Rotem Raz

I am a Toronto-based storyteller, interdisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher.

I am interested in origin stories, transformation, and the creative process.

I grew up in Kibbutz Yiftah, a remote community in northern Israel, very close to the border between what we now call Israel and Lebanon. We were living so close to the border that we could hear the prayers from a mosque in Lebanon as the wind carried them over the fence to our small community. That freedom that the sound had to travel uninterrupted over the border ignited in me a desire to transcend present-day limitations and connect with my relatives - the human family - to relearn about our pasts and envision better futures.

My recent doctoral dissertation Planting Seed of Hope at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto is an arts-based study looking at a model for aspiring allies to the revitalization of Indigenous languages and cultures on Turtle Island.