JIMENA is built on a foundation of personal storytelling, and members of JIMENA’s Speakers Bureau serve as the North American voice of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. The Bureau is composed of specially selected and highly trained former refugees, educators, Rabbis, scholars, and cultural ambassadors who have compelling personal stories and the knowledge to authentically represent Jews from Arab countries. While the background and experiences of JIMENA Speakers vary, the common thread between them is their passion and desire to empower and educate audiences with their personal stories and knowledge of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish Jews.

JIMENA takes great efforts to carefully match our speakers with appropriate audiences and we are proud to have have presented at over 80 universities and hundreds of organizations internationally. As the core muscle of JIMENA, many of our Speakers are accomplished leaders in their respective professional fields and their voices have successfully impacted policy and opinion of the Middle East and North Africa.

Some of the venues where JIMENA speakers have presented include:

JIMENA Speakers have shared their personal stories, and the stories of Jews from Arab countries and Iran to over 35,000 individuals around the world. Some of the venues our speakers have presented include: UN Human Rights Council, US Congressional Human Rights Caucus, US Department of State, Canadian Parliament, Italian Parliament, Israeli Knesset, and multiple museums, Jewish Day Schools, college campuses, community centers, synagogues, libraries, Jewish communal conferences and fundraisers, film festivals, and private homes around the world. 

If you would like to join the JIMENA Speakers Bureau and share your story as a Jew from an Arab country, please contact us.

If you would like to host a JIMENA Speaker, please contact us

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