Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb

Born and raised in Palestine, Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb is a co-founder of Bright Stars of Bethlehem and the Founder and President of Dar al-Kalima University. He previously was the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the elected president of the synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, serving in this capacity from 2011 to 2016.

After receiving his doctorate from Philipps University of Marburg in 1988, Rev. Raheb returned home to Palestine full of theological concepts to change his community. The brutality of the Israeli occupation, however, resulted in a far greater calling. As a result, he has led numerous projects serving the social needs of Palestinians. In 1995, he opened the first authentic tourism program to encourage international fact-finding missions and justice-oriented groups to see the conditions of the Palestinian occupation. Called “Dar an-Nadwa al-Duwalia,” which means “the place where people meet for dialogue,” the tourist center that resulted from this program fulfilled Rev. Raheb’s vision of establishing links between Palestine and the rest of the world. In 1996, the program was honored with a TO DO award for socially responsible tourism from ITB, the world’s largest tourism trade fair. In 1997, Rev. Raheb’s focus went to the arts as a means of creative resilience, resistance, and social transformation, and by 1998, he was breaking ground on what is known today as Dar al-Kalima University of Arts, Culture, and Design with the then-President of the Palestinian National Authority Yasser Arafat.

Described as the most widely published Palestinian theologian, Rev. Raheb is the author and editor of more than 50 books. His publications have been translated into eleven languages. He is an internationally acclaimed speaker who has appeared before the U.S. Congress, German Bundestag, European Union, and Scandinavian and Dutch parliaments. He has given lectures at universities around the world, including Yale, Harvard, and Princeton, among others. He has presented keynote speeches at major festivals and summits like the National Prayer Breakfast and the World Conference on Religion and Peace. Rev. Raheb has appeared in many major international media outlets, including CNN, ABC, BBC, Al-Jazeera, The Economist, and Newsweek. He was featured in a 2012 segment on the CBS program 60 Minutes about Christians in the Holy Land.