Co-Chairs

Stuart Eizenstat

Co-Chair

Bio

Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat is co-chairman of JPPI’s board and professional guiding council and currently heads the international practice of the Covington and Burlington law firm. In the past, he served as US Ambassador to the EU, Under Secretary of State, Under Secretary of Commerce and Deputy Secretary of Treasury. He has held many positions in the Jewish world including the Chairman of the Weizmann Institute’s Board of Governors. His books Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II, 21st Century Global Forces, Their Impact on the Jewish People, Israel and the US (published by JPPI), and most recently President Carter: The White House Years were extremely well-received worldwide.

Articles by Stuart Eizenstat

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Dennis Ross

Co-Chair

Bio

Ambassador Dennis Ross is co-chairman of JPPI’s Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council. He rejoined JPPI in 2011 after serving as a special assistant to President Obama and NSC Senior Director for the Central Region. For more than 12 years (1988-2000), Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping US involvement in the Middle East and was the point man on the peace process in both the Gorge W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. From 2002-2008, he was part of the founding group of JPPI and served as its first chairman. He is the William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Ambassador Ross is the author of several influential books on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy: The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (2004); Statecraft, and How to Restore America’s Standing in the World (2007); Myth, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East co-authored with David Makovsky. Amb Ross’s 2015 book, Doomed to Succeed: The U.S. – Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama, won the 2015 National Jewish Book Award for History.

Articles by Dennis Ross

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Executive Board

Elliott Abrams

Bio

Elliott Abrams is senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House. Mr. Abrams joined the Bush administration in June 2001 as special assistant to the president and senior director of the NSC for democracy, human rights, and international organizations. From December 2002 to February 2005, he served as special assistant to the president and senior director of the National Security Council for Near East and North African affairs. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy from February 2005 to January 2009, and in that capacity supervised both the Near East and North African Affairs and the Democracy, Human rights, and International organizations directorates of the NSC. Mr. Abrams was president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., from 1996 until joining the White House staff. He was a member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom from 1999 to 2001 and chairman of the commission in the latter year, and in 2012 was reappointed to membership for another term. Mr. Abrams is also a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which directs the activities of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He teaches U.S. foreign policy at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Earlier in his carrer, Mr. Abrams spent four years working for the United States Senate: as Assistant Counsel to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1975; as Special Counsel to Senator Henry M. Jackson in 1975-1976; and as Special Counsel and then Chief of Staff to Senator Daniel P. Moynihan from January 1977 to June 1979. Mr. Abrams served in the State Department during all eight years of the Reagan Administration. In January 1981, Mr. Abrams became Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. In this capacity he supervised United States participation in the United Nations System. In December 1981, he was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. In July 1985, Mr. Abrams was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, where he supervised US policy in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1988, Mr. Abrams received the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award from Secretary George P. Shultz for his work in the Department. Mr. Abrams was educated at Harvard College, the London School of Economics, and Harvard Law School. His articles and book reviews have appeared in Commentary, the Weekly Standard, The National Interest, The Public Interest, and National Review. He is the author of four books, Undue Process (1993), Security and Sacrifice (1995), Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in a Christian America (1997), and the recently released Tested by Zion: the Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2013); and the editor of three more, Close Calls: Intervention, Terrorism, Missile Defense and "Just War" Today; Honor Among Nations: Intangible Interests and Foreign Policy; and The Influence of Faith: Religion and American Foreign Policy. He appears regularly on CNN, Fox, and other major television news networks. Mr. Abrams was born in New York City. He and his wife Rachel live in Virginia. They have three children.

Articles by Elliott Abrams

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Eric S. Goldstein

Bio

Eric S. Goldstein became CEO of UJA-Federation of New York on July 1, 2014. Previously, Mr. Goldstein was a leading partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, one of the nation’s most respected law firms. He joined the firm in 1983 and became a partner in 1992, representing many of the world’s largest financial institutions and corporations in significant litigations. Long active in the Jewish community, Mr. Goldstein served in a number of senior lay positions within UJA-Federation, most recently as vice chair with broad oversight of UJA-Federation’s work in Israel and the former Soviet Union. He was also a member of UJA-Federation’s Executive Committee and served as chair of its Lawyers Division, Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal, and Global Strategy Task Force. Also involved in Jewish communal life beyond UJA-Federation, Mr. Goldstein served as a member of the board of governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel; a founding board member of Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education; chair of the board of Manhattan Day School; a board member of the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), a UJA-Federation beneficiary agency; president of the Beth Din of America; a board member of the Ramaz School; and an honorary board member of DOROT, also a UJA-Federation beneficiary agency. Mr. Goldstein is a recipient of the 2013 Torch of Learning Award from American Friends of The Hebrew University, was selected by his peers for The Best Lawyers in America in regulatory enforcement and securities litigation, and was named by Benchmark Litigation as a Local Litigation Star for New York. Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Goldstein graduated from Columbia College, magna cum laude, and Cornell Law School, magna cum laude. He was a participant in the Wexner Heritage Program. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Tamar, and their four children.
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Keren Karp

Bio

Keren Karp Director of Israel Operations for the Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation, Los Angeles. In this role, she oversees the foundation’s work in Israel in supporting and partnering with initiatives and opportunities that promote the Foundation’s interests.

