Migrant Rights from the Grassroots:
The Challenges and Victories of Civil Society in Israel
Join the New Israel Fund and Mosaic Theater for a panel conversation following a performance of the play Paper Dolls
Featuring:
Rotem Ilan, Founder of Israeli Children
Abigail Kolker, PhD candidate and former NIF Social Justice Fellow
Moderated by Ari Roth of Mosaic Theater.
Sunday, April 8th
5:30 pm
(Following the 3:00 pm performance of Paper Dolls)
Atlas Performing Arts Center
1333 H St. NE
Washington, DC 20002
Click here to purchase tickets. Use the code NIF25 for $25 tickets. If you have already seen the play or just want to come to the panel, please join us at 5:30 pm.
Join the New Israel Fund and Mosaic Theater to hear about how grassroots organizations and activists in Israel defend and promote the rights of migrants and other vulnerable populations. Featuring leading Israeli activist Rotem Ilan - founder of the organization Israeli Children and former Director of the department Immigration and Status at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), and migration rights activist, scholar and former NIF Social Justice Fellow, Abigail Kolker.
Speakers
Rotem Ilan is the founder of the NGO “Israeli Children” which spearheaded the successful struggle against the deportation of Israel-born children of migrant workers that resulted in hundreds of migrant children and their parents receiving status in Israel. She later became the Director of the Immigration and Status Department at the Association for Civil Right in Israel (ACRI). Rotem was awarded the 2010 ‘Dror Prize for Social Change’; the 2013 ‘NIF Galanter Prize for Social Leaders’; and the 2014 Emile Zola ‘Notable Human Rights Defenders Award’. She was the first social activist to be listed in Globes Newspaper’s ‘Israel’s 50 most influential women’, along with some of the country’s most influential business women and parliament members. Rotem holds a B.A in Psychology and Special Education and a Master’s degree in Psychology from Tel Aviv University, where she researched the psychological effects of child imprisonment. She is a board member at the ‘Hotline for Migrants and Refugees’ and ‘The Lewinski Garden Library’.
Abigail Kolker recently received a PhD in Sociology from the City University of New York's Graduate Center. Her dissertation compared Filipino migrant workers’ rights and experiences in Tel Aviv and New York. She has been involved with the migrant community in Tel Aviv for the last decade, having worked at Kav LaOved (Worker’s Hotline), MESILA, the African Refugee Development Center, and the Adva Center, a social justice think tank. She also worked with the Filipino community in New York, at Damayan Migrant Worker’s Association.
Sponsors
The New Israel Fund is the leading organization advancing and defending democracy in Israel. Widely credited with building Israeli progressive civil society, NIF has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Israel since its inception in 1979. More about NIF here: www.nif.org