Member List

Bonnie Rose Schulman is an alumni of the International Relations program at Tufts University. Born in New York City and raised in a small town upstate, Bonnie Rose developed a personal interest in Israel and her place in the Middle East at a young age. As a student at Monroe-Woodbury Senior High School, Bonnie Rose cultivated an awareness of the situation in Middle East, serving as president of the local Young Judaea club, president of the local Amnesty International chapter, and secretary of Youth Ending Hunger and Homelessness. After graduation, she spent a year teaching English at an Israeli elementary school, volunteering at an after-school program for disadvantaged Ethiopian immigrant children, studying history, geography, politics, and religion, and spending grueling arduous weekends at the beach, residing specifically in Karmiel, Jerusalem, Kibbutz Shluchot, and Moshav Sde Ya’acov. At Tufts, Bonnie Rose serves as president of Friends of Israel, bringing speakers from the Israeli delegation to the United Nations and the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C., organizing peace vigils with Tufts’ Muslim and Arab groups for victims of violence in the Middle East, and planning cultural programs such as falafel dinners, Israeli martial arts, and photography exhibits. She is most proud of orchestrating a Boston-wide Israeli Independence Day event attended by over 500 people and raising over $2,000 for Magen David Adom. During her junior year, Bonnie Rose spent a semester in Tokyo focusing on Japanese language, history, and politics; her internship at the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center facilitated her ethnographic research of hierarchy in the Japanese workplace. She also enjoys playing her string bass (realizing that she should practice more often), and she has traveled with the Tufts Symphony Orchestra to Jamaica, Greece, and soon to perform in Brazil. As a member of this year’s EPIIC Colloquium, Bonnie Rose feels inspired by the New Initiative for Middle East Peace, and she looks forward to engaging students and community members of different political and cultural persuasions in a continued effort to build bridges and to facilitate a basis of mutual understanding between Arabs and Israelis.

 

Matthew Edmundson is a Senior at Tufts University, where he is studying economics, with an emphasis on environmental economic policy. Economics aside, Matt’s real passion lies in the power of photography, and he hopes one day to be a well-fed documentary photographer, highlighting injustice and promoting human rights around the world. Matt dabbled in art early in life, but found his true connection with the black and white image in his “Photo 1” class in high school, a class he would retake some 5 times, while concurrently shooting for his school yearbook as well as the RAVE section of The Orlando Sentinel. Prior to college, Matt also had the amazing opportunity to meet and be briefly mentored by Mike “Nick” Nichols, a world-class staff photographer at National Geographic Magazine, who focuses on nature and environmental issues. Upon entering Tufts and the Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston, in the 5 year BA/BFA program, Matt resumed with photography classes (where he began a project documenting the aftermath of destruction at fraternity parties) as well as shot for The Observer, a weekly newsmagazine at Tufts. His sophomore year, Matt graduated from photography editor to cover editor at The Observer, and also began shooting for the Tufts administration, most notably for their website (www.tufts.edu), and the Fletcher school website.
This past summer Matt was fortunate enough to work with James Nachtwey, noted as “the most celebrated chronicler of conflict” of his generation, and a long-time contract photographer for TIME magazine. Matt helped (among other things) with the preparations of Mr. Nachtwey’s images in his photo agency’s latest book, WAR, which features compiled images of Sept 11, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Currently, Matt does freelance interior design photography in Boston, and is putting together a story he completed this summer with a friend on the community of Lopez Island, Washington. His current ambitions include potential photo projects in Israel and the West Bank, Afghanistan, and western Africa. Photography aside, Matt is a member and officer of the Tufts Men’s Rugby team.Sebastian Chaskel is a first-year liberal arts student at Tufts. He is unsure about what he would like to major in but is leaning at the moment toward International Relations. Sebastian plays the piano and loves yoga and playing ultimate Frisbee. He is also a photographer for the Tufts Daily and enjoys working in the dark room on black and white pictures. Sebastian was born in Colombia in 1984 and attended Colegio Nueva Granada, the American school in Bogota. At the age of sixteen, Sebastian moved to New Jersey to attend The Lawrenceville School, a boarding school located in the vicinity of Princeton and Trenton. At Lawrenceville, Sebastian became involved with numerous student organizations and there joined the leadership of Amnesty International, The Jewish Student Organization and The Lawrenceville Environmental Club. During his years at boarding school, he became interested in various aspects of social politics, international relations and justice. These interests and others brought him to Tufts and to the EPIIC program in particular

