Dorit Ilani, Ph.D
Jewish Leader and Teacher
A) What qualities make the nominee deserving of the Z3 Bridge Builder Award?
Dr. Dorit Susan Ilani, Ph.D is the exemplary nominee for the Z3 Bridge Builder Award. She is making lasting headway in her attempt to bridge a diversity of Jewish and non-Jewish factions through education to put antisemitism to rest in her Colorado community. I am nominating her not only because of her past work or her current community impact, but because I know she will invest every award dime received to broaden and leverage her efforts to reach other Jewish and non-Jewish communities.
Dr. Ilani currently organizes talks and presentations to any group she contacts, and now, by word of mouth, invites her to speak: churches, synagogues, college campuses, political clubs, and other institutions. The following is but of a sample of her work and its impact:
Co-presenter with Mary Segal, Pro-Palestinian, at Pueblo CO Church. The day before the talk, Dr. Ilani met with the presenter (not Jewish) who had lived in the West Bank for 3 years and worked as a registered nurse. Ms. Segal stated that she had calendared and prepared a presentation to report to her church community what was happening in the West Bank long prior to meeting Dr. Ilani. Her intent was “to increase awareness and promote the Palestinian cause.” Dr. Ilani very diplomatically told her that she was also not willing to not share facts and truth about the situation from the Israeli/Jewish perspective. She gave Ms. Segal the opportunity to retract the invitation. After a lengthy discussion and despite Ms. Segal’s slogans such as “From the River to the Sea” and “Israel is committing genocide,” the pro-Palestinian woman insisted that Dr. Ilani participate; the two would give church members a perspective of both societies: the Israeli recent trauma and the Palestinian predicament. While Dr. Ilani did dispute quite a bit of Ms. Segal’s perspective, the sense of mutual respect remained intact.
Local Political Party by Invitation (March 2024): Dr. Ilani presented facts regarding the History of Israel, Palestine, and the 10/7 Massacre. After listening and asking questions, the Party committed to vote for and promote a pro-Israeli policy.
University of Colorado, Pueblo on Holocaust Memorial Day. One week post-campus anti-Israel demonstration, Dr. Ilani shared that she was so nervous to talk to the students that she lost her voice, fearful that she might be physically accosted. However, she mustered up her courage to give the entire antisemitism presentation. Clearly, as the recipient of several Outstanding Teaching Awards from the University of California at Irvine, talking with students who just participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration with zero pro-Israel demonstrators was nerve-wracking for her. She completed her presentation, not to be deterred by a potential mob. In Dr. Ilani’s words, “Israel needs a voice, fighting antisemitism needs a voice, and I was not going to sit home.” She is compelled to meet any challenge to achieve her goal to drastically reduce antisemitism through knowledge and understanding.
Temple Emanuel and Community. Dr. Ilani presented a two-hour, in-depth talk about antisemitism at her local synagogue. The audience was comprised of both Jewish and Christian individuals.
Intro to Judaism Course, First Presbyterian Church. Dr. Ilani is part of a team of volunteer teachers: some Jewish, some non-Jewish, and a rabbi. As the 6-week session has unfolded, she has been sharing her insights and experiences of Israeli practices of Judaism. On October 13th, she will present her own segment, “Beyond Sound Bites: Antisemitism and the History of Israel.” She is making a successful effort to collaborate with representatives from the church to have a tremendously successful educational and community-bonding experience.
Dr. Ilani’s vision is to expand from current talks and presentations by creating online and in-person classes she calls “Antidotes to Antisemitism.” However, since 10/7’s Earthquake and its aftermath Tsunami of antisemitism, she recognizes that the task is two-fold. To that end, she has also begun work to connect the entire southern Colorado/northern New Mexico synagogues and small Jewish communities to take action. For the Jewish community, she cites her basic premise as follows: “We have been fighting Antisemitism for 2,000 years; it only keeps recycling itself and getting worse. It is time for a new approach.” A woman of action, she has taken on the goal to heal the Jewish collective that has been battered for centuries as well as the ancestral trauma that is passed on from one generation to the next. New research indicates that intergenerational trauma is passed on, not just by oral, familial and cultural transmission, but by our very DNA.
