In its winter meeting, the board of the New Israel Fund elected former Israeli Knesset Deputy Speaker Naomi Chazan as its new President. Chazan will succeed Peter Edelman, who has served as NIF President for the past six years, at the end of June. She 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. Chazan also serves as Head of the School of Government and Society at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo and spent last year as the Wilhelm Fellow at the Center for International Studies at MIT.

Chazan brings a wealth of experience to her new position as a long-time political and civil activist, and as a writer and analyst. “As the challenges facing Israeli democracy evolve,” Peter Edelman commented, “NIF is fortunate to have such a perceptive and well-recognized spokesperson for social change in Israel to lead the organization in the future.” NIF News will feature an in-depth interview with Naomi Chazan in an upcoming edition; also, keep an eye on the NIF event page for a chance to hear her speak – and a dynamic speaker she is! – this spring in the U.S.

Also elected to serve along with Chazan were: Susan Liss – Vice President/North America; Neta Ziv – Vice President/Israel; Stephen Gunther –Treasurer; and Peter Shapiro – Secretary.

Also at the recent Board meeting, NIF announced the promotion of Bennett Samson to the position of National Development Director. Samson joined NIF in 2004 as Director of Institutional Grants. His 25-year career in fundraising includes successful stints as Development Director at both the Walters Fine Arts Museum in Baltimore and the Texas Fine Arts Association in Austin. At the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, from the late 1980s onward, Samson developed the museum’s extremely successful direct mail program, as well as directing institutional grants.