Viki Auslender completed her Masters inPolitical Science at Hebrew University in 2014. She currently resides in New York City with her partner.

Haim Barbi was born and raised in Israel. Before writing he’s first screenplay, Haim used to be a professional basketball player and a model. His first script Ibiza became the top-selling film of 2015 in Israel. Domino Street is the first film he also directed and produced. He has also acted in Ibiza, Mister Chips, and Domino Street.

Lawrence Bush has been a creative force in the American Jewish Community for close to four decades as a writer, editor, thinker, and image-maker. He edits Jewish Currents magazine, a 72-year-old independent quarterly, and is the creator and curator of JEWDAYO, a daily history blog. Bush has also served as a writer, consultant, and editor for the Reconstructionist and Reform synagogue movements. His books include Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist, BESSIE: A Novel of Love and Revolution, American Torah Toons: Fifty-Four Illustrated Commentaries, and several others.

Rotem is a creative producer who lives and works in Tel Aviv. She graduated from Tel Aviv University’s Film and Television School. In 2016, she produced the documentary Born in Deir Yassin, a French co-production which won an honorable mention at the Jerusalem Film Festival and was featured in various other festivals worldwide. Other projects she’s been involved with include Fragile (2013), Princess (2014), Farewell Herr Schwartz (2013) and The Debt (2008). Rotem is currently working on The Pianist from Ramallah, a documentary supported by YES Docu. Rotem was the executive producer of CoPro, the Israeli Documentary Forum in 2014. Since 2016 Rotem has held the position of executive producer at Inception VR, a leading application for Virtual Reality Content.

Gili Getz is an Israeli-American artist, an actor and a photojournalist, and member of the J Street New York executive committee. His work in recent years has been focusing on Jewish- American politics and is published regularly in Jewish and Israeli press. He served as a photographer for the IDF and as a news editor for YNet. Gili performed across the country in numerous theatrical productions and was the recipient of the Kirk Douglas scholarship. Gili’s new play “The Forbidden Conversation” focuses on the difficulty of the Israel-Palestine conversation within the Jewish American community. His photography has been published by Princeton University Press in the new book “Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel” by Professor Dov Waxman.

Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg is an American-Canadian-Israeli Jewish educator and activist. Elliot is a senior educator at The Kibbutz Movement and BINA: The Jewish Movement for Social Change and a shaliach of Habonim Dror. Currently based in Chicago, Elliot leads activities and teaches throughout North America. Elliot is an activist for Jewish pluralism and inclusion, refugee rights, LGBTQ rights and human rights. His educator-activist approach focuses on the application of Judaism for social change.

Elliot is co-chair of Right Now: Advocates for Asylum Seekers in Israel, a blogger for The Times of Israel, and has published in Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Week, and elsewhere. A native of Chicago, Elliot earned a B.A. from McGill University, and an M.A. in Jewish Education and an M.A. in Jewish Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Elliot worked in the field of Jewish education in North America before making aliyah to Israel in 2011, where he served as Director of International Communication for BINA and became a leading activist for refugee rights in Israel.

Jen Heck completed her MFA at Columbia University’s Film program in 2009. She has had her work at major film festivals including Sundance, The Hamptons, and Palm Springs, and at museums including the Whitney (Biennial 2004 with Eve Sussman) and MoMA. Her work has been on networks including MTV, HGTV, Bravo, and VH1. She has won awards at festivals for her short narrative films Airplanes and Salamander, both photographed by Martina Radwan. Her most recent project was a collaboration with Van Jones about musician Prince’s secret philanthropic work. She currently works as a documentary and TV producer and director in New York.

Saskia Keeley is a photojournalist working exclusively for humanitarian organizations. Saskia has partnered with Roots multiple times to conduct photo workshops for Palestinian and Israeli women that promote dialogue and understanding between groups of women who would otherwise have no interaction. In her workshops, Saskia hosts photo intensives exclusively for women and girls. The purpose of these workshops are twofold: to develop photographic skills (20 high-quality cameras are purchased and donated to Roots for this purpose), and to foster an environment where women could interact in a daily setting with “the other side,” many for the very first time in their lives. The results are phenomenal.

Saskia has presented the results of these sessions to multiple colleges and organizations, letting them see the wonders that emerge when women meet and bond over a common tool: the camera. Her presentation starts with a short video showing poignant perspectives on the conflict from both Palestinians and Israelis. It also allows Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Ali Abu Awwad, two of Roots’ leaders and founders, to speak about their experience, journey and mission. Saskia then speaks about the uplifting and inspiring stories she witnesses while conducting the photo workshops and being present on a journey with these unique women.

