Common Ground Conference: Anti-Semitism, Zionism, and Dialogue

Alyza D. Lewin is President of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. She is also a co-founder and partner in Lewin & Lewin, LLP where she has specialized in litigation, mediation and government relations.

Ms. Lewin has represented numerous high-profile clients including victims of religious discrimination. In 2014, Lewin orally argued Zivotofsky v. Kerry (the “Jerusalem Passport” case) before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case concerned the constitutionality of a law granting American citizens born in Jerusalem the right to have “Israel” listed as the place of birth on their U.S. passports. Ms. Lewin also successfully represented the Boim family in its landmark civil tort litigation in which an en banc US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit established the right of American victims of terror to obtain damages from American organizations that knowingly provide financial support for international terrorism.

Ms. Lewin is the Past President of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (“AAJLJ”). She served as AAJLJ President from 2012 – 2017. She has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Community Relations Council (“JCRC”) of Greater Washington and was on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia.

Prior to establishing Lewin & Lewin in May 2002, Ms. Lewin worked at Wilmer Cutler and Pickering (now WilmerHale) and at Miller Cassidy Larroca and Lewin. Ms. Lewin began her law career in Israel, where she was a law clerk to Deputy President of the Supreme Court Justice Menachem Elon. Ms. Lewin was trained as a mediator by the American Arbitration Association and the Center for Dispute Settlement. She is a graduate of Princeton University and New York University School of Law. Ms. Lewin is married and has four children.

Dr. Diane B. Kunz, Esq. is Scholar in Residence at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights under Law.  From 1988 until 1998 she was Assistant, then Associate Professor of History at Yale University. While at Yale she wrote extensively on twentieth century international history, economic sanctions and U.S. relations with the Middle East, including the prize-winning book, The Economic Diplomacy of the Suez Crisis. From 1998-2001 she taught history and international relations at Columbia University. From 2014-2017, she was a consultant to the Academic Engagement Network, whose mission is to counter Anti-Semitism and oppose efforts to delegitimize Israel.  From 2017-2021 Dr. Kunz was a Senior Faculty Fellow at Duke Law School.

Since 2002, Dr. Kunz has served as Executive Director of the Center for Adoption Policy, which has become the pre-eminent legal and policy institute engaged in adoption and family creation issues.  Dr. Kunz has consulted with government agencies such as the Department of State, the Centers for Disease Control and USCIS. Partnering with Duke University, New York Law School, and Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, the Center, co-founded by Dr. Kunz and Ann N. Reese in 2001, has sponsored thirteen legal, academic and policy conferences on adoption and immigration issues. It was honored in 2008 by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute as an Angel in Adoption. She was one of the organizers of the successful effort to bring 1,150 children to the United States, who were in the process of being adopted, from Haiti to the United States in the wake of the 2010 earthquake.  Dr. Kunz was a drafter of the Help Haiti Act of 2010 which gave these children a path to U.S. citizenship and was honored for her work by the Centers for Disease Control.

From 1976 to 1983 Dr. Kunz practiced corporate law with the firms of White & Case and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.  She is an honorary fellow of the American Academy of Adoption and Reproductive Technology Attorneys and holds degrees from Yale University, Oxford University, Columbia University and Cornell University. Dr. Kunz is working on a transnational history of U.S. international adoption, which is under contract with UNC Press. She is the mother of eight children, four of whom were adopted from China.

From 1976 to 1983 Dr. Kunz practiced corporate law with the firms of White & Case and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (Harlan Fiske Scholar, Columbia University, 1975-1976, Cornell University, J.D. 1973-1975).

In 1983, she began graduate studies in diplomatic, economic and legal history at Oxford University (M. Litt. 1986) and Yale University (Ph.D., 1989). From 1988 until 1998 she was Assistant, then Associate Professor of History at Yale University. While at Yale she wrote extensively on twentieth century international history, and U.S. relations with the Middle East, including the prize winning book, The Economic Diplomacy of the Suez Crisis. From 1998-2001 she taught history and international relations at Columbia University.  From 2015-2017, she was a consultant to the Academic Engagement Network, whose mission is to counter antisemitism and oppose efforts to delegitimize Israel.

Dr. Kunz served as Senior Faculty Fellow at Duke Law School from 2017 – 2021.    She is an honorary fellow of the American Academy of Adoption and Reproductive Technology Attorneys. Dr. Kunz is working on a transnational history of international adoption which is under contract with UNC Press. She is also the mother of eight children, four of whom were born in China through the non-special needs and waiting children programs.

Danya Belkin 9Trinity '25) is a current sophomore at Duke planning to major in Political Science, with a certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship and a minor in Spanish. She hopes to pursue a law degree after her undergraduate studies. Before attending Duke, she participated in a gap year program in Israel (2020-2021). During her time at Duke, Danya has been active in the Jewish community. She is President of Duke Friends of Israel and founded Jewtinos @ Duke (a Jewish-Latino student group). This past summer she interned at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a legal nonprofit focused on combatting anti-Semitism.