The Jewish People Policy Institue

We are happy to announce that Prof. Yehonatan Givati has joined the Institute as a senior fellow. Givati completed both his PhD in economics and his Doctorate in law (SJD) at Harvard and is a professor of law at Hebrew University. He is the founding director of the Aumann-Fischer Center for Law, Economics, and Public Policy at Hebrew University and a member of the Center for the Study of Rationality, also at Hebrew University. Givati will head JPPI’s “Israel-Diaspora Index” project.

Shlomit Mali is CEO of the AMI - the coordinating body for relations between Israelis and Diaspora Jewry. She is a serial entrepreneur specializing in project leadership an partnership development. Mali was part of the founding team of the Center for Humanities Studies, managed the teacher training department at the National Library, and taught Talmud in various frameworks (SAR – New York; Keshet – Jerusalem; Yad Laisha and others). She holds a master's degree from the  Ravivim program at Hebrew University.

Prof. Reuven Y. Hazan is a professor in and former chair of the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is the first to hold the Chair in Israeli Democracy and Politics. He has taught about Israeli government and comparative politics for almost thirty years, both at the Hebrew University and at American universities such as Columbia, Emory, Harvard and Yale. His research and publications focus on the neo-institutional cornerstones of comparative politics: political parties and party systems, elections and electoral systems, and legislative studies. He served on the editorial board of leading political science journals (International Political Science Review, Party Politics, Journal of Legislative Studies) and on the executive committee of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR).

He has written and edited several books, special issues of journals, and dozens of book chapters and articles, covering both Israeli government and politics as well as more general theoretical and comparative political science scholarship. Hazan's most recent publications are as lead editor of the Oxford Handbook on Israeli Politics and Society and co-author of Politics and Government in Israel. He has served on political reform commissions appointed in Israel and in other countries, he has advised Israeli political parties and the speaker of the Israeli parliament, worked as a senior research fellow at Israel's top political think tanks, and his analysis of Israeli politics appears often in media outlets across the world (such as the New York Times and CNN).

Eliran Carsenti is JPPI's digital assets manager and editor of the Institute's website. Over the last decade, he has worked as a reporter, editor, and manager at several prominent media organizations. He has a bachelor's degree in economics and communications from Ariel University, a master's degree in law from Bar Ilan University, and he is a graduate of a campaign management program at the New-Media college.

Shmuel Rosner is a researcher, editor and columnist. He is the editor of the "THE MADAD" project, for politics, society, identity and culture in Israel and serves as a television commentator for Kan News.

Rosner was the editor-in-chief of the non-fiction books in Kinneret-Zamora-Dvir from 2009 to 2021. He was a columnist for the New York Times newspaper from 2012 to 202. He was the head of the news department at Haaretz (1996 to 2008). He is a sought-after lecturer on Israeli politics, security, and policy; the state of the Jewish people; American history, politics, and policy.

Moshe Cohen heads JPPI's media and communications arm. He is an attorney and strategic communications consultant. Cohen served for 16 years as the head of the Information and Communications Department at the Ministry of Justice, which includes the Attorney General's Office and the State Attorney's Office.

Prior to that, Cohen worked in the press, in various capacities: head of the editorial staff of the Israeli daily newspaper Maariv, where he also served as justice reporter; before that he was a Channel One reporter for (the Broadcasting Authority) covering the Arab world, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

Adv. Cohen studied law at the Hebrew University and specialized as a criminal prosecutor in the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office. He also holds an additional degree in criminology, with honors, from the Hebrew University, and is a certified mediator. Cohen is an alumnus of the Israeli Center for Management's Advanced Management Program and the Fellows Program for the senior faculty of the National Midrasha at the Civil Service Commission.

Rivka Ravitz studied business administration and computer science and received her MBA in Information Systems. She is currently working on a doctorate in public policy at the University of Haifa. Her research at JPPI addresses the empowerment of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) women in the labor market. Ravitz served as Chief of Staff to the 10th President of the State of Israel, Mr. Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin. She is a member of Israel’s Haredi community and lectures on various topics.

Nadia Beider holds a PhD in Contemporary Jewry from the Hebrew University, where she was a Mandel Scholion doctoral fellow. She is currently a Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe postdoctoral fellow at University College London. She teaches Jewish Education at the Hebrew University and has worked as a demographer at the Claims Conference.

