Walter R. Isaac, Ph.D., Temple University, Lecturer of Africana Studies, is a scholar, public intellectual and Hebrew/Israelite rabbi of Afro-Palestinian descent. He has for many years worked as a mentor and direct advocate for LGBTQ teens, school-age boys of color, Jewish youth and victims of urban violence.

A Yale University graduate, Rabbi Isaac was formerly a Research Fellow in Africana Studies at Brown University and the Program Director for Temple University’s Center for Afro-Jewish Studies. His writings all stem from womanist philosophical approaches to the intersection of Africana studies and global Jewish studies. His research has recently focused on the theoretical and historical development of modern democracy from among American Hebrew communities of color.  Before joining the department of Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee, Rabbi Isaac co-directed two $250k NEH grant-funded projects on Gullah/Geechee contributions to American democracy. He is a member of many professional organizations and is the current President of the Afro-Jewish Studies Association. Most recently he has been completing a two-part monograph on the intersection of German-Jewish phenomenologist Max Scheler’s objective realism with Martin L. King Jr.’s philosophy of humanistic science.

Some of Dr. Isaac’s many articles and monographs can be found in publications such as Contending Modernities, Violence in American Society, the Journal of the Middle East and Africa, Black Existentialism, and a seminal article on Afro-Jewish Studies in the Blackwell Companion to African-American Studies. He is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Remy Ilona, PhD is a Researcher in Residence at the Olaudah Equiano Institute. He leads its initiative to combat hate and discrimination. The descendant of several obi with Levitic roots, he also serves as Secretary-General of Omenana Defenders, a movement to revive traditional Igbo culture.

Dr. Ilona holds a PhD from the University of California, Riverside, and an MA from the Florida International University, Miami. He is a specialist in the study of religion, modern antisemitism, the Holocaust, and African history and culture. For many years he worked as an attorney and law lecturer in Nigeria.

Dr. Ilona is a prolific essayist and writer, having authored Igbophobia and Antisemitism: Interlocking Hatreds, his signature work, The Igbos and Israel: An Inter-cultural Study of the Largest Jewish Diaspora, and 20 other books. Presently, he is working to publish his doctoral dissertation, titled The Holocaust of Biafra: Antisemitism and Genocide In Sub-Saharan Africa.

Obiora Uzochukwu Chira, MD is the Provost of the Olaudah Equiano Academic Research Institute (the Nigeria-based parent organization of OEI, Inc.). As a widely respected public official and scholar, he has published several articles in the fields of medicine, sociology and communal health. Dr. Chira is the founder of the Chira Heritage Foundation, an NGO promoting healthcare equity for remote and underserved communities. For the past five years, he has served as the official mohel for the Igbo Jewish community in Abuja.

Dr. Chira is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Orient Tabloid, a monthly Nigeria-based newspaper. He is currently sponsoring a research project to collect witness interviews and document survivor testimonies of the Igbo (Ibiri) Genocide in Biafra and Nigeria.

Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy & Global Affairs University of Connecticut

Founder of M.A.S.K. Mothers & Men Against Senseless Killing

Maimonides Chair Professor of Jewish Studies University of California-Riverside

Spiritual Leader Kehillat Sankofa

Senior Fellow Center for the Study of Law and Religion Emory University