Speakers
Opening Panel
Naomi Chazan is the New Israel Fund’s incoming President, and is perhaps best known as a former Deputy Speaker of Knesset, serving a decade as a representative of the Meretz party. She is the Head of the School of Government and Society at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, and is Professor Emerita of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Throughout her professional and political careers, Professor Chazan has been an outspoken leader in the struggle for women's rights, civil rights, religious freedom, pluralism and peace.
Moty Cristal served in various official positions in Israeli negotiation teams with Jordan and the Palestinians, and experienced years of cross-cultural negotiations within the Israeli-Arab conflict. In 2002, as a crisis negotiator, he was engaged in bringing to a peaceful end the military crisis development during the siege of Bethlehem, a deadly 38-day standoff at the Church of the Nativity. He consults in strategic and complex negotiations and crisis management in Israel, Europe, the US and Asia, and teaches international negotiation and crisis management at Tel Aviv University and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
David Margolick is a contributing editor of Condé Nast Portfolio. Before joining Portfolio, Margolick was a longtime contributing editor at Vanity Fair, where he wrote about culture, the media, and politics. From 1981 to 1986 he was a legal reporter on the metropolitan desk of The New York Times and from 1987 to 1996 served as the Times national legal affairs editor and law columnist. He wrote his weekly legal column at The New York Times, “At the Bar”, for seven years. His books include Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, and Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink.
Neta Ziv is the Director of The Cegla Clinical Law Programs at Tel Aviv University Law School. She is the academic supervisor of the Human Rights Clinic and teaches courses on Legal Ethics and the Legal Profession, Law and Social Change, and Rights of People with Disabilities. Dr. Ziv practiced as a public interest lawyer for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel from 1986-1996, and served as a leading attorney in some of the major human rights cases litigated before the Israeli Supreme Court. She was among the founding members of the Israel Women’s Network Legal Center, and the chair of Bizchut: The Israel Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities. She is currently NIF’s Vice President in Israel, and serves as a board member of Itach: Women Lawyers for Social Justice.
Afternoon Panel
Rawia Abu Rabia is currently a fellow in the New Israel Fund’s Israel-U.S. Civil Liberties Law Program. In addition to her law degree, she holds a degree in social work. Rawia¹s father was originally from an unrecognized village and she currently lives in Beer Sheva. She has been an activist in the Bedouin community in the Negev for over a decade. Rawia’s former roles include as Director the Rahat Citizen Rights Center of Yedid: The Association for Community Empowerment, and as a moderator of women’s leadership groups at the Arab -Jewish Center for Economic Development.
Yvette J. Alberdingk Thijm is the Executive Director of WITNESS. She is an attorney with nearly two decades of experience in media and new technology. Prior to joining WITNESS, she served as Executive Vice President of Content Strategy & Acquisition at Joost, the global online video platform formed by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the founders of Skype and Kazaa. Previously, Yvette spent more than a decade at MTV Networks International (MTVNI) and was instrumental in its international growth and its forays into new media. In both these roles, she expanded the global reach of the companies through the development and implementation of strategic content, new media, and marketing strategies.
Aaron Back is Founding Director of the Ford Israel Fund, a philanthropic partnership between the Ford Foundation and the New Israel Fund. He was previously a Program Officer in the Peace and Social Justice Program of the Ford Foundation, with responsibility for the grants program in Israel. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation in 1995, Aaron lived in Israel for nearly a decade where he worked at the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, and lectured on social welfare at the Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University. He earned his doctorate in clinical and social psychology from the Wright Institute-Berkeley.
Zeev Bregman is co-founder and chairman of Galil Software. Located in Nazareth, Galil Software is the largest software company in the Arab Israeli sector. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Comverse, Inc. from 2001 to March 2007, where he orchestrated the company's turn-around from the Telecom Crisis of 2001-2002. Under his leadership, Comverse grew from a single-product voice mail provider to a multi-product Telecom software company. Zeev is an NIF board member.
Shifra Bronznick is a consultant who specializes in creating new initiatives and helping not-for-profit organizations navigate change. The founding President of Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community, she is co-author with Didi Goldenhar and Marty Linsky of Leveling the Playing Field. Her newest initiative is a groundbreaking leadership program for women launched in partnership with The White House Project and O, The Oprah Magazine. Shifra is principal investigator of a strategic inquiry commissioned by the Nathan Cummings Foundations, “Visioning Justice and the American Jewish Community.” Previously, she served as Executive Vice President of Swig, Weiler & Arnow, one of New York’s premier commercial real estate firms.
