Dezember 2025

Sandra Kegel studied literature, theater, film and media studies in Aix-en-Provence, Vienna and Frankfurt. She has been an editor at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung since 1999. She worked in the media and literature departments for many years and has been head of the FAZ features section since 2019. She also works as a juror and presenter and is a regular critic on the literary program “Buchzeit” (3sat). In 2005, she was awarded the Ravensburg Media Prize.

Sonja Hegasy is Deputy Director of the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. She studied Arabic and Islamic Studies at Columbia University and completed her doctorate in political science at FU Berlin. In 2019–2021, she held the professorship for Postcolonial Studies at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin. In 2023, she was a Senior Fellow at the M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies “Metamorphoses of the Political” in Delhi.

Omar M. Dajani is the Carol Olson Professor of International Law at McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific in California. He is also the immediate past co-chair of the joint board of A Land for All, on which he continues to serve. Previously, Omar served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with Israel from 1999 to 2001, participating in the summits at Camp David and Taba.  He received his B.A. from Northwestern University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Chaim Seidler-Feller has been associated with Hillel for over 50 years and has celebrated forty years of working with students and faculty as the Executive Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA. He is currently Director Emeritus. He is currently a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute, North America and is an organizer for "A Land for All" in the U.S. He was a founding member of Americans for Peace Now. Chaim is the author most recently of “The God of Possibilities: From Being to Becoming,”  "'Twas the Best of Times, ‘Twas the Worst of Times: Antisemitism, Israel and the Politics of Resentment on the Campus Today,” and “A Return to a Zionism for the Future.”    

Susanne Beyer studied German literature, history and journalism in Bamberg and Vienna. After her vocational training at Deutsche Journalistenschule (DJS), she initially worked as a culture editor at SPIEGEL, a German weekly news magazine and one of the largest such publications in Europe, where she was deputy head of department. She was deputy editor-in-chief of SPIEGEL for four years, then worked as a journalist in SPIEGEL's Berlin office and now writes for the editorial team. Alongside her job, Susanne Beyer is currently training to become a mediator. Beyer is a 2025 Thomas Mann Fellow.

Bjorn Krondorfer has worked with different groups in interactive settings exploring sensitive issues, including memory and trauma relating to the Holocaust, racial diversity on university campuses, and Palestinian/Israeli encounter groups (pre-October 5). He is Regents’ Professor and Director of the Martin-Springer Institute at Northen Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Los Angeles Poverty Department, founded in 1985 by director, performer, and activist John Malpede, is the first arts organization in the nation created by and with people experiencing homelessness, and the first cultural program of any kind for Skid Row, Los Angeles. Rooted in the conviction that the imagination and creativity of Skid Row residents are vital forces for change, LAPD uses theater and other arts to challenge stereotypes, amplify community voices, and address pressing social issues such as housing, drug policy, mass incarceration, and displacement. Through performances, festivals, parades, exhibitions, and its Skid Row History Museum & Archive, LAPD celebrates the resilience and achievements of neighborhood residents while shaping broader policy conversations around poverty and urban development. Its pioneering work has inspired service providers, informed public policy, and created a model for grassroots, arts-based civic engagement recognized nationally and internationally.