Sheikh Ghassan Manasra
International Director
Sheikh Ghassan Manasra was one of the Abrahamic Reunion’s Co-Coordinators in the Holy Land until moving to the US in 2015, and has been an active contributing Peacemaker with the AR for more than a decade. He is an ordained Sheikh in the Qadiri Sufi Order in the Holy Land, and son of Sheikh Abdel Salaam Manasra – head of the Qadiri Sufi Order in the Holy Land. He is the founder of Anwar-Il-Salaam, the Lights of Peace Center in Nazareth, and is Director, Islamic Cultural Center in Nazareth. Ghassan is an expert and lectures in Islam, Islamic history, Sufism, and contemporary Muslim issues in the Middle East, Europe, and the USA. Ghassan@abrahamicreunion.org
Rabbi Dr. Yakov Nagen
Israeli Board Co-Chair
Sheikh Ghassan Manasra was one of the Abrahamic Reunion’s Co-Rabbi Dr. Yakov Nagen is a leading rabbinical figure in interfaith encounters in the Holy Land. Rav Nagen studied Torah at a number of Israeli religious academies including Sha’alvim Yeshica, Har Etzion Yeshiva, and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) at Yeshiva University. He obtained his ordination from Yeshiva University alongside a B.A. and M.S. from Yeshiva University and Ph.D. in Jewish Philosophy from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Rabbi Nagen is now the Director for the Ohr Torah Network’s Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue. Extended Bio
Siham Halabi
Israeli Board Member
Siham Halabi is a Druze leader and the Director of the Women’s Program and Adult Education at the Daliat Al Carmel Community Center providing courses in women’s economic empowerment, home management, drivers education, Hebrew and Arabic languages, social activism, and interfaith understanding. She is a Coordinator of the TRUST WIN, a member of the Women’s Parliament and various orgaizations for dialogue and understanding between the cultures, and for the advancement of women and social issues affecting women. She is a Druze spokeswoman representing Druze women in national forums.
Sheikh Abed Alsalam Manasra
Israel Programs Manager
Sheikh Abed Alsalam Manasra is the son of Sheikh Ghassan Manasra. He is an ordained Sheikh in the Tariqat Qadriyya As-Salaam (Qadiri Sufi Order Of Peace). He is a musician and works with young adults and youth to organize interfaith dialogue and gatherings in and around Nazareth. Abed@abrahamicreunion.org
David Less
US Board Chair
David Less is a global teacher of meditation, conflict resolution and inter-faith dialog of over forty years. For over a decade he has been the Global Dean of the Universal Worship, an organization in over thirty countries,that honors the commonality in all religions and appreciates and respects the differences. He started promoting understanding rather than blame as a path to peace in the Holy Land in 2000 and was one of the founders of the Abrahamic Reunion shortly thereafter.
Mohamad Jamous
Palestinian Director
Mohamad Jamous is a young Peacemaker living in Jericho, Palestine, coordinating programs, interfaith events, peace journeys, and intra-Palestine peacemaking events to build the movement for peace. He is one of the great emerging multi-faith peacemaking leaders in the Holy Land.
Sana Albaz
Sana Albaz is a leader among Bedouin Muslim women in Israel. Sana has won numerous awards for her work in early childhood education among Bedouin youth. The educational center she founded in her town of Tel Sheva has served as a model for dis-advantaged youth throughout the Bedouin sector in Israel. She was awarded the highest honor by the State of Israel for her work, the first Bedouin woman invited to light the national torch at the annual Independence Day celebration at Mount Herzl, Jerusalem.
Dr. Anna Less, PhD
Board of Directors, US
Dr. Anna Less, PhD, co-founded the Abrahamic Reunion in 2004. She is a peacemaker, speaker, and presenter, and is the International Co Director of the Abrahamic Reunion. As a young woman, Anna realized her life work lay with healing, and bringing harmony and balance to both individuals and communities. She was the first westerner to receive a PhD from the prestigious Zheijiang Medical University in Hangzhou, China, where she lived for four years. She has taught in medical colleges and presented seminars around the world on the principles healing.
Deacon Jiries Mansour
Deacon Jiries Mansour is a Christian Arab, deacon in the Greek Catholic Church, and principal of St Anthony’s middle school in the town of Rama (Rame) in the Galilee. Under Jiries’ leadership, a new school has been developed in Rama promoting interfaith tolerance. He has also organized numerous youth interfaith projects and events. Jiries is currently finishing his doctorate on the role of Christians in peace in the Middle East.
Sheikh Hussein Abu Rukun
Sheikh Hussein Abu Rukun is a recognized leader and spokesperson for the Druze faith in the Holy Land. He is the chairman of the Druze Trustees and founder of the Association for the Preservation of the Druze Heritage. He represents his religion at national and international inter-religious meetings. Sheikh Abu Rukun is frequently called upon to help resolve conflicts in his hometown of Issifya, near Haifa and in Northern Israel. Sheikh Abu Rukun led a delegation of Druze leaders to India to meet with Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist leaders for an encounter with the Eastern religions.
