 Benjamin |
 Daniel |
 Funnye |
 J. Gordon |
 L. Gordon |
 Herron |
|
 Isaac |
 Key |
 Mathivah |
 Mejia |
 Mekonen |
 Meyerson |
|
 Musleah |
 Schwartz |
 Sizomu |
 Viñas |
 Wuriga |
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Welcome to the Be’chol Lashon Speakers Bureau
We invite you to browse through the list of dynamic presenters who can address a wide range of topics of interest to congregations, organizations, and communities across the country and around the world.
The speakers include community leaders and pre-eminent scholars in history, philosophy, sociology, demography and other fields. They are African American, Latino, Asian, mixed-race Jewish men and women from the United States and around the world. They are the intellectual emissaries for racial and ethnic diversity in the Jewish community.
Speakers are available for lectures, concerts, or scholar-in-residence weekends. Fees vary.
To arrange for a speaker please call 415-386-2604, email speakers@bechollashon.org or click here.
Siona Benjamin
Siona Benjamin is an artist originally from India, of Bene Israel Jewish descent, now living and working in the U.S.
Siona's work reflects her complex cultural background and the transition between the old and new worlds. She is inspired by traditional styles of painting, like Indian/Persian miniatures, Byzantine icons and Jewish illuminated manuscripts, but blend these ancient forms with pop cultural elements from our times to create a new vocabulary of my own.
In her work she raises questions about what and where is "home", while evoking issues such as identity, immigration, motherhood, and the role of art in social change.
Having grown up in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim society, educated in Catholic and Zoroastrian schools, and been raised Jewish and now living in America, Siona have always had to reflect upon the cultural boundary zones in which she has lived.
In this multicultural America, she feels a strong need to make art that will bring out similarities, not differences, thus constructing the art-making process contribute to the conversation about issues like stereotyping and religious intolerance.
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Romiel Daniel
Romiel Daniel is a cantor, having studied Ashkenazi Cantorial music at Yeshiva University under Cantors Joseph Malovany, Sherwood Goffin and Bernard Beer. He has released one audiocassette and one CD to preserve and celebrate the Bene Israel liturgy and melodies of Yom Kippur, Selichoth and the Sabbath.
He was the president of the Magen Abraham Synagogue in Ahmedabad, India from 1986-1990. He conducted Jewish education classes and other religious festivals for the community in Ahmedabad including Purim/Passover Seders and Hanukkah. He was also actively involved with the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. Mr. Daniel conducted the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services at the Village Temple in New York from 1995-2007 in the Bene Israel tradition for the Indian Jews in America. He is the President of the Rego Park Jewish Center and the President of the Minyan Club.
Romiel is president of the organization The Indian Jewish Congregation of USA. He has given lectures at the 92nd Y, New York Public Library, Center for Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, Barnes and Noble, Queens YM & WHA, Queens Museum of Arts, Washington Jewish Film Festival week, United Federation of Teachers, Rego Park Jewish Center, Forest Hills Jewish Center, Newark Museum, JCC In Manhattan, and several other organizations and institutions. He has been written about in the New York Times, Daily News, Jewish Week, Jewish Press and several other newspapers.
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Romiel Daniel is a cantor, having studied Ashkenazi Cantorial music at Yeshiva University under Cantors Joseph Malovany, Sherwood Goffin and Bernard Beer. He has released one audiocassette and one CD to preserve and celebrate the Bene Israel liturgy and melodies of Yom Kippur, Selichoth and the Sabbath.
He was the president of the Magen Abraham Synagogue in Ahmedabad, India from 1986-1990. He conducted Jewish education classes and other religious festivals for the community in Ahmedabad including Purim/Passover Seders and Hanukkah. He was also actively involved with the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. Mr. Daniel conducted the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services at the Village Temple in New York from 1995-2007 in the Bene Israel tradition for the Indian Jews in America. He is the President of the Rego Park Jewish Center and the President of the Minyan Club.
Romiel is president of the organization The Indian Jewish Congregation of USA. He has given lectures at the 92nd Y, New York Public Library, Center for Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, Barnes and Noble, Queens YM & WHA, Queens Museum of Arts, Washington Jewish Film Festival week, United Federation of Teachers, Rego Park Jewish Center, Forest Hills Jewish Center, Newark Museum, JCC In Manhattan, and several other organizations and institutions. He has been written about in the New York Times, Daily News, Jewish Week, Jewish Press and several other newspapers.
