Institute Speakers
PICZ is lucky to have some of the most creative and inspiring faculty--below is the growing list of mentors and workshop leaders who will be available to Fellows and Members this summer.
Roni Aloni-Sadovnik
Roni Aloni-Sadovnik is a serial social entrepreneur currently serving as the coordinator of the Campaign Against Human Trafficking in Israel. At the age of 30 she was elected to the Jerusalem City council and served, in time, as the Deputy Mayor of the city. Active in inter-religious causes, she was awarded the "Ambassador for World Peace" award for her work in bridging the Muslim-Christian-Jewish divides, and since then has devoted her time to raising awareness concerning the white slave trade in Israel and child rights issues. At the moment, Aloni-Sadovnik is embarking on two projects that aim to change the psychographic and geographic make up of Israel: one concerning woman's access to Torah and commentary, and another concerning the renovation of the graveyards at the entrance to Jerusalem.
Mel Alexenberg
Mel Alexenberg is author of the highly acclaimed book The Future of Art in a Digital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness and Professor of Art and Jewish Thought at Emunah College in Jerusalem. He is creating a new School of Art and Multimedia Design at Netanya College of which he will be dean when it opens next year. He is professor emeritus at the College of Judea and Samaria, and former professor of art and education at Columbia University and Bar-Ilan University, head of the art department at Pratt Institute, dean of New World School of the Arts in Miami, and research fellow at MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies. He is an alumnus of Yeshiva University and earned his doctorate at New York University. As an artist, Alexenberg creates artworks that explore relationships between art in the digital age and Jewish patterns of thought, participatory art and community, and space-time systems and electronic technologies. His artwork is in the collections of more than forty museums worldwide.
Zvika Arran
Social entrepreneur of the Israeli charities rating, a non-profit joint venture of Meitav Investment House and Social partners. Lawyer. M.A. - the Public Policy Graduate School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Former Fellow - The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute. Founder and board member of the "Nachshon" Organization – the Israeli Institute for Social Leadership, a one year framework for high school graduates. He participates in BCI - a one month gathering of young Jewish leadership from around the world at the Brandies Bardin Institute, California, USA . Zvika served as an officer in the IDF National Radio Broadcasting Network ("GALEI-TZAHAL"). He was chairperson of the first National Student Council and a member of the Pedagogic Secretariat of the Ministry of Education. Married to Liat. Live in Haruv, a religious-secular community in the north of the Negev.
Benjy Balint
Benjamin Balint is a fellow at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, where he is writing a book on Commentary magazine, neoconservatives, and American Jews (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). His articles and reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Haaretz, the Forward, the American Scholar, the Weekly Standard, National Review, Wilson Quarterly, and the Claremont Review of Books. Balint served as assistant editor of Commentary and as associate editor of Azure.
Asaf Baner
Asaf Baner, 29, is among the founders and the current director of the Israeli nonprofit organization B'Maaglei Tzedek which works to create a just society operating in accordance with the values and ethics of Jewish Tradition. Among B'Maaglei Tzedek's widely acclaimed projects is the "social seal," a form of social kashrut that is accorded to restaurants that adhere to basic workplace ethics and standards. A Jerusalemite by birth, Asaf has a degree from the Hebrew University in psychology and business management.
Yehuda Ben-Dor
Yehuda Ben-Dor is completing his doctorate in Jewish thought at the Hebrew University. He has served as a lawyer for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and as lecturer at the Elul Center for Jewish Learning. He is one of the founders of the Yesodot Center for the Study of Torah and Democracy. His area of interest lies in the interactions between Jewish thought and western Philosophy and literature--and he is a faculty member at the Mandel Leadership Institute.
Tsvi Bisk
Tsvi Bisk is an independent futurist, social researcher, and strategy planning consultant. He is director of the Center for Strategic Futurist Thinking. With over 20 years of experience as a former senior associate of the Beit Berl Institute, Bisk has published more than one hundred essays and articles in English and Hebrew in a variety of publications as well as his first full-length book Futurizing the Jews (Praeger Press, 2003). His second book The Optimistic Jew: a Positive Vision for the Jewish People in the 21st Century (Maxanna Press, 2007) will be available in August, 2007. Bisk can be contacted at bisk@futurist-thinking.co.il
David Brinn
David Brinn is a veteran journalist who has lived in Israel for 18 years. He was a senior editor at The Jerusalem Post from 1990 to 2002. He joined ISRAEL21c as Editorial Director in 2003. Originally from the US, David is married with four children and lives in Ma'aleh Adumim.
Tal Cohen
Tal Cohen is the founder of Teach for Israel, a start-up modeled after the Teach for America programs in Israel and Great Britain. In his other life, Tal is an internal global auditor for AMDOCs, a long-time volunteer with the Make a Wish Foundation, and a Navy officer in reserves. Tal has an executive Master's Degree in Political Science, and an LLB from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzeliya.
