Maggid Amitai was mentored and ordained by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z’’l as Maggid u’Ba’al Sippurim [Preacher and Master of Stories], and has served on guest pulpits at communities and college campuses around the United States. With a background in mediation and dialogue facilitation, they have helped to mediate multi-party conflicts, engaging groups in difficult conversations, and helped them to see conflict as a valuable opportunity for growth, rather than something to be avoided. Amitai is the Principal of Amitai Gross Consulting, Ltd., where they support startups, nonprofits, and political movements with strategic development, stakeholder research and engagement, conflict analysis and mitigation, brand development, and participatory management structures. They also currently serve on the Advisory Board of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs Strategic Artificial Intelligence Certificate Program.

From a diverse family tree of Chassidim, Litvakers, Orthodox Christians, Bolsheviks, and Palestinian Jews, Amitai embraces their unique and complex identity today as a Heterodox Marxist-Chasidic-Muslim. Their spiritual practice is based in silent meditation, which they have practiced and taught to others for nearly two decades. Raised in a progressive and religious Jewish family, Amitai began their journey towards Islam while in graduate school, recited their shahada in 2020, and in 2023, chose the names Rafiq, a male name meaning a beloved friend, and Khadijah, named for the first wife of Prophet Muhammad (سَلَامُ ٱللَّٰهِ عَلَيْهَا), the first convert to Islam, who was the prophet’s mentor, benefactor, guide, and most trusted advisor; she represents the communal and non-hierarchical power of matriarchy. Together, those names are read to mean “Comrade of Khadijah.”

Amitai is a composer, songwriter, poet, storyteller, multi-instrumentalist, and film-maker. Their documentary, Music In The Key of Peace, was filmed in Palestine/Israel in 2010 and toured the US in 2011. Their first and truest love will always be the trumpet. In their spare time, they continue to study their fields of Social Psychology and Critical Theory, support local labor organizing efforts, play Dungeons and Dragons every week, read too many comic books, and write everything from poems to polemics.