Ariel Koren
Respond Crisis Translation

Personal Bio

Ariel is the Founder of Respond Crisis Translation and a multilingual person committed to the language community’s responsibility to fight back when language is weaponized to impede freedom of mobility.

Prior to founding Respond, Ariel worked as a trauma-informed interpreter in disparate emergency contexts and as a language access project manager at Google Translate. She is one of the co-creators of Jewish Diaspora in Tech, an anti-nationalist Jewish organizing group acting in solidarity with communities leading the fight against the carceral state, techno-militarism, and white nationalism. She speaks Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Arabic, Hebrew, Italian, Ladino, and ASL.

Project Description

Respond Crisis Translation is a global collective of 2,500+ translators and interpreters mobilizing around the clock to provide trauma-informed support to anyone experiencing a crisis, emergency, or situation where language is a barrier to access. We represent 105 languages, serve 110 partner organizations and individuals who reach out directly. In 2 years, Respond has translated 25,000 pages for asylum applications and interpreted for over 3,000 asylum seekers.

Respond fights systemic language violence across disparate contexts: from asylum and decarceration activists, to schools, clinics, therapy, job coaching, climate justice, tenants rights, domestic violence and LGBTQ+ centers. Additionally, the Respond Language Democracy Project is a grassroots policy effort seeking reparations for those who have experienced systemic language rights abuses.