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Rabbi Capers Funnye - Be'chol Lashon Associate Director
Rabbi Capers Funnye is spiritual leader of Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, Chicago and the Associate Director of Be’chol Lashon. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies and a Master of Science in Human Services Administration from Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, Chicago and rabbinic ordination from the Israelite Board of Rabbis, New York.
Rabbi Funnye is involved in many community organizations. He serves on the boards of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, American Jewish Congress, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Boys-To-Men and the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce. Rabbi Funnye has served as a consultant to the DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago Historical Society, Spertus Museum of Judaica, and the Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles. Rabbi Funnye has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including: Our Voices, BET, The Jerry Springer Show, WMAQ-TV, Common Ground, WBBM-TV, Talking With Aaron Freeman and WPWR-TV.
Rabbi Funnye and his wife, Mary, have four children.
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Rabbi Capers Funnye is spiritual leader of Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, Chicago and the Associate Director of Be’chol Lashon. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies and a Master of Science in Human Services Administration from Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, Chicago and rabbinic ordination from the Israelite Board of Rabbis, New York.
Rabbi Funnye is involved in many community organizations. He serves on the boards of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, American Jewish Congress, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Boys-To-Men and the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce. Rabbi Funnye has served as a consultant to the DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago Historical Society, Spertus Museum of Judaica, and the Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles. Rabbi Funnye has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including: Our Voices, BET, The Jerry Springer Show, WMAQ-TV, Common Ground, WBBM-TV, Talking With Aaron Freeman and WPWR-TV.
Rabbi Funnye and his wife, Mary, have four children.
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Jane Anna Gordon
Jane Anna Gordon teaches in the Department of Political Science at Temple University, where she also is Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought and the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies. She is the author of Why They Couldn't Wait: A Critique of the Black-Jewish Conflict Over Community Control in Ocean-Hill Brownsville, 1967-1971 (Routledge, 2001), which was listed by The Gotham Gazette as one of the four best books recently published on Civil Rights, and co-editor of A Companion to African-American Studies (Blackwell's, 2006) and Not Only the Master's Tools (Paradigm Publishers, 2006). Gordon's current work focuses on problems of legitimacy in democratic societies: she is currently completing one book that aims to refashion Rousseau's concept of the general will through the resources offered by W.E.B. Du Bois's idea of double consciousness and on another, with Lewis Gordon, that develops a social and political theory of disaster in the modern age. Gordon is particularly interested in how best to measure and count communities that have been designated religiously, about ways in which best to understand members of communities of color who are deliberately returning to Judaism, and in how most accurately and effectively to illuminate, emphasize, and educate contemporary Jews and non-Jews about the creolized past and present of vibrant Jewish communities.
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Jane Anna Gordon teaches in the Department of Political Science at Temple University, where she also is Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought and the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies. She is the author of Why They Couldn't Wait: A Critique of the Black-Jewish Conflict Over Community Control in Ocean-Hill Brownsville, 1967-1971 (Routledge, 2001), which was listed by The Gotham Gazette as one of the four best books recently published on Civil Rights, and co-editor of A Companion to African-American Studies (Blackwell's, 2006) and Not Only the Master's Tools (Paradigm Publishers, 2006). Gordon's current work focuses on problems of legitimacy in democratic societies: she is currently completing one book that aims to refashion Rousseau's concept of the general will through the resources offered by W.E.B. Du Bois's idea of double consciousness and on another, with Lewis Gordon, that develops a social and political theory of disaster in the modern age. Gordon is particularly interested in how best to measure and count communities that have been designated religiously, about ways in which best to understand members of communities of color who are deliberately returning to Judaism, and in how most accurately and effectively to illuminate, emphasize, and educate contemporary Jews and non-Jews about the creolized past and present of vibrant Jewish communities.
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Lewis R. Gordon, Ph.D.
Lewis Gordon is the offspring of two Jewish communities that converged in his mother.
