Dean of Comedy - Stand Up For Peace

"Standup for Peace" was created by Jewish-American comic Scott Blakeman and I as a way of bringing Arab and Jewish-Americans together to laugh as well as to help encourage a dialogue in support of a political, peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as foster understanding between Arab and Jewish-Americans.

We have performed our shows at numerous colleges and venues across the nation, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, University of William and Mary, University of Washington, University of Tennessee, Tufts University, UCLA, and University of Oklahoma.

For more information about "Stand Up for Peace," please visit our website at www.StandupForPeace.com.

What Stand Up For Peace audiences are saying

"It was amazing...It was a great way to just laugh for the night and also an educational experience."

- Sarah Lawson, University of Washington Hillel coordinator

"Stand Up for Peace shows audiences that Jews and Arabs not only can get along as comedy professionals, but that each can have a respectful sense of humor about themselves and the other's culture and politics. We need to support them, think like them, and send them on the road around the world as ambassadors of peace and pleasure."

-Larry Litt, New York Theater Wire

Scott Blakeman and Dean Obeidallah, two standup comedians of Jewish and Arab descent respectively, performed for a room of Columbia students and demonstrated the possibility of mutual respect and understanding between the two groups.

-Matt Glasser, from an article in "The Columbia Spectator," Columbia University's student paper