Daniel Chalfen is a documentary producer who specializes in socially conscious non-fiction film, television, and digital media. His films have been shown in festivals across the globe, have been theatrically released and broadcast worldwide (including on HBO, CBC, Al Arabiyya, ARTE and ZDF), have featured on CNN, ABC, PBS, and Al Jazeera, and have received a multitude of awards and accolades. His latest feature-length documentaries include Meeting Resistance, Encounter Point, 39 Pounds of Love, and Pulled from the Rubble. Chalfen is a founder of the Cine-Peace Film Festival in Los Angeles and an Advisory Committee Member of the Other Israel Film Festival.
Jamil Dakwar is the Director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program. He has more than 10 years of human rights litigation and advocacy experience in the U.S. and abroad. He is leading the ACLU human rights advocacy before the U.N. Human Rights Council and treaty bodies which regularly examine U.S. compliance with ratified human rights treaties. He is one of a team of ACLU lawyers litigating Ali v. Rumsfeld, a suit challenging U.S. interrogation and detention practices in Afghanistan and Iraq. Prior to joining the ACLU, Jamil worked at Human Rights Watch, where he conducted research and published reports on issues of torture and detention in Egypt, Morocco and Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Before coming to the US, he was a senior attorney with Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. He is also a former NIF Law Fellow.
Rula Deeb is the director of Kayan, a feminist Arab organization working to advance the status of Arab-Israeli women by catalyzing independent thought and action, and changing the way women are viewed and treated in Arab and Jewish society in Israel. After graduating with a BA in philosophy from the University of Haifa, Rula began her career in feminist activism working with Isha L’isha (Woman to Woman), a grassroots organization striving towards the realization of progressive women’s issues.
Itzik Dessie is the Founding Director of Tebeka: Advocacy for Equality and Justice for Ethiopian-Israelis. He was the first Ethiopian-Israeli to study law at an Israeli university, earning his law degree from the University of Haifa. Upon completing his clerkship, Itzik opened his own practice and was immediately inundated with Ethiopian immigrants in need of legal assistance. Most of these clients could not afford the cost of his services, which drove him to establish Tebeka. Itzik immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia by himself at the age of 13, a long journey that took him through Sudan. He is currently an NIF Law Fellow.
Peter Edelman is the former President of the NIF board of directors, is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University where he teaches constitutional and poverty law. During President Clinton’s first term, Professor Edelman served as Counselor to Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. He was a Legislative Assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Issues Director for Senator Edward Kennedy's 1980 Presidential campaign, and Law Clerk to Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg. He and his wife, Marian Wright Edelman (Children’s Defense Fund founder), are lifelong advocates of children’s rights issues.
Larry Garber has served as the Chief Executive Officer of NIF July 2004. He previously served as a senior policymaker with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and as Director of USAID's West Bank and Gaza Mission. Before joining USAID, Larry worked with the National Democratic Institute and the International Human Rights Law Group. He has served as a consultant on election-related matters for the Organization of American States, United Nations, and Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, and has taught at the Washington College of Law. He has written on issues relating to human rights, democratization, election monitoring, and Palestinian political and economic development.
Rachel Idelevich-Nezri is currently a fellow in the New Israel Fund’s Israel-U.S. Civil Liberties Law Program. She was born in the USSR and immigrated to Israel in 1990. A specialist in labor law and advocacy, she worked for the Be'er Sheva Branch of Kav LaOved (Worker's Hotline) which works to protect the rights of disadvantaged workers employed in Israel and by Israelis in the Occupied Territories, including Palestinians, migrant workers, subcontracted workers and new immigrants. Amongst others, she has been active in New Family, an organization working to ensure that all forms of family units are eligible for rights and entitlements.
Tirza Leibowitz is the Director of Advocacy at Survivor Corps. She was previously a legal advisor at Bizchut: The Israel Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities, an organization spearheading the advance of disability rights in Israel (such as accessibility, living in the community, inclusion in education, and access to justice) through legislation, litigation and public campaigning. Tirza recently joined Survivor Corps, an international organization addressing the spectrum of issues that affect the lives of survivors of conflict and establishing international standards for survivor and disability rights.