Keren has a B.A. degree in European History and East Asian Studies from The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and a M.A. in Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. As a graduate student she served as VP of the student association, and as an undergraduate was a parliamentary intern to Knesset member Nadia Hilou.

Prior to joining the Glazer Foundation she served as Education Advisor to the Jerusalem mayor, Nir Barkat engaged in planning and implementation of the mayor's education policies in the municipal school system. She then served as manager of Israel-Asia Academic Cooperation in the strategy and international affairs division of Israel’s Council for Higher Education, and Resource Development Director of the Tovanot B’Hinuch education initiative. A native Israeli, she served in the IDF with outstanding athlete status.

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Steve Hoffman

Former JPPI President

Bio

Stephen H. Hoffman, President of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, is a graduate of Dickinson College and received his Masters of Social Work from the University of Maryland and a Master's in Jewish Studies from the Baltimore Hebrew University. He is also a graduate of the Council of Jewish Federation's Executive Recruitment and Education Program (FEREP).

He began his career at the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland in 1974, and served as director of social planning and research and assistant director, before becoming the CEO in 1983. Stephen serves on the President’s Visiting Committee of Case Western Reserve University. He is a board member of the Musical Arts Association (the Cleveland Orchestra), the Mandel Foundation, the David and Inez Myers Foundation, and the Maltz Foundation. He also has served in a number of leadership positions for United Way Services, and is a past board member of the Greater Cleveland Roundtable, an organization devoted to promoting racial harmony in the city of Cleveland.

Stephen’s impact has been national and international in scope. He is the founding director of the Council for Initiatives in Jewish Education. For three years, 2001-2004, he was “loaned” by Cleveland to serve as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Jewish Communities, the national umbrella organization of the federation movement. In 2004, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the United States delegation to the Conference on Anti-Semitism, held in Berlin, Germany, by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He is Founder and Co-Chair of the Secure Communities Network, a national organization concerned with communal security issues and preparedness.

Stephen was the 1999 recipient of the Charles Eisenman Award, the Federation’s highest honor. In May of 2002, Stephen was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters from the Baltimore Hebrew University, and in March of 2003, he was the first recipient of the Fuchs Mizrachi School’s Guardian of Zion Award in Cleveland, Ohio. Stephen and his wife Dr. Amy Hoffman have two children – Emily of Cleveland (married to Eric Weingart) and Jessica of Chicago.

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Eric Fingerhut

Bio

Eric D. Fingerhut is the President and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA). Prior to his appointment at JFNA, Fingerhut served as the President of CEO of Hillel International from 2013-19. At Hillel, Fingerhut led the organization’s Drive to Excellence, which resulted in doubling the number of students engaged by Hillel each year to over 130,000 and the total funds raised each year to nearly $200M. Fingerhut’s emphasis on recruiting, training and retaining top talent for the system, and on building a data and performance driven organization, have become models for the non-profit sector.

Fingerhut has had a varied and distinguished career in public service and higher education. Eric served as Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents from early 2007 to 2011, leading Ohio’s system of public universities and colleges. In that role, he earned a reputation as an innovative leader and ardent advocate of the value of higher education. Working in constant collaboration with the business community and elected officials of both major political parties, Fingerhut developed a strategic plan to prepare students for 21st century jobs. From 1997 to 2006, Eric served as an Ohio state senator, and from 1993 to 1994, represented Ohio’s 19th congressional district in the U.S. Congress. In 2004, he was the Democratic Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate.

Fingerhut received a juris doctorate from Stanford University Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife Amy, sons Sam and Charlie, and beagles Pedro and Lulu.

