In a moment when the Middle East is at the forefront of global conversations, thoughtful, informed perspectives are more essential than ever. Drawing on firsthand reporting, lived experience, and peacebuilding work, these powerful PRHSB speakers foster thoughtful dialogues with employee resource groups, college and university audiences, and beyond.

Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon

Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon are Israeli and Palestinian peace activists and the authors of The Future is Peace. Abu Sarah and Inon are the least likely of allies—both have lost family to the conflict between their people, but instead of revenge, they chose a different path: forging a bond of brotherhood when the world expected them to be enemies. Together, they explore how compassion and unity can pull humanity back from the precipice of blind hatred. Through inspirational and hopeful events, they underscore the power of dialogue to create paths to reconciliation, even when it seems impossible.

Molly Crabapple

Molly Crabapple is an award-winning artist-journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller, Here Where We Live is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. In her expressive presentations, Crabapple re-creates The Bundists’ extraordinary world through dramatic portraits of insurgent poets and antireligious rebels, clandestine revolutionaries and lovers on the barricades, raising the vital question: What can we learn from a movement that, for all its toughness, imagination, and moral clarity, was largely destroyed?

Omar El Akkad

Omar El Akkad is an award-winning journalist and author of the critically acclaimed novels American War and What Strange Paradise. He is also the author the nonfiction 2025 National Book Award winner, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, which explores personal and political struggles, examining how history is rewritten and the collective past is manipulated to serve present-day agendas. A sought-after speaker, El Akkad discusses his coming of age outside the west, his reporting on global conflicts, and how these experiences have shaped both his literary craft and his political conscience.

Mosab Abu Toha

Mosab Abu Toha is an award-winning Palestinian poet, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner whose work unflinchingly documents the heartbreaking reality of life in Gaza under Occupation. His 2024 collection of poems, Forest of Noise, is an astonishing work of pain and beauty wrested from wartime. A captivating speaker, Abu Toha talks about the place of art during genocide and how writing a poem is an act of resistance against forgetting. His talks inspire audiences to reflect on global solidarity and the transformative force of literature.

Peter Beinart

Peter Beinart is a distinguished journalist, political commentator, professor, and the author of Being Jewish After The Destruction of Gaza: an urgent and heartfelt book in which Beinart advocates for recognizing the equal humanity of Jews and Palestinians, the interdependence of Jewish and Palestinian safety, and the devastating consequences of the stories we tell. A leading voice on foreign policy and international affairs, Beinart’s talks help audiences navigate complex political landscapes and connect historical context with contemporary events.

Lawrence Wright

Lawrence Wright is an acclaimed author and one of the world’s most highly respected investigative journalists. Wright’s impressive body of investigative nonfiction includes The Terror Years, which chronicles the path that terror in the Middle East has taken, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and more. Wright’s most recent book, The Human Scale, is a compelling thriller novel that centers around the complex relationship between an American/Palestinian FBI agent and an Israeli cop, exploring the intricate and often tragic history of the region. A sought-after speaker, Wright talks about the subjects of his many works.

Elliot Ackerman

Elliot Ackerman is a National Book Award finalist, journalist, former White House Fellow, and decorated veteran. His bestselling novels and works of nonfiction have been nominated for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in both fiction and nonfiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A former Marine, he served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. Ackerman speaks about his time serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, his perspective on current international relations in the Middle East, and the intersection of literature and war.

Highlights

Speakers on the Middle East