Rachel Liel has served as the Director of SHATIL, the New Israel Fund’s Empowerment and Training Center for social change organizations in Israel, since 1998. Rachel began her tenure at SHATIL as part of a long and distinguished career in public service. She oversees the management of all SHATIL projects, consultation and training, coalition activities, fundraising and administration. She served as Deputy Director of the Division of Rehabilitation Services in the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, and worked as a Policy Analyst in the Department of Social Policy Planning of the Prime Minister's Office. In 2007, The Marker newspaper chose Rachel as one of seven Israelis who “influence for the greater good.” The Marker also named her as one of the 40 Israeli women making the most significant contributions to Israeli society, and in 2006 Globes chose her as one of Israel's 50 most influential leaders.
Susan M. Liss has worked for a number of organizations during her 31-year legal career, focusing primarily on constitutional, civil rights and women's issues, including People for the American Way, the Alliance for Justice and the Citizen's Commission on Civil Rights. During the Clinton-Gore administration, she held two political appointments at the Department of Justice and later served as Chief of Staff to Tipper Gore and Special Counsel to the Vice President. Susan serves on the NIF board as Vice President for North America, Chair of the Development Committee, and a member of the Grants Committee.
Fathi Marshood is the Director of the SHATIL Haifa office and an organizational consultant. Fathi assists NGOs in developing skills in organizational development and planning, community work, and leadership development with an emphasis on promoting organizational democracy, networking and coalition building among other. He is a seasoned educator, working for many years in the nonprofit sector training and consulting on such issues as conflict management, community work, and early childhood education. Fathi received his MA in Special Education from Hebrew University and in Public Administration from Harvard.
Terry Mizrahi is a professor at Hunter College and the Director of the Education Center for Community Organizing (ECCO), a resource for networking, information and sharing of ideas, experiences and resources for organizers in the New York area. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Master’s Program in Health Advocact at Sarah Lawrence College, and was a Fullbright Scholar at Hebrew University in 2006.
She is Founder and Board Member of the Child Welfare Organizing Project, a parent/professional partnership dedicated to public child welfare reform in New York City through increased, meaningful parent involvement in service and policy planning.
Naomi Paiss has served as Director of Communications for the New Israel Fund since 2005, and has 25 years experience in public affairs and issues management. Previously, she served as the founding Communications Director for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, as Vice President of Communications for the National Wildlife Federation, and as Communications Director for the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, as well as a Practice Director at one of Washington’s largest independent public affairs firms.
Dr. Noya Rimalt is a Professor of Law at the University of Haifa, where she teaches Criminal Law and Feminist Legal Theory. Prior to joining the Haifa Law School, she served as the founding director of the clinical program in civil rights at Tel Aviv University. Her scholarship examines the intersections of gender, law, and feminism in legal theory and practice. She has written articles focusing on such topics as female offenders, women in the military, the conscientious objection of women in the Israeli military, and sexual harassment law. Noya received her J.D. from Tel Aviv University, her LL.M from American University Washington College of Law as an NIF Israel-U.S. Civil Liberties Fellow, and a Ph.D in Law from Tel Aviv University. Her book, Legal Feminism Whence and Whither? Theory and Practice in the Struggle for Gender Equality, is forthcoming.
Maya Sabatello is the US representative of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Southern California, an LL.B. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and she is a member of the Israeli Bar Association. She has lectured and published on subjects including terrorism, torture, comparative human rights, politics of identity, disability, and bioethics. Maya has been a representative of a nongovernmental organization at the United Nations and has participated in the UN sessions on the formulation of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Her book, Children's Bioethics: The International Bio-Politic al Discourse on Harmful Traditional Practices and the Right of the Child to Cultural Identity, is forthcoming.
Naomi Schacter is the Associate Director of SHATIL, the New Israel Fund’s Empowerment and Training Center for social change organizations in Israel. In this capacity, she is responsible for supervising project development, monitoring all programs and supervising fundraising and promotional efforts for the organization. Among the many projects she initiated is a leadership program for Ethiopian women, an empowerment program for Bedouin women, a project promoting the housing rights of the Arab community in Israel’s mixed cities, a public health coalition in Israel’s Northern region and the Everett social justice fellowship program. Prior to working at SHATIL, Naomi established and directed an Israeli-based marketing company, Media Connections, which provided marketing services for local companies.
Mary Ann Stein is President of the Moriah Fund, a private foundation seeking to promote human rights and democracy, help disadvantaged people gain self-sufficiency and control over their lives, foster sustainable development, promote women’s rights and reproductive health and protect and preserve the environment. She is a long-time advocate for social justice, peace in the Middle East, and women's rights. Mary Ann is founding chair of the Fund for Global Human Rights, and serves on the boards of the New Israel Fund and Americans for Peace Now. During her professional career she has worked as a community organizer, a lawyer, and the head of a non-profit child advocacy group.
