Oy Vey, who are we?

Lievnath Faber is (co) founder and program director at Oy Vey. She is a Jewish educator and activist, birth- and death doula and ritualist. She holds an rMA in the arts from the University of Amsterdam and is a senior Landecker Democracy fellow at Humanity in Action who writes on the intersection of antiracism and antisemitism in Europe and specialised in the Netherlands. She weaves Jewish activism, life cycle awareness and ritual together to create joyful and empowered Jewish life in Europe. She is a trained mikveh guide and grief ceremony facilitator and part of the faculty staff of Ze Kollel, the immersive pan-European Jewish learning programme, one of Oy Vey’s co-creations. She is a rabbinical student with ALEPH - the Alliance for Jewish Renewal and works towards creating joyful and empowered Jewish life in Europe.

Favourite bagel: The peanut butter bagel

Current obsession: Magic and incantations in Jewish sources

Charley is a cultural programmer and activist at Oy Vey who also does marketing for the documentary film distributor Cinema Delicatessen. Challah brought Charley to Oy Vey, and a protest sign that read "Jews 4 Black Lives" at the Black Lives Matter demo got her involved. Solidarity and openness are important priorities Charley. These values find a place in her work for the Oy Vey film festival, volunteering for de*beweging (the*movement), and in her activism for social justice.

The challah you'll find in Charley's private life because she loves cooking and eating!

Favorite Bagel:  all of them
Current obsession: hmmmm....

Sjerp is an activist rooted in Amsterdam. Here he tells us in his own words:

My Jewishness is rooted in two things: socialism and Amsterdam. A lot has happened in this city. We have seen it all, we did it all. Drama? For sure... But I consider myself blessed for being able to discover and develop another whole new side of myself, now that I am an adult.

After years of involvement in politics and social work, I'm now retired and honorary president of the Charity Goldfish without Fear of Water, I even got my swimming diploma lying around somewhere in the attic. We didn't have bagels in Amsterdam-Noord, we ate patat instead.

From time to time, I enjoy playing music, and I recently got into translating old Jewish (resistance) songs into Dutch.

I'm also obsessed with esoteric history and like to indulge in the social history of Hebrew peoples in the millenia before the kingdom.

Eva de Haan was born and raised in Amsterdam. She holds an MA in anthropology, with a particular research focus on contemporary Jewish culture and identity. Eva has been involved with Oy Vey since 2020, and cares deeply for the open and progressive space it has become. She is an activist for various forms of social justice, loves the occasional feminist rant, and spends a lot of time thinking and talking about being Jewish. In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, spending long evenings by the lake or sea surrounded by friends, and hanging with her cat Mollie.

Favourite bagel: (Controversially) cinnamon raisin
Current obsession:Baking a perfect babka

Yonathan Busquila Listik was born in Brazil but he is not sure where he comes from. His family comes from Morocco, and he loves the food, so if he had to choose he would come from there. He loves bagels indiscriminately and books a bit more discriminately but still quite loosely.

Yonathan studies and teaches philosophy, which often leads people to believe he knows things. This is a common misconception. Yonathan created the Deviant Yeshiva project to correct this misconception by showing people how he and everyone else don't really know anything. The project is an alchemist procedure where the more we read the more ignorant we become. The ultimate goal being: complete confusion.

Current obsession: Currently, and perhaps forever, obsessed with Walter Benjamin's work.

Favorite bagel: All bagels are created equally: “Ask not what your bagel can do for you but what you can do to your bagel. And the answer is to eat it.”

Jelle Zijlstra is a Dutch-Jewish activist and community organiser working for Greenpeace Netherlands. Trained as a theatre director, Jelle has worked on numerous theatre projects around a wide variety of societal issues in the Netherlands such as poverty, the position of refugees, and the problematic nature of WWII remembrance in the country. He has also become involved with Queers 4 Climate, a grassroots group that focuses on the intersection between the climate emergency and the position of queer communities worldwide. His Jewish and Queer identity is deeply connected to his activism. To unwind Jelle loves taking long walks in nature or cooking a hearty meal for his friends. Jelle is also a senior Landecker fellow at Humanity in Action.

Favorite bagel: The classic sesame bagel
Current obsession: His cat Levi

Tori Egherman is a small-town Jew born of small-town Jews, descended from people who lived in shtetls so small they can barely be found on a map. Tori is interested in everything, and now that she's old some people mistake that for expertise rather than what it is: curiosity without bounds.

Tori is currently working on the Jewish Manifesto, a collaborative project with Jewish and Jewish-adjacent folks in the Netherlands. She co-leads conversations twice a month aimed at fostering community and co-creating a document that captures the hopes, fears, and dreams of the Jewish community in the Netherlands for the future.

Favourite bagel: Pumpernickel raisin (its native habitat is Ess-a-Bagel in NYC).
Current obsession: Currently obsessed with Daniel Boyarin and reading his book: The No State Solution.