One was the Solomon family, who migrated to Jamaica in the 19th Century. The other was from Ireland under the name of Finikin, who also immigrated there during the same period. Noticing that admission of his Jewish heritage stimulates discussion and reflection on Jewish diversity and history, Gordon has committed himself to working with fellow scholars and community workers dedicated to the re-appearance of Jewish people who have disappeared either by force or neglect. He is the founder and co-director, with his wife Jane Gordon, of the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies at Temple University, a research institute dedicated to developing reliable sources of information on Afro-Jews and Jewish diversity. He is also a research affiliate of the Institute for Jewish Research and Community. His formal academic appointment is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Judaic Studies at Temple University. Professor Gordon achieved his PhD in Philosophy with distinction from Yale University in 1993. He earned his B.A., with multiple honors, through the Lehman Scholars Program at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York, in 1984, after which he had taught as a Social Studies teacher in the Bronx, where he was also founder of the Second Chance Program at Lehman High School. Professor Gordon is the author of several influential and award-winning books, such as Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism (1995), Her Majesty's Other Children (1997), which won the Gustavus Myer Award for Outstanding Work on Human Rights in North America, Exisentia Africana (2000), Disciplinary Decadence (2006), and his co-edited A Companion to African-American Studies, was chosen as the NetLibrary eBook of the Month for February 2007. His forthcoming books are An Introduction to Africana Philosophy, which will be published by Cambridge University Press, and, with Jane Anna Gordon, Of Divine Warning: Reading Disaster in the Modern Age, which will be published by Paradigm Publishers. He is the author of the foreword to Gary and Diane Tobin and Scott Rubin's In Every Tongue (2005), and he is currently working on a book tentatively titled The Afro-Jewish Question and co-editing an anthology on the study of Jewish diversity. Professor Gordon has received many accolades work his work and has lectured internationally.
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Lewis Gordon is the offspring of two Jewish communities that converged in his mother.
One was the Solomon family, who migrated to Jamaica in the 19th Century. The other was from Ireland under the name of Finikin, who also immigrated there during the same period. Noticing that admission of his Jewish heritage stimulates discussion and reflection on Jewish diversity and history, Gordon has committed himself to working with fellow scholars and community workers dedicated to the re-appearance of Jewish people who have disappeared either by force or neglect. He is the founder and co-director, with his wife Jane Gordon, of the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies at Temple University, a research institute dedicated to developing reliable sources of information on Afro-Jews and Jewish diversity. He is also a research affiliate of the Institute for Jewish Research and Community. His formal academic appointment is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Judaic Studies at Temple University. Professor Gordon achieved his PhD in Philosophy with distinction from Yale University in 1993. He earned his B.A., with multiple honors, through the Lehman Scholars Program at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York, in 1984, after which he had taught as a Social Studies teacher in the Bronx, where he was also founder of the Second Chance Program at Lehman High School. Professor Gordon is the author of several influential and award-winning books, such as Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism (1995), Her Majesty's Other Children (1997), which won the Gustavus Myer Award for Outstanding Work on Human Rights in North America, Exisentia Africana (2000), Disciplinary Decadence (2006), and his co-edited A Companion to African-American Studies, was chosen as the NetLibrary eBook of the Month for February 2007. His forthcoming books are An Introduction to Africana Philosophy, which will be published by Cambridge University Press, and, with Jane Anna Gordon, Of Divine Warning: Reading Disaster in the Modern Age, which will be published by Paradigm Publishers. He is the author of the foreword to Gary and Diane Tobin and Scott Rubin's In Every Tongue (2005), and he is currently working on a book tentatively titled The Afro-Jewish Question and co-editing an anthology on the study of Jewish diversity. Professor Gordon has received many accolades work his work and has lectured internationally.
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Carolivia Herron
Professor Carolivia Herron is an author and educator currently living in Washington, DC. She is the founder and president of EpicCenter Stories, a nonprofit creative writing and educational organization. The mission of EpicCenter Stories is to promote art, to enhance creative critical thinking and to increase literacy by developing interconnected community stories as artistic literary epics. These epics link to online and classroom lessons in language arts, math, science, social science, visual art, and performing arts and they are designed primarily, though not exclusively, for students pursuing the GED, high school diplomas, and /or completing Basic Education Requirements in Washington, DC.
A major program of EpicCenter stories is the PAUSE program (Potomac Anacostia Ultimate Story Exchange), which pairs young writers with e-mail mentors from Carolivia's synagogue, Tifereth Israel of Washington, DC, as well as from the Kiwanis Club and local churches.
Herron is best known as the author of the controversial children's book, Nappy Hair, which is associated with the crisis in diversity education in the United States. Most recently, when the women's basketball team of Rutgers University was insulted by a journalist in national media, CNN published an online opinion piece by Carolivia, including a slide show of her reading from Nappy Hair.
