Supporting LGBTQ+ Communities in Orthodox Judaism

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Diego Garcia Blum speaks with Miryam Kabakov, co-founder and executive director of Eshel, a national organization that supports LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jews and their families while helping to build Orthodox communities that are more welcoming and inclusive.  Miryam Kabakov is a national leader who has worked for more than three decades on the inclusion of LGTBQ+ individuals in the Orthodox world. Prior to being a leader at Eshel, Miryam was the New York and National Program Director of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, Director of LGBT programming at the JCC Manhattan, Social Worker at West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, and was the first social worker at Footsteps. She's also the editor of the award winning anthology “Keep Your Wives Away From Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires”, a collection of writings about the challenges and joys of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Orthodox women.  Together they discuss: the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jewish women, diverse perspectives from within Orthodox Jewish communities, Eshel’s founding and support networks, Miryam’s own journey coming out in her orthodox community, the role that time can play in changing opinions, the impact of Eshel’s support network for the families of LGBTQ+ persons, advice for LGBTQ Individuals in faith communities. https://www.eshelonline.org/

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Professor Tshepo Madlingozi, scholar, activist and commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission—an independent constitutional body charged with promoting, monitoring and protecting human rights in the country. Together they discuss: post-apartheid South Africa, the mythification of the liberation narrative, the role of the South African Human Rights Commission, constitutional promises vs. lived realities, the multifaceted legacy of Nelson Mandela, epistemic justice, and lessons from South Africa for a global audience. Professor Madlingozi’s work focuses on decolonisation, reparative justice, human rights, and participatory democracy. His writings move across law, political philosophy, and the lived experience of communities still carrying the material weight of colonialism.Before joining the Commission, he was the Director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS)—a law clinic and research centre—at the University of the Witwatersrand and an Associate Professor at the university's School of Law, where he taught social justice and human rights. For over ten years, he worked for and with the Khulumani Support Group—a social movement advocating for reparations, redress, and sustainable reconciliation—serving as Advocacy Coordinator and later as Chairperson.

Today’s episode is part of a new series organized by co-host Diego Garcia Blum and Victor Madrigal-Burloz called Our Queer UN, where they explore the intersection between different UN mandates and LGBTQI+ rights. This first episode, Our Queer Planet, is focused on climate, environment and human rights.  Victor Madrigal-Burloz is a former UN Independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and a leading voice in advancing LGBTQI+ rights. He is currently a faculty member at the Harvard Law School and faculty affiliate with the Global LGBTQI+ human rights program.  For this first episode, Diego and Victor welcome Astrid Puentes Riaño, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment who has spent years working at the intersection of environmental protection and human rights around the world. In their conversation they discuss a wide range of topics including: understanding the UN mandate on environment and human rights, the intersection of LGBTQI+ rights and climate rights, the impact of environmental degradation on vulnerable communities around the world, and recent research findings on LGBTQI+ rights and climate change infrastructure.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters co-host Maggie Gates speaks with Reid Jewett Smith, Vice President of Research and Policy at Disability:IN, the world's leading nonprofit for disability inclusion in business - where her work focuses on disability and corporate sustainability, both as a measure of human impact and bottom line performance. In this conversation they talk about a variety of topics including: understanding disability in the workplace, the universal disability equality index, counteracting stigma and understanding value of disability in the workplace, designing inclusive workplaces, the impact of remote work and technology, peer pressure and corporate responsibility, current work force trends for professionals with disabilities, and what’s to come for the future of disability inclusion.  Reid oversees Disability:IN’s policy related initiatives to make corporate workplaces, governing bodies and business disclosures more inclusive. Her experience with disability stems from her own experience with cystic fibrosis, a degenerative genetic lung disease that has impacted and fueled all aspects of her working life. Reid sits on several nonprofit industry and community boards and holds advanced degrees from Boston College and Brown University. She is currently  a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where her research focuses on the development of the world’s first universal business benchmark for disability inclusion.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, Mathias Risse speaks with Zoë Hitzig, former research scientist at Open AI who recently left the company due to ethical concerns about the way the company was developing its advertising strategy. She wrote about her decision to leave in a recent op-ed in the NY Times. Zoë received her PhD in economics from Harvard in 2023 and is currently a fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Her work centers on privacy, equity and transparency in markets and algorithms. Their conversation touches on: Zoë’s journey from studying economics to working for Open AI, Open AI’s shift in motives from a non-profit to a for-profit company, what makes the data ChatGPT collects from its users different, concerns about advertising and user data in AI models, proposals for ethical practices, how OpenAI’s trajectory compares to Facebook, possible governance structures for AI companies, the role of competition in AI ethics, moral responsibility, and Zoë’s future research. Zoë's recent op-ed in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/opinion/openai-ads-chatgpt.html

