Hear from Experts
Conscience, compassion, respect and dialogue are values and habits which sustain open societies that affirm human rights and human development. Here, listen to experts in theology, philosophy, psychology, ethics, history, democracy, and other disciplines explore the importance of tolerance.
On the night of November 9, 1938, Nazi paramilitaries attacked synagogues and Jewish businesses across Germany and Austria. Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass - shocked the world but only...
In an interview at the Woodrow Wilson Center, author Roya Hakakian brings to light the popular backlash in Iran to the regime’s anti-Semitic rhetoric. She analyses Iran through the lens of the...
Kit Bigelow is the former director of external affairs for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.S. From 1985 to 2010, she had overall responsibility for the functioning of the...
Dr. Brian Grim is an expert on global religion and religious freedom, who presents his research to high-level governmental and nongovernmental groups throughout the world. In this speech, he presents...
Pastor Don Mackenzie, Rabbi Ted Falcon and Imam Jamal Rahman, now known as the Interfaith Amigos, started working together after 9/11. Their work is dedicated to supporting more effective interfaith...
"Radical Collaboration" was the theme of this TEDx event, which is personified in Rabbi Ted Falcon, Pastor Don Mackenzie, and Imam Jamal Rahman, collectively known as The Interfaith Amigos...
During the time of apartheid, speaker David Rosen was the Senior Rabbi of Cape Town, South Africa, home to the largest Jewish Orthodox community in the world. He later became the Chief Rabbi of...
In his TED talk, Dr. Yehuda Stolov presents the belief that peace in the Middle East is really quite simple -- if we focus on our commonalities of our faith, rather than that which separates us....
Eboo Patel talks about the strong female influences in his own life and how faith can be used as a bridge of cooperation, bringing together nations and cultures. He is the Founder and President of...
Former nun and religious thinker Karen Armstrong has found that “the Golden Rule is at the core of every religious tradition: do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you.” She says...
Aziz Abu Sarah is a Palestinian activist who has a unique approach to peacekeeping: tourism. Shortly after his brother was arrested for throwing stones at Israeli cars and died from the internal...
A former nun, religious thinker Karen Armstrong studies what Islam, Judaism, and Christianity have in common, and how our faiths shaped world history and drive current events. Armstrong looks at...
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf founded the Cordoba Initiative, a non-partisan and international organization that works to provide innovative solutions to conflict between Muslim and Western communities. In...
Rabbi Jackie Tabick is the first female rabbi in the UK and serves as the chair to the World Congress of Faiths and an executive member of the Inter Faith Network and the Three Faiths Form. She is...
To some people, Dr. Edith Eva Eger lost everything in Auschwitz during the Holocaust; but to Edith, she gained an understanding and compassion for others that has given her a beautiful life. Watch...
In this TED talk, Samantha Power, current United States Ambassador to the United Nations, opens a discourse for understanding how genocides like the Holocaust are able to continue for years, despite...
“What hurts the victim most is not the physical cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander”- Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. This is the foundation for Dr. Ben Voth’s belief that...
Barbara Coloroso explains the links between schoolyard bullying to genocide, and demonstrates how little the distance between them truly is. Further, she explains how concerned citizens can identify...
How do you deal with a bully without becoming a thug? In this wise and soulful talk, peace activist Scilla Elworthy maps out the skills we need — as nations and individuals — to fight extreme force...
Ziyah Gafić photographs everyday objects—watches, shoes, glasses. But these images are deceptively simple; the items in them have been exhumed from the mass graves of the Bosnian War. Gafić, a TED...
Karima Bennoune shares four powerful stories of real people fighting against fundamentalism in their own communities — refusing to allow the faith they love to become a tool for crime, attacks and...
In war we often see only the frontline stories of soldiers and combat. AT TEDGlobal 2010, Zainab Salbi tells powerful "backline" stories of women who keep everyday life going during...
Chris Abani tells stories of people: People standing up to soldiers. People being compassionate. People being human and reclaiming their humanity. It's "ubuntu," he says: the only way...
A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script, damaged and broken, the Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multiculturalism. In this enthralling talk Neil MacGregor...
In this video lecture transcript Mehdi Khalaji explains the various ways tolerance is understood and how the word and concept have evolved over time. He emphasizes the unique space that the issue of...
Tavaana's Lessons from the Holocaust course, taught by Mohammad Reza Nikfar, is designed to promote understanding of the Holocaust and, by extension, the threat of persecution and genocide more...
Aziz is a Palestinian. His brother was killed in Jerusalem by Israeli soldiers. This event taught him to overcome his anger and made him realize the importance of working for peace.
Born in 1933, Francine Christophe was deported with her mother at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944. Released the following year, she continues to share her experience and memories,...
What is it that makes us human? Is it that we love, that we fight? That we laugh? Cry? Our curiosity?
Driven by these questions, filmmaker and artist Yann Arthus-Bertrand spent three years...
About Tavaana
Tavaana: E-Learning Institute for Iranian Civil Society is Iran’s pioneer e-learning institute. Tavaana – meaning ‘empowered’ and ‘capable’ in Persian – was launched on May 17, 2010 with a mission to support active citizenship and civic leadership in Iran through a multi-platform civic education and civil society capacity building program. Tavaana holds a vision for a free and open Iranian society, one in which each and every Iranian enjoys equality, justice and the full spectrum of civil and political liberties.
About The Tolerance Project
The Tolerance Project aims to inspire conscience, pluralism, religious freedom, and celebration of difference. Using an array of educational materials in Arabic, Persian, and English, The Tolerance Project emphasizes the capacity of each and every individual to counter hate, and imparts the benefits of living in tolerant, open societies. The Tolerance Project educates to prevent persecution and genocide, cultivating the basis for vibrant and stable societies in the broader Middle East.