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Richard Bernstein

Bio

Richard Bernstein has been actively engaged in the practice of law for 40 years including 15 years with the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig P.A. before becoming semi-retired in 2019. He focused his practice on corporate finance, including debt and equity transactions; strategic and venture capital financings; mergers and acquisitions; distribution, licensing and technology transfer transactions; domestic and international joint ventures; non-profit organizations and general corporate matters. Richard has managed mergers and acquisition transactions and technology licensing matters in the United States, Israel, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

Richard is an experienced advisor in the areas of corporate governance in both the for-profit and the not-for-profit sectors and has served in  senior lay leadership roles on local, national and international NGO’s including the Jewish Agency for Israel, One Laptop Per Child,  World ORT, the Jewish Federations of North America and United Israel Appeal.

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Tzur Keren

Bio

Tzur Keren has been a senior management consultant for more than 25 years. He has advised the CEOs and top management teams at an array of major corporations and large organizations on business strategy design, planning and implementation of organizational change, complex systems analysis, formulation of core policies, and big data analysis for business intelligence (BI) purposes. He is a strategic adviser to the Jewish Agency’s Executive Chairman and CEO of Otipo, an Israeli company that developed and provides web-based workforce and employee scheduling for shift-work businesses. Keren teaches leadership and CEO development courses at the College of Management and Academic Studies (COMAS). From 1994 to 2009 he was head of the IDF’s Military Psychology Center (MPC) and chief consultant to the IDF’s Ground forces division. Keren is currently completing a doctorate in sociology at Hebrew University.

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Glen Lewy

Bio

Glen Lewy is a Senior Managing Director of Hudson Ventures, a technology-focused venture capital fund based in New York. Prior to joining Hudson in 2000, Glen spent 25 years as an adviser to some of the world's largest and most prestigious corporations, having distinguished himself as both a lawyer and investment banker. He was a senior partner and member of the Management Committee of Wolfensohn & Co., a member of the Management Committee of Bankers Trust Company, and a partner in the New York law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton. Glen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of The New York Historical Society. He is the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the SEED Foundation. Glen is also a Board member of several technology-related companies in which Hudson is an investor. Glen recently completed a three year term as the National Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). He has been involved in the ADL since the 1970s and continues to be a member of the National Commission and the National Executive Committee, on which he has served for more than 20 years. Glen holds a B.A. degree from Amherst College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. Glen resides in Mamaroneck, New York with his wife, Cheryl (the Chair of the Westchester County Planning Commission). They have three grown children.
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Sallai Meridor

Bio

Sallai Meridor served as Israel’s Ambassador to the USA from 2006 to 2009, and as the Chairman of the Jewish Agency from 1999 to 2005. From 2011 to mid 2018, he served as the Chairperson and co founder of a cyber security focused VC fund. He currently serves as the Chairperson of a Pension and Provident fund and as a board member of several policy institutes.

He is married to Noa, father of 3 daughters, grandfather of 8 grandchildren.

Photo: Muki Schwartz

Articles by Sallai Meridor

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Dr. Steve Nasatir

Bio

Dr. Steven B. Nasatir, formerly President of the Jewish Federation of Chicago, is a recognized authority in the area of social and human services and a distinguished Jewish communal leader. He has traveled throughout the world in his commitment to the cause of Jewish and human survival. A frequent visitor to Israel, Dr. Nasatir has also visited other countries in the Middle East, Latin America, Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union and other countries in Eastern Europe where the welfare of the Jewish community is at risk. A former academician, Dr. Nasatir is the fourth person in the 111-year history of Chicago's Jewish Federation to serve as its chief executive officer having been appointed to that position in 1979. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois; holds an M.A. degree from Roosevelt University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He has served on the faculty of the University of Illinois in Chicago and has been a Visiting Professor at other institutions of higher education. He joined the staff of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago in 1971. He has served on city and state commissions and task forces, has served on the Board of First Trust Nonprofit Companies, and was an elected member of the Board of Directors of United Way/Crusade of Mercy, Inc. He presently serves on the Board of Directors of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute in Jerusalem, the Board of the Michael Reese Health Trust, the Covenant Foundation, a number of Family Foundation Boards of Directors. He is an Associate Member of the Board of Governors and delegate to the Assembly of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and a very active participant and consultant to the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA). In November, 1986 the Mayor of the City of Chicago presented him with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations Annual Award; he was selected as the 1991 Distinguished Service Honoree by the Association of Jewish Community Organization Personnel (AJCOP); and in 2002 received the Franklin Roosevelt Humanitarian Award from Roosevelt University A native Chicagoan, Dr. Nasatir is a member of Am Yisrael Congregation, has five sons, and is married to Carolyn Rosenberg, who is an attorney and a partner at Reed Smith Sachnoff & Weaver in Chicago.
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Doron Shorrer

Bio

Doron Shorrer, a C.P.A., is a former CEO of Israel's Ministry of Transportation. He is an insurance and capital markets expert with more than D20Doron Shorrer, a C.P.A., is a former C.E.O. of Israel's Ministry of Transportation. He is an insurance and capital markets expert with more than 20 years experience. Shorrer has served as Commissioner of Insurance, Capital Markets and Savings in the Ministry of Finance. He has also held the roles of Chairman of the Mivtachim pension fund, a leading Israeli financial institution, and Chairman of the Phoenix Insurance Company. Shorrer has a B.A. in economics and accounting and an M.B.A. in finance and banking from Hebrew University.

