An Advisory Council was formed in 2010 to help FOTONNA fulfill its mission and meet its goals. A diverse group of individuals was approached and asked if they would be willing to serve in both an advisory capacity and a pro-active capacity when needed. All of these volunteers are well-acquainted with the situation on the ground in Israel/Palestine and have traveled there more than once. Their work is greatly respected, and we feel fortunate that they are willing to work on the behalf of FOTONNA and Tent of Nations.
FOTONNA ADVISORY COUNCIL BIO SKETCHES
James Beck
James Beck is a retired commercial banker in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is active in his church where he currently serves on the Finance Committee. He also enjoys serving on the boards of not-for-profit organizations in his community.
Jim visited Tent of Nations in February 2010 while on a week-long trip to Palestine with an ecumenical group which was considering divestment of its churches’ funds from companies which profited from, or were complicit in, Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Following that visit, in October 2010, Jim was one of the co-founding members of United Methodists for Kairos Response which, while pursuing the goal of peacefully ending the occupation, has taken decisive action in support of a just peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. At the annual conference of the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist held in June 2011, Jim presented a resolution to divest from three companies which were complicit in Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The resolution narrowly passed.
Relevant Background: Jim has been host to Daoud on several of his trips to Cincinnati, helping to arrange presentations to churches, schools and smaller Bible study groups.
David S. Benedict
My professional life was divided between a dozen years in the Methodist ministry and 25 years in Human Resources Management in the pharmaceutical industry. Another 25 years in retirement have been devoted to addressing poverty, homelessness, low-income housing, ex-offenders and delinquent youth, the elderly, and numerous Justice and Peace causes. For over 20 years, I’ve supported students at Union Seminary, NYC and in 2024/2025 subsidized two delegations of students making the “protective presence” pilgrimage to the Nassar’s Tent of Nations. We’re working on a 2026 delegation. I’ve been associated with the Advisory Council since my pilgrimage to the West Bank for the 100th Anniversary of Daher’s Vineyard in 2016.
Don Christensen
Don Christensen is a retired minister in the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ. Most of his career has been in global justice and ecumenical ministries including campus ministry, Church World Service/CROP, and international education with the Augsburg College Center for Global Education in Minneapolis.
Don’s first visit to Israel/Palestine was in 1965-66, when he served as a YMCA Student World Service Worker at the new YMCA in Nazareth, Israel. He did not return to the region until 2003, when he lived and worked for three months in the Muslim village of Joyous, in the West Bank, as an Ecumenical Accompanier with the World Council of Churches. In 2005 and 2006, Don returned to the region as part of Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB) delegations. Currently, Don serves on the Steering Committee of the UCC Movement for Palestine Solidarity.
Don and his wife, Rachel, live in St. Paul, Minnesota, where energy for justice and peace is renewed by time with their grandchildren Eva and Eamon.
During both of Don’s IFPB trips, he visited the Nassar family farm/Tent of Nations. In 2005, he was a delegate; in 2006, Don co-led an IFPB delegation and made his second visit to the Nassar farm. On this delegation, Don and Rachel met Mark Braverman.
Dr. Ilise Benshushan Cohen
Dr. Ilise Benshushan Cohen is a Sephardi/Mizrahi Jewish scholar-activist and writer, focused on addressing Israeli state violence and racism toward Palestinians, Mizrahi Jews and Jews of Color. Ilise is a writer, organizer and educator. She is the founder and former leader of the JVP-Atlanta chapter, past co-coordinator of the Jews of Color, Sephardi and Mizrahi caucus in solidarity with Palestine, and on the steering committee of Sedq: a Global Jewish Network for Justice for Palestine.
Between 2002 and 2017, she led multiple delegations to Palestine/Israel with Interfaith Peace-Builders (Eyewitness Palestine) and has visited and stayed at Tent of Nations throughout the years. She also hosted and organized a talk for Daoud and Amal Nassar in the Atlanta area.
She works at keeping a sense of hope and spiritual grounding when her own community has repeatedly caused harm to Palestinians (and others). She is interested in continuing to build strength in community and movement building while also finding meaningful ways to recover from these traumas.