 

Nina Cherny is a senior at Tufts University double majoring in International Relations and Economics. She was born in Moscow and moved to Chicago at the age of ten. Nina went to Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago.


Rachel Leven is a second year undergraduate majoring in International Relations. Though, born in New York City, she spent her middle and high school years living in Singapore and Japan. There she attended the Singapore American School and The American School in Japan. Interested in exploring a new area of the globe, Rachel joined NIMEP in her Freshmen year. As a member of NIMEP, she has participated in research and fact finding missions to the Israel and the West Bank as well as Egypt. Her research in the Middle East has included a study on the role of journalism in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well as an in-depth look at waste management in Egypt and it implications for the privatization and of public goods. This year Rachel is also participating in the EPIIC Colloquium “Oil and Water” where she has served on the GIS committee, responsible for creating analytical maps for current environmental and political conflicts. Rachel is involved in a number of other student groups on campus. Her activities range widely from playing ultimate Frisbee to sitting as treasurer for the Japanese Culture Club.


Elizabeth Haddad is currently a senior at Tufts University double-majoring in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies. She was born in Kuwait, but has spent most of her life on the east coast of the United States. Her father is Palestinian and her mother is American. Thus much of her interest in international relations is inspired by a desire to further understand the relationship between the two cultures of which she is apart. She is currently working with two programs at Tufts University, EPIIC (Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship) and NIMEP (New Initiative for Middle East Peace), to research the implications of the Israeli security fence that is currently under construction between Israel and the West Bank. She enjoys traveling and has most recently traveled to England, France, Italy, Netherlands, Egypt, and Lebanon. She also is a varsity member of the Tufts University sailing team and hopes to compete in nationals this spring.

 

Negar-Sadat Razavi is currently a junior studying Peace and Justice Studies at Tufts University. She was born in Teheran, Iran, but lived most of her life in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Ms. Razavi has worked with various community service, peace and civil liberties organizations, including the ACLU, the AFC and the Green Party.

 

 

My name is Shai Gruber, I am a junior, and my main academic interests are the Middle East and archaeology. On campus I am the coordinator of the Jewish-Arab Dialogue group, am involved with Tufts Friends of Israel, and have been involved with NIMEP almost from its inception. I was a member of the EPIIC colloquium 2002-2003 Sovereignty and Intervention. Within my responsibilities for EPIIC, I conducted research on Camp David and Taba, and then researched the future of Jerusalem this past summer. This research was comprised of interviews with various individuals ranging from negotiators, former officials, journalists, and experts. I attended high school in Dayton, Ohio where I participated in several independent studies: an intensive investigation of Josephus, an introduction to ancient Greece, and a study of pre-state Israel with a focus on the ideologues who influenced the state's character. For this last study, I submitted for publishing a work contrasting the ideal state formed according to Vladimir Jabotinsky and Judah Magnes' ideals, two major thinkers. Lastly, I have participated in events with Rabbis For Human Rights and the Interreligious Coordinating Council of Israel. My other interests include soccer and classic rock.


