Rabbi Brian Lurie served for seventeen years as Executive Director of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties and for five years as President of the San Francisco Jewish Museum. He has worked in Israel and America to promote equality for Israeli Arabs and as Executive Vice President of the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), he was instrumental in launching the second phase of Operation Exodus and provided the vision and strategic direction under which UJA has begun to broaden its mandate. Rabbi Lurie developed the concept of "The Living Bridge", a metaphor which is redefining the broad range of relationships and the partnerships, as equals, of American Jews and Israelis. Both the Israel Experience for teens and Partnership 2000 were created as pillars of the Living Bridge. He is married to Caroline and they have four children and one granddaughter.

Business Background:
Mr. Lautman is the General Manager of 2gether Capital Ltd.
Mr. Lautman also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Delta Galil Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: DELT), as well as a director in Babcom Centers Ltd.

Social Activity:
Mr. Lautman is a co-founder and Director of the Lautman Foundation. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Ma'ase, an organization that operates volunteer frameworks for young people in Israel with the aim of promoting equal opportunity and social mobility, and a Board member of Kav Mashve, the Employers Coalition for Equality for Arab University Graduates.
Mr. Lautman is the Vice President of the New Israel Fund and a board member of the Jewish Funders Network. He is also a member of the Tel Hai Academic College Board of Governors.

Academic Background:
Mr. Lautman holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Tel Aviv University and an M.B.A. from New York University.

Mary Ann Stein is the President of the Moriah Fund. An attorney, Ms. Stein has chaired several committees, coalitions, and mayoral advisory commissions on family and children's issues. She served on the D.C. Judicial Nominations Commission and has written and published papers on public assistance and child welfare. She is the Founding Chair of the Fund for Global Human Rights, and serves on the board of Americans for Peace Now. She is also a member of the Human Rights First Board of Advocates and is on the board of the Israel Center for Educational Innovation.

Stephen Gunther, Treasurer of the New Israel Fund, is currently the Principal of the New Urban West Incorporation, a California development company. He is on the board of OPCC, a group supporting the homeless, as well as The East Meets West Foundation.

Deborah Bussel is a principal of Bussel Philanthropy Associates, a philanthropic consulting firm that helps donors and funders to make a difference through their philanthropy. She has worked in the non-profit sector for the last two decades as both a funder and an organizational professional with an expertise in program design and development. She is a trustee of the Shepard Broad Foundation.

Currently VP for Business Development, Elah has worked in the capital market for the past 18 years and has been with I.B.I. since 1991, serving previously as pharmaceuticals analyst and later as Research Department Director from 1999 to 2006, turbulent years in the financial markets. Elah serves as a member of the board of governors of Ma'aleh, Nova, and a "A Business of Your Own", a business incubator supported by the Association for the Economic Empowerment of Women, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women gain economic independence through the creation of small businesses. She also writes a weekly column for Globes' Online Opinion Section. Elah holds a B.Sc. in Biology and MBA from Tel Aviv University, and an M.Sc. from the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology of the Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine.

Yifat Bitton is a leading socio-legal all-volunteering activist and a law professor at the School of Management in Israel. She is the co-founder of several civil society organizations and the current chair of Tmura Center – The Israeli Antidiscrimination Center, where new ways to fight against discrimination through private law mechanisms are employed. Her activism combines both academic scholarship and legal advocacy to better the status of disempowered communities in Israel, focusing mainly on the forgotten Mizrahi minority community and on women. Yifat is a grant committee member since 2005, currently chairing the sub-committee of social-justice. She is a board member since 2008. A post-doc researcher at Harvard law school and a Yale Law School graduate, Yifat is mainly the proud mother of two.

Naomi Chazan, former Israeli Knesset Deputy Speaker and leading human rights activist, served as president of the New Israel Fund from 2008-2012. Chazan served on the NIF Board from 1992-93, resigned upon being elected to the Knesset for the Meretz party, and rejoined the NIF Board in January 2007. She is Professor Emerita of Political Science and African Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she served as Chair of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, and has been a Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University and a Wilhelm Fellow at the Center for International Studies at MIT. Chazan currently serves as Dean of the School of Government and Society at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo and as Director of the Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem.

Itsik serves as active chairman of Galil Software, a software company located in Nazareth and focused on outsourcing software development services to the hi-tech market. He also serves as an active board member of several other technology companies.

From 1985 through 2007, Itsik has been with the Comverse Technology Group in various senior management positions including: President of the Comverse Technology Group and President of Comverse Network Systems.