Mike Daly (Informal Advisor)
Mike Daly is USCPR’s Development Director. Prior to joining USCPR, Mike worked at Interfaith Peace-Builders (now Eyewitness Palestine) for more than a decade. At EP, Mike helped send more than 1,000 people on educational delegations to Palestine and grew programming and revenue. Mike has also worked as a public relations consultant with UNDP in Ramallah, and studied Arabic in Damascus and Cairo. Mike has led five EP delegations and presented at numerous conferences and workshops.
Steve France
Steve France works as a news editor with the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. in Arlington, Virginia. He serves in a variety of volunteer organizations including the Leadership Council of Sabeel DC Metro; Missioner, DC Coordinator for American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem; and the Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington for Companion Partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. Steve also works as a pro bono attorney for political asylum cases in affiliation with the Capital Area Immigrant Rights Coalition (CAIR Coalition). In addition, he is the founder/leader of the ‘Never Again Includes Palestinians’ Vigil at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Relevant Background:
Steve had an unforgettable overnight stay at Tent of Nations (2010), and has known and supported Daoud since 2007 when he helped co-found Friends of Tent of Nations North America. He grew up ‘pro-Israel’ and skeptical of Arabs. In the wake of 9/11 and as part of a more general moral awakening, he came to understand the plight of the Palestinians. The 2006 Lebanon war moved him to become educated on the history and politics of the area and to take sustained action to support the Palestinian struggle and raise awareness among Americans.
Dr. Joseph Groves
Dr. Joseph Groves has served a leader in a variety of organizations with a focus on Palestine/Israel education and advocacy, and on nonviolence training and activism.
Joe’s involvement with Tent of Nations and the Nassar family began in 2004, with the first IFPB delegations to the Tent of Nations. He also helped organize speaking events for Daoud in the US.
Relevant Background:
Joe taught secondary school in Iraq for three years (1966-69), has been involved in Middle East education and advocacy for 40+ years and has traveled to Palestine/Israel eight times, including leading two IFPB delegations. He was on the Middle East Witness Steering Committee, served on the Fellowship of Reconciliation Middle East Task Force, and was the Director of FOR Middle East programs and the Director of Interfaith Peace-Builders. He has also directed the Peace and Conflict Studies Program, taught Islam and Modern Middle East Politics, Religion, and Culture at Guilford College, and taught Nonviolent Direct Action at both Guilford and American University.
Robert Mertz
Robert has supported Tent of Nations for the past 20 years; first as a member of Westmoreland’s Middle East Committee and for the last 20 years as the head of the Olive Oil Ministry, a partnership of more than 30 congregations from nine Christian denominations in the Washington, DC region. The farm has been the largest recipient of the Ministry’s donations, amounting to over $110,000 since 2008. The Ministry supports Tent of Nations because the Nassar family owns the land, seeks to confirm that ownership through non-violent means and through then Israeli courts, and resists peacefully Israeli state and private interests seeking to expropriate the family’s rightful and long-established ownership of the land. Robert and his wife have also been visitors to the farm and have sent young members of partner congregations to visit, stay at and work on the farm.
Fr. Jacek Orzechowski, OFM
Fr. Jacek is a Franciscan friar in the Province of our Laday of Guadalupe. Currently, he works as Associate Director of Laudato Si’ Center for Integral Ecology at Siena University. Prior to that, he served as pastor of a Catholic parish in Durham, N.C.
Fr. Jacek first met Daoud in 2005 while on a CPT’s delegation to Israel and Palestine. Since then, he led several Franciscan peacemaking pilgrimages to the Holy Land, each time bringing diverse group of people to visit the Tent of Nations. He also played a key role in galvanizing his former parish to support the Children Summer Camps and in building a bridge of solidarity between the Nassar’s family, his legacy Province, and Franciscan Action Network. In January 2026, Fr. Jacek spent 1.5 weeks volunteering at the Tent of Nations, helping to cultivate and protect the land.
Relevant Background:
Over the last two decades, Fr. Jacek has been involved in many educational and advocacy initiatives through Churches for Middle East Peace. His longstanding, passionate engagement in the peacemaking efforts and solidarity with the Palestinian people, has made him a trusted voice within the Franciscan family on matters related to the West Bank and Gaza.
