The JW Show

Featuring Sarah Sassoon

Sarah Sassoon is an award winning children's book author, essayist, poet and educator. As a Jew of Iraqi heritage, Sarah has taken it upon herself to unearth stories from her relatives and ancestors in Iraq that aren't so easily told. Join us as we dive into some of that in this latest episode!

 

Picking Lemons is the name of Sarah's Substack, and it is her response to today's current world.

Featuring Klaas Mokgomole

In this episode, we hear from Klaas Mokgomole.

Klaas Mokgomole coordinates the organization Africans For Peace, a collective of independent students, scholars, and activists who bring an African lens to the global debate on peace and stability in Africa and around the world. He was born in a small village called Mohlatlareng – Sunnyside in Limpopo Province. Active in politics from the age of 16, Klaas joined the Congress of South African Students in his region and served on his high school’s Representative Council For Learners. While studying law at Wits University, he joined the Wits branch of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League, and served on the Wits Student Representative Council, the Wits Law Students Council, and the Wits Sports Council, among others. Klaas believes that whenever you set your mind on something, you can achieve it. He is the founder of the Brainwashers Sports Academy, comprising of Netball, Athletics and Soccer.

 

Featuring Justin Stover

This episode of the JW Show, we hear from Justin Stover. 

 

Justin Stover Originally from Atlanta, Ga. In an ongoing  fight against BDS and related organizations for years throughout the United States and other locations in the world. Most recently working as a senior consultant for Ghana-Israel Civil Diplomacy Alliance. In an effort to expand on the Abraham accords in the Islamic regions of West Africa.

Featuring Charles Jacobs

In this episode, we hear from Dr. Charles Jacobs and his efforts for almost three decades to free slaves in Africa.

 

Once named by The Forward as one of America’s top 50 Jewish leaders, Charles Jacobs is a journalist and long-time social activist who over two decades has founded human rights and pro-Israel organizations to deal with unmet challenges. Some of these have become national institutions.

• CAMERA — In 1989, responding to widespread mainstream media bias against Israel, Charles co-founded with Andrea Levin the Boston branch of CAMERA — Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America — now the organization’s national office. Today, CAMERA is the pre-eminent Middle East media watch organization in the United States.

                                    

• American Anti-Slavery Group — In 1993, responding to reports of modern-day human bondage, particularly in Africa, where Arab and Muslims were enslaving African blacks, Charles, along with African Christians and Muslims, founded the American Anti-Slavery Group which brought international attention to the enslavement of tens of thousands of mostly-Christian Africans in Sudan by militias armed by the genocidal Islamic regime in Khartoum. Charles flew several times, illegally, into Sudan on rescue missions that freed thousands of slaves. On September 18, 2000, Coretta Scott King and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino presented Charles with the first ever Boston Freedom Award for his abolitionist work. Jacobs has testified before Congress on three separate occasions, and on October 21, 2002, was invited to the White House signing of the Sudan Peace Act, where he spoke with President Bush. The AASG was instrumental in influencing the president to change U.S. policy on Sudan and enforcing a north-south peace treaty which ended the slave raids and created the world’s newest state: South Sudan.
• The David Project — In the summer of 2002, in response to the sudden emergence of a new global anti-Semitism, Charles co-founded The David Project to promote a fair and honest discussion of the Middle East conflict, and which evolved into a Center for Jewish Leadership. The David Project currently educates thousands of pro-Israel students each year, preparing them for the rhetorical battles on the nation’s campuses.

• Americans for Peace and Tolerance — In September of 2008, in response to the threat of Islamic radicalism’s rapid penetration of American society, and the failure of civic and political leaders to deal with the threat, Charles, along with Professor Dennis Hale and Sheikh Ahmed Mansour, founded Americans for Peace and Tolerance. APT works to expose and challenge radical left and radical Islamic campaigns which threaten America and the Jews. APT campaigns have helped rid MIT and Northeastern University of radical campus imams. An anti-Israel “scholar” was demoted at NEU because of an APT video campaign. APT also works cooperatively with the Muslim reform movement.

