Theme: Desire to know The Other

TEDxJaffa - on the theme 'Desire to know The Other' - will take place on September 7, 2011 at the East West House in the heart of Jaffa, an ancient port city, believed to be one of the oldest in the world, which was incorporated with Tel Aviv in 1950, creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.

Bringing together a diverse group of speakers who will address the event's theme from a multiplicity of angles, TEDxJaffa aims to give voice to exceptional, outward-focused individuals and create an evening of uncommon inspiration.

With speakers including a doctor of neuropsychology talking about brain mechanisms that enable empathy, a grassroots community organizer bringing Israelis across the Green Line for encounters with their Palestinian peers, founder of an interfaith encounter association that uses faith as the starting point for cross-cultural dialogue and a diplomat speaking about knowing The Other via the framework of diplomacy, among many others, the evening's program is sure to stimulate ideas worth spreading – and we invite you to join us.

East West House
16 Dr. Ehrlich
Tel Aviv - Jaffa
Israel

Dr. Yehuda Stolov

Yehuda is the executive director of the Interfaith Encounter Association, an organization that works to establish peaceful inter-communal relations in the Holy Land through active interfaith dialogue. Dr. Stolov has lectured on the role of religious dialogue in peace-building throughout the world, including Jordan, Indonesia, Turkey, South Korea, North America and Europe. In 2006, he was awarded the Immortal Chaplains Foundation Prize for Humanity, which honors those who "risked all to protect others of a different faith or ethnic origin." Among other activities, Dr. Stolov was a member of the steering committee for the United Nations Decade of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace. He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Physics and a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Oren Anolik

Oren is an Israeli diplomat who held diverse positions along his 16-year-long career. He is currently the Director of the Department for Non-Proliferation of Unconventional Weapons. He represented Israel’s interests in three continents while serving in Washington DC (USA); Prague (Czech Republic); and Asmara (Eritrea). In-between posts abroad he served as policy advisor to the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. He earned his Bachelor's degree in political science and accounting from Tel-Aviv University. He is married to Noa and has three children

Osama Elewat

Osama was born in Jerusalem and moved to Jericho in his childhood. After completing school he joined the Palestinian police force and worked in both the department of investigation and in the computer department. In 2007, he returned to college to complete his education in the electronics field and today owns and operates a mobile phone store. Since 2007, he has been active in many peace organizations and co-founded Visit Palestine, a grassroots organization that brings Israelis to Palestine, along with his friend, Ahmed Heliou.

Michal Ziv

Michal is a sixth-generation Israeli born in Jerusalem, is a senior program leader for Landmark Education, an international company widely recognized as a leader in the field of personal and professional growth, training and development. Michal has led The Landmark Forum and other programs for 15 years, personally impacting more than 30,000 participants with Landmark Education's powerful tools for causing breakthroughs in performance, communication, relationships and overall satisfaction. In addition, Michal is the president of Davidson Ziv, a company that transforms the organizational culture of businesses by providing training in leadership, teamwork, communication and high performance in the workplace. Michal is married and has three children and a granddaughter.

Yisrael Borochov w/ Haya Samir & the East West Ensemble

Yisrael is the founding father of Israeli world music. His band, the East West Ensemble, has been instrumental in influencing an entire generation of contemporary ethnic music heard in Israel and abroad, and his performances have earned acclaim on stages from Japan to New York, and beyond. His latest project, Debka Fantasia, featuring Haya Samir, an Egyptian Muslim, fuses music from East and West to create an entirely new sound, rooted in classical musical traditions from the Middle East. Yisrael is interested in weaving the sounds of East and West together, believing that respect of another's music and art is an instrumental step in furthering inter-cultural dialogue and appreciation.

Dr. Haim Shapira

Haim was born in Russia in 1962 and immigrated to Israel in 1977, where he earned a PhD in mathematical genetics for his dissertation on Games Theory and another PhD for his research about the mathematical and philosophical approaches to Infinity. He teaches mathematics, psychology, philosophy, and literature, and gives very popular lectures on Eastern and Western philosophies, happiness and optimism, the meaning of dreams, nonsense and insanity as well as friendship and love, appearing in Israel's leading venues. His books "Conversations on Game Theory" and "Things That Really Matter" were both huge successes, quickly reaching the top spot on Israel's best-selling non-fiction charts. He is also an accomplished Pianist.

Carol Daniel Kasbari

Carol Daniel Kasbari has been consultant for local and international change organizations and facilitator and trainer for conflict mediation for 17 years. She worked with USAID programs as a manager for promoting professional media and she is the co-founder and director of the Israeli Palestinian Media Forum (IPMF) and a consultant for UNESCO’s division of Freedom of Expression in the region. In 2003 she produced the only co-production ever between Israeli and Palestinian official TV stations, a documentary “One the Road to Dialogue” which was co-broadcasted simultaneously on PBC and Channel 2 to give a message of tolerance and hope in the heat of the Intifada. She has written several papers and op-ed articles in several languages on the Israeli Palestinian conflicts that were published in local and international newspapers. In addition, she holds a Masters degree in NGO Administration and Public from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Carol was born and raised in a Palestinian family from Nazareth and is a married mother of two boys, living currently in East Jerusalem.

Anat Perry-Sharon

Anat grew up in Jerusalem, and currently lives in Tel Aviv. She recently submitted her PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focused on brain mechanisms which are thought to be related to our ability to understand others' thoughts and feelings. Apart from working on her PhD, Anat spent the last few years as the B.A. counselor for Psychology students and the coordinator of a B.A. tutoring project for Psychology students of the Arab sector. Anat holds a Bachelors degree in Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences, and a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology, both from the Hebrew University.

Amal Elsana Alh'jooj

Amal is co-executive director of Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED) and founding director of its Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation (AJEEC), is one of the key shapers of public opinion regarding the status of the Arab minority and the status of women in Israel. She is a member of the Prime Ministers Commission for Economic Development of the Arab Sector; a member of the Steering Committee of the Shutafut-Sharaka Forum promoting a shared, equal and just society, a member of the professional committee of the Employment Creation Division of the JDC. Born in 1972, the fifth of thirteen children, Amal began her career as a community organizer at 14, and at 17, established the first Arab Bedouin women's organization to improve the situation of Bedouin women. She earned her BA in social work in Israel, her MA in community development at McGill University in Canada and is the recipient of numerous international honors and awards.

Dalia Landau

Dalia was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1948. She came to Israel with her family in the European immigration right after the creation of the State of Israel. Her family settled in Ramle in an 'Arab house'. Later she came to know the family that owned the house before 1948 and, together, in their common home, they founded 'Open House', a Jewish Arab co-existence center. Dalia is a student of various religions, literature and psychology. She works as an astrological consultant and teacher, is involved in animal rescue and volunteers with Open House's many projects.

Tova Averbuch

Tova has been an Organization Development consultant for 30 years, teaching in the graduate program of Tel Aviv University's business school. She is a facilitator and host of generative group meetings, applying methodologies and perspectives that enable and promote bottom up, cross boundaries and self-organizing processes, to create conditions for the emergence of collective new wisdom and new action in business and in socio-political life in Israel. Born in Poland, Tova emigrated to Israel in 1957 and is committed to promoting and exploring creative dialogue between polarized groups in the Israeli society and between 'center' and 'edge' in human systems.