Leadership – Muslim Jewish Solidarity Committee

Muslim Jewish Solidarity Committee

All Rights Reserved © 2020

Michelle Koch

Executive Director and Board Member

Michelle Koch is a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee. Under her leadership, since its founding in 2015, MJSC has created ‘brave’ dialogue spaces for thousands of people to form genuine relationships and partnerships founded on mutual recognition, mutual understanding, empathy, and trust. Michelle came to this work after more than a decade as a music teacher. She studied music theory and audio engineering at Hunter College, the Aaron Copland School of Music, and the Institute of Audio Research. She is a passionate believer in the power of dialogue, empathy, and personal relationship-building to bring sustainable social change, and in addition to her work at MJSC, serves on the board of the International Human Rights Arts Festival and is a trained mediator.

Mohammad Azraq

Fellowship & Program Consultant

Mohammad Azraq is an environmental and economic development expert in the MENA region, with over 14 years of work experience in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Tunisia, and the Gulf Countries Council. Currently, he is pursuing an MA in Sustainability Studies at Trent University in Ontario, Canada. Most recently, he was the Capacity Building and Network Development Manager at the Arab Foundations Forum (AFF) based out of Tunis, Tunisia. Prior to joining AFF, Azraq was Senior Officer for Philanthropy and Social Investing at the American University in Cairo – School of Business. In 2010, he spent a year living and studying in Israel/Palestine at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies where he co-authored a paper on the potential for renewable energy generation in Palestine. Also in 2010, Azraq was awarded the Leaders for Democracy Fellowship at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. In 2011, he was awarded the Atkin Fellowship for Arab Israeli Peace by the War Studies Department of King’s College London where he published a paper on grassroots, community initiatives for renewable energy generation in West Bank villages

Sarah Flatto Manasrah

Co-Founder & Program Consultant

Sarah is a born, wandering, returned New Yorker based in Brooklyn. She’s a new mama, shawarma enthusiast, and proud member of a Muslim-Jewish Palestinian-American family spanning 4 refugee generations. An advocate, organizer, writer, and birth worker, she builds community for gender, reproductive, immigrant, and refugee justice. She currently manages a national faith-based sexual harassment and abuse prevention program and co-directs a creative family consultancy. She organizes with Never Again Action, #LetMyPeopleGo, #Equity4Downstate, and #NoMuslimBanEver campaigns.

Previously, Sarah was a cofounding member and training consultant at OutSmartNYC / NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault, working to end sexual violence in nightlife. She’s held leadership roles at the NYC Family Justice Center / Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, and UNICEF USA. She’s a certified Rape Crisis Advocate, lactation counselor, and birth doula.

Dara Gever

Assistant Director

As MJSC’s Assistant Director, Dara Gever works with local, national, and international partners who support MJSC’s mission to fight hate through interfaith relationships and shared values. Dara graduated with high honors from Emory University, where she received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Religion and Political Science and completed a senior honors thesis in contemporary Jewish engagement. She served as Director of Youth Engagement and Assistant Director of Education at Temple Beth El in Charlotte, N.C.; Goldman Bridge Fellow at American Jewish Committee in Atlanta, GA; and Senior Campaign Executive at Jewish National Fund in Philadelphia and Southern NJ. She worked as American staff at Birthright Israel Outdoors and Shorashim; Jewish Learning Staff at Six Points Sports Academy; and as a Counselor for Charlotte’s In Our Own Backyard Interfaith Youth camp. She discovered her passion for Muslim-Jewish relationship building in high school, when she participated in JNF’s pilot Common Ground Interfaith Mission to Israel with Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Mormon peers. She loves working with passionate community leaders to build interfaith, interethnic, and international relationships for community building, health, education, religion, and culture initiatives.

