Tuesday, May 4, 12:00-1:00pm

Moderator
Janine di Giovanni, Senior Fellow, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University

Panelists
Amb. Robert Ford, Jackson Senior Fellow, Yale University
Kenneth Pollack, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

Tuesday, April 27, 12:00-1:00pm

Moderator
Rory Stewart, Jackson Senior Fellow

Panelists
Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan Regional Government Representative to the United States
Sinam Mohamad, Representative of the Syrian Democratic Council to the United States

Tuesday, April 20, 12:00-1:00pm

Moderator
Emma Sky, Senior Fellow and Director, Greenberg World Fellows Program, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University

Panelists
Gen. David Petraeus, Jackson Senior Fellow, Yale University; Chairman, KKR Global Institute
Amb. Dennis Ross, William Davidson Distinguished Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Tuesday, April 13, 12:00-1:00pm

Opening Keynote
Nechirvan Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Moderator
Emma Sky, Senior Fellow and Director, Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University

Panelists
Thomas Kaplan, Chairman, Justice for Kurds
Bernard-Henri Lévy, Author and President, Justice for Kurds

The Jackson Institute for Global Affairs will host an online discussion with French philosopher and filmmaker Bernard-Henri Lévy about his new book, “The Virus in the Age of Madness.”

Sec. John Kerry, distinguished fellow for global affairs at Yale, and Emma Sky, Jackson Senior Fellow and director of the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program, will join the discussion. Panelists will reflect on the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, its historical significance, and the future of the liberal world order.

Lévy is the author of over 30 books, including The Empire and the Five Kings (2019), The Genius of Judaism (2017), American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville (2006), and with Michel Houellebecq, Public Enemies: Dueling Writers Take on Each Other and the World (2011). His films (Peshmerga, The Battle of Mosul, The Oath of Tobruk and Bosna!, his first-hand account of the martyrdom and resistance of the Muslims of Sarajevo) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Lévy’s 1977 book Barbarism with a Human Face launched an unprecedented controversy over the European left’s complicity with totalitarianism. He has undertaken diplomatic missions for the French government. Lévy was appointed by French President Jacques Chirac to head a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan in 2002 in the wake of the war against the Taliban and followed the trail of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan to research his book Who Killed Daniel Pearl? (2003).

The discussion is open to the general public, but advance registration via Zoom is required.

Please join us on October 6th at 11:00am EDT to tune into a digital conversation that will raise awareness about the Kurds' brave and ongoing fight against ISIS and for freedom and justice.

Justice for Kurds, Concordia and The Octavian Report are honored to welcome: Major General Sirwan Barzani, Kurdish military commander of the Kurdistan Region’s commander of Sector 6 in defense of Erbil; Bernard-Henri Lévy, French philosopher, filmmaker, and activist, and Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States of America. Nicholas Logothetis, Concordia Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board, will give opening remarks.

Justice for Kurds, Concordia and The Octavian Report are partnering to host this important conversation about the Kurds' commitment to democracy and to raise awareness of the free, open, and tolerant Kurdish society.

The Program on Peace-building and Rights, in collaboration with Justice for Kurds, invites you to a panel
with
SAFEEN DIZAYEE, Head, Department of Foreign Relations, Kurdistan Regional Government
HIWA OSMAN, Journalist, former media advisor to President Jalal Talabani
DLAWER ALA'ALDEEN, Director, Middle East Research Institute
AMY AUSTIN HOLMES, Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center

Moderated by
DAVID L. PHILLIPS, Director, Program on Peacebuilding and Rights, Columbia University

For login information, please register here: https://bit.ly/38IyX5r

The Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, in partnership with Justice for Kurds, will present a special screening of the film, "Sisters in Arms," an inspiring portrait of an international women's brigade who joins forces with the Kurds to rescue the Yazidis and defeat fanaticism.
Caroline Fourest, the director of the film, will be on hand to answer questions during a pre-screening reception/light dinner at 4:30pm.

Reception catering will be provided by Sanctuary Kitchen, a local nonprofit that promotes and celebrates the culinary traditions, cultures, and stories of refugees and immigrants resettled in Connecticut.

The two-hour film screening will begin at 5:00pm, after which Fourest will be available for further Q&A.
Fourest is a French journalist, essayist and filmmaker. Formerly a writer for the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, she is the author of the upcoming book, “Offended Generation.” Fourest is an activist for feminism and secularism and is committed to the fight against religious fundamentalism, racism and political extremism.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020
4:30-7:00pm
Horchow Hall, GM Room
55 Hillhouse Avenue

Invitation-only event

Tuesday, February 18
4:30-5:45pm Jackson Visiting Fellow Discussion Forum

The Middle East in Crisis: An American Role? A Special
Conversation with Gen. David Petraeus
Moderator:
David Ignatius, Foreign Affairs Columnist, The Washington Post
Location: GM Room, Horchow Hall, 55 Hillhouse Ave.

