By Dr. Lee Perlman
But Abu Ibrahim, We’re Family!
But Abu Ibrahim, We’re Family! is a series of case studies, describing collaborations between Jewish and Palestinian professional theater artists in Israel and the theater they create to reflect their realities. It depicts the ways in which the artists navigate shifting power dynamics and relations between them, while working together to overcome external social and political forces, which run counter to their work.
This book is part of the “Jewish-Arab Peace Building” research series of The Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, Tel Aviv University. A vital resource for students and scholars of Middle East/Israel, theatre/performance and peace/conflict studies, this book will serve as an invaluable tool for artists, activists and policy makers.
-Ari Roth, founding artistic director, Mosaic Theater Company of DC and founder of the long-running Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival
“This is a must read for theater artists from all backgrounds and all those who believe that theater fulfills a unique social mission, an inspiration for positive and transformative action through theater in our societies.”
-Dijana Milosevic, theater director, co-founder and artistic director, Dah Theater, Belgrade, Serbia
“But Abu Ibrahim, We’re Family!” can open the eyes of local readers to new thinking and bestow upon the foreign reader a comprehensive view of the Israeli-Palestinian situation through theater.”
-Dr. Aida Nasrallah, Senior Lecturer, Beit Berl College.
“Lee Perlman has an excellent grasp of the details as well as the broader picture when showing us what the stakes are when Israelis and Palestinians appear on the same stage.”
-Professor (Emeritus) Freddie Rokem, Tel Aviv University
Purchase the Book:
(For multiple purchases, there will be a 10% discount.)
For further enquiries, please contact recastinc@gmail.com.
About the Author
Lee is a leading thinker and social entrepreneur in harnessing the power of creativity and the arts for conflict transformation. Lee researches arts, politics and cultural policy and seeks to understand and influence how artists create social change and open dialogue in conflict zones and divided societies.
Recent publications include “Buffer Fringe Festival (BFF) 2020: An Artist-Based Conflict Transformation Festival on the Fringes” (2023), co-written with Meropi Moiseos; and ‘Imagined Communities: Staging Shared Society in Israel’, a chapter with Sinai Peter in “Activist Pedagogy and Shared Education in Divided Societies” (2022). Lee was a co-contributor, with Dr. Aida Nasrallah, to Acting Together: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict (New Village Press, 2011).
Lee currently serves as the Board Chair of IMPACT, a diverse international organization engaging arts and culture to transform conflict. Previously, Lee served as the Tel Aviv-based associate of Brandeis University’s International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, a research fellow at the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, Tel Aviv University and president, ReCAST.
Lee has co-authored a number of research works and analyses of peacemaking and peacebuilding activities, informed by his practitioner experience as founder and director of the Israeli-Palestinian Encounters Unit of the Melitz Centers (1996-2002) in Jerusalem, and has published articles and opinion pieces in the Ha’aretz newspaper, Moment Magazine, The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Report and Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Ideas.
“Prisoner of Zion”, Lee’s performance piece with Nadav Bossem, premiered at the Akko International Fringe Theatre Festival in October 2023 and is performed in repertory at the TMUNA Theatre in Tel Aviv.
Lee served as executive director, America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and director of programs, Abraham Initiatives, an organization promoting shared society and equality between Jewish and Palestinian citizens in Israel. In 2013, the Ha’aretz daily newspaper named Perlman as one of “The 100 Most Influential People in Israeli Culture.”