Executive Leadership

Stephen Slater

Stephen spent four years living in Jerusalem and its environs, learning at the Hebrew University, and the Hartman Institute. He has a BA in Philosophy, and a MA in Second Temple History and Literature. He speaks fluent Hebrew and has lived and traveled extensively in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He began working with African asylum seekers in 2007 as part of a student group from Hebrew University who helped teach languages and provide educational opportunities.  Though he now lives in New York City with his wife, he heard directly from his asylum seeking friends about how the anti-African riot has removed their former sense of safety about living in Israel, causing them to live in fear. He is still in touch with personal friends who were deported to South Sudan in the months following the riot.

stephen@asylumseekers.org

Writing:

• The Refugee I Know

Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg

A native of Chicago, Elliot received a BA in Psychology from McGill University (Montreal, Canada), and an MA in Jewish Education and an MA in Hebrew Literature from JTS (Jewish Theological Seminary, New York). After teaching for several years at a Jewish day school in New York, Elliot came to Israel on BINA’s Tikkun Olam (“World Repair") program and has been at BINA ever since. Elliot is also involved in Right Now: Advocates for Asylum Seekers, LGBT Community Center & Neve Tzedek Masorti Congregation. Elliot likes literature, languages, human rights, and ice cream.


elliot@asylumseekers.org

Op Eds & Essays:

•  Save Darfur and Israel: A Personal Plea from an American Jew in Israel
• Op-Ed: It's Time to Change Israel's Refugee Policies
• Opd-Ed: An American in Israel asks why, after 'Save Darfur', we don't pay more attention to African refugees in the Jewish state. 
• Op-Ed: Save Darfur and Israel

Morgan Buras Finlay

Morgan is a Los Angeles native who grew up between California and Israel. Morgan received a BA in Psychology from Reed College in 2008, and in 2010 came to Israel for BINA's Tikkun Olam program. Morgan spent 10 months volunteering in various organizations that provide services and support to the Sudanese and Eritrean Refugee communities in Tel Aviv, including the Levinsky Garden Library and teaching english in a Bnei Darfur refugee shelter. After returning to the US, Morgan received an MSW in Social Work from Columbia University. Morgan now works for a non-profit in San Francisco, Ca. Morgan joined the executive committee in April 2015. 

morgan@asylumseekers.org 

Teklit Michael

After spending over a decade as an asylum seeker in Israel, Teklit now resides in Washington DC. During his 11 years in Tel Aviv he served the Eritrean community as a vocal activist and community leader through such organizations as the Eritrean Women's Community Center and the Union of Eritreans Initiative for Social Justice, and also co-founded the St Mary's Eritrean Orthodox Church in Tel Aviv to provide further emotional and spiritual support to his community. Teklit also served on the board of directors for the African Refugee Development Center and Amnesty International, Israel.

teklit@asylumseekers.org 

Andrea Gagne

Andrea is an American Israeli activist currently based in Washington DC where she works at a refugee resettlement agency. Previously, she spent four years working at refugee-led community centers in Tel Aviv, including the African Refugee Development Center, B'nai Darfur and most notably the Eritrean Women's Community Center. She studied at Hampshire College in the United States, the University of Legon in Accra, Ghana and holds a Masters Degree from Tel Aviv University in Israel.

​andrea@asylumseekers.org 

Founders

Maya Paley (Campaign Organizer)

Maya Paley is a Los Angeles native and UC Berkeley graduate. She completed her master's degree in International Affairs with a focus on migration, gender, international development, and human rights from the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University. In September of 2010, Maya moved to Tel Aviv for the 10-month long New Israel Fund/Shatil Social Justice Fellowship. Through the Fellowship, Maya completed an in-depth research project on the lived experiences of asylum seekers from Africa who are living in Israel. She conducted over 70 one-on-one interviews to collect data from men, women, and youth in the communities. This culminated in the publication of two reports on the topic, one on the experiences of individuals and the other highlighting community formations and needs.  The reports are titled "Surviving in Limbo." Maya conducted the research for ASSAF, a humanitarian aid organization that assists African refugees and asylum seekers. Maya now serves as an adviser to Right Now, but she continues to be active in the coalition through speaking at synagogues, writing articles and opeds, and raising awareness as much as possible about the plight of African asylum seekers in Israel. Maya works for the National Council of Jewish Women Los Angeles, directing their legislative advocacy and community engagement.

maya@asylumseekers.org

Op-Eds & Essays:

• Not in my name
• In shunning African refugees, Israel ignores Exodus' call not to 'oppress the stranger'
• Sympathy for Syrian Refugees - But Not African Asylum Seekers?