Ariel L. Bendor is Frank Church Professor of Legal Research at the Faculty of Law and Dean of School of Graduate Studies, Bar-Ilan University. He holds an LL.B. (cum laude) and an LL.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a professor or visiting scholar at Yale, Osgood Hall, and Maryland law schools. He served as a member of the appointments committee of Bar-Ilan University and as chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Law. He serves as the head of the Center for Media and the Law and of the publishing house of the Faculty of Law. Before joining Bar-Ilan in 2008, he was on the faculty at the University of Haifa (1992-2008), where he served as Dean of Law, Dean of Students, and member of the Board of Directives at the University of Haifa. He served in a number of public committees, including the Advisory Committee for Examination of Israel's Policy of Immigration, a team to examine the policy of issuing gag orders, and the search committee for the State Attorney. His main expertise includes constitutional law, administrative law, and substantive and procedural criminal law. He has written three scholarly books and about 80 academic articles published in law reviews and books in Israel and abroad. He has edited two books as well as the Hebrew University Law Review and the University of Haifa Law & Government Journal, and was the Editor in Chief of the University of Haifa Press.

Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal is a scholar of rabbinic Judaism. Her work focuses on aspects of Jewish-Christian interactions in the ancient world, and compares early Christian and rabbinic sources. She is a faculty member at the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and she was an elected member of the Israel Young Academy of Sciences. She was the Horace Goldsmith Visiting Professor in Judaic Studies at Yale University and the Gruss Visiting Associate Professor in Talmudic Civil Law Harvard Law School. Her first book is Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2013; winner of the 2014 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award). Her second book is Jewish-Christian Dialogues on Scripture in Late Antiquity: Heretic Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2019; finalist, National Jewish Book Award, 2019).

Jason is the JPPI spokesperson for foreign media. As a foreign media liaison and speechwriter, Jason has experience working with the Office of the President of Israel under both President Isaac Herzog and former president Reuven Rivlin, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as Education Minister and Minister for Diaspora Affairs, former Justice Minister Gideon Saar, Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion, and others.

He has over 20 years of experience working with the international media based in Israel and has helped manage the coverage for some of the largest scale events to have taken place in the country; including the visits of two Popes, six visits of US Presidents and Vice Presidents, dozens of other heads of state, as well as for the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz held at Yad Vashem in 2019. He has also consulted for major international brands including Facebook and Mars.

Jason holds a BA in Politics and Social Policy from Brunel University. Originally from Sunderland in the North-East of England, he lives in Modi’in with his three sons.

Ghila Amati, originally from Italy and now residing in Jerusalem, earned her PhD from the University of Oxford’s Department of Theology and Religion. She currently serves as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Weisfeld Family Foundation Ma'ayan Center for Jewish Philosophy and Sustainability at Bar-Ilan University and as a Research Fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI).

Previously, Ghila was a Fellow in the Judaism and Human Rights Program at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem. Her scholarly work has been featured in prestigious journals, including Harvard Theological Review, Prooftexts, Religions, and the Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy. At JPPI, Ghila leads the project The Future of Interfaith Dialogue in the Wake of October 7 and contributes to the Data Center initiative.

Photo: Naama Stern, Makor Rishon.

Dr. Nurit Cohen has joined JPPI as part of the "Jewish Peoplehood" project team. Dr. Cohen is a historian and curator of historical exhibitions. Her book, based on her doctoral thesis, Jewish Refugees in the War of Independence won the Yitzhak Sadeh Prize for Military Literature. In the past, she has held key positions in several major media organizations.

Noam Gitin, the content manager of AMI Directorate, has over 15 years of experience in informal Jewish education. She previously worked at Yad Vashem and headed the International Programs and Young Leadership Department at its International School for Holocaust Studies. Gitin holds a master's degree in Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry from Hebrew University. She is married, has two daughters, and resides in Jerusalem.

A Jewish People Policy Institute senior fellow, who is part of the management team of the Thin Constitution project. Giladi has served as a magistrate court judge in Israel's Southern District. He was a legal assistant to the late Supreme Court Deputy President Eliahu Mazza, and an intern of former Supreme Court Deputy President Shlomo Levin.

Giladi was in charge of the professional team of the State's Committee of Inquiry on the Treatment of the Evacuees from the 2005 Gaza Disengagement. He has also served as a Senior Manager of Administrative Law Division in the National Public Defender's Office; a lawyer in the High Court of Justice (Bagatz) Department in the Office of the Attorney General; the Executive Director of the Clinical Law Programs at Tel Aviv University; and a Board Member at the Bar Association's Lawyers Training Institute. He has published several articles on the interface between public law and criminal law.

Shira Tsachi is an educator, group facilitator, and social entrepreneur. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history and geography from Hebrew University, and is a doctoral student in Jewish philosophy at Bar-Ilan University.