Carolivia's most recent book, Always An Olivia,; relates the history of her Jewish ancestor, Sarah bat Asher, who was kidnapped from Italy by Barbary pirates in 1805. Sarah was protected by the Jewish community in Tripoli, Libya, and then rescued by the US Marines who took her and her ex-pirate husband to the Georgia Sea Islands. There they lived among the Geechees, free people of West African heritage. The story, which was told to Carolivia by her 103-year-old great grandmother Olivia Smith, also tells of how Sarah's earlier Jewish ancestors were expelled from Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition. In every generation, for 500 years, one little girl in the family was given a name associated with peace, Shulamit (shalom) or Olivia (olive branch of peace).
Dr. Herron's other major publications include: Thereafter Johnnie (Random House, 1991), The Selected Writings of Angelina Weld Grimkz (Oxford, 1991), and Little Georgia and the Apples (EpicCenter Stories, 2006). Her work in progress, Asenath and Our Song of Songs, imagines the life of the Ancient African (Egyptian) woman who married Joseph, son of Israel.
Carolivia received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory (epic literary genre) from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also received a master's degree in Creative Writing. She also holds two degrees in English Literature, an MA from Villanova University and a BA from Eastern University. Her professorial career was primarily at Harvard University, Mount Holyoke College, California State University, Chico, and the College of William and Mary.
She has been a visiting scholar in Judaic Studies and Comparative Literature at Brandeis University, Hebrew College (Newton, MA), the Harvard Divinity School, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was also a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico, Zaire, and the Republic of Congo. In her synagogue she chairs the Africa sub-committee of the Social Action Committee and co-edits the shul's newsletter, The Menorah.
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Professor Carolivia Herron is an author and educator currently living in Washington, DC. She is the founder and president of EpicCenter Stories, a nonprofit creative writing and educational organization. The mission of EpicCenter Stories is to promote art, to enhance creative critical thinking and to increase literacy by developing interconnected community stories as artistic literary epics. These epics link to online and classroom lessons in language arts, math, science, social science, visual art, and performing arts and they are designed primarily, though not exclusively, for students pursuing the GED, high school diplomas, and /or completing Basic Education Requirements in Washington, DC.
A major program of EpicCenter stories is the PAUSE program (Potomac Anacostia Ultimate Story Exchange), which pairs young writers with e-mail mentors from Carolivia's synagogue, Tifereth Israel of Washington, DC, as well as from the Kiwanis Club and local churches.
Herron is best known as the author of the controversial children's book, Nappy Hair, which is associated with the crisis in diversity education in the United States. Most recently, when the women's basketball team of Rutgers University was insulted by a journalist in national media, CNN published an online opinion piece by Carolivia, including a slide show of her reading from Nappy Hair.
Carolivia's most recent book, Always An Olivia,; relates the history of her Jewish ancestor, Sarah bat Asher, who was kidnapped from Italy by Barbary pirates in 1805. Sarah was protected by the Jewish community in Tripoli, Libya, and then rescued by the US Marines who took her and her ex-pirate husband to the Georgia Sea Islands. There they lived among the Geechees, free people of West African heritage. The story, which was told to Carolivia by her 103-year-old great grandmother Olivia Smith, also tells of how Sarah's earlier Jewish ancestors were expelled from Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition. In every generation, for 500 years, one little girl in the family was given a name associated with peace, Shulamit (shalom) or Olivia (olive branch of peace).
Dr. Herron's other major publications include: Thereafter Johnnie (Random House, 1991), The Selected Writings of Angelina Weld Grimkz (Oxford, 1991), and Little Georgia and the Apples (EpicCenter Stories, 2006). Her work in progress, Asenath and Our Song of Songs, imagines the life of the Ancient African (Egyptian) woman who married Joseph, son of Israel.
Carolivia received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory (epic literary genre) from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also received a master's degree in Creative Writing. She also holds two degrees in English Literature, an MA from Villanova University and a BA from Eastern University. Her professorial career was primarily at Harvard University, Mount Holyoke College, California State University, Chico, and the College of William and Mary.
She has been a visiting scholar in Judaic Studies and Comparative Literature at Brandeis University, Hebrew College (Newton, MA), the Harvard Divinity School, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was also a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico, Zaire, and the Republic of Congo. In her synagogue she chairs the Africa sub-committee of the Social Action Committee and co-edits the shul's newsletter, The Menorah.
