The BRIJ Team

Founded with the goal of bringing together  Muslim and Jewish perspectives, BRIJ is uniquely positioned to carry out our latest Uncovering Narratives digital history project. Our co-directors have extensive leadership experience both in interfaith spaces and within Muslim and Jewish communities. Over the past four years, we have built a team of thirty college students, professors, chaplains and school directors. Our diverse team brings together a wealth of experiences, knowledge of religious history and practice, community engagement, and personal commitments to justice and interfaith solidarity. 

The People that Make BRIJ Possible

 Our Team

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​Ilana graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in History with Honors. She loves working with kids and and spent a year doing literacy and creative reuse workshops in elementary schools through the Beautiful Stuff Project. Ilana enjoys studying languages (Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew), writing and spending time in nature. 
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Ayoub Saidi is an undergraduate student at Rutgers University - Camden, where he studies history, philosophy, religion, and law. He has worked as a teaching assistant for Rutgers University’s Honors College, and he is now working with BRIJ as a writer for the Uncovering Narratives project. He is also compiling research for his own independent study on American Muslim life and hopes to someday write his own book on the history of Islam in America
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Tamar is a graduate of Tufts University, where she studied Political Science and art. She served as the Vice President of Tufts Amnesty International, and mentor at Tufts Strong Women Strong Girls. She also served as the Communications Director of the Nick Matthew for Congress campaign. 
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Zubair graduated with a B.Sc in Information Systems and is an aspiring Software developer. He is interested in UI/UX, coding, and history which is what led him to work with BRIJ in developing this website.

Curriculum Advisory Board

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Paul E. Nahme (Ph.D., University of Toronto) is the Dorot Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University.  His areas of interest are modern Jewish thought, German-Jewish cultural and intellectual history, modern Rabbinic thought, French post-structuralism, theories of affect and emotion, and critical race theory. His research focuses on the relationships between identity, affect, race, religion, anti-Semitism, and nationalism.
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Dr. Walker teaches First Amendment law and human rights at Rutgers University and serves as the co-principal investigator with Dr. W. Y. Alice Chan of the Moral Imagination Community. In service to the field, he works as the associate editor of the peer-reviewed academic journal, Religion & Education, as an advisor to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and on the boards of Abolitionist Sanctuary, Public Religion Research Institute, and Utah 3Rs Project. He serves as a member of the American Academy of Religion’s Committee on the Public Understanding of Religion and served on the writing team of the Religious Studies Companion Document for the C3 Framework for the National Council for the Social Studies
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The Reverend Janet M. Cooper Nelson is Chaplain of the University, Director of the Office of Chaplains and Religious Life and faculty member at Brown University, appointed in 1990 after appointments at Vassar College, Mount Holyoke College, and The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College. As Brown’s Chaplain she leads a multi-faith team of Associate chaplains and oversees the University’s broad circle of Religious Life affiliates who advise student religious organizations.

She earned degrees at Wellesley College, Tufts University, and Harvard Divinity School as well as serving on the Divinity School’s Visiting Committee and Leadership Council.

Board of Directors

Ilana Brandes- Krug
Junaid Malik
​Becki Marcus
Omair Ali
Ruban Hussain
Jeanelle Wheeler

Past Partnerships | Partners in Peace

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Former Head of ISRI - Co-Founder & Director of Partners in Peace
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Head of JCDS-RI - Director of Partners in Peace
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​Cherishing the magic of Oz and the warm and eclectic community of her hometown, Andrea was raised in Lawrence, Kansas and stayed to receive her BA and MA from the University of Kansas. Her graduate research was on the impact of gender and ethnicity on identity construction. After graduate school, Andrea lived in Jerusalem for a year, where she coordinated a Jewish feminist project and managed a tutoring program for Ethiopian immigrants.
Since arriving in Providence in 1999, Andrea has taught in the Education Department of Rhode Island College, volunteered in the Providence public school system and coordinated a youth philanthropy program. Andrea, together with her students and colleagues at JCDSRI, spends her days building community, documenting discoveries, experiencing great joy, and practicing kavod, (respect), hesed (kindness), and shalom (peace). She has an extensive snow-globe collection and regularly perpetrates acts of “guerilla gardening.” Andrea lives in Providence with her husband, Steve Jacobson, and two daughters.
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Co-Founder of Partners in Peace
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Adam is an experienced educator and was the Chair of the Middle School Jewish Studies Department at Rodeph Sholom School in Manhattan. He holds a B.A. from Emory University and an M.A. from Brooklyn College, has been a participant in several selective educational leadership programs, including the Pardes Educators Program and the Day School Leadership Training Institute, and received the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education. He served as the head of the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island. Since arriving in Providence in 1999,

The Organizations that Make BRIJ Possible:

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