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Heather Ann Thompson- Pulitzer Prize winning author and Professor of History at the University of Michigan - about her new book “Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage”. In their conversation they discuss: the 1984 subway shooting of four black boys - Barry Allen, Darrell Cabey, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur -  by a white gunman, Bernie Goetz, what the media narratives and public perception of the event tell us about that time in the country,  Ruport Murdoch’s role and motivations in influencing the public narrative, how the politics of the Reagan era speak to today’s political landscape, and the legacy of the Goetz trial. Heather Ann Thompson is a historian and the author of “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy”, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize. Thompson has written about the criminal justice system for myriad publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. She has served on the National Academy of Sciences blue ribbon panel that studied the causes and consequences of mass incarceration in the United States, co-runs the Carceral State Project at the University of Michigan, and has been the recipient of numerous honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, and a Racial Justice Fellowship from the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard University. She is currently a Professor of History at the University of Michigan. You can find her new book here:  Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage”.  

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates speaks with Neha Sanghrajka, Kenyan negotiator, mediator, and scholar whose career has shaped some of the most consequential peace processes of our time — from working alongside Kofi Annan during Kenya's 2007 post-election crisis to serving as a key architect of the landmark 2019 Maputo Accord that ended decades of conflict in Mozambique. Together they discuss: the role of mediation in conflict resolution, insights from the Mozambique peace process, peace listening vs. peace talks, building trust in the process, navigating post-agreement challenges, and her advice for emerging negotiators.   Neha Sanghrajka is a senior conflict sensitivity advisor at UNOPS and serves on the boards of the Kofi Annan and Berghof Foundations. She is a Yale University Peace Fellow, Senior Advisor and Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and a fellow at the Weatherhead Center at Harvard University. A founding member of Women Mediators across the Commonwealth, she holds a Degree in Law as well as a Master’s Degree in International Relations. Neha has authored several publications including the book “Back from the brink: The 2008 mediation process and reforms in Kenya.”

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Tirza Leibowitz, Deputy Director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) about the organization's decades of work providing medical services in Israel-Palestine.  Together they discuss: Tirza’s background in disability rights in Israel-Palestine before joining PHRI, the difference between the international organization Physicians for Human Rights and PHR Israel, the role of the Palestinian and Israeli physicians and medical staff and volunteers who make up the organization, PHRI’s position among the other local human rights organizations in Israel-Palestine, how they go about providing medical services in conflict areas, PHRI’s involvement in Gaza over the last decades and how that’s changed in recent years, the nature of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, how PHRI’s on the ground knowledge led it to understand the situation as a genocide, the reactions of other Israeli organizations to PHRI’s stance on Gaza, the work of understanding the number of casualties in the conflict, and what their perspective on the current situation in Gaza says about the state of the conflict.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates welcomes Omer Shem Tov and Leat Corinne Unger, cousins who rose to prominence following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023. Omer is a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 505 days. Leat is his American cousin who dropped everything to advocate for the hostage families following the attack and abductions. She became a leader and central voice in the fight to release the hostages. Together the two have been speaking on US College campuses. On today’s episode they discuss: Omer’s memories of the attack at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th, his experience of captivity for 505 days including 50 days in total isolation below ground, how he found the strength to survive, Leat’s memories of October 7th watching from the US, her experience as an advocate for her cousin and other hostages, speaking in a political climate where narrative is instrumentalized as a political tool, how Omer and Leat came to speak on US college campuses, their experience of talking to US college students about October 7th, the importance of dialogue, the challenges to peace, and the complexities of hope and a peaceful path forward.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Dr. Christos Christou, outgoing president of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) a medical humanitarian organization that coordinates tens of thousands of medical staff to provide emergency aid to people in crisis in over 75 countries. Together they discuss: Dr. Christou’s background that led him to humanitarian medical work, his early days working as a physician in Sub-Saharan Africa during the HIV pandemic and with migrant communities, how he thinks about the concept of humanity as a practical commitment, the changing environment of humanitarian aid, the practicalities of the extensive work MSF has done in Gaza, how MSF navigates the political terrain of this conflict as an organization committed to humanitarian aid, and what lessons he’s learned that give him hope. Dr. Christos Christou graduated from Aristotle University’s medical school and has a PhD in surgery from the Kapodistrian University of Athens. After serving as a surgeon at Evangelismos Hospital in Athens, he became a senior clinical fellow at King’s College Hospital in London and was later awarded a fellowship from the European Board of Surgery in Coloproctology. Dr. Christou joined MSF in 2002 and has held several roles. His first assignment was in Greece as a field doctor, working with migrants and refugees. He then worked as a doctor in an HIV/AIDS project in Zambia in 2004 and 2005. He later served in a number of conflict zones and insecure contexts, including South Sudan, Iraq, and, most recently, Cameroon, as an emergency and trauma surgeon. With MSF he has held roles including general secretary, vice-president, and president of MSF Greece's Board of Directors, and finally, as MSF international president from 2019 to 2025.