Eric Barreto is an associate professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary. Among works he has authored, Barreto has written on ethnicity and race and their intersection with the Bible. He also contributed a “preaching reflection” about the death of Michael Brown to Odyssey Networks.  

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen is a professor of Rabbinic Literature at American Jewish University. Rabbi Cohen has written about link between the Black Lives Matter movement and the meaning of Passover.

Rabbi Jesse Olitzky serves at Congregation Beth El in South Orange, N.J. He has written about the link between the death of Eric Garner and the Jewish obligation to speak out for social justice.

The Rev. Ashlee Wiest-Laird is pastor at First Baptist JP in Jamaica Plain, Mass. She traveled to Ferguson, Mo., to protest and spoke about the experience on Boston Public Radio.

Bret Lortie serves as senior minister for the Unitarian Church of Evanston, Ill. He has called for placing a Black Lives Matter banner at the church where he preaches.

Onleilove (pronounced “only love”) Alston is the executive director at Faith in New York, a coalition of 70 congregations in New York City. She is a social justice activist and an expert on black lives in the Bible. She recently participated in a panel sponsored by PICO National Network about the black church and the […]

Jalda Rebling is a founder of the Ohel Hachidusch in Berlin, Germany. Rebling is a teacher and counselor and gives workshops for Jewish congregations internationally.

Rabbi Yoel Kahn serves as the rabbi for Congregation Beth El in Berkeley, California. He is an author and has spoken at conferences and in other venues about Reform decision making, spirituality, and issues of sexuality, feminism, and theology.

Carole Straw is a professor at Mount Holyoke College specializing in late antique and medieval history, church history, classical traditions and Christianity, martyrdom, and monasticism. She is also the author of two books.