Zafreen Mahfooz

Shalom/Salaam Publishing Director

Zafreen has LL.B (Bachelor of Laws) from University Of London, LL.M (Masters in Human Rights Law) from University College London and N.V.Q (Level-5) in Management. She has worked for Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC, UK), PICUM (Brussels), Amnesty International (UK), Praxis (U.K). She worked extensively with Social Services, Local Authorities, UKBA, GOs and NGOs. She represented clients in tribunals, civil courts and has assisted law chambers on cases in the Court Of Appeal and European Court Of Human Rights (ECHR). Her 10+ years as a human rights professional focused on practice and policies around migration, destitution, social integration, sexual and gender-based violence.

Since migrating to NYC, she redirected her career in publishing and PR. Her portfolio includes her roles as; Event Manager for The Great Lectures, PR Manager for the international art project ‘The First Supper’, Publicist for a theatrical play ‘Women of New York’. She wrote and edited for Townsend Press and other literary agencies. She creates content for private clients and commercial websites. She reviews restaurants, films and theatre for PR agencies.

Melissa Shaw

Arts and Communication Advisor

Melissa Shaw is a facilitator, educator and theater artist who offers a unique consultancy based in the arts, social justice, diversity and inclusion, and social emotional learning. She has taught or led sessions in universities, schools, summer camps, detention centers, yeshivas, churches, corporate offices, and long-term temporary housing centers. She has facilitated workshops for high school students, security guards, chaplains, non-profit managers, video game designers, Buddhist monks, school principals, older adults, NGO leaders, and the NYPD. She is a teaching artist and creative coach for various community-based organizations, including Community Word Project and the Lulu and Leo Fund. Melissa also facilitates for a variety of the Anti-Defamation League’s programs, including its A World of Difference Institute, Words to Action, Echoes and Reflections and Respect for All initiatives. She was on faculty for Drew University’s 2018 Institute On Religion and Conflict Transformation where she helped to foster dialogue among religious and lay leaders from around the world. Last summer, Melissa was part of the prestigious Nahum Goldman Fellowship cohort. She is an associate artist with Falconworks Artist Group. Melissa holds an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

Ronit Levin Delgado

Arts Advisor and Curator

Ronit Levin Delgado is an Israeli born, New York based multidisciplinary visual artist and a Fulbright scholar. Levin Delgado is a graduate of the MFA Studio Art program at MSU, NJ, and holds a BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.

Levin Delgado has won multiple awards and honors, including the Fulbright Scholarship, AICF American-Israel Cultural Foundation, Asylum Arts, Jewish Art Salon Fellowship, Daughters of Troy Residency in Governors Island, UJA Fellowship, the Israeli Ministry of Culture Scholarship, Bezalel Academy Award for Excellence and on 2014 she was chosen to be the recipient of the First Annual Prize for Bezalel Alumni.

Levin Delgado has had Solo and Two-person exhibitions, including at Raw Pop Up (Art Basel Miami), Spring Break Art (NY), Gallery Sensei and Chashama (NY), the Frame Gallery (PA), Guttman Museum (Tel Aviv) and her work has been exhibited in numerous international group exhibitions in Israel, Europe and the US, including, The Queens Museum (NY), Museum of Russian Art (NJ), Magnan Metz Gallery, and Trestle Gallery (NYC), Index Gallery, Aferro Gallery (Newark), Cardiff, Wales and Leeds (UK) and Hertzelilinblum Museum in Israel.

As a performance artist, Levin Delgado has performed at The Cell, Grace Exhibition Space, House of Yes, Paper Box, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, EFA in NYC and many other art festivals, galleries and independent venues worldwide as well as participated in many international collaborations.

Touria Hmyene

COVID-19 Response Committee Chair

Touria Hmyene is a community activist, advocate, and enthusiast who enjoys spending her time as a community organizer in Queens, where she resides, and across New York City. Born in Marrakesh, Morocco, she began studying civil law at Qadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh and completed her studies at York College in New York. She worked as a financial analyst for American Express and Citibank before becoming a health insurance specialist for Fidelis Care. It was when she worked for the health insurance industry when she realized the dire situation of many immigrant and low income families who could not afford health care. That refueled her passion to be an advocate for underserved communities. She now volunteers her time for domestic violence survivors, low income families in need of food assistance, and new immigrants helping them acclimate to New York City. Touria served as an Advisor to the Moroccan American House Association, and is now the Vice President of the Moroccan American Women and Families Association.