Wednesday, February 19
8:45am Conference Welcome

Ted Wittenstein, Deputy Director for Leadership Programs and
Lecturer, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University
Emma Sky, Senior Fellow and Director, Greenberg World Fellows
Program, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University
Thomas Kaplan, Chairman, Justice for Kurds
Location: Evans Hall, 165 Whitney Ave., Room 2420

9:00-10:15am Perspectives from the Kurdistan Region and Washington

Keynote:
Karim Sinjari, Chief of Staff to President Nechirvan Barzani of the
Kurdistan Regional Governmnent; former Minister of Interior and
Acting Minister of Peshmerga Affairs

Panelist:
Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan Regional Government
Representative to the United States

Moderator:
Janine di Giovanni, Senior Fellow, Jackson Institute for Global
Affairs, Yale University

10:30-11:45am Assessing the Counter-ISIS Campaign

A Special Conversation:
Bernard-Henri Lévy, President, Justice for Kurds
Brett McGurk, Payne Distinguished Lecturer, Freeman Spogli
Institute and Center for Security and Cooperation, Stanford
University; former U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for the Global
Coalition to Defeat ISIS

12:20-1:20pm Working Lunch: Reflections on the Kurds: Enduring Allies

Panelists:
Gen. David Petraeus, Chairman, KKR Global Institute
Gen. Sir Graeme Lamb, former Senior Fellow, Jackson Institute for
Global Affairs, Yale University

Moderator:
Thomas Kaplan, Chairman, Justice for Kurds

1:30-2:45pm Diplomacy: Defining a Role for the Kurds and the Prospects of a Syrian Endgame

Panelists:
Hon. Staffan de Mistura, former Under-Secretary-General of the
United Nations and Special Representative for Syria, Iraq, and
Afghanistan
Amb. Jeffrey Feltman, Whitehead Visiting Fellow in International
Diplomacy, The Brookings Institution; former Under-Secretary-
General for Political Affairs of the United Nations and U.S.
Ambassador to Lebanon

Moderator:
Emma Sky, Senior Fellow and Director, Greenberg World Fellows
Program, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University

3:00-4:15pm Regional Competition and Kurdish Implications: Deciphering the Intentions of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey

Panelists:
Amb. Ryan Crocker, Diplomat-in-Residence, Princeton University
Karim Sadjadpour, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace
Puneet Talwar, Senior Advisor, WestExec LLC

Moderator:
Amb. Robert Ford, Senior Fellow, Jackson Institute for Global
Affairs, Yale University
4:30pm Reception with the Director

Welcome:
Caroline Fourest, Film Director, Sisters in Arms
Location: GM Room, Horchow Hall, 55 Hillhouse Ave.

5:00-7:00pm Special Film Screening, Sisters in Arms

7:00-7:30pm Post-Film Conversation with the Director
Caroline Fourest, Film Director, Sisters in Arms

The Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles welcome Justice for Kurds’ President Bernard-Henri Lévy to present his eye-opening documentaries from the front lines of conflict in Kurdistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Libya.

The program includes the U.S. theatrical premiere engagements of his latest films Peshmerga and The Battle of Mosul, as well as special screenings of his earlier works Bosna! and The Oath of Tobruk.

The Quad Cinema in New York welcome Justice for Kurds’ President Bernard-Henri Lévy to present his eye-opening documentaries from the front lines of conflict in Kurdistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Libya.

The program includes the U.S. theatrical premiere engagements of his latest films Peshmerga and The Battle of Mosul, as well as special screenings of his earlier works Bosna! and The Oath of Tobruk.

EXHIBITION OPENING: Speaking Across Mountains, Kurdish Artists in Dialogue

Friday, December 6, 2019, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

The opening organized by the Middle East Institute and co-hosted by Justice for Kurds will take place in Washington in their recently opened MEI Art Gallery, a non-commercial art space.

The temporary exhibition will run from December 6, 2019 to February 20, 2020 and will present nine different artists from Iraq, Syria and Turkey, who, through different art forms (photography, painting, video) share recurring themes such as exile, displacement, gender and memory and give a voice to the Kurds, to show the plurality and flourishing nature of their culture which has been violated and denied on many occasions.

The overriding mission of Justice for Kurds is to raise awareness for the Kurdish cause through cultural initiatives.
JFK co-sponsors the exhibition, in the hope that it will built cultural bridges. That it will awaken the solidarity and fraternity of everyone towards the Kurdish people.

Featured artists include Sherko Abbas, Serwan Baran, Kani Kamil, Hayv Kahrman and Walid Siti of Iraq; Savas Boyraz, Zehra Dogen and Şener Özmen of Turkey; and Khadija Baker and Bahram Hajou of Syria.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Doors open at 6pm for the exhibition. The curator will give a talk at 6:30pm.

