Tamar has experienced the refugee journey once -- from Tunisia to France -- and the immigrant journey twice -- from France to Israel/Palestine and from Israel/Palestine to the United States. As a Jew of Color, Tamar has been a minority in almost every place she has lived, experiencing both micro-aggressions and privilege on a daily basis. Tamar has an accent in English, so people know she is not "American": she looks Latina; is often stopped by the police when driving for no apparent reason; and is always searched by security in airports. However, she believes that she benefits from white privilege 90% of the time, since she can "pass for white" and carries privilege into many situations due to her education, opportunities, and access to systems.

 

Her personal experiences have been enriched by many roles of leadership in multicultural communities in Minnesota, including working with Russian immigrants, Southeast Asian refugees, Native Americans, African Americans, and other diverse communities. She was also active in the Marriage Equality and Voter Identification amendment campaigns in Minnesota, delivering trainings and completing fifty-five one-on-one meetings to educate and encourage support of the amendments. 

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In 2019, she was selected as one of eight individuals in the nation to participate in URJ JewV’Nation Fellowship’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Cohort, which is a nine-month program dedicated to promoting and incorporating DEI principles in Reform Jewish congregations across North America.​  She is now consulting nationally on REDI (Racial Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) work.