Photo: Francois du Chatenet

Photo: Francois du Chatenet

Photo: Brett Kline

Photo: Brett Kline

Jordan Elgrably is the Editor in Chief of The Markaz Review. For many years he worked in Los Angeles where he was a social entrepreneur, producer & the founding director of the former Levantine Cultural Center (est. 2001), renamed The Markaz, Arts Center for the Greater Middle East. The Markaz closed on May 31, 2020 (as reported in the Los Angeles Times) but returned in September 2020 as The Markaz Review.
 
A former curator of public programs, Jordan is of Moroccan and French heritage. He has been passionately committed to strengthening Arab/Muslim/Christian and Jewish relations for many years. In addition to The Markaz he cofounded the New Association of Sephardi/Mizrahi Artists & Writers International in 1996 and Open Tent Middle East Coalition in 1999. He was a producer for the Dalai Lama’s World Festival of Sacred Music in 1999, 2002 and 2005. As well, he has launched several original initiatives, among them Arabs, Blacks & Jews: The Art of Resistance (2005-2010); Sultans of Satire: Middle East Comic Relief (2005-2017); Beirut-Los Angeles.org—an effort to help victims of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war (2006); CelebratePalestine.org (2013-2014); New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema (2010-2015), with funding from the Golden Globes/Hollywood Foreign Press Association; and Gaza Surf Relief (2007).

Jordan attended the American University of Paris (formerly ACP) and was based for a number of years in Paris and Madrid, where he worked as a journalist and associate producer for TF1. His essays, articles and stories have appeared in many anthologies and periodicals. In 2008, the L.A. Weekly featured Jordan Elgrably in its People of the Year issue and he received the Local Hero Award from the Foundation for World Arts and Culture; in 2011 and 2014, he was an Annenberg Alchemy Fellow; in 2013 and 2015 he was nominated for the James Irvine Leadership Award. In 2014 he received an American Express Award and in 2015, the Rachel Corrie Conscience and Courage Award from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. In 2016 he was a Ariane de Rothschild Foundation Fellow. Jordan divides his time between Los Angeles and Montpellier.