Over the past decade, Shira has been involved in young leadership development and in the administration of a unique beit midrash (study framework) at Ein Prat: The Academy for Leadership, where she also served as Deputy CEO for Research, Development, and Learning.

Shira was one of the last students of the late Israel Prize laureate Prof. Eliezer Schweid, and is deeply engaged with his thought and pedagogical legacy. She teaches and lectures on Jewish history and Zionist thought in a variety of educational settings.

She is a former chair of Mirkam – Mixed Communities Network – and is currently a member of the Open University Council.

Dr. Robert Neufeld is an expert in international law, International Humanitarian law, Security law, Military law and Emergency law. Robert served in numerous positions in the IDF's Military Advocate General Corps and the Military Ombudsman, including Commander of the IDF’s School of Military Law, Head of the Operational Law Branch in the IDF International Law Department, Legal Advisor to the Israel Air Force, Israel Navy and IDF Home Front Command, Chief Regional Military Prosecutor, Judge Advocate for the Israel Air Force, Legal Advisor to the Intelligence Directorate and Legal Advisor to the Technology and Logistics Directorate. Today, Robert serves as a legal consultant in the fields of emergency law, counter terrorism, combating BDS and antisemitism. In 2022, Robert served as an expert on behalf of the Council of Europe to the Ukraine Parliament and the Supreme Court on improving the remote hearings legal framework and practice under martial law or state of emergency in Ukraine in line with Human Rights standards and principles.

Robert holds an LLB as well as LLM (Magna cum Laude) from Tel Aviv University, and a PhD from the University of Haifa. His PhD work - "The Impact of political motives on the legality of actions in current warfare under International Humanitarian Law" has examined the adaptability of International Humanitarian Law to modern warfare, current military thought and military doctrines, and the growing political aspects of the use of force. His Post-Doc research, together with Prof. Eli Salzberger, has examined the regulatory framework of the Israeli emergency laws.

Yisrael Klitsner held the role of Diaspora Affairs Advisor to then Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett. Prior to his government role, Yisrael spent six years contributing to AIPAC-AIEF, where he served as the Director of Strategic Engagement. Yisrael, on full scholarship, was studying public policy at Carnegie Mellon University when October 7 hit and he decided to move back to Israel and then spent many months in reserve duty. Yisrael hold a BA from Queens College. He is married and has four children.

Maya Haser has been a professional graphic designer for nearly 20 years. She has worked in the advertising industry and was a digital designer in Israel's Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. A graduate of the Avni Institute of Art and Design, Maya specializes in both print and digital graphic design.

Dr. David Barak-Gorodetsky is the head of the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism, and Director of the Ruderman Program for American-Jewish Studies at the University of Haifa. He recently returned to Israel after two years as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago's Divinity School. Prior to that, he was a researcher at the Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism and served as a rabbi in the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council. His research focuses on the history of religious movements in American Judaism, Israel-Diaspora relations, issues of religion and state, and political polarization. He resides in Kfar Gideon, a mixed Haredi-secular community.

Dr. Ofer Zalzberg is Director of the Middle East Program at the Herbert C. Kelman Institute for Conflict Transformation. Over the last 20 years, he has been a consultant for several international and Israeli organizations, including the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, the International Crisis Group, Oxford Research Group, the Office of the President of Israel, and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He publishes extensively in international and Middle Eastern mainstream media. He co-founded and chaired diverse societal initiatives including Kumu! – For Jewish Renewal of the Public Sphere and the Young Israeli Forum for Cooperation.

His published academic work focuses on conflict arenas characterized by colliding worldviews, notably conflict within and among heterogeneous societies – religious and secular, liberal and non-liberal. His PhD dissertation in Conflict Studies from Trinity College Dublin focused on how conflict resolution addresses value-based non-negotiability.

A Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University currently living in Jerusalem, Gil Troy is an award-winning American presidential historian and a leading Zionist activist. He is, the editor of the new three-volume set, “Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings,” the inaugural publication of The Library of the Jewish People. Two years ago he co-authored with Natan Sharansky Never Alone: Prison, Politics and My People, was published by PublicAffairs of Hachette. Recently designated one of Algemeiner's J-100, one of the top 100 people "positively influencing Jewish life,".

Yael Ribner is the Director of External Affairs at the Jewish People Policy Institute. She worked in the International Relations Division at Yad Vashem for 15 years, leaving in 2022 as the Deputy Director. She studied Communications and Political Science at Bar Ilan University. She is an active lay leader on several community initiatives that focus on Social Justice, Jewish Identity and Israel.