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Ephraim Isaac, Ph. D.
Ephraim Issac is the director, Institute of Semitic Studies, Princeton, NJ, and a Fellow of Butler College, Princeton University and The Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation.
Born in Ethiopia where he got his early education, Dr. Isaac holds a B. A. degree in Philosophy, Chemistry, & Music (Concordia College); an M. Div. (Harvard Divinity School); a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages (Harvard University); a D.H.L. (honorary, John Jay /CUNY). He was Professor at Harvard (1968 -1977). The first professor hired in Afro-American Studies at Harvard, he was voted the best teacher each year by the students and the Department.
In addition to Harvard (that endowed the Ephraim Isaac Prize in African Studies in 1998), Dr. Isaac has lectured at Hebrew U (Ancient Semitic Languages), Princeton U (Near Eastern Studies, Religion; V. Prof. (Religion & African American Studies 1995-01) & U of Pennsylvania (Religion, Semitic Languages), Howard U (Divinity School), Lehigh U (Religion), Bard College (Religion, History), and other institutions of higher learning.
His subjects range from those mentioned above to Biblical Hebrew, Rabbinic Literature, Ethiopian History, Concept and History of Slavery and Ancient African Civilizations. He has been a Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Advanced Studies. He has received many awards and honors including an honorary D. H. L. (John Jay College, CUNY), the 2002 Peacemaker Award of the Rabbi Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.
Dr. Isaac is author of numerous articles and books on (Late Second Temple) Jewish and (Ancient Ethiopic) Ge'ez literatures. Three of his recent works pertain to the oldest known manuscripts of The Book of Enoch (Doubleday, 1983) and An Ethiopic History of Joseph (Sheffield Press, 1990), and Proceedings of Second International Congress of Yemenite Jewish Studies (ISS & Univ. of Haifa, 1999). An expanded definitive version of his The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is in press (Africa World Press, 2001.) He is currently working on a new edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments of The Book of Enoch (Princeton Theological Seminary); A History of Religions in Africa; and Cultural History of Ethiopian Jews. He is on editorial boards of two international scholarly journals on Afroasiatic Languages and Second Temple Jewish Literature respectively.
Dr. Isaac has diverse accomplishments. He knows seventeen languages. He is the first translator of Handel's Messiah into Amharic, Ethiopian official language. He is widely known in Ethiopia as founder of the National Literacy Campaign that made millions literate in the late sixties. He is currently the international Chair of the Horn of Africa Board of Peace and Development Organization (Addis Ababa, Asmara) and the President of The Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. He is on the board of many charitable and educational organizations. Sought after nationally and internationally, he is widely acclaimed as a public lecturer on religion, literature, ancient history, peace and conflict resolution, and various other subjects listed above.
Dr. Isaac is also celebrating the birth of this first grandchild.
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Ephraim Issac is the director, Institute of Semitic Studies, Princeton, NJ, and a Fellow of Butler College, Princeton University and The Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation.
Born in Ethiopia where he got his early education, Dr. Isaac holds a B. A. degree in Philosophy, Chemistry, & Music (Concordia College); an M. Div. (Harvard Divinity School); a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages (Harvard University); a D.H.L. (honorary, John Jay /CUNY). He was Professor at Harvard (1968 -1977). The first professor hired in Afro-American Studies at Harvard, he was voted the best teacher each year by the students and the Department.
In addition to Harvard (that endowed the Ephraim Isaac Prize in African Studies in 1998), Dr. Isaac has lectured at Hebrew U (Ancient Semitic Languages), Princeton U (Near Eastern Studies, Religion; V. Prof. (Religion & African American Studies 1995-01) & U of Pennsylvania (Religion, Semitic Languages), Howard U (Divinity School), Lehigh U (Religion), Bard College (Religion, History), and other institutions of higher learning.
His subjects range from those mentioned above to Biblical Hebrew, Rabbinic Literature, Ethiopian History, Concept and History of Slavery and Ancient African Civilizations. He has been a Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Advanced Studies. He has received many awards and honors including an honorary D. H. L. (John Jay College, CUNY), the 2002 Peacemaker Award of the Rabbi Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.