Saskia illustrates her lecture with a slideshow of the participants working together, showing the intimate connections and relationships that are created. As she mentions in her talk, she doesn’t claim that photo workshops are the miracle solution to end the conflict — but they can be part of the necessary bridging exercise, a window for those individuals to meet, converse and see one another as human beings worthy of respect. Her work with Roots is ongoing. Her next trip to the West Bank will be in the spring of 2018 to conduct more joint photo workshops.

Sabrine Khoury was born in 1990 and grew up in Nazareth. When she was 19, she moved to Tel Aviv to study biology, but quickly switched to film studies at Tel Aviv University. In 2012, she wrote and directed her first short film, HIBA. Santé is her second short fiction film and was selected for the Jerusalem Film Festival, The Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, Cinemed Film Festival, IFVA Film Festival in Hong Kong, and others.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is the Founding Spiritual Leader of Lab/Shul NYC and the creator of Storahtelling, Inc. An Israeli-born Jewish educator, writer, and performance artist, he received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 2016. Rabbi Amichai is a member of the Global Justice Fellowship of the American Jewish World Service, a founding member of the Jewish Emergent Network, a consultant to the Reboot Network, a member of the URJ Faculty Team and the Advisory Council of ORAM, an LGBT focused organization for refugees, asylum, and migration. He was a Jerusalem Fellow at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Israel (2008-2009) and serves on the advisory committee of Faith House Manhattan.

Rabbi Amichai has been hailed as “an iconoclastic mystic” by Time Out New York, a “rock star” by the New York Times, a “Judaic Pied Piper” by the Denver Westword, a “maverick spiritual leader” by The Times of Israel and “one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world” by the Jewish Week. In 2016, The Forward named him one of the thirty-two “Most Inspiring Rabbis” in America. In June 2017 Rabbi Amichai published the JOY Proposal, offering a new response to the reality of Intermarriage and taking on a personal position on this issue, including his resignation from the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement.

Peabody Award-winning, three-time Emmy nominated director and producer. Founder of Medalia Productions, a creative documentary production company operating in Israel and in the US. Her films have garnered critical acclaim and screened internationally in theaters and on television including HBO, MTV, BBC and ARTE. Among her films: Muhi – Generally Temporary (2017), Censored Voices (2017), Web Junkie (2014), The Go Go Boys (2014), Dancing in Jaffa (2013), among others. Hilla has explored the fraught relationship between Jews and Palestinians in her film To Die in Jerusalem (2007, HBO), about two teens killed in a suicide bombing

Hilla has been awarded the Paris Human Rights Festival Jury Award, Golden Warsaw Phoenix, as well as the jury award at FIPA and more. She teaches at the IDC and is a regular lecturer at The NY Film Academy, NYU, EWA (European Women’s Audiovisual Network) and the New Fund for Cinema’s Women Greenhouse on the subject of production, directing and crowdfunding.  Hilla is a mentor for the NFCT’s Business Card Program for Emerging Filmmakers she acts as lector and judge at film festivals and forums, Hilla is a board member of the Pacific Council, The Israeli Director’s Guild and The Israeli Academy of Film and Television and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Hilla holds an M.A. from Southern Illinois University.

MK Merav Michaeli has been a Member of Knesset since the 19th Knesset in 2013. Since her election to the Knesset, MK Michaeli has served on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee including its subcommittees, and the House Committee. Michaeli’s activities have extended over many issues and sectors, including; socio-economic discourse, gender equality, relationship between state and religion, LBGTQ rights, labor rights and promoting the peace process. Prior to her election to the Knesset, MK Michaeli was a senior journalist with Haaretz, regularly publishing op-eds and interviews. She also edited and hosted news and entertainment programs on both television and radio. MK Michaeli was involved in the establishment of Galgalatz and Radio Tel-Aviv radio stations and served as a lecturer in universities and colleges on media and gender.

In her political and parliamentary activity, MK Michaeli continues on her professional and ideological path. For over 20 years, MK Michaeli has been involved in feminist activism, seeking to promote women’s equality and opportunity. Similarly, MK Michaeli works to promote the rights of minorities, labor rights and the peace process. In 1997, MK Michaeli founded “Ezrat Nashim,” a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide support for victims of sexual assault. She is a member of the executive committee of the Israel Peace Initiative and a member of the management board of the Israel Women’s Network. MK Michaeli successfully spearheaded legislative initiatives providing support to individuals in substantial debt to Israel’s Collection Agency (Hotzaa-Lapoal), and workers and members of the LBGTQ Community. MK Michaeli is ranked as one of the most socially-oriented legislators.

