May Arow is the Director of The Abraham Initiatives’ Language as a Cultural Bridge program. She develops and implements Arabic language courses as an entry point to Arab culture and society for influential groups of Israelis including Hebrew language media outlets, Israeli corporations institutions, higher education staff, and city council members. May also played a key role in the development of The Abraham Initiatives’ Ya Salam Initiative, which trains and places Arab educators to teach spoken Arabic in Jewish schools and was adopted by the Ministry of Education in 2017. Outside of The Abraham Initiatives, May is a published children’s book author, and has translated several others from English and Hebrew to Arabic. She also writes for Haaretz and regularly contributes op-eds that engage the Jewish public with Arab culture.

Suhad Babaa is a producer, news publisher, and the Executive Director & President of Just Vision. Suhad produced Boycott (2021) and executive produced Naila and the Uprising (2017). She is also the co-publisher of the award-winning Hebrew-language news site, Local Call. Additionally, Suhad helped lead the impact campaigns for Just Vision’s critically acclaimed film, Budrus (2009), which was recognized with the Doc Society Social Impact Award in 2012, as well as the Peabody award-winning documentary, My Neighbourhood (2012), which has since helped support a global campaign to save Sheikh Jarrah, the community that sits at the heart of the film. Her work has been featured by institutions including TED, Tate Britain and the Nobel Women’s Initiative and highlighted in outlets including The New York Times, CNN, Yedioth Ahronoth, PBS, BBC, Channel 2 News (Israel), Ma’an News, Al Quds, The Forward and beyond. Suhad is a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum, and Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Assaf Banitt is an award-winning Israeli documentary film director and editor. His first film, Against Your Will, won the special jury mention at the Docaviv festival and his second film, The Soldier’s Opinion, participated in the Jerusalem Film Festival. He is a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film & Television school and the MFA program at Tel Aviv University’s department of Film and Television.

Born in Haifa, Michale Boganim grew up in Israel, in a Moroccan family. Her father was in the Israeli black panther movement. She studied philosophy at the Hebraic University of Jerusalem and later political science and anthropology at the Sorbonne, where Jean Rouch directed her Master’s degree. She is a graduate of the National Film School in London. Her student film DIM MEMORIES was selected in Director’s Fortnight, Cannes 2002 and won the Gras Savoye Award. In 2005, Boganim’s ODESSA ODESSA, a documentary feature, screened at Sundance and won the CICAE Prize in the Berlin Film Festival. The film screened in more than 50 festivals internationally and was distributed in many territories. Her first fiction feature, LAND OF OBLIVION starring Olga Kurylenko, premiered in both Venice and Toronto Film Festival 2011 and screened in over 50 international festivals to critical acclaim.

Chalfen is a Peabody, duPont and Critics’ Choice-winning and multiple-Emmy nominated film and television producer and a co-founder of Naked Edge Films. His recent films include Loudmouth (executive produced by John Legend) being released in theaters later this year; Captains of Zaatari for Hulu; the Netflix Original Pray Away executive produced by Jason Blum & Ryan Murphy; the Sundance 2019 award-winners The Infiltrators and Always in Season for PBS; the Tribeca 2018 award-winners United Skates (executive produced by John Legend) for HBO and Bathtubs Over Broadway (executive produced by David Letterman) released by Focus Features; and Silenced (executive produced by Susan Sarandon) for DirectTV and Netflix. Chalfen is a Documentary Branch member of AMPAS and a voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

Dr. Helen C. Evans is the Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator Emerita at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2000, she installed the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Byzantine Art, the first dedicated to Byzantium in a comprehensive museum. She also curated a body of major, award winning exhibitions exploring Byzantium and related cultures – The Glory of Byzantium (1997), Byzantium: Faith and Power (2004), Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (2012), and Armenia! (2018). Her work recognizes the Jewish presence in Byzantium. She has taught and published widely. Dr. Evans is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America.

Noam Gil’s plays were produced and performed at the Habima National Theater, Beer Sheva Theater and The Kvutsat Avoda Ensemble. He holds a doctorate from Tel Aviv University where he teaches courses on Creative Writing and Jewish American Culture and Literature. Gil wrote and co-directed the film version of his play Lady Amar.