 

• Charles has been widely published, including in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Jerusalem Post, and the Encyclopedia Britannica. He has appeared on local and national television and radio, including CNN, CBS, Fox News, NPR, and PBS.

Charles, who received his doctoral degree in social policy from Harvard, lives with his wife in a suburb of Boston.

Featuring Kasa Harbor

I have the honor of speaking with Deputy Consul General, Kasa Bainesay-Harbor about her journey as an Ethiopian Israeli, and the shoulders she stands on to do what she does today.

Kasa Harbor arrived to Miami in March of 2019 to assume the role as Deputy Consul General at the Israeli Consulate in Miami. Previously, she served as the Deputy Head of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand.  Before being assigned to New Zealand, Kasa served as the Deputy Head of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar.

Featuring Jahan Berns

Jahan Berns was born in Uganda. Her father, an Israeli trained commando was assassinated in Uganda when Jahan was just six. Jahan was raised Muslim and converted to Christianity. After her conversion, she fell in love with Israel. She later immigrated to the U.S. 

 

From Africa, Europe, the U.S.A, and wherever else Jahan has had the privilege of traveling, she has been a highly sought after speaker regarding her love and passion for Israel and the Jewish people. She served as board member of the Birmingham Jewish Federation, and now serves on the board of the Birmingham Holocaust Education center. Jahan is an ardent activist for Israel, and a bold advocate against anti-Semitism. 

 

Jahan is a practicing attorney in Birmingham Alabama. She is married to Bob Berns and they have two children. While Jahan and family support various charities, they are passionately engaged with CUFI, AIPAC, and Operation Lifeshield, an organization that builds life shelters to protect Israeli citizens living in areas most vulnerable to rocket attacks.

 

Featuring Wanana Abrams

On this episode, Wanana Abrams shares with about a groundbreaking program she is a part of.

 

Wanana Abrams is a married mother of three beautiful boys. Born in Bilbuhah village in Ethiopia, she and her family made Aliyah in 1991, when she was 3. Wanana holds a B.A. in Communications, and an MBA, both from from IDC Herzliya where she also taught in English. She now lives in Netanya and is a graduate student in the Orit Guardians program at Tel Aviv University and volunteers at Negat, an organization that works to place young Israelis of Ethiopian origin in key positions in the Israeli business ecosystem. She recently founded L.A.B, a private Facebook group with over 2K members, that encourages people to learn Amharic. She is thrilled at the prospect of playing a key role in bringing the Orit to academia and know it is an important opportunity to learn and transmit the deep wisdom of Beta Israel’s religious leaders, which otherwise would be lost to future generations and the Jewish world.

Featuring Shira Goldstein

On this episode, I hear from Shira Goldstein about IsraAID and the work it does around the world for disaster survivors, victims of pandemics, and much more.

 

Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Shira has spent her professional career in pursuit of equity, of localization, and in garnering community-led movements responding to some of the world’s biggest challenges. In the last 15 years she focused these efforts with both a micro and macro perspective, running the gambit from building and managing a clinic in Ghana for 8 years, to leading 7 international emergency response missions.

 

Shira has a strong public health background, with a MSC in Global Health, but also rooted in experience during the Ebola pandemic, multiple cholera outbreaks, water and hygiene projects, and now the COVID-19 response. However, her passions extend beyond this scope and into examining the basic precepts of human rights including gender equality, access to essential services, and equity of opportunity. She now brings these experiences to the complex question of how we as a society can drive holistic support for our most vulnerable communities in the USA, both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Featuring Ayellet Black

On this episode, we hear from Ayellet Black; Israel's Deputy Head of Mission of Israel to South Africa, Lesotho, Mauritius and Swaziland.

Join us as she talks about what Israel's international relations have looked like particularly with Africa. We discuss government to government, business to business, and people to people; and also what we can expect to see in the coming months and years.

Featuring Ashager Araro

Join me as I speak with advocate, and founder of בֶּתֵה/Battae, an Ethiopian Israeli Heritage Center, Ashager Araro.

 

Ashager and I discuss the center, its success, and the impact it has had on Israelis; both of Ethiopian heritage, and otherwise. Learn more about what she calls a "Protest of Education."