Raphael Mimoun
I work at the intersection of human rights and technology.I'm passionate about building decentralized infrastructure that gives more agency, autonomy, and power to people and communities—online and offline.I write about Zionism and Israel/Palestine, and also occasionally about social justice or tech.If you want to build something together, improve your digital security, or learn more about projects I'm working on, let's talk!
I'm Raphael Mimoun.
I sometimes go by Raph, Rafa, Raphy.
I use pronouns he/him.
I was born and raised in Bordeaux, France, and now live in Koreatown, Los Angeles. I have a Bachelor and two Masters in International Relations.I've worked in human rights ever since graduating from university. For several years, I supported grassroots movements on matters of strategic nonviolence and movement building. I then specialized in digital security, eventually founding Horizontal, a human rights tech non-profit. In 2023, I received the Rise25 award from the Mozilla Foundation for my work with Horizontal. The award honors "25 visionaries reshaping our digital future".I'm passionate about building decentralized infrastructure that gives more agency, autonomy, and power to people and communities—online but also in the real world, because as Jenny O’dell wrote, “what does it mean to construct digital worlds while the actual world is crumbling before our eyes?”
Horizontal
I founded Horizontal in 2019 to address head on the digital threats that those on the front lines of the fights for fundamental rights and freedoms face everyday.We are now a team of 10, spread on 5 continents, building security and privacy tools to help protect human rights defenders, activists, and journalists from surveillance, censorship, and repression.You can read more about Horizontal on our website or check out Tella and Shira, our two main projects.
One Small Detail
One Small Detail is a blog where I share my experience and analysis on Zionism and Israel/Palestine. I draw from my experience growing up Jewish and Zionist, living in Israeli for some years, and having much of my family in Israel.Some of my writing has been published in places like the Washington Post, but most of it lives on my blog. You can read it here or subscribe to the newsletter.
Organizing for Palestine
I organize with several Jewish groups who fight for Palestinian freedom.I'm an active member of Tsedek!, a French collective of decolonial Jews fighting against state racism in France and for an end to apartheid and occupation in Israel-Palestine.I'm also active with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence (CJNV). With CJNV, I have spent time in the West Bank doing 'protective presence' work, where activists (including many Jews and Israelis) stay in Palestinian villages and communities to document abuse by Israeli soldiers and settlers, and in hope hat our presence will lead to some restraint in Israeli violence against Palestinians.
Crosswalk Collective LA
I co-founded Crosswalk Collective LA, a small group fighting car violence by building safety infrastructure where the city of Los Angeles wouldn't.Most notably, we pain crosswalks in our communities in a modest attempt to give more visibility to pedestrians. Our work has been featured extensively in national media like NPR or Slate and local LA media like CBS News, NBC, or LAist.You can request a crosswalk in your community using this form or support our work here.