Tour Leaders
Morocco
Steve Scholl, Tour Leader
Fes Festival of World Sacred Music
Gnaoua World Music Festival
Our tour leader, Steve Scholl, lived for a year in the Middle East while doing his graduate studies in Islamic mysticism and philosophy. He returned to North Africa in 2005 to attend the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music where he met Eliyahu McLean and Sheikh Abdu'l-Aziz Bukhari. Steve is a writer and lecturer on religion.
Israel
Eliyahu McLean, Tour Leader
Jerusalem Peacemakers in the Holy Land Tour
Eliyahu
is a Jewish peacemaker living in West Jerusalem. He was ordained by his
spiritual teacher, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, as Rodef Shalom, or
Pursuer of Peace. Eliyahu works and prays with people of all beliefs
and he speaks out internationally for reconciliation in the Holy Land.
Sheikh Abdu'l-Aziz Bukhari, Tour Guide
Jerusalem Peacemakers in the Holy Land Tour
Sheikh Bukhari is one of a long line of Sufi leaders going back centuries. He is a leader of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order and has traveled the world promoting interfaith dialogue with religious leaders and ordinary people of all persuasions. He lives with his family in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Italy
Linda Alper, Tour Leader
EAT! PLAY! LIVE! Tour
Linda Alper is a passionate traveler and Italiaphile. She has traveled
in Italy a dozen times, including a residency as a guest artist at the
American Academy in Rome and several courses at Italiaidea, an esteemed
roman language school.
In her American life, Linda has been a leading actress and teacher with
the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for over twenty years. For OSF, she has
co-translated and played the leads in two southern Italian plays, Saturday,
Sunday, Monday and Napoli Milionaria!
Linda is especially enamored with southern Italy and likes to travel off the beaten path. She loves the region of Puglia for it’s food, friendliness, spectacular and otherworldly architecture, amazing color and light, and gorgeous open spaces.