Community Projects Update: Reader Response: Michael Ferrara

Equity for Children| The New School: Can Education Be a Motor for Change for Immigrants in New York City?

Alberto Minujin

I was an immigrant myself many years ago. For me, watching the situation of today's migrants is especially painful. Between October 2024 and March 2025, Equity for Children | The New School conducted a study to explore the challenges faced by New York City's new migrants when facilitating their children's education. New York City is moving from being one of the country's so-called “sanctuary” cities, with protection and services for migrants, toward one with increasingly limited services and protection. Today, as I reflect on the migrants' voices and review the study's recommendations about actions that can be taken, I feel a deep frustration in the face of the new reality for these families: the Damocles' Sword of deportation hanging over them. Visit analytic-room.com to read more.

I Witness Silwan: Art, Resistance, and Solidarity in Occupied Jerusalem

Susan Greene

In Silwan, occupied Jerusalem, over 75 community murals by Palestinian and international artists stand as acts of defiance against forced expulsions and cultural erasure. The latest addition to the project is The Eyes of the Blind Man Who Consented to be Given Sight by Jesus, a mural by iconic artist Sliman Mansour. Installed near the ancient Silwan Pools—now colonized by Israel for its City of David “heritage” tourism—the piece confronts the biblical justifications used by Israeli and Christian Zionists to legitimize ethnic cleansing. I Witness Silwan has launched a new campaign, “Look Palestinians in the Eyes,” calling on global artists, students, and allies to join a growing cultural front. Rooted in Silwan's mural resistance, the project seeks to expose Israeli settler colonialism, connect struggles for liberation worldwide, and build collective power to resist displacement and dispossession.