In 2008, Jason Guberman began a project to map and collect photographs of synagogues and Jewish shrines and cemeteries throughout the Middle East, creating for posterity a digital museum of the physical remnants of these ancient, and almost entirely defunct, communities. Diarna, the organization he founded, has been able to take advantage of the recent upheavals in the region to
On a sunny morning in February 2016, Sami Solmaz, a Kurdish filmmaker from Turkey, took a ride with Kurdish forces from the Iraqi town of Sinjar to the front lines. He spent the day filming gun battles between Kurdish fighters and the Islamic State militant group for a documentary he was making on ISIS attacks against religious minorities. That afternoon,
A summa cum laude graduate of Sacred Heart University, Jason was named to Connecticut Magazine’s “40 under 40” and to the Jewish Week’s “36 under 36.” He has presented Diarna at Stanford University’s Digital Humanities Center and the USC Shoah Foundation, conferences of the Association of Jewish Studies and Association of Jewish Libraries, guest lectured classes at Harvard’s Middle East Studies Center and at Wellesley College, served on the Council of Young Jewish Presidents and represented the American Sephardi Federation (where he also serves as Executive Director) on the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations’ Missions to Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, written for AJS Perspectives, Sh’ma Journal, Wexner Foundation Newsletter, The Algemeiner, and MyJewishLearning.com, as well as appeared on NPR’s “Here & Now” and in SmartHistory. Jason is an alumnus of the Tikvah Fund’s Fellowship and Core18 Leaders Laboratory.
He holds an MA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and a BA in both Studio Arts and Brain and Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester. From 2005-2008 he worked as a photojournalist in Israel for Israel National News. His photography has been published in New York Times magazine... and has been featured in exhibitions both nationally and abroad.
He graduated from Yeshiva University with both Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Jewish history.
Avital has studied Italian and translation theory. She loves learning languages and has a working knowledge of German, while dipping her toes into ancient Greek and Swahili. She has worked on oral history and research for Diarna heritage mapping.
Author of the book Men of Silk: The Hasidic Conquest of Polish Jewish Society (Koret Publication Award; finalist for the National Jewish Book Award); and Yankel's Tavern: Jews, Liquor and Life in the Kingdom of Poland. Interests include Polish-Jewish relations, Jewish economic history, and popular religion. Recipient of the Fulbright Award. Member (2009) of Katz Center, University of Pennsylvania; and (2010-11) Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University; Senior NEH Fellow at the Center for Jewish History.
She began her career in photography, working in the photo studio at Jim Henson & Co., and then as a set photographer for PBS, Children’s Television Workshop/Sesame Street, and WGBH/Boston. Chrystie then turned her focus to photojournalism, where she worked for the Associated Press and the New York Post covering Jewish events. In 2002, she began her Diaspora project, Home in Another Place, documenting small and disappearing Jewish communities in B/W portraiture. To date she has covered the Ukraine, Central Asia, India, Afghanistan, North Africa and Cuba.
More recently she is working on the Diarna Project, contributing photography on Jewish antiquities in North Africa.
Chrystie Sherman’s work has been exhibited both nationally and abroad; in New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C, Rome, Israel and the FSU. Home in Another Place is a work in progress, to be published by Steidl Press. Chrystie lives in New York City and travels extensively photographing surviving Jewish communities in the post-Holocaust world.
He holds an Executive Diploma from the School of Public Affairs of Paris (Sciences Po) in Management and Public Policy and has successfully completed the Annual Executive Programme of the International Centre for European Studies (Berlin). As of 2011, Gentian has covered many duties within the Albanian public administration and is currently Head of Unit for Territorial Cooperation in the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, in charge for the coordination of the regional cooperation Programmes funded by the European Union. He is a lecturer in the School of Public Administration, delivering the modules related to EU funding, team building and public speaking. As of December 2018, Gentian has been involved in a professional internship at YIVO Institute for Jewish research, in New York.
He has an excellent command of English and Italian language and a fair command of French.