This week we are excited to continue our collaboration with UC Berkeley's Othering and Belonging Institute to bring you a conversation from The Othering and Belonging Conference in Berlin, Germany.

This conversation is introduced by Monica Jiang, is moderated by Cecilie Surasky and features the voices of Udi Raz and Yasmeen Daher. 

Speaking on the theme “Turning Towards Each Other, Not Against Each Other: Bridging in Times of Crisis” the panelists address what it means to build towards co-liberation in difficult times – especially in the context of the war on Gaza. Since this conversation was recorded on November 14, 2023, the genocide in Gaza has continued and worsened, and the loss of so many lives is tragic and incomprehensible. The words offered here aim to make space to honor pain and simultaneously to explore generative forms of allyship in the face of such violence.  

This conversation is an excerpt from the two day conference which brought together thousands of advocates, scholars, artists, youth leaders, philanthropists, and community members to share cutting-edge ideas, illuminate powerful stories, utilize the power of arts and culture, and embody Beloved Community— all to build more fair and inclusive societies.

Cecilie Surasky is the Communications Director at the Othering & Belonging Institute. She brings decades of narrative strategy and communications experience to her position which she started in the spring of 2020. She has worked on a wide range of justice and equity issues including prison exoneree advocacy, LGBTQ rights, Palestinian legal rights and climate justice. Cecilie was founding communications and deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace where she led high-impact campaigns to build grassroots support for policies that honor all life by upholding the inalienable human rights of Palestinians. Cecilie has also been a columnist for an East Coast daily newspaper, host of one of the country's first LGBTQ commercial talk radio programs, and a videomaker whose work has been shown at NY's Museum of Modern Art and in festivals around the world.

Yasmeen Daher is a feminist activist and a writer. She holds a Doctorate degree from the department of philosophy, University of Montreal with focus on ethics and political philosophy, she had taught previously in different institutions including Bir-Zeit University in Palestine and Simone de Beavour Institute in Canada. She is currently the co-director and editorial director of Febrayer - A Network for independent Arab Media Organizations, based in Berlin.

Udi Raz is a doctoral fellow at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. There she investigates the contemporary self-understanding of Germany, as a nation state, as emerges through public attempts to regulate encounters between 'Muslims' and 'Jews'. She grew up in Haifa, between Tel-Aviv and Beirut. Her work is shaped by local and global, anti- and decolonial, as well as queer liberation movements. She has lived in Berlin since 2010, where she first studied Culture and History of the Middle East and then Islamic Studies at the Free University Berlin. Raz is a board member of the Germany based organization Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East.

♫ The music in this episode is “Rain Song” by Amo Amo and “Raven” and “Phoenix” by Ariana Saraha.

Episode References

Hannah Arendt

Judith Butler

GUEST Recommendations

View the originally recorded conversation 

Learn more about the Othering and Belonging Institute

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