Ellen Lippmann is founder and rabbi of the Kolot Chayeinu congregation in Brooklyn. The congregation identifies itself as comprising individuals of varying sexual orientations, races, family arrangements, Jewish identities and backgrounds sharing the search for meaningful expression of Judaism.

Historian and Middle East expert Mark Rosenblum directs the Michael Harrington Center at City University of New York’s Queens College. He teaches “The Middle East and America: Clash of Civilizations or Meeting of the Minds,” in which Jewish and Muslim students learn the opposing group’s history in the Middle East conflict and must support the […]

In September 2004, the Episcopal Church began studying whether to divest from companies helping to cause destruction in Palestine. Other religious groups speaking in favor of divestments are the Roman Catholic Sisters of Loretto and Jewish Voice for Peace, a small Jewish peace group.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (formerly the American Jewish Public Affairs Committee), based in New York with offices in Washington, represents the organized American Jewish community, particularly in protecting the rights of Jews everywhere and in supporting a just and pluralistic American democracy.

The Jewish Peace Fellowship is based in Nyack, N.Y. It was begun in 1941 to defend the rights of conscientious objectors.

The American Jewish Committee is an international think tank and advocacy organization that works to identify and fight antisemitism and bigotry, protect human rights and protect Israel and Jewish life everywhere. Its executive director is Ted Deutch. Contact via Jon Schweitzer, managing director of marketing and communications.

The Pave the Way Foundation is a New York-based organization dedicated to fostering interreligious understanding. The foundation’s president, Gary Krupp, organized a January 2005 meeting at the Vatican between 160 Jewish leaders and the pope.

Phyllis Chesler of New York City is a prolific author and lecturer, an emeritus professor of psychology and a longtime human-rights activist. She is active in Jewish causes. She wrote The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It (Jossey-Bass, 2003). Contact through her website.

David Berger is a history professor at Brooklyn College who specializes in medieval Jewish history, Jewish-Christian relations, anti-Semitism, contemporary Orthodox Judaism, and the intellectual history of the Jews. He wrote a May 2004 essay in Commentary magazine titled “Jews, Christians and ‘The Passion.’”