Dr. Isaac is author of numerous articles and books on (Late Second Temple) Jewish and (Ancient Ethiopic) Ge'ez literatures. Three of his recent works pertain to the oldest known manuscripts of The Book of Enoch (Doubleday, 1983) and An Ethiopic History of Joseph (Sheffield Press, 1990), and Proceedings of Second International Congress of Yemenite Jewish Studies (ISS & Univ. of Haifa, 1999). An expanded definitive version of his The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is in press (Africa World Press, 2001.) He is currently working on a new edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments of The Book of Enoch (Princeton Theological Seminary); A History of Religions in Africa; and Cultural History of Ethiopian Jews. He is on editorial boards of two international scholarly journals on Afroasiatic Languages and Second Temple Jewish Literature respectively.
Dr. Isaac has diverse accomplishments. He knows seventeen languages. He is the first translator of Handel's Messiah into Amharic, Ethiopian official language. He is widely known in Ethiopia as founder of the National Literacy Campaign that made millions literate in the late sixties. He is currently the international Chair of the Horn of Africa Board of Peace and Development Organization (Addis Ababa, Asmara) and the President of The Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. He is on the board of many charitable and educational organizations. Sought after nationally and internationally, he is widely acclaimed as a public lecturer on religion, literature, ancient history, peace and conflict resolution, and various other subjects listed above.
Dr. Isaac is also celebrating the birth of this first grandchild.
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Andre Key
Andre E. Key is a doctoral student at Temple University in the Department of African American Studies. Andre is also a graduate fellow at the Center for Afro Jewish Studies at Temple University, where he engages in historical and ethnographic research on Philadelphia's Black Jewish and Hebrew Israelite community. Andre is also a congregant of Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, Illinois. Top of Page
Andre E. Key is a doctoral student at Temple University in the Department of African American Studies. Andre is also a graduate fellow at the Center for Afro Jewish Studies at Temple University, where he engages in historical and ethnographic research on Philadelphia's Black Jewish and Hebrew Israelite community. Andre is also a congregant of Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, Illinois. Top of Page
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Dr. Rudo Mathivah
Lufuno Rudo Mathivha is a member of the Lemba Jewish Community of South Africa.
She was born and raised in apartheid South Africa together with her 3 brothers and 3 sisters. She is a medical doctor who specialized in Intensive Care Medicine and is currently adjunct professor and medical director of Intensive Care, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital & the University of the Witwatersrand.
Dr Mathivha is passionate about the Lemba community and its Jewish roots. She worked closely with her father, the late Professor M.E.R. Mathivha, in tracing and documenting the community's Jewish heritage.
She is an active member and facilitator of an interim leadership committee of the Lemba Cultural Association. Since October 2006, this committee has worked on restructuring the LCA organization. This process included amending the organization's constitution and getting the Lemba community to actively participate in their affairs. The amending of the constitution has been completed (April 2007). This will facilitate the election of a leadership structure for the Lemba Community.
She also has an interest in learning more about Lemba women's rituals and spirituality.
Dr Mathivha has a great interest in establishing ties with kindred Jewish communities throughout the world.
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Lufuno Rudo Mathivha is a member of the Lemba Jewish Community of South Africa.
She was born and raised in apartheid South Africa together with her 3 brothers and 3 sisters. She is a medical doctor who specialized in Intensive Care Medicine and is currently adjunct professor and medical director of Intensive Care, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital & the University of the Witwatersrand.
Dr Mathivha is passionate about the Lemba community and its Jewish roots. She worked closely with her father, the late Professor M.E.R. Mathivha, in tracing and documenting the community's Jewish heritage.
She is an active member and facilitator of an interim leadership committee of the Lemba Cultural Association. Since October 2006, this committee has worked on restructuring the LCA organization. This process included amending the organization's constitution and getting the Lemba community to actively participate in their affairs. The amending of the constitution has been completed (April 2007). This will facilitate the election of a leadership structure for the Lemba Community.
She also has an interest in learning more about Lemba women's rituals and spirituality.
Dr Mathivha has a great interest in establishing ties with kindred Jewish communities throughout the world.
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Rabbi Juan Mejía - Be'chol Lashon Southwest Director
Rabbi Juan Mejía was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1977. When he was 15, he discovered his converso roots and began to explore the history of the secret Jews of Latin America. This process eventually led him to Jerusalem, where he rejoined his people and decided to pursue the rabbinate in order to help others to find their Jewish souls. There he met his wife, Abby Jacobson, also a rabbinical student. Rabbi Mejía holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the National University of Colombia and a master's degree in Jewish Civilization from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received rabbinic ordination from the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Rabbi Mejía dreams of establishing a Yeshiva and Return Center for Conversos in the American Southwest where he can help train the leadership of these new communities both in the U.S. and in Latin America. In the meantime, he teaches classes to conversos in seven countries through his website: www.koltuvsefarad.com.