In the NGOs/public sector, Itsik serves as active board member of Avney Rosha, the Israel institute for school leadership- A JV between government and the third sector, of which he was one of its founders. In addition, he is an active board member of IVN (Israel Venture network), where he is involved in building the new social businesses sector in Israel. In 2004-5 he served as a member of the Israeli National Task Force for the Advancement of Education (Dovrat Committee), and was chairman of two of its subcommittees.

Itsik holds B.Sc cum laude and M.Sc in electrical engineering from the Technion and M.A cum laude in philosophy and digital culture from Tel Aviv University.

Peter Edelman is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and poverty law. He and his wife, Children Defense Fund’s founder Marian Wright Edelman, are lifelong advocates for children’s rights and poverty issues. Professor Edelman has served in all three branches of government. He most recently authored So Rich So Poor: Why It's'So Hard to End Poverty in America and has written extensively on poverty, constitutional law, and children and youth. Professor Edelman grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Paul Egerman is businessman and entrepreneur. Paul was previously CEO and co-founder of eScription, Inc., a software company that provides speech recognition services to physicians. Formerly, Paul was the COO of IDX, a worldwide supplier of administrative and financial solutions for healthcare organizations. In 1991, he received Inc. Magazine's "Entrepreneur of the Year" award. Active in many community activities, he currently serves as vice-chairman of the Boston Museum of Science. Paul recently received a congressional appointment to the HIT Policy Committee, which is an advisory committee of the Department of Health and Human Services. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Franklin M. Fisher, Ph.D., is the Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professor of Microeconomics, Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he taught for 44 years. He has also served as a director, and later the Chair of the Board CRA International. He has been the Board Chair of Americans for Peace Now, and is a former Treasurer and President of NIF. in addition to serving on three other Boards. A well-known economist, Professor Fisher has taught at Harvard University, University of Chicago, Oxford, the University of Canterbury, Hebrew University, and Tel Aviv University. For the past 20 years, Professor Fisher has been the Chair of an international project focused on the economics of water, especially in the Middle East.

Itzhak Galnoor is Herbert Samuel Professor of Political Science (emeritus) at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Senior Research Fellow at the Van Leer Institute. Since 2012 he is the Chair of the Israeli Association of Political Science. He was Vice President in Israel of the NIF in the early 80's and again on the Executive Committee in the late 90's.

He has been a Visiting Professor at McGill University, (Canada), Nanzan University, (Japan), University of Arhus, (Denmark), Oxford University, (UK), The University of California (Berkeley, USA) and The University of Sydney (Australia). He has served on the Executive Committee of the International Political Science Association, and edited Advances in Political Science, Cambridge University Press and IPSA book series.

During the Rabin Government 1994–96, he was the Head of the Civil Service Commission. Professor Galnoor has served on Israel Science Foundation's Executive Committee and on the Governing Board of Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2007-2008 he was Deputy Chair of the Israeli Council of Higher Education.

His research Interests: Comparative politics; The Israeli Political System; Humor and Politics. He has written several books and many articles and his book, The Partition of Palestine: Decision Crossroads in the Zionist Movement (SUNY Press, 1995) is regarded as a milestone on the subject. His new book: The Israeli Political System will be published soon in Hebrew and English.

Bill Goldman is an Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he teaches courses on world history, diplomacy and democracy. He has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley and at Stanford University, and is a former research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a trustee of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, and a Founding Trustee of the Richard W. Goldman Family Foundation. He received a BA in history from Yale University, and a Ph.D in European history from UC Berkeley.

Bio to be updated soon

Co-Chair of the International Council (North America)

Middle East expert and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Martin S. Indyk is the Director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. Prior to his first assignment in Israel, Dr. Indyk served as special assistant to President Clinton and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. Before entering government service, Dr. Indyk served for eight years as founding executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Dr. Indyk has published widely on U.S. policy regarding the Arab-Israeli peace process and the complex challenges of the Middle East.

Amal Jamal is a senior lecturer in political science at Tel Aviv Univ. and head of ‎the Walter Lebach Center for Arab-Jewish Coexistence through Education. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Jamal is a member of the Israeli Druze community and served in the IDF.

Daniel Levy is the Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at ECFR, based in our London office. He is also Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation.

During the Barak Government of 1999-2001, Mr. Levy worked in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office as special adviser and head of Jerusalem Affairs, following which Mr. Levy worked as senior policy adviser to then Israeli Minister of Justice, Yossi Beilin. In this capacity he was responsible for coordinating policy on various issues including peace negotiations, civil and human rights, and the Palestinian minority in Israel. Mr. Levy was a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations with the Palestinians in January 2001, and previously served on the Israeli negotiating team to the "Oslo B" Agreement from May to September 1995, under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He also served as the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative, a joint Israeli-Palestinian effort that suggests a detailed model for a peace agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From 2003 to 2004, he worked as an analyst for the International Crisis Group Middle East Program.