 
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Shivi Greenfield

Bio

Dr. Shivi Greenfield is the Deputy Director General for Strategy and Planning at the Jewish Agency for Israel and is responsible for the strategy, planning and evaluation of the organization’s operations across the globe. He holds a PhD in Political Theory from Oxford University, where he was a Weidenfeld Scholar, and received master’s and bachelor’s degrees in political philosophy and economics from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has also held research positions at NYU Law School and the Chazan Center for Social Justice and Democracy at the Van-Leer Jerusalem Institute.
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Dan Halperin

Bio

Dan Halperin is Managing Director of IFTIC LTD, a consulting firm he formed together with Major General (ret) Menachem Meron, which deals in advising Israeli and American companies on how to expand mutual activities. Halperin also serves on the board of various Israeli firms and organizations, such as Academon, Edmond de Rothschild Portfolio Management (Israel) and Hadas Arazim. He is the chairman of the Israel Festival Jerusalem and Chairman of the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies. Previously, he served as counselor for economic affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, as deputy director-general of the Finance Ministry, in charge of international affairs and generally headed Israel's efforts against the Arab boycott of the 1970's. Halperin also served as a political and economic commentator on Israel Radio and as spokesman of the Finance Ministry. Halperin lives in Jerusalem. He is a proud husband, father of five and grandfather of twelve.
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Marc Utay

Bio

Marc is the Managing Partner of Clarion Capital Partners, LLC, an asset management firm in New York City specializing in growth oriented Private Equity. Prior to launching Clarion, from 1993 to 1999, Marc was a Managing Director at Wasserstein Perella & Co., where he served as Co-Head of the Media, Telecommunications, Entertainment, and Technology Group, the Leveraged Finance Group, and the Retail Group. He was also a member of the firm’s Policy Committee. During this period, he led investments in Imax Corporation and All-Clad Holdings, Inc. From 1991 until 1993, he was a Managing Director at BT Securities, in the firm’s High Yield and Mergers and Acquisitions groups. From 1990 to 1991, he was the Managing Partner of Kent Capital Partners, a principal investment firm with limited advisory business. From 1983 to 1990, he was a Partner at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., in the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions department. From 1981 to 1983, he was a Financial Associate in the Beverage Division of the General Foods Corporation. Marc graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in 1980 and an MBA in 1981.
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Founders

Avinoam Bar-Yosef

Former President and Founding Director

Bio

Avinoam Bar-Yosef is the Former President and the Founding Director of the Jewish People Policy Institute. He was Chief Diplomatic Correspondent and Commentator, and later US Bureau Chief for the Ma'ariv daily newspaper. He wrote thousands of articles, weekly columns and analyses, many of them on Jewish People issues and policies. From 1999 to 2002 he served as senior advisor to then JAFI chairman Sallai Meridor. At JPPI he wrote policy papers, and published op-ed columns in the Israeli and international newspapers including the New York Times - International Herald Tribune, Ha'aretz and Ma'ariv.

Articles by Avinoam Bar-Yosef

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Prof. Yehezkel Dror

Founding President (Emeritus)

Bio

Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a member of the Club of Rome, scholar and international advisor on statecraft, governance, and policy planning. He served as a senior staff member of the RAND Corporation in the USA; Senior Advisor in the Offices of Israeli Prime Ministers and Ministers of Defense; Fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study and Science Center; and senior professor at the European Institute of Public Administration, Maastricht.

Articles by Prof. Yehezkel Dror

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Sallai Meridor

Bio

Sallai Meridor served as Israel’s Ambassador to the USA from 2006 to 2009, and as the Chairman of the Jewish Agency from 1999 to 2005. From 2011 to mid 2018, he served as the Chairperson and co founder of a cyber security focused VC fund. He currently serves as the Chairperson of a Pension and Provident fund and as a board member of several policy institutes.

He is married to Noa, father of 3 daughters, grandfather of 8 grandchildren.

Photo: Muki Schwartz

Articles by Sallai Meridor

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