Salem Pearce is a congregational organizer with T’ruah. She is in her final year at Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Boston, Mass. During her time there, she has served as the rabbinic intern at Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue and at the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts, and she was the Community Organizer at Temple Israel of Boston. She was also a mikveh guide at Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and a member of the Community Hevre Kadisha of Greater Boston.

She trained to be a chaplain at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and has been a student fellow with Rabbis Without Borders; American Jewish World Service’s Global Justice Fellowship for Rabbinical and Graduate Students; and T’ruah’s Rabbinical and Cantorial Summer Fellowship in Human Rights. Before going to rabbinical school, Salem lived and worked in Washington, D.C., as a fundraiser for several nonprofit organizations and volunteered for and served on the board of the DC Rape Crisis Center. A native Texan, Salem received a B.A. in Classics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Hai Piasezky is the Upper West Side community Shaliach (Emissary). He is 32 years old, from Moshav Gea, Israel. Lives in NYC with his wife Riki, two years old daughter Carmel and a newborn baby daughter Yarden. Hai runs the UWS Israel Shlichut program (sponsored by UJA and JAFI), and in charge of the Shinshinim program. He works with the UWS Jewish communities about engaging with Israel and creating shared projects and events for the communities.

Hai holds a BA in general history and Israel Studies and a pedagogical degree from Ben Gurion University.  Hai also earned an MBA in the Social Leadership Program from Ben Gurion University and the Mandel Foundation.  Before he moved to New York, Hai worked for the JDC’s Institute for leadership and governance, as a Program Director in the Western Negev.  There he worked with CEOs, senior staff, and mayors in the municipalities and cities in the Western Negev and facilitated collaborations, multi-sectoral partnerships, and leadership development.

Heidi Rosbe serves as Deputy Director for Encounter. She has spent over a decade designing and implementing conflict resolution and cultural dialogue programs worldwide for various organizations including the United Nations Development Program and the Women’s Refugee Commission. Prior to Encounter, she served as the Associate Director of the Arab American Association of New York, a nonprofit family services and cultural center for Arab immigrants. She is a trained mediator and speaks some Arabic, French, and Spanish. In addition to her work with Encounter, Heidi is an Adjunct Lecturer at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, teaching their “Peacemaking and Peacebuilding” graduate course. Heidi holds a Master of International Affairs degree (2010), focused on Human Rights, Conflict, and Gender Policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Guy Sahaf is an Israeli cinematographer and a graduate of the 5-year program at The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School, Xlass of 2016. With over a dozen shorts shot in less than 4 years, his short film work has been recognized with the Outstanding Cinematography Award at the International Tel Aviv Film Festival. Our Heroes is his 4th collaboration with director Yair Agmon, with their previous effort, The Arrest, competing at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Our Heroes will also screen this month at Camerimage, the world’s leading cinematography festival.

Obada Shtaya was born and raised in Nablus, Palestine, and is the current Regional Director of the OneVoice Movement for the Mid-Atlantic region. After earning his undergraduate degree in English Literature, Obada worked in multiple management positions for non-profit and for-profit companies. In August 2015, he decided to move to the US after receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue his MS in conflict resolution. Obada describes his high school and undergrad years as a life laboratory where “one could experiment with ideas and opportunities to decide what’s yet to come.” A strong believer in the important role and potential of students, Obada was one of the founders of the OneVoice on Campus fellowship program, which provides American students with an opportunity to engage in constructive activism, especially surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In his leisure time, Obada like to hike, travel, practice Karate and explore history.

Meg Sullivan is the Founder and Director of Project Harmony Israel (PHI), the official English language summer camp of the Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel network of schools. PHI opened in Jerusalem in 2010 serving 25 campers, and in 2017 launched a second site in Wadi Ara and now serves around 200 campers each summer. Meg is also the Director of Programs & Community Engagement for JCC Harlem: An initiative of JCC Manhattan, which opened in January 2017. She earned a BA from the University of Chicago where she wrote her thesis on restorative justice in deeply divided societies, and an MS in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University where her capstone focused on trans-boundary water management mechanisms in the Jordan River.