Elias Jabbour
Elias Jabbour is an Arab Christian and founder of the House of Hope Peace Center in Shefar’Am (Shefer Amer) Israel. He is widely known for his work with ‘Sulha,’ a traditional Palestinian peacemaking process. In 1993 he received the International Courage of Conscience Award and in 1995 he received the Mount Zion Award for promoting interfaith dialogue.
Imam Khalil Albaz
Israeli Board Co-Chair
Imam Khalil Albaz is the Imam of the central mosque and spokesperson for the Bedouin town, and regional council of Tel Sheva. He is a frequent commentator on Bedouin and Islamic affairs in the Israeli and the Arab media. His commitment to peace and justice have led him to participate in regular interfaith meetings throughout the Holy Land. Imam Albaz took part in the annual Bearing Witness retreat in Auschwitz.
Ibtisam Mahameed
Ibtisam Mahameed is a religious Muslim woman from the city of Fureidis in northern Israel. She is an activist for peaceful Arab-Jewish co-existence and founder and director of Women Reborn, a social empowerment program for Arab women. Ibtisam has been named by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a 2009 “Unsung Hero of Compassion.”
Rabbinit Hadassah Froman
Rabbinit Hadassah Froman is an Orthodox Jewish woman peacemaker, from the West Bank settlement of Tekoa. She is the wife of the late Rabbi Menachem Froman, who was a pioneer in Jewish-Muslim peacemaking in the West Bank settlements. Full Bio
Zainab Manasra
Youth Leader
Zainab Manasra is an Abrahamic Reunion Youth Leader from Nazareth, Israel. She is Muslim and grew up steeped in a culture of peacemaking, multi-faith dialogue, and bridge-building across cultures, identities, and religions, participating in the programs of her father Sheikh Ghassan Manasra and learning the art of facilitation from him from an early age. She has been part of programs through her High School, The Sulha Project, Jerusalem Peacemakers, Lights of Peace Society of Nazareth, Abrahamic Reunion, and other multifaith projects for the last ten years. She is passionate about working with other youth and young adults, and has traveled with the AR to speak at events and presentations in the UK, Germany, Israel, and the US.
Rev. Christopher Miller
Executive Administrator
Christopher Miller is a Healing Cherag (Minister) of the Universal Worship, a prime contributor to the Abrahamic Reunion, and Chair of the Inayati Sufi Young Adult Council. He has had the profound blessing of studying very closely with, and as assistant to Shahabuddin David Less and works in the realms of peace making in the Middle East, interfaith ministry, as a published writer and as a teacher of Universal Sufism and meditation in varied camps, workshops, and services.
Rabbi Raanan Mallek, M.Ed., M.A.
Israeli Board Member
After growing up in Vancouver, Canada; Honolulu, Hawaii and San Diego, California, Raanan made Aliya in 2000. He has a B.A. in History of the Jewish People from Hebrew University (2006) where he focused on the Jewish experience under Islam. He obtained a Masters in Education from Hebrew College in Newton Center, Massachusetts (2008) and a Certificate of Advanced Judaic Studies from the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies (2008). Raanan has teacher certifications in Israel, Canada and the United States and has been formally teaching Jewish Studies in North America and Israel for over eight years. He is currently working on his Rabbinical ordination from the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem (2018). Recent initiatives that Raanan has been involved in include: being an interfaith scholar and events coordinator (Praying Together in Jerusalem) for the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, being part of the Palestinian and Israeli Emerging Leaders Program of the Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding and Search for Common Ground, a dialogue facilitator for Hands of Peace, a conference organizer for the Abrahamic Reunion as well as continuing to teach all age groups about Judaism. Raanan also hosts a radio show called Shalom Crafters which brings attention to the work of interfaith activists in the Holy Land. Raanan blogs at: https://shalomcrafter.weebly.com/
Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari
In Memoriam
Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari was a founding member of the Abrahamic Reunion and a pillar of interfaith peace activism in Israel. He died on May 31, 2010. The Uzbeki Cultural Center in Jerusalem, which he founded, is home to a collection of historically significant Islamic documents and artifacts. His wife Hala and his son Izzedin plan to keep the center open and to continue Sheikh Bukari’s legacy of interfaith work.
Rabbi Menachem Froman
In Memoriam
Rabbi Menachem Froman was an Orthodox rabbi from the West Bank settlement of Tekoa. He had been active for years in high level political negotiations between Israel and Palestine. Rabbi Froman was one of the initiators of the Alexandria interfaith peace accords which were supported by Palestinian Authority, Israel and Egypt.
