Amal Elsana Alh'jooj, AJEEC-NISPED Co-Founder and Director V...

Amal Elsana Alh'jooj is one of Israel's most highly regarded civic activists and one of the Bedouin community's most knowledgeable and dedicated leaders. She is a gifted and passionate speaker who is coming to our community to speak about her work promoting women's rights, Arab citizens' rights, and Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. Join us to hear Amal take us through her personal journey as a change maker, her vision for her community, and how the challenges and opportunities she faced along the way shaped her identity as a leader. Amal has multiple speaking engagements while in the U.S. She will be at the following locations during her visit: Monday, June 24th: JCPA Task Force Meeting: Israel, World Jewry and International Human Rights Tuesday, June 25th: AJC New York Chapter Wednesday, June 26th: Philadelphia Thursday, June 27th: NIF Private Reception in Bethesda, MD Friday, June 28th: Congregation Mishkan Torah in Greenbelt, MD Please contact Leah Stern, Program Specialist for more information: [email protected] BIO Ms. Amal Elsana Alh'jooj Co-Executive Director, the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development - NISPED Amal Elsana Alh'jooj, co-executive director of NISPED and founding director of AJEEC, was born in 1972, the fifth of thirteen children. As an adolescent, Amal was beginning her journey to change the status quo for women and Bedouin Arabs of the Negev. She began her career as a community organizer at age 14, and at 17, established the first Arab Bedouin women's organization to improve the situation of Bedouin women. In 2000, she began working at NISPED whose organizational vision and approach to sustainable human development presented Amal with the opportunity to develop a new model to meet pressing challenges. Today, Amal is one of the key shapers of public opinion regarding the status of the Arab minority and the status of women in Israel. She is a member of the Prime Minister's Commission for Economic Development of the Arab Sector; a member of the Steering Committee of Shutafut-Sharaka; a member of the professional committee of the Employment Creation Division of the JDC. She earned her BA in social work in Israel at Ben-Gurion University where she was one of two Bedouin women students. She earned her MA in community development at McGill University in Canada.