Today is an exciting day in the history of Mondoweiss, which has grown and developed considerably over the past few years . We are proud of the progress we have made in providing essential news to the world, and we wanted to alert our community and make it visible on our masthead. This is also a great time to thank our loyal community of supporters, without whom this work would not be possible.
First, please join us in welcoming two new team members: Michael Arria and Olivia Katbi Smith. Michael will be joining Mondoweiss as our U.S. Correspondent responsible for reporting on the intersection of U.S. politics, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the Palestine solidarity movement. His background is reporting on labor, prisons, immigration, drug policy for outlets such as The Intercept, In These Times, Truthout, AlterNet, Salon, Jacobin, Vice, Motherboard, Truthdig, and more. Michael has also written for Mondoweiss in the past, including an important expose on Rachel Maddow’s blind spots on Palestine.
Olivia will be joining us as Individual Giving Manager and will play an important role in our development efforts. Olivia is an Arab-American activist based in Portland, OR and is passionate about raising funds to liberate Palestine among other issues. She joins Mondoweiss after being part of the development team at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) in Portland, where she helped grow the fundraising budget in just three years from $35,000 to $450,000 annually. She also organizes with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as co-chair of the Portland chapter.
We’re excited to announce as well that two old friends of the site, Walaa Ghussein and James North, will become Editors-at-Large. Since Walaa’s first story for Mondoweiss over six years ago, she has been an important contributor to our work. She will be working to expand our coverage and analysis from Palestine.
James, author of a groundbreaking book on the South African freedom struggle with a long track record reporting from the global south, has built a following among Mondoweiss readers for his dogged and in-depth analyses of the mainstream media’s biased coverage of Israel/Palestine and the broader Middle East. He will continue to play a leading role in our efforts to hold the media accountable.
We also want to recognize the other key members of our Mondoweiss team that are central to our work. Allison Deger, a vital part of our editorial work for the last seven years, has been promoted to Associate Editor. Yumna Patel, who has been serving as our lead correspondent in Palestine is now also listed on our masthead. And Dave Reed, our Manager of Technology Development and Community, is leading the effort to make our website and web presence more accessible and user friendly than ever before.
Beyond these new roles, we also feel it’s important to acknowledge key individuals whose writing has strengthened Mondoweiss over the years. The following regular contributors will now be appearing as Contributing Writers on our masthead: Helena Cobban, Haidar Eid, Nada Elia, Yossi Gurvitz, Jonathan Ofir, Alice Rothchild, Steven Salaita, and Dareen Tatour. As other leading lights of journalism share their insights, we’ll add to this list in the future.
In managing this larger, more diverse team with a wide range of responsibilities, we have also redefined and clarified our leadership roles. Phil Weiss will continue to be the heart and soul of this journalistic enterprise, under the title Founder and Senior Editor. Adam Horowitz, who has for some time been serving as the primary executive for day-to-day decisions, will now be Executive Editor. Tova Perlmutter’s role has grown from fundraising to include finances, organizational development and strategy; she’ll be our Executive Director. And the leadership team will continue to benefit from the judgment and smarts of Scott Roth, our longtime Publisher.
Finally, some of the news is bittersweet as well. As long-time readers know, Annie Robbins has been central to the site for years–as a writer, editor, and commenter (and a sounding board indispensable to Phil). Annie will be stepping away from her formal role as an Editor-at-Large, but she will still be around the site, and in the comment section. Thank you, Annie, for everything that you have given, and will continue to give, to Mondoweiss.
Please join us in celebrating the expansion and enrichment of our work together to tell the truth about Palestine to all who need to hear it.
Congratulations, appreciation and thanks to everyone. :-)
My congratulations. I will miss Annie though, I enjoyed her posts and dedication very much.
All worthy! I sure hope Annie Robbins stays around.
thank you for the sweetness (much appreciated), i’ll still be around! that said ..
Walaa! that’s so cool you’ve joined the staff! one of Walaa’s very first contribution to mondoweiss is not available at her author’s link but i encourage everyone to read it, a truly heartwrenching story called “Two friends meet for 5 minutes in Jerusalem” https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2013/05/friends-minutes-jerusalem/
this story was so moving that another longtime friend of the site, Yousef Aljamal, contacted me about Walaa’s experience to get her to share it on mondoweiss. a couple years later i mentioned my first encounter w/Walaa, to persuade her to share her story: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2015/04/vulnerability-palestinian-journalists/
it’s true, i literally had to beg her. what great news Walaa.
and James, formally, of course. it’s about time, congrats!
Dear friends, old and new, at Mondoweiss:
First, let me take advantage, on your behalf, of my current strategic location in the Galilee mountains not far from Nazareth, and send holy blessings and all best wishes for success in your journalistic and humanitarian mission.
Since I started contributing to Mondoweiss, not long after it first saw the cyberlight, I have dealt with the trilogy of Philip Weiss, Adam Horwitz and Annie Robbins. It is Annie that I come today to praise: It was her encouragement and expressions of appreciation of some of my phraseology that got me hooked on writing for Mondoweiss. Since then she has served as my online grammar, spelling and technical editor, coaching me in how to do hyperlinks, download images, etc. etc. Most of all, she always finds something worthy of praise in what I submit. In the one recent case of a piece that never saw the light, a peculiar incident that I still do not comprehend, Annie took it upon herself to mediate the never declared rejection and to move on beyond the near-breakup of communications. For that too, I am much obliged. But above all else, it is Annie’s grace and generosity on the couple of occasions that my wife and I have met her in person that have endeared her to us and will continue to do so in the future.
Thank you Annie, Philip and Adam and more power to Mondoweiss.