Mr. Levy received a Bachelors and Masters with Honors from King's College, Cambridge; he was awarded prizes in Social and Political Science. He left the UK for Israel in 1991 when elected Chair of the World Union of Jewish Students in Jerusalem, a position he served in from 1991 to 1994, after which he enlisted for a year of military service in the Israeli Defense Forces as a non-commissioned officer. In the late 1990’s, Levy was Projects Director for the Economic Co-operation Foundation, a policy planning think tank in Tel Aviv, mainly engaging in Track II diplomatic initiatives. He has published extensively in a broad range of publications.

Levy is a founding editor of the Middle East Channel at foreignpolicy.com. He has written for a number of publications, is a regular Middle East commentator on TV and radio, including with BBC, CNN, PBS, and Al Jazeera and maintains an occasional blog at www.prospectsforpeace.com.

Harriet Mouchly-Weiss, founder and managing partner of Strategy XXI Partners, a corporate communications consultancy, has won industry-wide recognition for her work in the communications field. Over the years she has earned a reputation as a bold thinker, astute strategist, and firm believer in communications programs that incorporate a component of social responsibility. Her experience includes development of corporate planning and marketing strategies, as well as issues management for leading multinational companies. Earlier in her career, she owned and operated a public relations firm in Israel for more than a decade, working with various government agencies and private companies. She is a member of the Committee of 200, a professional organization of preeminent businesswomen who personify the spirit of entrepreneurship and business leadership in the United States. She also serves on the boards of The Abraham Fund; of the Israel Policy Forum; Israel Fund for Israel, and the Women’s Executive Circle of the UJA-Federation of New York.  She was an advisor to the State of the World Forum, and was actively involved with IADAF (Anti-drug abuse foundation), and the US-Israel Women to Women organization.

Debra Pell is the President of ArbaOne, Inc. an early stage investment company in Israel. She graduated from Georgetown University in 1977 with a BA in Government and a JD from Boston College Law School. Before making aliya in 1996, she was a labor litigator in a large SF law firm and VP of Pell Development Company. Active for many years in the Jewish community, she served on the boards of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, Regional Hillel, the Holocaust Center of SF and the Jewish Community Relations Council . Nationally, she was a founding board member of the Israel Policy Forum and Chair of the Women’s Young Leadership Cabinet of the UJA. Debra is now the Co-Chair of Kolot, a center of Jewish learning for top Israeli leadership. She represents the Pell Family Foundation in Israel in addition to her own philanthropic focus on Jewish education, social justice and peace.

Nicholas Saphir is Chair of New Israel Fund UK. Called to the London Bar in 1967, his career was subsequently spent in commercial food, farming and rural affairs, including chairing several governmental and industry organisations. He is currently the Executive Chair of OMSCo (the UK Organic Milk Suppliers Co-operative) and Coressence Ltd. Whilst building a commercial career Nicholas was also involved in both government and philanthropic activities, including chairing several UK government agencies and being a trustee of charities involved in social enterprise, the rural economy, art and child welfare. Nicholas previously chaired the British Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Jewish Relief Organisations, the Chatham Synagogue and is currently a trustee of the Kessler Foundation.

Co-Chair of the International Council (Israel)

Attorney Talia Sasson heads her own law firm, representing organizations in administrative and civil cases in court. She is a board member of the New Israel Fund (N.I.F.) and a Co- Chair of the International Council of the N.I.F. She is a board member in the Council for Peace and Security, a member of the Geneva Initiative’s steering committee, Yesh Din’s Public Council, and a counselor for some other NGO's in Israel. In 2009, she ran to the Knesset as representative of The New Movement-Meretz. From 2004 to 2010, Ms. Sasson taught a course on "Defenses through law on Democracy in Israel" in the faculty of law at Tel-Aviv University as adjunct professor. From August 2004 to March 2005, at the request of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ms. Sasson served as a special legal advisor for the government and the author of the Sasson Report on illegal outposts in the West Bank and law enforcement on Israelis in the Palestinian territories. From 1979 to February 2004 she worked in the State Attorney’s office. From 1989 to 1993 she headed the Civil Department in the Jerusalem district attorney. From 1996 to 2004, she headed the Special Tasks Division of the State Attorney’s office. In that role she represented the government of Israel in the Supreme Court for 13 years in civil, criminal, constitutional and administrative cases and was involved also with different security and military issues.