Moty Cristal
Moty is a specialist in conflict research, negotiation and crisis management. Between 1994 and 2001 he served in various official positions in Israeli negotiation teams with Jordan, Syria and the Palestinians, and experienced years of cross-culture negotiations within the Israeli-Arab conflict. His last position was deputy head of the Negotiation Management Center in the PM’s office, and in this capacity attended the Camp David and Taba Summits. Since 2001, he teaches and trains negotiations and conflict resolution, as well as provides consultancy services in strategic planning, negotiations support, and mediation. He established IPNP (Israeli Palestinian Negotiating Partners), which aims to create a network of negotiators in the region, and is affiliated with several academic research institutions. Since 2003 he is writing his PhD in Negotiation Systems at the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and teaches International Negotiation at Tel Aviv University.
Roy Folkman
Roy currently serves as the CEO of Hebrew University Student Union. Born and raised in Tel Aviv. He served as a medic in the army and was a member of a group that settled in a new Kibbutz in the Arava. After his service he worked for the Society for Protection of Nature (SPNI). In recent years he worked for Arts high school in Jerusalem. He is also a part of a group of students that established the "New Spirit" association; they work to strengthen the affinity students to Jerusalem, and to encourage them to social activity. Roy has completed his BA in economics and Middle Eastern studies, and finishes his master's degree in the honors program in Public Policy this year.
Daniel Gordis
Daniel Gordis is Vice President of the Mandel Foundation Israel, and Director of the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem. Prior to assuming this position, Gordis served as Director of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows Program. Gordis was Founding Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He also held the positions of Vice-President for Public Affairs and Community Outreach, and Assistant Professor of Philosophy. Gordis writes extensively about American Judaism and Israeli society, and is the author of, among other books, God Was Not in the Fire, Does the World Need the Jews, and his most recent book on the demise of the mid-east peace process, If a Place Can Make You Cry. A new version of the last book, Home To Stay, was published in October 2003.
Marco Greenberg
Marco Greenberg is an entrepreneur, PR guru and web video pioneer. Having worked extensively in the United States and in Israel, his expertise in strategic marketing communications was forged both in the private sector – where he held senior positions in two of the largest public relations and advertising firms, Burson-Marsteller, Gitam/BBDO, and his own successful ventures, NYPR and Reel Biography – and in the public sector, where he worked, inter alia, with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Israel Defense Forces, and the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds degrees from UCLA and Columbia University, and is an adjunct professor at Fordham Graduate Business School. This summer, Marco is launching his third start-up, Thunder11, conceived as a new resource for helping entrepreneurs reimagine their communication strategy with an eye toward new media. Rather than analyze the current state of “hasbara,” he will use his article “The End of Hasbara” as a jumping-off point to brainstorm with us on how Israel can combine creativity and technology to create a new era of “New Age Propaganda.”
Sarah Kass
A Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Yale and Oxford Universities, Sarah Kass founded one of the first charter public high schools in the United States-City On A Hill, in Boston, MA-and a companion school-based teacher training institute. She raised millions of dollars to launch and sustain these institutions, built alliances with over 100 community organizations, and published articles and gave speeches all over the USA on civic engagement, leadership, and accountability in education. After helping to design and launch several other schools, and providing strategic consultation to companies, leaders, and foundations, Sarah joined the staff of the AVI CHAI Foundation, where, since 2004, she has been serving as Director of Strategy & Evaluation. In 2006, Sarah and her husband and their two young daughters moved to Jerusalem.
Yossi Klein Halevi
Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow in the Shalem Center's Institute for Zionist History and Thought and the Israel correspondent of the New Republic. Halevi is the author of Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist (1995) and At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land (2001). He has been a columnist for the Jerusalem Post, a regular contributor on Israeli affairs to the Los Angeles Times, and a frequent guest on CNN and other national and international broadcast media. The 1983 documentary film, "Kaddish," directed by Steve Brand, focuses on Halevi's relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor, and was named by the New York-based Village Voice as one of the ten best films of the year. Halevi is currently writing a book about the Israeli paratroopers who reunited Jerusalem in 1967.
