A Shared Sacred Land: Understanding Israel and Palestine from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives – Webinar Series

November 12, 19, 26, and December 3 | Tuesdays | Online | Four Sessions

Tuesday, November 12 – Atiya Aftab and Roberta Elliott of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom.
Tuesday, November 19 – Rabbi Dr. Elyse Goldstein
Tuesday, November 26 – Professor Emad Hamdeh
Tuesday, December 3 – Bishop Eugene Sutton

Atiya Aftab

Atiya Aftab, Esq. is an attorney, educator and activist. She currently maintains her own practice providing representation to non-profit corporations. Atiya is also an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers University, Department of Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies Program and teaches “Islamic Law and Jurisprudence”. She is Chair of the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University, convener of the first full-time Muslim Chaplaincy on campus. She is an emerita member of the Rutgers University Foundation Board of Directors. Atiya is the co-founder and chair emerita of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, an international women’s interfaith organization. She has been a member of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey’s Board of Trustees and Overseers for 25 years and was the first woman chair of the board. She co-found the New Jersey Muslim Lawyer’s Association and has been its Vice-President and Treasurer. Atiya has received numerous awards including: 2011 Ansar Award, Majlis Ash-Shura of Essex and Union County; 2012 Award of Excellence, Al-Shifa Foundation; 2018 Professional Lawyer of the Year Award, NJ Commission of Professionalism in the Law, NJMLA; 2019 EVZ Foundation Jewish-Muslim Solidarity Award; 2023 Pacem in Terris Award, Catholic Diocese of Davenport; 2023 Tannenbaum Award for the Advancement of Interreligious Understanding; 2024 Women 2 Women Forum International Women’s Day Award for Leadership in Peace Keeping Efforts and Developing a Faith Based

Initiative. Atiya has spoken at numerous forums nationally and internationally on topics related to Islam including academic institutions, conferences, police training centers, places of worship, universities, hospital, community forums conventions and newsprint, social media and television and radio addresses.

Roberta Elliott

Roberta Elliott is an activist, writer and photographer. Since retiring from a lifetime of professional work as a communications professional in the Jewish community, she has devoted herself to volunteer work, primarily with refugees both here and abroad. Between 2015 and 2018, she travelled to Europe three times to work in Syrian refugee camps. Her article, “In Vienna with Syrian Refugees,” published in the Winter 2015-16 issue of Lilith Magazine, was awarded First Prize for Excellence in Social Justice Writing by the Rockower Competition for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. When not working with refugees, she is passionate about women’s issues and shared society in Israel - and where the two intersect. In September 2020, she became the president of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, a national chapter-based organization of 8,000 Muslim and Jewish women devoted to fighting hate and promoting social justice. In addition, she is Treasurer and Executive Board member of Elluminate, the organization formerly known as the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York and sits on the boards of the Abraham Initiatives and the Social Venture Fund for Israeli Arab Equality and Shared Society. She holds a certificate in board management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. In her spare time, she is working towards becoming a Life Master in bridge and solo sails Lake Ontario. She and her husband, Charles Wantman, split their time between South Orange, NJ, and Tucson, AZ.

Eugene Sutton

The Right. Reverend Eugene Taylor Sutton is Senior Pastor at Chautauqua Institution. Previously he served as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, Canon Pastor of Washington National Cathedral, and Director of the Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. He speaks throughout the nation on issues of spirituality, environmental justice, nonviolence, and racial reconciliation. He’s a contributor to the books, The Diversity of Centering Prayer, and Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace: Challenging the Epidemic of Gun Violence. Bishop Sutton is recognized as a thought leader on racial equity and reparations, testifying before the United States Congress with author Ta-Nehisi Coates, actor Danny Glover, economist Julianne Malveaux and others for Congressional Bill HR40 that calls for the establishment of a national bipartisan commission to study reparations as a restitution for centuries of slavery and racial discrimination. He’s appeared on National Public Radio, PBS television, Fox News, The Chautauqua Institution, Howard

University, and other public forums. His board memberships include the Institute for Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies; the Institute for Sustainable Communities; the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Bishops United Against Gun Violence. He was named by the Center For American Progress as one of “14 Faith Leaders to Watch”. A graduate of Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, he did graduate study at Princeton Theological Seminary and Anglican studies at the University of the South’s School of Theology. In addition to serving several parishes, he taught homiletics and liturgics at New Brunswick Theological Seminary and at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. He is married to Sonya Subbayya Sutton, president of the Association of Anglican Musicians, and they have four adult children.