About this talk

Gina Waldman was born Regina Malaka Bublil in Tripoli to a family that had lived in Libya for centuries. She was persecuted, nearly murdered and brutally expelled from her homeland. because she was a Jew. She came to the USA as a refugee with one suitcase and $20. 

Gina will share her story of escape from her native Libya. In doing so she will also share the customs and traditions of the Libyan Jews - an extinct community that was forcibly exiled in 1967.

About Gina

Gina Waldman, has devoted much of her life advocating for human rights. Together with Joseph Abdel Wahed, Waldman founded JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) in 2002 to bear witness to the suffering of other Jewish refugees from Arab lands.

Waldman's accomplishments include winning the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award and testifying in front of the UN Human Rights Council. Gina has also testified before the US Congress Human Rights Caucus and at the the Canadian Parliament.

As Director of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jewry, Waldman was instrumental in winning freedom for thousands of Soviet Jews like Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky. Gina worked closely with Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights champion, Andrei Sakharov. 

Waldman also fought human rights abuses in Argentina and Chile, during Augusto Pinochet's regime. In the 1990's she worked to resettle Muslim refugees from Bosnia in the San Francisco Bay Area. Gina's motto is: Love is stronger than hate.