Dr. Ilani has the potential, motivation, technological, and clinical skills to take her vision more globally. I have seen her intuition, creativity, and action transform lives. I had the privilege to work with Dr. Ilani, a Clinical Psychologist, at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms in 2009. She referred clients with mild traumatic brain injury and PTSD to my Occupational Therapy clinic. Individually and as a team player in the Deployment Health Clinic, she implemented strategies to return service members back to productive and quality lives at home, or back to active duty responsibilities. She offered them her tools for resilience: trauma reduction, regained self-confidence, and hope. She literally saved lives when suicidal service members asked specifically for her for professional and compassionate help. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, and having served in the Israel Defense Forces, Dr. Ilani was well-equipped to bring her personal experience with traumas and professional expertise in behavioral health to the table. “Treating wounded soldiers had been my passion since I volunteered during the Yom Kippur War to help Israeli soldiers who suffered from shock and trauma.” Her stellar work with service members was commended by her Navy Hospital military supervisor: “Your caring of our Marines takes my breath away. I have never seen this level of results since I entered the Marine Corps.” It is rare to see Marine officers gush praise in person, if at all.
B) In what ways has the nominee demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to their work in bridging divides?
Dr. Ilani has made personal sacrifices to bridge divides within both Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Some of these have been financial, some have been the intense time commitment; others simply stepping outside her own comfort zone to put herself in physical harm’s way. All demonstrate her exceptional leadership and commitment in her work to bridge divides, develop a fact-based knowledge of our differences, and develop an understanding of each other, whether Jewish or non-Jewish. When asked why she pursues her vision, her answer is simple: “I feel called to do it. I cannot not do it.” When others attend her presentations and courses, they feel compelled to share their new knowledge and her clarity with others.”
After her work on-base in Twentynine Palms but long before October 7th, Dr. Ilani sprung into action by giving talks and co-founding a desert group in 2014 to cool down antisemitism in her community during another Israel crisis. This was the birth of her solution-driven “Antidotes to Antisemitism.” The October 7th Massacre found three of Dr. Ilani’s former IDF unit soldiers missing for the first 72 hours. While devastated by their absence until they were found/escaped, she decided to redefine her life’s work and dedicate it to address antisemitism in a new way. She decided to both fight it while speaking to the non-Jewish community and in collaboration with Jewish and non-Jewish groups, but also specifically while working within the Jewish community to heal. She states that her basic premise is that “we have been fighting antisemitism for 2,000 years, and it only keeps recycling itself and getting worse. We need to build a new level of resilience, and inspire others to fight the uptick in antisemitism after the October 7th Massacre.”
Dr. Ilani relates that conversations about antisemitism and its ugly history were an integral part of her childhood in Israel. She comes by her passion to educate others from her mother who reached out to host the first exchange with non-Jewish German students so that the German students could learn and discover Israel and while both Dr. Ilani and her siblings could learn to relate to another generation of Germans. Her father was fluent in Arabic and had taken her several times to meet Arab Israelis in their village whom he considered friends. “I am hard-wired to pitch in and do what I can for my Israeli and Jewish community. And, it takes the sting out of not being in Israel at the moment.” Bridging beyond hate, fear, and hostility is her parents’ legacy that she carries forward into her work.
C) How has the nominee's work impacted the Jewish community and beyond?
Dr. Ilani has been recognized as a passionate leader in her pursuit to narrow divides and develop collaborative efforts to quash antisemitism by her Pueblo, Colorado community synagogue, Temple Emanuel. She has done this by presenting the facts and encouraging others to be open-minded, as she is. As Temple President Michael Atlas-Acuna states in his March 12, 2024 letter, Dr. Ilani’s “background as an Israeli as well as an American have given her different perspectives of two democracies. These past experiences have prepared her to dedicate her life to fighting antisemitism.”
A long-time friend and fellow educator of Dr. Ilani states in her letter of recommendation for the ISGAP-Oxford Summer Institute for Curriculum Development in Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies wholeheartedly states that Dr. Ilani’s involvement in the program would be mutually beneficial to all.
“She has experience in peace initiatives and is currently involved in an outreach educational effort focused on broadening community awareness of antisemitism and attempting to bridge the chasm between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel groups by carefully presenting the different viewpoints…The two speakers are very different, but treat one another with respect. The audience response has been tremendous.”
For Dr. Ilani, her “Antidotes to Antisemitism” is about Tikun Nefesh, repairing the soul. Her talks about antisemitism and the dire need to fight antisemitism now are about Tikun Olam, repairing the world. She is a woman of both vision and hard work, a rarely found and essential combination in this difficult time.
I very much appreciate the Z3 opportunity to nominate such a worthy person to an important cause. I feel privileged to have worked with her for several years and hold our friendship dear.