We invite you to challenge yourself intellectually, philosophically, & spiritually
KIVUNIM ONLINE features dynamic speakers from across the globe. We’re proud to provide additional resources designed to bring more depth to each theme.
Below, please find key videos, journal articles, historical texts, and links chosen to enhance your learning, as well as the recordings of our past sessions.
Frederic Brenner: artist, teacher, and KIVUNIM ONLINE speaker
Reverend Kenneth Flowers, 07/13/2020
Peter Geffen, 07/16/2020
READ essays from
The 1619 Project
“The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”
WATCH James Baldwin
debate William Buckley
“In 1965 at the University of Cambridge, two of the foremost American intellectuals were challenged with the question: ‘Has the American Dream been achieved at the expense of the American Negro?’ … what’s become known as the ‘Baldwin-Buckley Debate’ now stands as one of the archetypal articulations of the dividing line between US progressives and conservatives on questions of race, justice and history.”
LISTEN to the author of
White Fragility
Interview with White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo. “If you're white, you may not think of yourself as racist. Maybe you hardly think about race at all. But Robin DiAngelo says white people need to think about how they fit into racist systems if they want to be anti-racist. She calls for a more nuanced and informed understanding of racism so white people can take accountability for the ways they benefit from these structures.”
READ: "When Haiti paid France for freedom: the greatest heist in history"
WATCH: the "I Am Not Your Negro" documentary about the life and influence of James Baldwin
READ: text from an historic speech from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at the First National Conference on race and Religion, 1963
READ: text from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech
WATCH: the 1988 film Mississippi Burning
Hon. André Azoulay, 07/20/20
Laziza Dalil & El Mehdi Boudra, 07/23/20
READ: King Mohammed VI’s Statement on the Holocaust
On March 18, 2009, the King of Morocco, direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, issued this statement on the Holocaust, thought by many to be the strongest statement ever written about the Shoah.
WATCH and READ: Short video report and NYTimes full page story about the first Holocaust Conference in the Arab World co-sponsored by Association Mimouna and KIVUNIM
In September, 2011 an historic event took place in Morocco spearheaded by Muslim University students featuring Holocaust historian and Museum designer, Dr. Michael Berenbaum and Auschwitz Survivor Elisabeth Citron.
READ: New York’s Jewish Week’s feature story: “Honoring a Muslim King Who Saved his Jewish Citizens.” December, 2015
On December 20, 2015, before an audience of hundreds of Jews and Muslims assembled at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan, KIVUNIM alumni, staff and board paid tribute to King Mohammed V of Morocco for his moral courage in protecting his Jewish subjects from the Vichy/Nazi French.
READ: The King of Morocco reflects on the work of KIVUNIM in bringing hundreds of students to Morocco in an "effort to see the world in a different light, to better understand our intertwined and unified traditions, paving the way for a different future.” Presented to all attendees at the Convocation in honor of his grandfather in NYC.
READ: King Mohammed VI’s statement on anti-Semitism issued at the United Nations Conference on Anti-Semitism and Racism held in Marrakech, Morocco, September, 2018.
READ: “Gap Year Program Tests Questions Of Identity, Faith” by NY Times Journalist Emma Goldberg on May 7, 2019 - a feature story that followed her 2-week participation in KIVUNIM’s 2018 trip to Morocco.
WATCH: “Echoes of the Mellah: From Tinghrir to Jerusalem” a remarkable film by Moroccan filmmaker Kamal Hachkar telling the story of the Berber Jews who left Morocco for Israel in the 1960’s. An intimate and moving capture of the mood and tone of “coinvivencia."
READ: this article about the Director of the Museum of Moroccan Jewry in Casablanca, another example of the Moroccan Exception.
Dr. Abu-Rabia, 07/27/2020
READ: This link allows you to download several of Dr. Sarab Abu-Rabia’s published works, many of which you will find fascinating and international in scope and implications.
READ: To learn more about Bedouin culture, the following books by the world’s pre-eminent Bedouin scholar, Dr. Clinton Bailey, will uniquely inform you…
Dr. Amal Elsana Alh'jooj, 08/03/2020
Said Abu Shakra, 08/06/2020
WATCH: “The Medicine as a Role Model campaign showcases the work of the diverse medical teams involved in the intense efforts to contain the virus and attend to those infected… We spoke with Jewish and Arab medical professionals doing life-saving work together during long shifts to help patients regardless of religion and origin.”
Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger, 08/10/20
Karen Gerson Şarhon (1 of 2), 08/13/20
READ: Closely related to the themes of Rabbi Schlesinger’s session, this article from Kivunim educator Dr. David Mendelsohn entitled, “Secular Logic and Faith: A Dialogue of the Deaf?”
LISTEN: To this extraordinary podcast from NPR that captures the power of dialogue in the most challenging of circumstances, “Coronavirus unites Jerusalem at the ‘Hotel Corona.’”
Micah Hendler, 08/17/2020 (starts at 00:07:12)
Karen Şarhon (2 of 2), 08/20/20
Frederic Brenner, 08/24/2020
KIVUNIM ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Abdullah Abu Shaweesh & Dr. John Ruskay, 08/23/2020