Lauren Fein. I am originally from Amherst, Massachusetts, where I grew up and attended high school. Following my graduation from high school, I spent a year in Israel on a program through my youth group. During my year I spent three months on a kibbutz, three months studying in Jerusalem, and six weeks living and volunteering in Haifa. After this year in Israel, I studied at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for my freshman year. I transferred to Tufts University in the 2002- 2003 academic year. That year, I participated in the EPIIC (Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship) program through the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts. Currently, I am a senior majoring in Psychology with a minor in Peace and Justice Studies. Within the major of psychology, I am particularly interested in the roles that identity and stereotyping play in intergroup conflict. Outside the realm of academia, I play for the Tufts women’s Ultimate Frisbee team and enjoy dancing with the Tufts Dance Collective.


Rachel Brandenburg, a Washington, D.C. native, is a senior studying International Relations and Middle Eastern studies, with a particular interest in conflict-resolution and negotiation. Rachel has been involved with the Institute for Global Leadership since her participation in the 2002-2003 EPIIC colloquium on “Sovereignty and Intervention.” Former president of Tufts Friends of Israel and co-coordinator of a weekly Arab-Jewish dialogue group, Rachel co-founded NIMEP in 2003. Rachel traveled with NIMEP student delegations to Israel and the West Bank in December 2003, and to Iran in May 2004; she recently worked as an editor of NIMEP Insights. Rachel spent a summer (2003) living in Israel volunteering with Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent to the Red Cross, and conducting interviews for an independent EPIIC research project, examining a number of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence building initiatives. The complete work is entitled, Across the Divide: an exploration of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence initiatives. She traveled from Iran to Cyprus to participate in the first annual IIMCR Middle East Symposium on conflict resolution, negotiation, and meditation, and from there she briefly visited Beirut and Damascus. In December 2004 Rachel traveled to Israel, Turkey, and England to conduct research and interviews for her senior honor’s thesis on Turkish foreign policy towards Israel. She traveled to the United Arab Emirates in March 2005 to attend a conference entitled, “Women as Global Leaders: Educating the next Generation,” in Dubai. Rachel is a former Tufts varsity level runner and has since played on the Columbia University and Tufts University water polo teams.


Aaron Markowitz-Schulman graduated from HH Dow High School, in Midland, Michigan in June of 2000.  After being accepted to Tufts, he elected to defer college for a year, during which he studied and worked in Israel.  Aaron’s trip coincided with the outbreak of the intifada and was crucial in shaping his perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   It was during this time that he learned Hebrew and developed his passion for international relations and conflict resolution.  The opportunities offered to him during the 2002 EPIIC Colloquium on Sovereignty and Intervention furthered Aaron’s academic development and inspired him to work with other students to found NIMEP.  For his EPIIC research project, Aaron, along with two other students (Benjamin Harburg and Alexander Busse), embarked on a year-long study on the future of sovereignty and globalization.  In a capstone project entitled the Sovereignty Exchange, they interviewed a plethora of global leaders, academics and policy makers including Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Noam Chomsky and Mary Robinson.  Aaron spent his junior year at the London School of Economics (LSE).  At the LSE he continued correspondence with the group and joined in the fact-finding mission to Israel and the West Bank where he pursued his research on disarming Palestinian militant groups.  Aaron was accepted for an internship position with ING Bank NV, where he worked on the syndicated leveraged finance team for six months while on leave from Tufts. Aaron’s interests include cooking, travel and music. 


Miss Sara Mohammadi was born to Iranian parents in Tehran, Iran, and now resides in the United Arab Emirates. As an undergraduate at Tufts University she double majored in International Relations and Economics. Currently she is pursuing her Masters Degree in Economics at Tufts. Miss Mohammadi has strong interests in the political economy of the Middle East and Caspian region. Upon graduation, she hopes to pursue a career as an international strategic consultant. She is fluent in Farsi, English and Russian.


Matan Chorev, a native of Israel, is a fourth year undergraduate in the Tufts/New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program where he majors in Political Science and Cello Performance. Named as University College Scholar in 2001, Chorev has also been awarded the James Vance Elliott Political Science Prize has also been named to the National Political Science Honor Society and to the All-USA College Academic Team. He will begin his Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy degree in September 2005 at the Fletcher School.