Rabbi Mejía lives with his wife and daughter in Oklahoma City, OK.
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Rabbi Juan Mejía was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1977. When he was 15, he discovered his converso roots and began to explore the history of the secret Jews of Latin America. This process eventually led him to Jerusalem, where he rejoined his people and decided to pursue the rabbinate in order to help others to find their Jewish souls. There he met his wife, Abby Jacobson, also a rabbinical student. Rabbi Mejía holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the National University of Colombia and a master's degree in Jewish Civilization from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received rabbinic ordination from the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Rabbi Mejía dreams of establishing a Yeshiva and Return Center for Conversos in the American Southwest where he can help train the leadership of these new communities both in the U.S. and in Latin America. In the meantime, he teaches classes to conversos in seven countries through his website: www.koltuvsefarad.com.
Rabbi Mejía lives with his wife and daughter in Oklahoma City, OK.
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Avishai Mekonen - Photographer and Filmmaker
Yeganyahu Avishai Mekonen emigrated from Ethiopia to Israel in 1984 as part of Operation Moses, and has worked as a photographer and filmmaker on projects investigating issues of race and identity.
Avishai recently completed Seven Generations, a photography and video installation that offers a view into an ancient Ethiopian Jewish tradition that is grounded in the past but keeps an eye to the future.
In collaboration with Be’chol Lashon, a section of Avishai Mekonen and Shari Rothfarb’s documentary film project, “Judaism and Race,” is part of “The Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography” that originated at the Jewish Museum, NYC, and has traveled to the Skirball Museum, L.A. and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.
The documentary film, now called “400 Miles to Freedom,” is in post production. Breaking the 20-year silence on the kidnapping Avishai endured as a child in Sudan, an Ethiopian Israeli man explores immigration & racial diversity in Judaism. A labor of love many years in the making, this film is in its last stages of completion. Support post-production costs, to help premiere the film in 2011.
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Collier Meyerson
Collier Meyerson was born and raised on the upper west side of New York. She graduated from Macalester College in 2007. Thereafter, she worked for The Alternative Schools Network in Chicago, for Local 1199 of the Services Employees International Union in its efforts to elect Barack Obama, and, as well with Film Presence and Arthouse Films assisting their outreach campaigns for recent documentary films. Collier is very excited to continue her work with Be'chol Lashon in the efforts to expand the (often) projected narrow definition of what "Jewish" looks like.
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Collier Meyerson was born and raised on the upper west side of New York. She graduated from Macalester College in 2007. Thereafter, she worked for The Alternative Schools Network in Chicago, for Local 1199 of the Services Employees International Union in its efforts to elect Barack Obama, and, as well with Film Presence and Arthouse Films assisting their outreach campaigns for recent documentary films. Collier is very excited to continue her work with Be'chol Lashon in the efforts to expand the (often) projected narrow definition of what "Jewish" looks like.
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Rahel Musleah
Rahel Musleah was born in Calcutta, India, the seventh generation of a Calcutta Jewish family that traces its roots to 17th-century Baghdad. Through her multi-media song, story and slide programs, she shares her rare and intimate knowledge of this ancient community's history, customs and melodies with audiences at synagogues, schools, libraries, women's groups and cultural events.
Ms. Musleah is an award-winning journalist with hundreds of published articles to her credit. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Family Circle, Publishers Weekly, Hadassah, Reform Judaism, Jewish Woman, Naamat Woman and numerous other Jewish journals.
Her latest book, Apples and Pomegranates: A Family Seder for Rosh Hashanah (Lerner/Kar-Ben, July 2004), introduces the Sephardic custom of blessing the Jewish new year with symbolic foods. Her haggadah, Why On This Night? A Passover Haggadah for Family Celebration (Simon & Schuster), has been received with critical acclaim. She is the co-author, with Rabbi Michael Klayman, of Sharing Blessings: Children's Stories for Exploring the Spirit of the Jewish Holidays (Jewish Lights), and the author of Journey of a Lifetime: The Jewish Life Cycle Book (Behrman House).
