Draft version: August 25 Chicago Sabeel Conference 2005 | Friday and Saturday, October 7—8, 2005 P.O. Box 3667, Oak Park, IL 60303 E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 312/427-2533 ext.18 Ali Abunimah Rev. Naim Ateek Yigal Bronner Marc Ellis Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb Participant Profiles Ali Abunimah Marc Ellis Ali Abunimah is a writer, commentator, and lecturer on Middle Marc Ellis is Director of the Center for American and Jewish East and Arab-American affairs. His articles have appeared in Studies at Baylor University. Ellis holds degrees in Religion The Daily Star (Lebanon), The New York Times, The Los Angeles and American Studies from Florida State University, where he Times, The Financial Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the studied under the Holocaust theologian Richard Rubenstein Jordan Times. He is a frequent guest on local, national, and and the American historian William Miller. He received his international radio and television, including CNN, Fox, MSNBC, doctorate from Marquette University in 1980. Ellis has served Pacifica Radio, Radio Canada, and the BBC. Abunimah co- on the faculty of Maryknoll School of Theology, as a senior founded The Electronic Intifada, an internet gateway about fellow at Harvard’s Center for the Study of World Religions, Palestine and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict (electronicintifada.net). and as a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern He lectures frequently at colleges in the United States. Mr. Studies. In 1999 he founded Baylor University’s Center for Abunimah was born in the United States and grew up in American and Jewish Studies, where he is a professor. Europe. Both of his parents were born in Palestine. Professor Ellis has authored fifteen books and edited five oth- ers, among them: Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation; Rev. Canon Naim Ateek Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time; O Jerusalem: The Contested Future of the Jewish Covenant, Naim Ateek is Director and President of the Sabeel Center in Practicing Exile: The Religious Odyssey of an American Jew; Jerusalem. Formerly, Ateek served as Canon of St. George’s and Israel and Palestine: Out of the Ashes: The Search for Cathedral in Jerusalem. Ateek holds degrees from Hardin- Jewish Identity in the Twenty-First Century. Simmons University (TX), The Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CA), and the San Francisco Theological Seminary Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb (CA). He is author and editor of numerous books, including Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation; One of the first ten women to become a rabbi, Gottlieb has Faith and the Intifada: Palestinian Christian Voices; Jerusalem, served as a congregational rabbi for the past 32 years. Gottlieb What makes for Peace! A Palestinian Christian Contribution to is also a professional storyteller, puppeteer, a percussionist Peacemaking; Our Story: The Palestinians; and Holy Land, with the Rebbe’s Orkestra, and one of the few trained klezmer Hollow Jubilee: God, Justice and the Palestinians. Ateek lec- dancers in the United States. She has worked for reconciliation tures widely in Palestine and Israel as well as internationally. between faith communities in the United States since 1966 and is an advocate of the concept of shomer shalom, peacemaking Yigal Bronner and reconciliation as a religious obligation. From 1979-82, she staffed the Jewish Peace Fellowship. Gottlieb has received Israeli professor Yigal Bronner teaches South Asian Studies at numerous human rights awards, including recognition for her Tel Aviv University and the University of Chicago. He is also reconciliation work between Muslims and Jews. Gottlieb has an activist in Ta’ayush (Arab-Jewish Partnership) and a consci- extensive experience in Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, and entious objector who sat in military prison last year for refus- leads frequent delegations to the Middle East through the aus- ing to serve in the occupied territories. Bronner’s political pices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. She currently serves commentary has appeared in various publications including as program director of Interfaith Inventions, an organization The Nation and books including The Other Israel (ed. Roane that brings youth together in summer camps and training ses- Carey et. al.) and The Politics of Anti-Semitism (eds. Alexander sions. She currently resides in Oxnard, California. Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair). His “Letter to the General” was translated to numerous languages and printed in several books. Bronner has been one of the leading voices in the campaign against the Israeli “Separation Wall.” Draft version: August 25 Chicago Sabeel Conference 2005 | Friday and Saturday, October 7—8, 2005 P.O. Box 3667, Oak Park, IL 60303 E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 312/427-2533 ext.18 Adam Horowitz Dr. Tawfiq Nasser George Rishmawi Barbara Rossing Michael Tarazi Participant Profiles, cont. Adam Horowitz tourism activities including cultural tours, political mission, and environmental hiking tours. Rishmawi is a co-founder of the Adam Horowitz is program assistant in the Middle East International Solidarity Movement, a board member of the Peacebuilding Program of American Friends Service Christian Related Organizations Coalition in the Bethlehem Committee in Philadelphia. Horowitz is a founding member of area, and a former board member of the Palestinian Center for the organization Jews Against the Occupation in New York Rapprochement. and has been active in organizing against the occupation in the Jewish community since the beginning of the second Barbara Rossing Intifada. Horowitz coordinates the AFSC “Faces of Hope” cam- paign, which works to support nonviolenct resistance and Barbara Rossing is an associate professor of New Testament at refusal in Israel and Palestine. the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Before joining the seminary’s faculty in 1994, she served a congregation in Dr. Tawfiq Nasser Minnesota, was assistant and acting director for Global Mission Interpretation for the American Lutheran Church, and chaplain Dr. Tawfiq Nasser received his training in clinical immunology at Harvard University Divinity School. Ordained in 1982, and health administration at Old Dominion University Virginia. Rossing has lectured and preached widely in the Evangelical Nasser managed the university’s clinical practice center, then Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), including keynote lec- served as manager of clinical laboratory operations for a multi- tures at Women of the ELCA theological conferences, global ple hospital system in Virginia. Upon returning to the West mission events, and synod assemblies. Rossing’s articles have Bank, he joined the community and public health faculty at appeared in Dialog, Currents in Theology and Mission, Birzeit University, then was appointed Director of the Lutheran Standard, The Lutheran and Lutheran Woman Arabcare Ramallah Medical Center. In 1997 he became the first Today magazines. Her book The Choice Between Two Cities: Palestinian chief executive officer/director general of Augusta Whore, Bride, and Empire in the Apocalypse was published in Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem. In this capacity, Nasser is 1999. Rossing holds degrees from Carleton College, Yale responsible for the operations of the second largest hospital in University Divinity School, and Harvard University. East Jerusalem and the largest hospital serving refugees through a contract with UNRWA. He is also in charge of man- Michael Tarazi aging the clinical outreach program of the Lutheran World Federation. Dr. Nasser serves on the boards of major hospitals Michael Tarazi, a Palestinian-American lawyer, is a legal advi- in Gaza and Nablus. He is a founding member of the East sor to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of State for Jerusalem Jerusalem Hospital Forum and is a member of the Palestinian Affairs. He provides legal advice on a wide array of issues fac- Health Policy Forum. ing Jerusalem, including Israeli settlements and refugees. He regularly makes appearances in the international media, George Rishmawi including on CNN, NBC, ABC and the BBC. Mr. Tarazi was raised in Colorado, attended Phillips Academy in Andover, George Rishmawi has been a leading figure in the Palestinian Massachusetts, and earned degrees at Harvard College and nonviolent movement for over a decade. In his capacity as co- Harvard Law School. Prior to taking his current position, he director of Holy Land Trust Travel and Encounter Program, was a legal advisor to the PLO Negotiations Affairs Rishmawi organizes the Palestine Encounter Program, which Department. Formerly, Mr. Tarazi practiced securities law in brings international visitors to Palestine for first-hand experi- New York, Helsinki, Istanbul, Paris and Budapest. He is a ence living with Palestinian families and working with member of the New York State Bar. Palestinian activists. He also has expertise in non-typical.