Register here: https://mei.edu/events/speaking-across-mountains-kurdish-artists-dialogue

NEW YORK KURDISH FILM AND CULTURAL FESTIVAL III

December 6-8, 2019

LOCATION :
Diocese of the Armenian Church, 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY

The New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival is proud to announce the third annual New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival.
8-Ball Community is co-hosting the festival.

Nicolas Heras, a Middle East senior analyst, will deliver the opening talk. This year’s festival will introduce and celebrate the Rojava Revolution by with films Rojava Film Commune, discussions, musical and dance performance, and a mini-Kurdish bazaar to exhibit and sell Kurdish clothing. There will be fundraising for Heyva Sor a Kurdistane, the Kurdish Red Crescent, with contributions donated by American author and artist Janet Biehl (drawings) and Kurdish musician Dijwar Karaman (music CDs).

Rojava, the multiethnic Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian region of North-East Syria, has become a testing ground for new ideas about municipal democracy, feminism, and environmental sustainability. The festival producers hope that the festival will inspire working class and marginalized communities in America to build unity with the Rojava Revolution and Kurdish resistance.

The three-day event is dedicated to Mazdek Ararat, a revolutionary filmmaker, instructor, and warrior from Kobane who was martyred on September 13, 2019, and buried the next day in the Martyrdom in Kobane. Ararat was a member of Rojava Film Commune. His film
“Zarok” is the first film of the commune and will be screened on the festival’s opening night. Tickets are now available to purchase on Eventbrite.

Programs

Day 1: Friday, December 6
Doors open at 6:00 pm

6:30-7:00 pm Welcome and opening talk by Nicholas Heras
7:00–7:40 pm Film Screening: “Zarok in Em,” directed by Mazdek Ararat & Xosman Qado, Rojava Film Commune
7:40-8:00 pm Kurdish Live Music by Dijwar Karaman
8:00-9:00 pm Reception

Day 2: Saturday, December 7
Doors open at 3:00 pm

3:30-4:30 Panel: “What Is the Rojava Revolution,” with Janet Biehl and Latif Tas
4:30-5:00 Fundraising for Heyva Sor a Kurdistanê (Kurdish Red Crescent), with donations of Janet Biehl's paintings and Dijwar Karaman’s music CDs
5:00-6:15 Film screening: “Stories of Destroyed Cities,” directed by Sero Hinde, Rojava Film Commune
6:15–6:30 Break
6:30-7:45 Film screening: “Berfin,” directed by Özlem Arzeba, Mexmur Film Commune

Day 3: Sunday, December 8
Doors open at 3:00 pm

3:30–3:40 Dance: Hussein Simko
4:00-4:40 Shorts from Rojava Film Commune
"Zilan Kobane" – 10 min
"Deng" – 12 min
"Derwes" – 15 min
4:40–5:15 Q&A with Kurdish film directors from Rojava Film Commune via Skype
5:15–5:30 Break
5:30–6:45 Film screening: “Commander Arian,” directed by Alba Sotorra

Never Again? A Discussion on Genocide, the Kurds, the Past, the Futurespecial film screening of PESHMERGA by French philosopher and activist BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY

Amidst the backdrop of turmoil in Syria and the broader Middle East, the 92Y presents the co-founders of Justice for Kurds (JFK), Bernard-Henri Lévy and Thomas S. Kaplan, for an important conversation on Genocide ... past, present, and future.

Join these dynamic speakers as they honor the living memory of those lost to genocide and discuss how victims’ legacies can be perpetuated to new generations. With Turkey’s assault on the Syrian Kurds raising the spectre of ethnic cleansing, and Iran threatening to annihilate Israel, Kaplan and Lévy will cut to the most real and urgent questions: Is "Never Again” just a slogan or a genuine call to action; could genocide happen again, and where?

RSVP on the link below https://www.92y.org/event/bernard-henri-levy-and-thomas-kaplan

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1st, 2019, 4pm

Auditorio IMPOSOC, Pedro Luis Ogazón 56, San Ángel, Mexico

Justice for Kurds invite you to a special film screening of PESHMERGA by French philosopher and activist BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY

Join the director after the film for a conversation about the unprecedented abandonment of this courageous people.

On October 9, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, launched his offensive against Syrian Kurdistan. With this shameful assault and America’s withdrawal from Syria, we see the shattering of everything gained against ISIS by Americans, Europeans, and Kurds, both in Syria and in Iraq, fighting together arm in arm. Directed, in Iraqi Kurdistan, on the frontline, at the peak of the war against ISIS by Bernard-Henri Lévy, PESHMERGA shows the bravery of a great people who may have lost a battle but certainly not the war.