Bezalel Goldman is the former CFO and Information Systems Manager of Torah Mitzion and has served as Deputy CEO of "Yesodot" and as a business banker at Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot. Bezalel holds a bachelor's degree in Management and Psychology from the Open University. He is married, a father of four, and lives in Efrat.

Jonathan holds a BA in film and television from Tel Aviv University. He worked as a magazine reporter for News 10 for several years, after which he specialized in directing and producing commercial and documentary videos in a variety of styles. His collaboration with JPPI includes video content creation and production of online courses.

Rachel Fish is the co-founder of Boundless, a think-action tank partnering with community leaders to revitalize Israel education and take bold collective action to combat Jew-hatred.

Dr. Fish has 20 years of academic experience in the fields of Israeli history, Zionist thought, and Middle Eastern Studies. Currently, Dr. Fish holds a position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at George Washington University’s Graduate School.

She was the Founding Executive Director of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, served as Senior Adviser and Resident Scholar of Jewish/Israel Philanthropy at the Paul E. Singer Foundation, and was Executive Director at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.

Yael Gos has dedicated most of her professional career to the Jewish Agency's Shlichut (emissary) unit. She founded the "ShinShinim" project in Jewish communities abroad and managed the selection and placement process for all youth movement, community, and campus emissaries. She was part of the Camp Ramah team in the U.S. and served as Director of Ramah California. Gos holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Criminology from Bar-Ilan University. She is married, a mother of five and a grandmother, and resides in Jerusalem.

Barry Geltman is JPPI’s longtime English language editor. He joined the Institute in 2008 as part of the steering committee of the inaugural Facing Tomorrow Conference, a cornerstone of the presidency of Shimon Peres. He divides his professional time between JPPI and the URJ Heller High School in Israel, where he teaches an American literature seminar and works to strengthen the emotional attachment of Reform youth to Israel. Geltman worked as an independent producer in television and film before making Aliyah in 2003. He is a Yale alumnus and lives in Jerusalem.

Amit holds a BA in Economics and Amirim Honors program in the Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Engaged in economic research and large-scale data analysis within the research department of the JGive. A unit 8200 alumnus with a broad background in Middle East affairs. Under the guidance of Prof. Yonatan Givati, responsible for estimating the Israel-Diaspora Index using quantitative methods and relying on economic theory.

Jude is involved in several research projects at the Institute, while pursuing an LLM at the Van Leer Institute's MOSA program, alongside working as a foreign news analyst at "Maariv" newspaper. He previously combined graduate studies in Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University whilst a legal internship at S. Horowitz & Co, later becoming a lawyer as well. He holds a BA in History, Jewish Studies and Education from Herzog College, as well as an LLB and was part of the "Amirim" honors program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

During his studies, he worked at the Ministry of Justice and a private law firm, and served as a teaching and research assistant at the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, and the Israel Democracy Institute.

He also interned at the Yad Hanadiv Foundation and the OECD in Paris, while studying at Sciences Po University.

Lipaz Rotkovsky works in the consulting and legislation department at the Ministry of Justice, and is a teaching assistant in the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University. Lipaz has a bachelor's degree in law and a master's degree (with honors) in law with a specialization in commercial-civil law. She is the coordinator of  JPPI’s online course "Israeli Identity – Divided We Stand."

Elijah Kochin received his Bachelor's degree in law (LLB) from the Hebrew University in 2017. Elijah served in several roles in the IDF International Law Department as a legal advisor until his discharge in 2023. Elijah is currently living in New York with his wife.

Shlomi Bereznik was a  soldier from unit 8200 where he served as a Data Scientist. Shlomi is a graduate of a bachelor's degree in data and information engineering at the Technion (data science). During his degree, he won second place in the "Developments at the Technion" competition for his work "Dealing with incitement terrorism on the Internet and its consequences", which dealt with a proposal for a way to deal with thwarting the individual threat.

Eli Kannai holds a B.Sc. in Computer Sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with a focus on Mathematics and Jewish Philosophy. He served as Director of The Snunit Center for Web-Based Learning, a leading e-learning and information architecture organization in Israel. From 2000 to 2002, Eli worked with a private Israeli startup in the field of Knowledge Management. From 2002 to 2019, he held the position of Chief Educational Technology Officer at The AVI CHAI Foundation, operating in Israel, North America, and the FSU. There, he played a pivotal role in the development of large content websites, led online and blended learning initiatives, and contributed to various technology-related projects. Currently, Eli works as an independent consultant specializing in digital strategy and educational technology.