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Rabbi Brant Rosen is the founding rabbi of Tzedek Chicago, a non-Zionist, justice-focused Jewish congregation established in 2015. He is the Co-Founder of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council and the Co-Founder, with Rabbi Brian Walt, of the Jewish Fast for Gaza.
Rabbi Rosen first met Daoud in 2010 during Daoud’s Educational/Fundraising Tour to Evanston, Illinois. In December 2010, Rabbi Rosen visited Tent of Nations with 20 congregants during their Israel/Palestine Study Tour. He subsequently visited TON in 2013 with a delegation from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. In 2017, Rabbi Rosen and Daoud led a Bible Study together at his congregation in Chicago.
Relevant Background:
Rabbi Rosen has lived in and has led delegations to Israel/Palestine numerous times and writes extensively about I/P peace and justice issues on his blog Shalom Rav. His book, “Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi’s Path to Palestinian Solidarity” was published in 2012 by Just World Books (2nd edition published in 2017).
Mary Kay Turner
Mary Kay Turner serves as President of the Holy Land Christians Society (HLCS) and is part of the Leadership Council for Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) and on the board of The Telos Group. She was on the White House Commission for Presidential Scholars and had an appointment to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS). Her major focus is providing Advocacy for Peace in the Holy Land and support for the diminishing Christian community in Palestine and Israel.
Mary Kay visited with Daoud at Tent of Nations in March 2010. She also hosted Daoud in her home in 2009 to raise awareness for the work and needs of the programs at the farm.
Relevant Background:
In her last year of teaching (25 years), she had a Palestinian Christian student who asked if she could help the Christians in the Holy Land who have felt abandoned by so many fellow Christians around the world. She knew very little about the situation, so she made a trip to the Holy Land with two priests, learned about the struggle and founded HLCS to raise awareness in the US about the plight of the Christians. HLCS now provides scholarships, microfinance, education infrastructure, medical care at an orphanage and water projects at Tent of Nations. They have also met with about 60 members of Congress and many Administration officials to tell the story of the Christians in the Holy Land.
Virginia Wadsley
Virginia Wadsley Virginia Wadsley is an independent spirit for peace and justice who grew up on an Iowa farm and earned degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. A “child of the ’60s,” she has held positions with interdenominational church agencies, served as a community organizer in marginalized communities in New York City, Charleston, South Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, and advocated for sustainable and regenerative agriculture in Iowa. Since returning to Des Moines in 1988, she has also authored several corporate histories and other books.
Relevant Background: Meeting Daoud during his tour of Iowa in November 2019 inspired Virginia’s passion to learn about Palestine and to practice solidarity with Tent of Nations. She led the Des Moines-based Tent of Nations “Hope” Children’s Book Team, guided by Daoud, to produce From the Ground and Up, published in summer 2024. The book is an interactive photographic “scrapbook,” drawn from Tent of Nations summer camps, designed to empower and engage children while sharing the story and message of Tent of Nations with a worldwide audience. Now translated into Italian, it is being read and enacted with village children in Ghana, and is also being used creatively in many venues across the United States. The book has begun to reach audiences in Japan and Thailand, with explorations underway in additional countries.
Rev. Susan P. Wilder
Rev. Susan P. Wilder is a consultant to the Faith Forum on Middle East Policy. She also serves on the Advisory Council, Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace (WIAMEP), is a Member, Israel/Palestine Mission Network, PCUSA and is Chair, Middle East Working Group, Grace Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Virginia.
She was “moved and impressed,” she said, when she met Daoud and heard him tell the story of Tent of Nations. Since that time, she has followed the Nassars’ work with interest and has taken groups she has led to visit the farm.
Relevant Background:
Rev. Wilder has served in ecumenical and interfaith networks as a grassroots organizer, speaker and educator, working to raise awareness about the Israeli/Palestinian situation and to further advocacy for a just peace. She lived in Jerusalem from 1999 to 2002. She is ordained in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., and has served several churches in the Washington, DC, area. Rev. Wilder graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, and received her M.Div. from Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California.
Past Members of the Advisory Council: Anna Baltzer, Todd Endo, Christy Wise, Philip Farah, Todd Deatherage, Stephen Hyde, Bud Hensgen.
Members in Memoriam: Beverly Hunter, Scott Kennedy
– Updated February 2026