Brian Hauss is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, where he focuses on free expression issues. Since joining the ACLU in 2012, he has litigated cases defending the free speech rights of labor unions, writers and journalists, activists, advocacy groups, media organizations, and private citizens at all levels of the federal and state court systems. He has served as lead counsel or counsel in ACLU lawsuits challenging anti-BDS laws in Kansas, Arizona, Texas, and Arkansas. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson (she/her) is the New York Rabbinic Organizer at T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. She was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2021, where she also earned an MA in Midrash and served for two years as the Program Coordinator of the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue. While in rabbinical school Margo served a number of communities and organizations, including as a Marshall T. Meyer Fellow at B’nai Jeshurun, a member of the UN Women working group, and as a T’ruah Israel Fellow. She lives in Brooklyn with her wife and their son.

Libby Lenkinski is the Vice President for Public Engagement at the New Israel Fund, where she leads all aspects of NIF’s public efforts in the United States – including communications, digital, programs, events, leadership, community partnerships and engagement, New Generations and our fellowships. Libby also leads NIF’s work in arts and culture – working with cultural productions to impact the narrative and attitudes in and about the region. Prior to joining NIF, Libby lived and worked in the Israeli non-profit field for almost a decade. There she worked as Director of International Relations at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and as a strategy consultant for human rights organizations like Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights, for documentary films including Budrus and The Law in These Parts, new media initiatives like +972 Magazine, and for progressive campaigns. She is a founding member of Zazim-Community Action and The Whistle.  Libby is based in Brooklyn and travels to Israel-Palestine frequently.

Moran Maimoni is The Abraham Initiatives’ Director of Public Affairs. Moran was born in Jerusalem and currently lives in Tel Aviv. Before she worked at The Abraham Initiatives, Moran was a parliamentary advisor for senior members of Knesset, and was also a political and feminist activist. In her role at The Abraham Initiatives, Moran works with elected officials in the Knesset in order to promote shared living and equality for Arab citizens. Moran holds a MA in Sociology and Communication from the Hebrew University.

Following an associate position with the Photography Curator at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2000 to 2002), Andrea Meislin returned to NYC and opened her eponymous gallery with a focus on presenting the work of leading Israeli artists.  Most were exhibiting in New York for the first time, and many to serious and critical acclaim.  One photographer, Barry Frydlender, was the first Israeli artist to have a solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art (2007).  The gallery, which operated from 2004 to 2016 in Chelsea, also presented documentary and historical photographic exhibitions about or from Israel.  Since 2016, Meislin Projects has worked closely with artists to develop, produce, and realize ambitious projects – many of which culminate in private and public commissions, institutional exhibitions worldwide, and comprehensive publications.

Matt Nosanchuk is President of the New York Jewish Agenda (NYJA), which focuses on organizing amplifying the voices of the pluralistic and diverse Jewish community in New York City and State, whose Jewish values shape their commitment to furthering social justice, supporting a Jewish and democratic Israel, and combating antisemitism wherever it arises. Before co-founding NYJA, Matt served in senior roles in the Obama Administration, where he worked to further key domestic and international priorities at the White House, as President Obama’s liaison to the American Jewish community, on the National Security Council, and in the Office of Public Engagement. He also served in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, where he led work to advance LGBTQ equality, and at the Departments of State and Homeland Security. During the 2020 campaign cycle, he served as Senior Advisor for Jewish Outreach and LGBTQ+ Engagement at the Democratic National Committee, working closely with the Biden-Harris campaign. Earlier in his career, Matt practiced law in the private and non-profit sectors, was a Skadden Fellow at the ACLU, and worked in both houses of Congress. For his work on LGBTQ issues, Matt received the American Bar Association’s inaugural Stonewall Award and the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award. He received his A.B. with Honors and Distinction from Stanford University, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was Senior Note Editor of the Stanford Law Review and a Harry S. Truman Scholar.

Orit Ofir Ronell believes in the power that film can have on public discourse in the hope that it will cause some change in Israeli policy. In 2018, Ronell directed Seret Burekas, a 74-minute documentary featured in DocAviv, and Orphans in 2014. 

Alon Schwarz is the director of Tantura, which opened the 2022 Sundance World competition and won prizes at DocAviv and DocEdge Film festivals, among others. In 2017, he directed and produced the feature documentary Aida’s Secrets, which premiered at Hot Docs, won the Audience Award at Tel Aviv’s Docaviv Festival, and was theatrically distributed in the United States and Israel. Prior to his filmmaking career, Alon held management positions in the software and technology sector after being a serial entrepreneur for 17 years.