Carole Segal is the co-founder of Crate and Barrel, the founder and former CEO of Foodstuffs, and the president of the Segal Family Foundation. Mrs. Segal is a trustee of Rush University Medical Center and chairman of the board of overseers at Rush University. She is a trustee emeritus of Bates College and is a life trustee of Illinois Institute of Technology. Mrs. Segal, a graduate of Northwestern University, is a member of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors, co-chairperson of the Wilson Society for WCAS and a previous chairperson of the Northwestern University Leadership Council. Mrs. Segal is a trustee of Chicago Theological Seminary and chairperson of the Visiting Committee. She is a member of the Board of Directors of WBEZ-Chicago Public Media, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Lincoln Park Zoo and Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.

Dan Segal, Chair of the Litigation Department of Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin, is a magna cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School, where he was Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received his B.A. from Yale University and a Master of Science degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He served as law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court and has taught Constitutional Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has also served as President of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Law Center, President of the Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education, President of Akiba Hebrew Academy and President of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania Hillel Foundation.

Peter Shapiro is managing director of Swap Financial Group, the leading independent advisor and arranger of interest rate derivatives in the U.S. Prior to founding Swap Financial Group in 1997, he served as senior vice president of Euro Brokers, and spent six years at Citibank. Before entering the financial world, Shapiro spent twelve years in government service in New Jersey. Shapiro served as a delegate to three Democratic National Conventions, heading the caucus for Edward Kennedy in 1980 and chairing the New Jersey delegation in 1984.

Daniel J. Sokatch is the Chief Executive Officer of the New Israel Fund (NIF), the leading organization committed to equality and democracy for all Israelis. Before joining NIF, Sokatch served as the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties. Prior to his tenure at Federation, he served as the founding Executive Director of the Los Angeles based Progressive Jewish Alliance.

In recognition of his leadership, Sokatch has been named to the Forward newspaper’s “Forward 50,” an annual list of the fifty leading Jewish decision-makers and opinion-shapers, in 2002, 2005 and 2008 and 2010.

Daniel has an MA from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, a JD from Boston College Law School, and a BA from Brandeis University. He is married with two daughters and resides in San Francisco.

Dr. Jeffrey R. Solomon is the President of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, a group of foundations operating in Canada, Israel and the United States. Among the foundations’ innovative launches are Birthright Israeland Reboot, two initiatives aimed at connecting young, assimilated Jews to their tradition, The Gift of New York, a powerful response to September 11, helping to heal families of victims through the power of culture, and Project Involvement, an educational reform program serving some 265,000 Israeli elementary school students.

He previously served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of UJA-Federation of New York. Other past positions include executive positions at Altro Health & Rehabilitation Services, Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged and Jewish Family and Children's Services in Miami. Dr. Solomon also served with the City, State and Federal Governments. An author of over 100 publications in both professional journals and outlets such as The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal, he served as an adjunct associate professor at New York University and sits on numerous nonprofit and foundation boards including the FJC, a community foundation in New York, the Jewish Funders Network, Jewish Week and the New Israel Fund. He also served on the Board of the Council on Foundations, where he chaired the Committee on Ethics and Practice and sat on its Executive Committee. He is a founding trustee of the World Faiths Development Dialogue and has received a number of honors from professional associations and universities.

His widely acclaimed book, The Art of Giving: Where the Soul Meets the Business Plan, co-authored with Charles Bronfman, was published by Wiley/Jossey-Bass in October, 2009. It has been awarded the Axiom Gold Medal in philanthropy and has been translated and published in South Korea. They completed a sequel, The Art of Doing Good; Where Passion Meets Action, also published by Wiley/Jossey-Bass (September, 2012), which explores the principles and practices of nonprofit social enterprise, extracting the lessons from the journeys of eighteen social entrepreneurs.

Yael Sternhell teaches history and American studies at Tel Aviv University. Her fields of interest include 19th century US history and the history of modern societies at war. She received her PhD from Princeton University in 2008 and has since held fellowships from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Rothschild foundation, as well as from Yale University and the Huntington Library in California. A former journalist and news anchor for Channel One, she continues to contribute commentary on American affairs to various media outlets.

Fred Tauber retired from Boston University in 2011, where he held professorships in philosophy and medicine. His academic interests, principally philosophy of science and ethics, may be reviewed at http://people.bu.edu/ait/

Living in Israel from January-June each year, he teaches as a Visiting Professor atthe Cohn Institute,Tel Aviv University. His interests inbiomedical researchinclude sponsored investigative and educational programs at Haifa and Tel Aviv Universities. The Israeli branch of the Tauber Family Foundation focuses upon rehabilitation and advocacy for the mentally ill, in addition to various research and educational initiatives related to the care of this targeted population. The Foundation also supports programs directed at Jewish religious pluralism and social justice. During the second half of the year, he focuses on his scholarly writing and drives a tractor on his New Hampshire farm.