Micha Kurz was born and raised in Jerusalem. He was active in the National Youth Movement for over ten years, where he trained teenagers to work as leaders in their local communities. He worked extensively on leadership programs with new immigrant communities in Israel, mainly with youth from Ethiopia and the Caucasus. He was one of the first to implement a leadership training curriculum with Bedouin youth. At nineteen, he joined the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) as a combat soldier and attained rank of Master Sergeant. After an honorable discharge from the army he co-founded “Breaking the Silence”, an organization of former Israeli soldiers speaking out about “our service in the Occupied Territories and the moral price, the degradation of spirit, we have had to pay on both societal and personal levels while serving our nation”. He has met with grassroots activists around the world and learned the importance and effectiveness of local community organizing. Traveling in and out of the occupied territories he has begun mapping the vast grassroots social justice and environmental sustainability efforts in and around the Jerusalem area. He believes these grassroots efforts are ultimately linked. He plans to weave a common vision with the communities working on the urgent issues.

“I was brought up to love Jerusalem, I knew the city inside-out like the back of my hand. I would take my youth groups from around the country on tours of the old city, to boast its beauty and my knowledge of it. It wasn’t until my army service that I discovered half a city I knew nothing about! I realize today, I still have much to learn about my home-town and the people who live on the other side of it.”

Jerusalem is not a unified city today, it is quite obviously the opposite. Those who struggle within the political structures and ways of thought are ultimately bound to run into an impossible wall. Those who transcend their dividing differences, to meet at the common grounds of shared values for Human rights, Justice, Social and Environmental Sustainability and a truly unified city, are those who are providing the fertile grounds of possibility. The young Israeli and Palestinian grassroots leaders introduce the possibility of Jerusalem at its highest potential, at a moment when it is at its lowest. We must not abandon them.

Contact:

micha@grassrootsjerusalem.org

Phone in Taos NM, U.S.: (1)(575) 779-1302
Po Box 488
Questa N.M., 87556

Phone in Jerusalem, Holy land: (972)(0)547-451-912

Jamie Siers

Jamie Siers is a recent graduate of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver with an M.A. in International Studies with concentrations in Human Rights and Development, with a Certificate in Humanitarian Assistance. She is currently working towards completing her Certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Last summer she interned for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) in Jerusalem, Israel. This internship allowed her to work extensively in the area of housing demolitions and the opportunity to develop an intense, lasting passion for grassroots work in the Jerusalem area. She will be using her GIS skills to conduct mapping of grassroots organizations within East Jerusalem communities

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Marjie Sackett

Marjie Sackett is a second-year graduate student studying International Development at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver with concentrations in human rights and humanitarian assistance. She spent last summer as a media intern with the Alternative Information Center (AIC) in Jerusalem, Israel. As a part of her internship, Marjie primarily concentrated on issues related to land and housing rights in East Jerusalem, specifically community planning and housing demolitions in the village of Issawiya. Beyond the important work of creating a grassroots network in the Jerusalem area, her interests lie in the protection and promotion of women’s and children’s rights. Marjie has been in Jerusalem since late April 2009 compiling research on East Jerusalem villages and networking with local grassroots organizations.

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Ryan Linstrom

Ryan fell in love with the Middle East in the fall of 2005, during a semester in Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. Since then he has focused a significant portion of his studies on the language, history, and politics of the region. However, it wasn’t until the summer of 2009, after an internship with the Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem when he realized the great potential for peace that existed below the surface of the many pervasive conflicts.

When he is not managing and designing the Grassroots Jerusalem website, he is busy building support for a just Israeli-Palestinian peace through the foundation of Aware!, an educational campaign designed to inform the American public on the subtleties of the conflict and the necessity for positive policy changes.

He currently lives in Denver, CO. with his beautiful wife, Amber and is finishing an M.A. degree in International Development with a concentration in Human Rights Law at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies of the University of Denver.