As a result of NIMEP’s trip to the Israel/West Bank trip Matan co-authored a cover article in the Tufts Observer titled, “No Simple Answers” and co-produced a documentary screened to over 1000 people on campus in the spring of 2004. Chorev has also had his works published in the Boston Herald, NIMEP Insights and Hemispheres. He teaches a fully accredited course at the Ex-college titled “U.S. and the Middle East” which combines a traditional in-class seminar with a weekly on-line web-cam based dialogue session between American students and students in the Middle East in partnership with Soliya, inc. Chorev designed the curriculum for the ten participating schools. Chorev participated in the 2003-2004 EPIIC Colloquium “U.S. Role in the World” where he served on the program committee in charge of putting together a four-day international symposium.

Chorev is also an acclaimed concert cellist, studying at the New England Conservatory under Paul Katz. He has participated in musical festivals across North, South, and Central America as well as Israel and was named one of “America’s finest young classical musicians” in National Public Radio CD, “Best of From the Top, Vol. 2”.

 

Sam Abrams is a senior studying International Relations with a focus on U.S. Foreign Policy. This fall he participated in the Institute for Global Leadership's TILIP program which included an internship in Hong Kong, political dialogue with Chinese students, and production of an international syumposium on Chinese political transition.  He spent his junior year abroad in Chile and in Spain. While in Chile, he worked as a research intern for Fundacion Chile, studying the intellectual property rights legislation and patent system of Japan. Sam has also volunteered with Builders for Peace in Bosnia, assisting in the construction of a children's hospital in Gracanica, Bosnia- Herzegovina.  He has participated in educational exchange programs in Cuba and Germany and has been involved with several student groups at Tufts, including the Tufts Daily campus newspaper and the Leonard Carmichael Society, a student volunteer organization.

Marc Marrero, a freshman from Los Angeles, California enjoys long walks on the beach and NIMEP meetings.  He believes in NIMEP as a unique experience broadening his horizons on the Middle East and Israeli- Arab relations.  He is also a member of the Soliya program and involved in Hillel programming.  In keeping with left coast ideals, he has no idea what he is studying or wants to do with his life.

Alex Zerden is a sophomore double majoring in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies.  A native of Savannah, Georgia, Alex worked with the Savannah Council on World Affairs before matriculating to Tufts. Currently co-President of Tufts Friends of Israel organization and coordinator of the Tufts Middle Eastern Dialogue Initiative, Alex works with a broad cross- section of Middle Eastern students, faculty, and organizations at Tufts and in the wider Boston area. He has a working knowledge of Spanish and is studying Hebrew. This past summer, Alex traveled to Israel and interned for an NGO, The Movement for Quality Government, whose goal is to curb government malfeasance and promote a more vibrant civil society within Israel.  In the field of
research relating to the region, Alex has pursued American covert intervention in mid-20th century Iran, the implications of terrorism on current Israeli society, land and the Palestinian collective conscience, American media and the Lebanese civil war, the Islamicization of the Russo-Chechyan conflict, and is now beginning work on Anglo-American tension during the 1956 Suez Crisis.  He is also a Tufts University Writing Fellow, former ESL teacher for El Salvadorian immigrants, and special needs camp counselor.

Oleg Svet was born in Ukraine in 1986 and moved to Israel when he was four. He is currently a freshman and is hoping to double major in International Relations and Economics. His interests include reconciliation and mediation, international affairs, and the Middle East conflict. He speaks Russian, Hebrew, and is currently studying Arabic.

Emily Andrews’ interest in the Middle East started in high school when she realized that there was no social studies curriculum for that part of the world.  She engaged in her own research to expand the program.  She joined NIMEP in January 2004 and has helped to bring the Solyia program to Tufts.   She is a sophomore majoring in psychology with an emphasis on conflict resolution.