Her CD, Hodu: Jewish Rhythms from Baghdad to India, features ancient texts, authentic melodies and contemporary rhythms. (“Hodu”, in Hebrew, means both “India” and “Praise God!”) Her songbook, B'Kol Arev: Songs of the Jews of Calcutta, compiled more than 50 songs for Shabbat, holidays and special occasions (Tara Publications); an accompanying cassette featured 18 selections.
Her writing, songs and recipes—compiled on her website, www.rahelsjewishindia.com—have also been or will be included in several anthologies: In Women's Hands (Rutgers);Jewish Food: The World at Table (HarperCollins); The Kids' Catalog of Hanukkah (JPS); Words of Song: A Curriculum for the Study of Synagogue Music (ACC/UAHC); R'fuah Sh'lemah: Songs of Jewish Healing (Synagogue 2000); Jewish Family & Life (Golden Books), and Beyond Scandal: The Parents' Guide to Sex, Lies and Leadership (www.jflbooks.com). She has received several grants for her work and was part of the New York Council for the Humanities' Speakers in the Humanities 2000-2002.
Ms Musleah is a graduate of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She is a member of the Authors' Guild; the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Jewish Press Association. She sings with the Zamir Chorale and Shirah, the Jewish Community Chorus of the JCC on the Palisades, in Tenafly, NJ, both under the direction of Matthew Lazar. She has received awards for her writing from the American Jewish Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Sephardi Literary Contest, the Society of National Association Publications, and the General Federation of Women's Clubs.
Ms. Musleah hopes to pass down the legacy of the Indian Jewish community to her two daughters, Shira and Shoshana. She lives in Great Neck, NY.
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Rahel Musleah was born in Calcutta, India, the seventh generation of a Calcutta Jewish family that traces its roots to 17th-century Baghdad. Through her multi-media song, story and slide programs, she shares her rare and intimate knowledge of this ancient community's history, customs and melodies with audiences at synagogues, schools, libraries, women's groups and cultural events.
Ms. Musleah is an award-winning journalist with hundreds of published articles to her credit. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Family Circle, Publishers Weekly, Hadassah, Reform Judaism, Jewish Woman, Naamat Woman and numerous other Jewish journals.
Her latest book, Apples and Pomegranates: A Family Seder for Rosh Hashanah (Lerner/Kar-Ben, July 2004), introduces the Sephardic custom of blessing the Jewish new year with symbolic foods. Her haggadah, Why On This Night? A Passover Haggadah for Family Celebration (Simon & Schuster), has been received with critical acclaim. She is the co-author, with Rabbi Michael Klayman, of Sharing Blessings: Children's Stories for Exploring the Spirit of the Jewish Holidays (Jewish Lights), and the author of Journey of a Lifetime: The Jewish Life Cycle Book (Behrman House).
Her CD, Hodu: Jewish Rhythms from Baghdad to India, features ancient texts, authentic melodies and contemporary rhythms. (“Hodu”, in Hebrew, means both “India” and “Praise God!”) Her songbook, B'Kol Arev: Songs of the Jews of Calcutta, compiled more than 50 songs for Shabbat, holidays and special occasions (Tara Publications); an accompanying cassette featured 18 selections.
Her writing, songs and recipes—compiled on her website, www.rahelsjewishindia.com—have also been or will be included in several anthologies: In Women's Hands (Rutgers);Jewish Food: The World at Table (HarperCollins); The Kids' Catalog of Hanukkah (JPS); Words of Song: A Curriculum for the Study of Synagogue Music (ACC/UAHC); R'fuah Sh'lemah: Songs of Jewish Healing (Synagogue 2000); Jewish Family & Life (Golden Books), and Beyond Scandal: The Parents' Guide to Sex, Lies and Leadership (www.jflbooks.com). She has received several grants for her work and was part of the New York Council for the Humanities' Speakers in the Humanities 2000-2002.
Ms Musleah is a graduate of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She is a member of the Authors' Guild; the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Jewish Press Association. She sings with the Zamir Chorale and Shirah, the Jewish Community Chorus of the JCC on the Palisades, in Tenafly, NJ, both under the direction of Matthew Lazar. She has received awards for her writing from the American Jewish Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Sephardi Literary Contest, the Society of National Association Publications, and the General Federation of Women's Clubs.
Ms. Musleah hopes to pass down the legacy of the Indian Jewish community to her two daughters, Shira and Shoshana. She lives in Great Neck, NY.
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