Benny Levin
Benny Levin is acting Chairman of the dbMotion Board of Directors. Before joining dbMotion Mr. Levin co-founded NICE Systems, a worldwide leader of multimedia digital recording solutions for business interaction management. Mr. Levin served as NICE's President and Director from its inception and as Chairman and CEO from February 1998 to 2001. Under Mr. Levin's leadership the company achieved impressive growth and raised significant funds, both on NASDAQ and the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). Prior to founding NICE, Mr. Levin served in the Israel Defense Forces (the "IDF"), where he held various positions in Military Intelligence and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1978, he was awarded the Chief of Intelligence Award for Creative Thinking. Mr. Levin is also Vice-Chairman of the Israel Venture Network (IVN) and Chairman of the IVN's Education Initiative Steering Committee. The IVN is a venture philanthropy network of high-tech entrepreneurs and executives from Israel and the U.S. with the goal of increasing Israel's national competitiveness by advancing its educational systems and by promoting a culture that values volunteerism and philanthropy. He holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
Jacob Ner-David
Jacob is the Managing Partner of Jerusalem Capital I, LP, which is expanding the venture backed tech economy in Israel by going beyond core technology to "Technology Enabled Services." Jacob has been a successful serial entrepreneur for more than a decade, creating billions of dollars in shareholder value. In 2004 Jacob joined, as a founding member, the Aspen Institute Middle East Strategy Group. In the late 1980s and early 90s Jacob was deeply involved in a number of international political issues, traveling to over 20 countries, meeting with Prime Ministers, Presidents, and other senior political and communal figures. Jacob served on the executive of the World Jewish Congress and the World Union of Jewish Students. Jacob serves on the International Council of the Jerusalem Foundation and the New Israel Fund.
Shlomi Ravid
Shlomi Ravid, a native and life long Kibbutznik, has been involved in Israel Diaspora relations for the last 20 years. Shlomi was a Kibbutz Secretary, a national Shaliach for the Kibbutz Movement in New York, a consultant to a number of Jewish Agency departments, founding director of the San Francisco Israel Center and founder of the Center for Israel-Diaspora Cultural Relations. Shlomi has earned a doctorate in Philosophy from Tel Aviv University and his dissertation on the changing of the Kibbutz in Israel was published in 1999. His academic and public work in the last few years has focused around the challenges of community building in Israel and the Jewish world. In 2002 Shlomi resumed his position of Executive Director of the Israel Center at the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco and the Bay Area. Upon his return to Israel in 2006 he became the director of the International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies at Beth Hatefutsoth.
Michael B. Oren
Michael B. Oren is a senior fellow at the Shalem Center's Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies. He is the author of the award-winning Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East (2002; Heb. ed., 2007), the critically acclaimed Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East from 1776 to the Present (2007), as well as dozens of scholarly and popular articles on the history and politics of the Middle East. His writing has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Republic, Commentary, and the Wall Street Journal. He is a veteran of both Lebanon wars and was an Israeli liaison officer during the Gulf war. He also served as a representative of the Prime Minister's Office to the Jewish underground in the Soviet Union and as an advisor to the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Sherman Rosenfeld
Sherman Rosenfeld is a biologist and science educator who, for the last three decades, has worked intensively on design, implementation and evaluation of innovative educational programs. His overall goal is to help promote constructive change with students, teachers, schools and learning communities. He directed an interactive science museum in California, designed award-winning educational software, developed curricula for pre-college students and prepared hundreds of Israeli middle school science teachers to guide their students to engage in original research and development projects. This past school year (2006-7), Sherman co-directed an educational effort in which about 30 science teachers guided hundreds of their students to investigate water quality, in the Arab town of Kalanswa. In 1982, not long after he received his Ph.D in Biology and Science Education from the University of California in Berkely, Sherman and his family made aliyah. Since then, he has worked as a science educator at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.
Neta Sher-Hadar
Neta Sher-Hadar has completed her doctorate in public administration at the Hebrew University where she teaches undergraduates. She teaches Policy at the Mandel Leadership Institute.
Dudi Silberschlag
Dudi Silberschlag is the co-publisher of "Bekehila," a weekly Haredi newspaper and partner in Trio, Adler, Chomsky & Warshavskly's niche advertising agency for the Haredi market. Dudi's main focus is social action and charity. He is the founder and chairman of Meir Panim/ Koach Latet, one of the largest charity and welfare organizations in Israel. The organization runs dozens of soup kitchens, and provides education, clothing and equipment to the disadvantaged. Mr. Silbershlag has been recently appointed chairman of Zaka, a voluntary community emergency response team. He is also very active in bringing various fractions of Israeli society together.
Miriam Warshaviak
Miriam Warshaviak is a Program Officer at the AVI CHAI Foundation, a private philanthropy dedicated to strengthening Jewish identity and commitment and to encouraging mutual understanding and sensitivity among Jews of different backgrounds. At AVI CHAI since 2000, Miriam is now based in Jerusalem and oversees a diverse portfolio of the Foundation's Israel efforts, which include programs related to pluralistic Jewish study, Jewish Peoplehood and to developing a cadre of J-inspired Jewish leadership. In addition, by the end of June 2007, Miriam will have completed her MBA from the Kellogg Recanati Executive MBA program (a joint degree from Northwestern and Tel Aviv universities) and is interested in the nexus between business and philanthropy. Prior to her aliyah in 2004, Miriam was involved in the Foundation's efforts in both North America and in the former Soviet Union and before that worked with YUSSR, a student-run organization that sponsors Jewish educational programming in the FSU, in Minsk, Belarus, directing a Jewish youth center and a number of winter and summer camps.