Free entrance. RSVP (55)27021591

Justice for Kurds directors Bernard-Henri Lévy and Thomas S. Kaplan in association with Tina Brown invite you a special film screening of SISTERS IN ARMS by CAROLINE FOUREST.

Monday, October 28, 2019 at 7:30 pm at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Caroline Fourest, a French journalist, essayist and filmmaker, is an activist for feminism and secularism and is committed to the fight against religious fundamentalism, racism and political extremism.
In her first feature film, Sisters in Arms, Caroline has committed herself to a common struggle for the Kurdish cause.

The film tells the story of Zara, a young Yazidi woman who, after being kidnapped and made a slave by a converted British jihadist, manages to escape and join a brigade of Kurdish women fighters who are trying to overthrow the jihadist regime.
Join the director after the film for a conversation moderated by Majeed Gly, an award-winning Kurdish journalist from Rudaw media.
Invitation-only Event

La Règle du Jeu and Justice for Kurds invite you to a special film screening of PESHMERGA by French philosopher and activist BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY

Saturday, October 26, 2019 at 7pm

Join the director after the film for a conversation about the unprecedented abandonment of this courageous people.

On October 9, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, launched his offensive against Syrian Kurdistan. With this shameful assault and America’s withdrawal from Syria, we see the shattering of everything gained against ISIS by Americans, Europeans, and Kurds, both in Syria and in Iraq, fighting together arm in arm. Directed, in Iraqi Kurdistan, on the frontline, at the peak of the war against ISIS by Bernard-Henri Lévy, PESHMERGA shows the bravery of a great people who may have lost a battle but certainly not the war.

If you have any issues with the RSVP link below, you can RSVP directly here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-regle-du-jeu-and-justice-for-kurds-invite-you-to-a-special-fi-lm-screening-of-peshmerga-by-tickets-77664706227

The Kurds are an ancient people who today are surrounded by dictatorships and extremism. Despite this tyranny of geography, Kurdish culture features a moderate Islam, a free and open society, equality for women, and a tolerance for religious and ethnic minorities. At the same time, the Kurds have remained a steadfast ally of the United States and the West, and have been the crucial frontline bulwark against ISIS and other terrorist organizations. The centuries-old quest for a Kurdish homeland has once again come into focus as their geopolitical importance as a force for stability in a turbulent region has been highlighted in recent years.

In conversation with The Octavian Report publisher Richard Hurowitz, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy and American investor Thomas S. Kaplan, Co-Founders of Justice for Kurds, a new Franco-American initiative, explore the role of the Kurds in the Middle East and in building a more just and secure international order.

An international conference on the Kurds following their victory against ISIS at the French Senate

At this hour the Kurds, who were our best shield on the ground against ISIS, are suffering in Syria with assaults from the Turkish army and have been cut off by the blockade imposed by the Iraqis and Iranians. On March 30, at the French Senate, the Institut Kurde de Paris, brings together senators, intellectuals, public figures to delve into the situation of the Kurds following their victory over ISIS and to honor the West's debt to them. A people who have fought for liberty for themselves, their neighbors and their allies around the globe, this conference will acknowledge their immense contribution. Philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy will deliver the closing remarks.

Palais du Luxembourg,
Salle Clemenceau, 15 rue de Vaugirard,75006 Paris

RSVP link to follow

A conference to mark the 30th anniversary of the Halabja Genocide
Halabja: Echoes of Genocide in Kurdistan
How can communities in Kurdistan and Iraq halt the cycle of genocide?

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Newseum
Knight Conference Center, Level 7
555 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC

Justice for Kurds Chairman, Thomas S. Kaplan, will deliver remarks at 1:30 pm. He will be joined by architect Daniel Libeskind.

On March 16, 1988, Iraqi aircraft attacked the city of Halabja with chemical weapons. Children were lost in the chaos that followed, families were decimated as 5,000 people died and thousands more were injured with poison gas.

This genocide was one of many atrocities committed against the people of Kurdistan by the dictator Saddam Hussein. During his rule, 182,000 Kurds were killed in the Anfal genocide campaign; 8,000 Barzani men and boys were murdered in 1983; thousands of Faily Kurds disappeared, and thousands more were oppressed, abused, and killed by the Ba'athist regime. The genocide also saw the destruction of 4,500 villages and the razing of cities such as Qala Diza, tearing at the fabric of Kurdish society and economy.

The suffering of the people of Halabja has come to symbolize all of the atrocities committed against the people of Kurdistan. In Iraq, violence and genocide is cyclical, and in 2014 we again witnessed a genocide against the Yezidis, Christians and others in Nineveh.

This year we will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Halabja genocide. We invite you to join us for a conference to discuss this atrocity, the cycle of genocide in Iraq, how this impacts politics in Kurdistan and Iraq today, and the imperative for justice and reconciliation.