Writer, researcher, and rabbi.
A Lebanese Jew raised in Brooklyn. I research, write, and teach across Jewish history, the Middle East, language, and the questions of the day.
Most of what I do comes down to reading closely and writing honestly.
I am a rabbi, ordained in Judaic legal studies at Midrash Halewa. My family left Beirut in 1977, and I grew up in Brooklyn among the Syrian, Lebanese, Aleppan, and Egyptian Jewish communities that raised me. I hold a master's in medieval Jewish history from Yeshiva University's Bernard Revel Graduate School.
I research and write on Jewish history, the Middle East, language, and current events, teach across levels and settings, and help build a few institutions and tools along the way. The subjects change; the method stays the same.
Director of Operations and Programming
Council for a Secure America. Outreach, briefings, operations, and research on U.S. national security, energy and natural resources, and the Abraham Accords.
NY Programming Lead
JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. Building a New York Educators Cohort, bringing Sephardic history and the modern Jewish exodus from the Middle East and North Africa into mainstream Jewish education.
Associate Museum Curator
Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum
View current exhibits ↗Board Member and Rabbinic Advisor
Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America
Global Interfaith Lead, Jewish Diplomatic Corps
World Jewish Congress. Across the Jewish Diplomatic Corps and Middle East and North Africa community relations, led an interfaith corps of more than 400 worldwide and drafted remarks delivered at the UN Human Rights Council.
A World Jewish Congress exhibition I oversaw: the artists, scholars, and musicians of Jewish life across the region, told country by country.
The exhibition at Queens Borough Hall
Presented for Jewish Heritage Month, with Queens Borough President Donovan Richards
Bridging Histories: New WJC exhibition on Sephardic heritage
The Jerusalem Post, on the exhibition
Shaddayoth and Siddurim: A Window into Romaniote Religious Traditions
Co-curator, permanent exhibition at Kehila Kedosha Janina
View at the museum ↗My newsletter: essays on Jewish history and thought, the Middle East, language, current events, and whatever else has my attention.
Propelling Education Forward at a Time of Crisis
Jewish News Syndicate
A Beacon of Hope: The Abrahamic Family House
The Times of Israel
From Division to Dialogue: Lessons from Passover
The Times of Israel
Jews Are Commanded Not to Rejoice at the Death of Any Human Being
Jewish News Syndicate
Mishʿarotam: Living the Exodus
Yahad.net
All essays on JNS
Author archive, Jewish News Syndicate
Food and Drink, Modern Period: Lebanon
Brill, Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World
The Drumlanrig Accords
Contributor. A Muslim-Jewish leadership commitment in the United Kingdom.
From Hidden Providence to Open Freedom: Purim, Pesah, and the Arc of Jewish Renewal
Featured lecture, Kehila Kedosha Janina
My Lebanese-Jewish Heritage
Harif: Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa
Remembering the Forgotten Jewish Refugees
With Adela Cojab, Sara Aharon, and Abraham Hamra
Sephardi Jewry
Jewish World, the ECAJ Podcast · Episode 7
For speaking, teaching, writing, or communal work, I would be glad to hear from you.