Media Roundup

Thursday, May 6: Intersections' Sara Reef authored Where Are the Moderate Jewish Voices? for the Huffington Post. Reef –– a specialist in intercultural relations and communications –– explored extremists and moderate values. The article was in response to the recent mosque fire in the West Bank town of Luban al-Sharkiyeh and the Palestinian and Israeli perspectives on the investigation.

Friday, May 14: Megan Hoelle, Director of Intersections Iraqi Voices Amplification Project and Intersections’ Director of Strategic Initiatives, was a guest panelist in a discussion following the New York City art exhibit, Artists in Exile: Forgotten Iraqi Refugees in Syria. The event was sponsored by the nonprofit organization, Common Humanity. In Fall 2009, Hoelle visited Iraqi refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and heard their stories first-hand.

Friday, May 14: Intersections’ C. Eduardo Vargas addressed the class of 2010 at the John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy & International Relations at Seton Hall University. As President of the alumni association, Vargas offered the welcoming address at the graduate commencement and hooding ceremony.

Friday, May 21: Iraqi Voices Amplification Project Artist Paul Emerson authored The Diplomacy of Dance, which appeared in The New York Times. Emerson –– a former Congressional legislative director and cofounder of CityDance Ensemble in Washington, D.C. –– recently opened at the Fifth Annual Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival in the West Bank. Emerson discussed how art is a powerful tool of diplomacy throughout most of the world, and cited his recent trip to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as a member of IVAP.

Tuesday, June 1: Intersections’ Sara Reef co-authored Where Are the Youth Recommendations? UNAOC Leaders Express Extreme Disappointment for the Huffington Post. Reef participated in the Third Annual United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Forum, May 28-29 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After the forum omitted youth recommendations that were supposed to be announced at the Opening Plenary, the more than 140 youth delegates in attendance released a statement of disappointment. The article explained the importance of youth perspective and frustration of youth participants at the conference.

Tuesday, June 8: Joshua Stanton, co-editor of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, authored YouTube Dialogue: Expanding the Scope of Inter-Religious Interchange for the Huffington Post. Stranton’s article discussed the power of YouTube as a tool to bring together people of starkly diverse ideologies, and its potential as a forum to explain how misunderstanding takes place. The article acknowledged Intersections International as an organization actively engaging the public with original videos.

Sunday, June 20: Sung Park, project manager of Intersections’ national social marketing campaign to advance lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual individuals within the Protestant church, was elected to the Paul Rapport Foundation board. The Paul Rapport Foundation works to achieve full equality for LGBT persons in society. Park’s election was announced in the Foundation Center’s newsletter, Philanthropy News Digest.

Saturday, June 26: The American Jew’s Dilemma by Intersections’ Sara Reef was published in Ynetnews—an online news source operated by Israel’s leading daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth—and cross posted to the Huffington Post on Monday, June 28. In the article, Reef discussed her perspective on Israel as an American Jew and whether or not American Jews can speak on behalf of Israel.

Monday, June 28: Journalist Sadhbh Walshe authored The U.S. is failing Iraqi refugees, which appeared in Britains The Guardian newspaper. In the article, Walshe –– a participant in the Intersections June 19 reading of the Iraqi Voices Amplification Project’s “No Place Called Home” –– discussed how the U.S. is a land famous for opportunities, but Iraqi refugees who make it that far find they are “thin on the ground.” Walshe worked with IVAP program staff and referenced The Uncertain Future of Iraqi Refugees by Intersections' C. Eduardo Vargas.