Meet the 2020-21 Fellows in Conflict and Peace: Mati Milstein

Hi! My name is Mati. I moved to Palestine/Israel from New Mexico about 20 years ago and I’ve been working as a photojournalist since. I’ve also been serving the past four years as communications director at Adalah, the Palestinian legal rights center in Haifa. Both in photojournalism and in my work with Adalah, I have always tended to focus on the human element behind the headlines, and I approach stories through the lens of solutions journalism.

My project will utilize photography to document the new generation of American Jewish social justice activists. I intend to join them on their work against the Israeli military occupation in Palestine, and their activism on key social justice issues within the United States. I want to see how their religious and cultural identity influences their activism, but also to examine the impact that their activism has on their identity.

I’m super excited to be a part of the RCPI community. I have learned from past experience that historic research is essential to the success of this sort of documentary project. I need to be able to situate the activists I am documenting within the historic, religious, and cultural timeline of the American Jewish community. RCPI’s focus on religion as a central and inseparable part of conflict, of peacebuilding and – actually – of everyday life, along with the resources that Harvard has to offer, is exactly what I need for this project.