David Less (Co-Chair)

Chairman, Co-Founder
David Less is a global teacher of meditation, conflict resolution and inter-faith dialog of over forty years. For over a decade he has been the Global Dean of the Universal Worship, an organization in over thirty countries, that honors the commonality in all religions and appreciates and respects the differences. He started promoting understanding rather than blame as a path to peace in the Holy Land in 2000 and was one of the founders of the Abrahamic Reunion shortly thereafter.

Ira Harritt

Ira Sirkar Harritt served as the program coordinator of the Kansas City Office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker peace and justice organization, for over 30 years. In that capacity, he organized campaigns and programs to promote peace, social and economic justice, nonviolent conflict resolution, youth empowerment, and increased community connectedness and understanding. He is an experienced workshop facilitator, organizer, mediator and coalition builder. He has served as the Sufi representative on the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council from 2011 to the present. He has a Masters Degree in Conflict Resolution from the McGregor School, Antioch University, Yellow Springs, Ohio.

He joined the AR Board in March 2021, knowing that AR’s work helps create the foundations which are essential for peace in Israel and Palestine and that peace often only comes when the peoples involved see themselves in the other and demand peace from their leaders.

He is happily married and lives and gardens with his wife, Leila, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Ted Brownstein

Ted Brownstein is a Jewish-Baha’i living in Lake Worth, Florida with his wife, Chris. He holds a master’s degree in Biblical Hebrew from University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1985 and teaches online courses inJudaism, Christianity, and Interfaith Dialogue for the Wilmette Institute. He is also compiler of The Interfaith Prayer Book (2014), a collection of prayers representing 14 world religions. His most recent publication, Kinship of the Bible and Qur’an (2021) promotes mutual understanding between the Abrahamic Faiths. Ted’s interest in peacemaking goes back to his youthful involvement in the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement. He is a founder of the Lake Worth Interfaith Network and serves on the local MLK committee, is an Ambassador for the Parliament of the World’s Religions and a board member for Abrahamic Reunion USA. Ted’s work and daily prayer is, “O God, unite the hearts of Thy servants.”

Linda Reichert

Linda was born in Philadelphia in 1952.  A lover of music at an early age, she earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from Temple University, where she studied piano and composition.  She co-founded the non-profit Network for New Music in 1985, an organization that continues to commission, support and perform chamber music of living composers, and served as its Artistic Director until 2018.  Through this rewarding and challenging work, Linda not only learned much about music, but about community, and how the best outcomes for an organization usually arise from  good connections and harmonization with others.

Linda continues to serve in a leadership capacity on the board of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, and enjoys teaching piano and coaching chamber music groups at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.  She also works with several local and national environmental organizations, advocating for climate change solutions on the state and national level.

Michael Macy

Michael Macy served as a diplomat for the U.S. State Department serving in Delhi, London,Riyadh, Bamako, Tunis, Valetta, Kabul and Port au Prince among others, along with staffing 14 White House overseas trips. He retired as a Counselor in the Senior Foreign Service. Prior to the Foreign Service he worked as a trial attorney and a public relations executive. He holds a double BA in American Culture and Communications Arts from Antioch University, a JD from the University of Wisconsin and conducted post-graduate research at Aligarh Muslim Law School in India. He currently serves on the Boards of the Abrahamic Reunion, The Next Century Foundation and the Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel.

Iris Rich
Secretary Only

Sheikh Ghassan Manasra

Sheikh Ghassan Manasra, International Director of the Abrahamic Reunion, oversees programming in the Holy Land and Internationally since 2015. He was one of the Abrahamic Reunion’s Co-Coordinators in the Holy Land from 2014-2015, before moving to the US with his family, and has been an active contributing Peacemaker with the AR for more than a decade. He is an ordained Sheikh in the Qadiri Sufi Order in the Holy Land, and son of Sheikh Abdel Salaam Manasra – head of the Qadiri Sufi Order in the Holy Land. He is the founder of Anwar-Il-Salaam, the Lights of Peace Center in Nazareth, and is Director, Islamic Cultural Center in Nazareth. Ghassan is an expert and lectures in Islam, Islamic history, Sufism, and contemporary Muslim issues in the Middle East, Europe, and the USA. [email protected]

Dr. Imam Khalid Abu Ras

Dr. Khalid is the Imam of Al-IMAN Mosque in Ilut, outside Nazareth, in the North of Israel, an educator, Arabic Language and Literature teacher in High Schools and Secondary Schools, and has worked for YESODOT Center for Torah & Democracy in Jerusalem, Anwar al-Salaam the Lights of Peace Association Founder & Co-Director in Nazareth, Yakar Center in Jerusalem, and many other interfaith and intercultural initiatives over the last 25 years. He has his PhD in Arabic Studies from Bar-Ilan University.

Lana Shukha Nseir

Lana is a member of the Orthodox Christian Council of Nazareth, a longtime part of Abrahamic Reunion, a former educator, and Women’s Peacebuilding Circle participant and coordinator.

Sheikha Najah Kabaha (Co-Chair)

Sheikha Umm Bra’a  Najah  Kabaha is a leader in the Muslim community who lives in the city of Nazareth, the largest Arab city in Israel. She has worked for interfaith understanding and dialogue through the Qadiri Tariqat as-Salaam, the Lights of Peace Society, and the Abrahamic Reunion for many years. She also teaches children and early childhood.

Siham Halabi

Siham Halabi is a Druze leader and the Director of the Women’s Program and Adult Education at the Daliat Al Carmel Community Center providing courses in women’s economic empowerment, home management, drivers education, Hebrew and Arabic languages, social activism, and interfaith understanding. She is a Coordinator of the TRUST WIN, a member of the  Women’s Parliament and various orgaizations for dialogue and understanding between the cultures, and for the advancement of women and social issues affecting women.  She is a Druze spokeswoman representing Druze women in national forums.

Abed Manasra

Sheikh Abed Alsalam Manasra is the son of Sheikh Ghassan Manasra. He is an ordained Sheikh in the Tariqat Qadriyya As-Salaam (Qadiri Sufi Order Of Peace). He is a musician and works with young adults and youth to organize interfaith dialogue and gatherings in and around Nazareth. [email protected]