Ruben Shimonov

Director of Educational Experiences

Ruben Shimonov is an educator, community builder and social innovator based in New York City. Born in Uzbekistan, Ruben belongs to the native Persian-speaking Jewish population of Central Asia. This community—the Bukharian Jews—have lived alongside their Muslim neighbors for 1300 years, engaging in cultural and intellectual interactions. Given his background, Ruben possesses a strong passion for Muslim-Jewish community building. He has brought this interest to his academic, professional and community leadership work, including his involvement with the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee where he currently serves as the Director of Educational Experiences and Programming. His interest in Muslim-Jewish interfaith engagement has also informed his artistic work, inspiring him to create multilingual calligraphy that juxtaposes and weaves together Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian. He uses his passion for Islamic and Jewish calligraphy to create dynamic interfaith workshops that engage participants in experiential learning, group exploration, and relationship building.

Mark Delos Reyes

Web Developer

Mark Delos Reyes grew up in the Philippines and is currently living in New Jersey. Mark has been inspired with art and technology for as long as he can remember. He is passionate about social and environmental justice. Involve before with Damayan a grassroots non-profit organization based in New York as a web developer and organizer that empowers low wage workers to fight for their health, gender, and immigrant rights. He is currently working as the Lead Developer in HLTH. He is a casual Illustrator, Graphic Designer an artist of sorts, and playing his bass guitar if he has some spare time.

Rachel Druker

Young Leaders Board Co-President

Rachel is beyond excited to be serving as the Jewish Interim Co-president for the YLB. Rachel is a New Jersey transplant and has been living in NYC for about a year now and she loves finding shared experiences and opportunities to bring people together. Interfaith work is a passion of Rachel’s which started when she was the President of her Hillel in undergrad and more recently when interfaith work showed up in her scholarly endeavors during her masters degree, which focused on Social Justice Education. Rachel also enjoys playing with cameras, stage managing, and random art projects.

Mahir Sadad

Young Leaders Board Co-President

Mahir is enthusiastic about serving as the Muslim Interim Co-president for the YLB. He is a strong believer in the quote: “the medicine for ignorance is to seek out knowledge.” He enjoys experiencing the vast diversity of cultures, faiths, and nationalities NYC has to offer. Mahir is currently a freshman studying business and political science at Queens College, and is interested in pursuing law. Driven by global events of sectarian violence, he became passionate about interfaith work and resisting prejudice by creating communities amongst people of different backgrounds. Mahir is a polyglot, and enjoys learning languages in his spare time.

Zena Schulman

Board President

Zena Schulman helped co-found the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee in 2014. She is passionate about interfaith organizing, grassroots community-building, and LGBTQ+ advocacy. After an early career in nonprofit communications, she began working in tech and is currently a Product Specialist at Oscar Health. In addition to serving as the MJSC’s board president, Zena is a student mentor for Out in Tech, as well as an avid yogi and fitness enthusiast.

Sabeeha Rehman

Board Member

Sabeeha Rehman is the author of the memoir, “Threading My Prayer Rug. One Woman’s Journey from Pakistani Muslim to American Muslim,” published in July 2016 by Arcade Publishing. The book was Short-Listed for the 2018 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, received Honorable Mention in Spirituality, by the San Francisco Book Festival Awards 2017, and was listed as Top 10 Religion and Spirituality Books 2016; Top 10 Diverse Nonfiction Books 2017, by Booklist. Excerpts of the book were featured in the Wall Street Journal, Salon.com, and Tiferet. She is an op-ed contributor to the Houses of Worship column of the Wall Street Journal and New York Daily News.

