I was born on July 10th, 1986 in San Jose, California. Both of my parents (Mattanjah & Simone) are from Amsterdam, Holland. My older sister (Ammanjah) & brother (Milan) were both born there as well which makes me not just a first-generation American, but the first American in my family. At home, Dutch was the reigning language. I was sent to Montessori schools till third grade when I was home-schooled by mother through fourth grade (by this time we had moved to Los Gatos).
New paragraph here since this is when I moved to Jerusalem, Israel. My brother and sister had already been living there since they were attending the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I did not speak Hebrew at the time, but I began attending school and learned — mostly because I didn't have a choice. I lived in Israel for four years, first attending "the experimental" school, and then for junior high-school Leyada (the Hebrew University High School).
The day before the first day of high school I moved to Santa Barbara where I attended Dos Pueblos High School for 3 years before moving on to the University of California, Santa Barbara. In High School I founded and headed the Poetry Club as well as took charge of AEIOU (a political club which helped get students involved in opposing the Iraq War and other actions). My second year at UCSB (age 18) I boldly decided to run for a seat on the Santa Barbra Elementary & High School District School Board — I came in last with 12,568 votes (about 7.9%). I finished up my B.A. in philosophy (with an emphasis in ethics and public policy) while working as the webmaster for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and taking active part in the student anti-war, anti-nuke and demilitarization movements.
I spent a year as the Outreach Director for Tri-Valley CAREs in Livermore, CA, home of the longest lasting light bulb and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — whose main function is to design nuclear bombs. TVC is a peace/environment/justice non-profit that watchdogs the lab and works for nuclear abolition. It was an exciting year in which I learned and grew a lot.
After a lot of thought and reflection I decided to go back to school. After some research I became excited by the possibility of studying in Holland. I applied to a number of programs and was lucky enough to be accepted to my top choice: Social Theory and Public Affairs at the University of Amsterdam's Graduate School of Social Sciences, which is where I am now.
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