Yosepha Tabib-Calif is the Coordinator for Economic Empower Projects at SHATIL. During her studies, Yosepha volunteered with Achoti (My Sister), a Mizrachi feminist organization, where she developed Women Cook up Businesses, a project that trains unemployed women to use skills they already possess to open a small business. Yosepha’s work gave women a path out of poverty. Wanting to widen her impact, she joined SHATIL, where she has been instrumental in training organizations to cultivate a “bottom-up economy” and establishing Northern Exposure, which was founded to help small business owners in the North in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War. Yosepha is a recipient of NIF’s Yaffa London Ya’ari Award for Israeli women activists.
Phil Walotsky is the Director of Communications and Public Affairs for PeaceWorks, a “not-only-for-profit” health yand gourmet foods company. Unlike most socially-responsible businesses, instead of exclusively focusing on philanthropy, PeaceWorks also manufactures and markets products that create opportunities for “peace through profit” – bringing together neighbors on opposite sides of political or armed conflict through economic incentive. The PeaceWorks Foundation and PeaceWorks founder, Daniel Lubetzky, helped establish the OneVoice Movement, the largest grassroots organization in Israel and Palestine empowering moderate voices on both sides against violence and extremism. Prior to joining PeaceWorks, Phil specialized in issues and crisis management, international affairs, and corporate social responsibility for Edelman and Fleishman-Hillard, two of the three largest public relations agencies in the world.
Sawsan Zaher is an Advocate for Adalah, specializing in social and economic rights. Sawsan received an L.L.B. in Law from the College of Management, School of Law in 1997, and an L.L.M. in International Legal Studies with a concentration on human rights and gender from the American University, Washington College of Law (USA) in 2004. She establishedthe legal department for Kayan, a feminist and Arab women’s rights organization. She is active in many other human rights organizations and an active Board Member of Kayan, and was an NIF Law Fellow.
“THIS ISRAELI LIFE”, CO-PRODUCED WITH NEXTBOOK
Yisrael Campbell is widely regarded as the premiere standup comedian in Israel. Born Christopher Campbell, Yisrael underwent three conversions, from Catholicism to Reform Judaism, to Conservative Judaism, and then to Orthodox Judaism. Yisrael’s unique story has attracted considerable media attention, leading to television appearances on CNN and ABC World News Tonight and interviews by Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert and Rolling Stone Magazine. He also tours with The Palestinian-Israeli Comedy Tour, a group of comedians bringing awareness to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and seeking peace through comedy. The soon-to-be released documentary, Circumsize Me, captures his unique story. His new one-man show, You Can’t be Too Jewish, opens off-Broadway this year.
Lynn Harris is an award-winning journalist, retired standup comic and author whose most recent novel is the comic mystery Death By Chick Lit. She is also co-creator of the venerable website BreakupGirl.net. Her work appears regularly in Salon.com, Glamour, The New York Times, and many other publications including Nextbook.org, where she writes "The Rabbi's Wife" column, from experience.
Nellie Hermann grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of Brown University and the MFA program at Columbia University. Her first novel, The Cure for Grief, was published last month. It received a starred review from Kirkus, and has garnered national attention in such publications as Time Magazine, Elle, The New York Times, and others. Her short fiction recently won first place in Glimmer Train's Family Matters story competition and will be published in November. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Ben Greenman is the editor of the The New Yorker’s “Goings On About Town” section. A published author and journalist, he has two books on the way: Correspondences, a limited-edition box of stories about letters and letter-writing, and a novel, Please Step Back. He contributes regularly to a number of publications, online and off, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Moistworks.com, The New-York Ghost, McSweeneys.net, and others. Ben has also penned a series of musicals that reflect on current-events happenings of the day, the most recent of which is PALIN! The Musical.
Nextbook was established in 2003 to serve as a gateway to Jewish literature, culture, and ideas. In addition to publishing the Jewish Encounters book series, Nextbook presents festivals, salons, and public programs around the country and publishes an online magazine (www.nextbook.org) that features a weekly podcast as well as lively, original articles on Jewish culture by authors such as Nathan Englander, Etgar Keret, Meg Wolitzer, Shalom Auslander, David Rakoff, and Myla Goldberg. Nextbook and the American Library Association present Jewish Literature: Identity & Imagination, a free reading and discussion program in America’s libraries.
