Zvi. He is an active player in the Israeli Jewish Renaissance scene and was the founding chair of Panim for Jewish Renaissance in Israel.
Dr. Jonathan Golden, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in the departments of Comparative Religion and Anthropology at Drew University, holds several certificates in conflict resolution and works closely with interfaith and peace organizations in New Jersey and around the world. As author of Ancient Canaan and Israel: New Perspectives and the forthcoming Dawn of the Metal Age, he is currently working on a third book based on interviews with ex-combatants and victims of conflict who have become peace activists. In addition to leading the Conflict Resolution program, Dr. Golden is director of Drew’s Center on Religion, Culture, and Conflict, an interdisciplinary center focused on global peacebuilding and interfaith leadership.
Rabbi Naamah Kelman is a descendant of 10 generations of rabbis, becoming in 1992 the first woman to be ordained by the Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Jerusalem, where she is currently the Dean. Born and raised in New York, she has lived in Israel since 1976, where she has worked in community organizing, Jewish education, and the promotion and establishment of Progressive and Pluralistic Judaism for Israelis. Rabbi Kelman has been intensely involved in the emerging education system of the Israeli Movement for Progressive (Reform) Judaism. Among the founders of the first Progressive day school, she has overseen the development of curricular materials, teacher training programs, and family education. She has been involved in the professional development of Israeli Rabbinic students, and the establishment of the Blaustein Center for Spiritual Counseling. She has served as the Director of the Year in Israel Program for HUC’s North American students. Kelman is deeply engaged in inter-faith dialogue and feminist causes.
Professor Menachem Klein is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He pursued Middle East and Islamic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since 1996, he has been active in many unofficial negotiations with Palestinian counterparts. In October 2003, Prof. Klein signed, together with prominent Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, the Geneva Agreement – a detailed proposal for a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. Among Prof. Klein’s books are Arafat and Abbas: Portraits of Leadership in a State Postponed; Lives in Common—Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Hebron; The Shift: Israel-Palestine from Border Conflict to Ethnic Struggle; Jerusalem: The Contested City; The Jerusalem Problem: The Struggle for Permanent Status; and A Possible Peace Between Israel and Palestine: An Insider’s Account of the Geneva Initiative. In addition, he is the author of eight books in Hebrew and 63 journal articles and chapters in books both in Hebrew and in English.
Rabbi Ron Kronish served for 24 years as the founder and director of a major interreligious institution in Jerusalem, the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel. His latest book, Profiles in Peace: Voices of Peacebuilders in the Midst of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, was published this year. Previously, he wrote The Other Peace Process (Hamilton Books, 2017), and he edited Coexistence and Reconciliation in Israel (Paulist Press, 2015). He blogs for The Times of Israel (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/ron-kronish/) and is a regular contributor to The Jerusalem Report. In addition, he is an adjunct lecturer at Drew University’s Theological School and at the Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. For more about him and his work, see www.ronkronish.com.
Dr. Yehezkel Landau, a dual Israeli-American citizen, is an interfaith educator, leadership trainer, author, and consultant working to promote Jewish-Christian-Muslim engagement and Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding for more than 40 years. While living in Jerusalem, he directed the OZ veSHALOM-NETIVOT SHALOM religious peace movement during the 1980s, and from 1991 to 2003, he co-founded and co-directed the OPEN HOUSE Center for Jewish-Arab Coexistence and Reconciliation in Ramle, www.friendsofopenhouse.co.il. From 2002 to 2016, Dr. Landau was a professor of Jewish tradition and interfaith relations at Hartford Seminary, where he held the Chair in Abrahamic Partnerships and directed the Building Abrahamic Partnerships training program for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. His publications include the co-edited book, Voices From Jerusalem: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Holy Land, and a U. S. Institute of Peace research report, titled Healing The Holy Land: Interreligious Peacebuilding In Israel/Palestine. Dr. Landau earned an A.B. from Harvard University, an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and a D. Min. from Hartford Seminary. Additional information can be found at www.landau-interfaith.com.