Sabeeha Rehman migrated from Pakistan to the United States in 1971, after a hurried arranged marriage to a Pakistani doctor in New York. She holds a Masters in Healthcare Administration and has had a 25-year career as a hospital executive. Her career spanned hospitals in New York, New Jersey, and Saudi Arabia. In the early 1980s, she began the work of establishing a Muslim community on Staten Island, which culminated in the building of a mosque.

When her grandson Omar was diagnosed with autism, she left her career as a healthcare executive and devoted herself to serving families affected by autism. In 2008, she co-founded the National Autism Association New York Metro chapter and served as its President from 2008-2011.

As a public speaker, Ms. Rehman has spent the last several decades engaging in interfaith dialogue, including keynote speaker. During 2017, she gave over one hundred talks at houses of worship, academic institutions, libraries, and community organizations, including Chautauqua Institution. Sabeeha has given talks on the art of memoir writing at academic institutions including Hunter College, New York.

Sabeeha serves as a board member of the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee, and the National Autism Assoc. New York Metro chapter. She has served as a judge in the non-fiction writing contest for Tiferet. She blogs on topics related to American Muslim experience at www.sabeeharehman.com/blog and is a guest blogger for Patheos.com Ms. Sabeeha Rehman lives in New York City with her husband Khalid, a retired Hematologist/Oncologist.

Mohammed Alsamawi

Board Member

Mohammed Al Samawi is an interfaith activist, a refugee from Yemen and the author of the autobiography The Fox Hunt. Mohammed’s personal journey led him from harboring a deep suspicion of other faiths to becoming a peace advocate. A critical powerful encounter with a teacher challenged him to learn about the Bible and Judaism, rerouting him from a path of likely violence. Mohammed’s journey to interfaith commitment ultimately saved his life, when four American strangers helped rescue him from extreme groups in Yemen in 2015. This work is far from finished. Mohammed remains committed to the exchange of core values that define our religious traditions and hopes to advance this work through his interfaith organization “Abrahamic House” to build sustainable interfaith learning and action across Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities in order to foster an environment of learning, respect, and social change

Fox 2000, “La La Land” producer Marc Platt and Josh Singer, who won an Academy Award for best original screenplay “Spotlight, are developing the movie “The Fox Hunt,” based on Mohammed Al-Samawi’s autobiography.

Rev. Susanah Wade

Advisory Board

Susanah is an ordained pastor in the Reformed Church in America who believes that God’s revelation through Jesus was the ultimate call to us to be kind to each other and to let this drive our daily activities and interactions. She is also the mother of Kelsanah Wade and an immigrant who was born on the island of Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the West Indies. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Baruch College focusing on human resource management and corporate communication, a Juris Doctor degree from New York Law School and a Master of Divinity degree from Drew Theological Seminary with a focus on spiritual formation. Susanah’s background includes Clinical Pastoral Education training at NYU Langone Medical Center and employment in the areas of immigration law, and Missions and Outreach which is her current focus. She tries to live each day with an awareness of the movement of the Holy Spirit, a deep sense of gratitude and an awareness of God’s grace.

Rabbi Andy Kahn

Advisory Board

Rabbi Andy Kahn grew up in Tacoma, Washington and has lived in New York since 2009. Prior to starting Rabbinical School at HUC-JIR, he received a BA from Kenyon College in Ohio, an MA in Religion and Modernity from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and an MA in Hebrew Bible from Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan. Today his greatest interests are cultivating and sharing Jewish spiritual practice, investigating shifts in Reform ideology over the past century, and the ways in which Jewish theology interacts with environmental consciousness and sacred space. In his spare time he can be found running in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, listening to podcasts and music, and reading anything from his Twitter feed, to sci-fi, to the latest in Jewish scholarship.

Team

Young Leaders Board

Board

Advisory Board

All Rights Reserved © 2020