We have the pleasure of interviewing Jud Nirenberg, author of Johann Trollmann and Romani Resistance to the Nazis, which we read from for our Romani Resistance Day episode in season 1. In this episode, we hear about Jud’s work, the importance of Romani Resistance Day, and the story of Sinto fighter Johann Trollmann.

Jud Nirenberg is a Romani American writer who has authored, co-authored and edited several books on Romani issues. He won the 2017 Baxt Award, given by the Romani Media Initiative.  

Jud lived for many years in Europe, working in the Romani civil rights movement. Starting out at a Romani political party in Prague, he would later direct the largest program funding and training Roma activists in Europe at George Soros' Open Society Foundations. He went on to hold a variety of leadership positions in Roma organizations before serving as CEO and, later, consultant to the largest federation of Roma community organizations, the ERTF (European Roma and Traveller Forum), which survives on a much-reduced scale. 

Jud has lectured on Roma issues at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute and as a guest speaker at schools including Harvard, Tufts, NYU, Purdue and more.

Today he serves as vice-president of board of the National Roma Centre in North. Macedonia and is a consultant to immigration attorneys and Roma asylum-seekers in refugee law cases.

This episode's Romani crush is activist Orhan Tahir.

Thank you for listening to Romanistan podcast.

You can find us on Instagram @romanistanpodcast, and on Facebook under the same name, and on Twitter @romanistanpod

We started a Ko-fi fundraiser to help us expand. Our goal is to release 2 episodes a month, create video content, like an advice column and other treats, and we would also like to register as a nonprofit so we can produce content by other Romani & Sinti creators. We are hoping to cover production costs, like paying for our hosting site, website, editing and producing, and all the rest. We would love it if you could contribute and spread the word. The link, Ko-fi.com/romanistan, is in our bio on Instagram, and will be in the show notes

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You can find Jess on Instagram @jezmina.vonthiele, and you can find Jess’ vintage and curiosities shop Evil Eye Edit on Instagram @evileyeedit & Etsy.

You can find Paulina Verminski on Instagram @_paulina_v_ and at https://romaniholistic.com/. Follow Paulina’s store, Romani Holistic, in Corona Del Mar, CA, on Instagram @romaniholistic 

Romanistan is hosted by Jessica Reidy and Paulina Verminski

Conceived of by Paulina Verminski

Edited by Cherub

With Music by Viktor Pachas

And Artwork by Elijah Vardo

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