Rabbi Laurence P. Malinger graduated from Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics in 1987. He completed graduate work at Trinity University, earning the Master of Education with School Psychology in 1988. He received his Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters degree and was ordained Rabbi in 1992 and 1993, respectively, from the Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio. Upon ordination, Rabbi Malinger became Assistant Rabbi and Director of Education at Congregation Beth Emeth in Wilmington, Delaware. He was promoted to Associate Rabbi in July 1997. In June 1999, Rabbi Malinger was elected as senior Rabbi of Temple Shalom of Aberdeen, New Jersey. He is a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and proudly serves as an advisor for the Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought (MCWRET).
Dr. Ilan Peleg is a former President of the Association for Israel Studies (AIS) and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Israel Studies Forum (now Israel Studies Review), the scholarly journal of the AIS. He is the author of over 100 scholarly articles, and the editor or author of 15 books, including Democratizing the Hegemonic State (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (also CUP, 2011, with Dov Waxman). Additional books include a volume on the foreign policy of Menachem Begin, a book on bi-national Israel, an edited book on multidisciplinary perspectives on the Middle East peace process, a book on George W. Bush’s foreign policy and Neo-Conservatism, and more. Dr. Peleg has delivered hundreds of lectures in many forums and has appeared on CNN, Voice of America, National Public Radio, and other media platforms.
Mr. Martin J. Raffel, Esq., served for 27 years as senior vice president and lead professional on Israel and other international issues for the New York-based Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) until his retirement in 2014. Prior to that, he worked as director of the American Jewish Congress and assistant director of the American Jewish Committee in Philadelphia. Mr. Raffel, who is widely published in the Jewish and general press, spent seven years in Jerusalem, where he studied at Hebrew University’s School of Law and worked in Israel’s Ministry of Justice. He is married and lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Rabbi Peretz Rodman is an American-born Israeli educator, writer, and translator. A graduate of Brandeis University and Boston’s Hebrew College, he was ordained by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem. Rabbi Rodman has taught Hebrew and Jewish studies at every level from elementary school to graduate school, as well as at Hebrew and Christian theological schools. He has published over 100 popular and academic articles in Jewish studies. Today, he serves as head of the rabbinical court (av be din) of the Masorti (Conservative) rabbinate in Israel.
Ms. Sharon Rosen is Director of Religious Engagement at Search for Common Ground (Search), the world’s largest organization dedicated to peacebuilding, working on the frontlines of today’s most consequential conflicts. An expert on interreligious programming and advancing religious freedom, Ms. Rosen provides strategic oversight, quality control, and technical expertise to Search’s field offices in more than 20 countries including Jerusalem, where she directs a Jewish-Muslim religious leaders’ initiative to expand Constituencies for Peace within religious communities in Israel. Previously for ten years she co-directed, with a Palestinian colleague, Search’s Jerusalem office, leading multiple cross-border projects in religion, development, health, and media.
Rabbi John L. Rosove is Senior Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles, a national co-chair of the Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet of J Street, and past national chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA). He is the author of two books: Why Judaism Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation (Nashville: Jewish Lights, 2017) and Why Israel [and its Future] Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation (New Jersey: Ben Yehuda Press, 2019), each with Afterwords by his sons Daniel and David.
Dr. Alice Rothchild, a physician, author, and filmmaker, is focused on human rights and social justice in Israel/Palestine. As an obstetrician-gynecologist, she practiced clinical medicine and served as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Harvard Medical School. She writes and lectures widely and is the author of books, including Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience and Condition Critical: Life and Death in Israel/Palestine, and the young adult novel, Finding Melody Sullivan. She has contributed to several anthologies, the most recent being Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism: Stories of Personal Transformation. She directed a documentary film, Voices Across the Divide, and is active in Jewish Voice for Peace and We Are Not Numbers.
Dr. Tamar Verete-Zehavi was born in 1959 in Jerusalem, where she now lives with her family. She studied education, psychology, and psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VII, where she received a Ph.D. for her study of socio-political images in children. Dr. Verete-Zehavi has worked for many years in Education-for-Tolerance between Jews and Arabs. Together with Abedalsalam Yunis, she has published two bilingual children’s books, and has won – together with him – the Jerusalem Foundation Award for Furthering Tolerance in the city. Verete-Zehavi was also awarded an Andersen Honor Citation in 2016.
