Bios
Leadership
Kenneth Bob, National President
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Ken was elected President of Ameinu in March, of 2004. He is also the immediate past-chair of the Habonim Dror Foundation, the alumni organization of the Labor Zionist youth movement. He serves on a variety of not-for-profit boards including the Long Island Children's Museum and Matzat, the parent organization of Jewschool.com. Ken is a member of the Forward Association and an active member of the Huntington Jewish Center.
In his "day job," Ken is a management consultant, specializing in mentoring and coaching founders and executives of emerging technology companies. Prior to embarking upon this consulting work, he was Vice President, Strategic Alliances, for iPass (NASDAQ:IPAS). He previously served as President and CEO of Safe3w, an international Internet security and anti-fraud company that was acquired by iPass in 2004.
Judith Gelman, Vice President and Chair of the Executive Committee
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Judith is the Vice President for Policy and Advocacy for Ameinu and Chair of Ameinu’s Executive Committee. She also serves on the executive committee of the Habonim Dror Foundation and on the camp committee for the Habonim Dror Camp Moshava, where her three children represent the fourth generation of her family associated with the camp. Prior to attending Oberlin College and MIT, Judith participated in the Habonim’s 23^rd Workshop at Maayan Baruch. In addition to her work with Ameinu and Habonim Dror, Judith sits on the International Council of the New Israel Fund.
She is the immediate past President of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, MD. She has previously worked for the Council of Economic Advisers and the Federal Trade Commission, and is currently employed at Salop Economics in Washington, DC.
Nomi Colton-Max, Vice President and Chair of Membership and Outreach Committee
Nomi grew up in Habonim Dror in Canada and both her professional and personal development have been centered on Israel and the Middle East. Nomi is currently a trustee on the board of Congregation Beth El in South Orange, New Jersey as well as a member of the Metrowest Jewish Community Relations Council. Nomi is also a former member of the Habonim-Dror Na’aleh Camp Committee.
Trained as a foreign policy analyst specializing in the Arab World and the Persian Gulf, she previously worked at the Council on Foreign Relations and a private energy consulting firm. She holds degrees from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and McGill University. She has lived, worked and traveled throughout the region and speaks Hebrew, Arabic and French.
Samuel Norich, Vice President
Samuel is the Executive Director and Publisher of the Forward newspaper. Active in Jewish life, Samuel serves on the boards of the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Atran Foundation, the Claims Conference, the Workmen’s Circle, the American Friends of the Ghetto Fighters House and Midstream magazine. Samuel was also Vice President of the World Jewish Congress from 1975 to 1981, and executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research from 1980 to 1992.
Maggie Bar-Tura, Vice President, Fundraising
Maggie Bar-Tura, Ameinu's Vice President, Fundraising, is the Chief Operating Officer of the Foundation for Jewish Camping. She previously served as Executive Director of the Office of Management and Budget at UJA-Federation of New York.
Maggie lived in Israel for more than three decades, most of that time as a member of Kibbutz Hulda. During that period she held a variety of positions including Executive Director of the Carmel Institute for Social Studies and Policy in Zichron Yaakov, founding Director of the Department of Resource Development and Special Projects of the United Kibbutz Movement and Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism.
Maggie has translated numerous works from Hebrew into English, including Amos Oz's works: "In the Land of Israel," "The Slopes of Lebanon," and "The Story Begins."
She has served as Vice-Chair of Ameinu's Israel Connections Committee since its inception is helping to develop local Ameinu activities in New York.
Gil Browdy, Board Member
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Gil Browdy has been the National Director of Habonim Dror North America since August 2006. He grew up in Kensington, MD and is a long-time member of Habonim Dror. Gil lived in Israel in 2000/2001, primarily in the lower Galilee area, on Habonim Dror’s Workshop program. Gil has also been the educational coordinator and camp director for different Habonim Dror summer camps across North America. He graduated with a B.A. in Linguistics from McGill University. Gil considers himself to be a life-long educator and activist for peace and equality. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Martin I. Taft, Ph.D, Vice President and Chair of Communications
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Martin has held senior positions at the Affiliated Organizations of the Jewish Federation, the Aliyah Demonstration Project and his local Jewish Federation. He is a mechanical engineer by trade, who often serves as an expert witness in accident cases. In addition to his work with the Jewish community, Martin performs and teaches magic to patients at Daniel Freeman Hospital.
Steven Weinberg, V.P., Chair of Mission to Israel
Steven represents Ameinu in many organizations of American Jewish leaders, including in the American Zionist Movement. In addition to his work with Ameinu, Steve is active within the Habonim Dror Camping Association, as Chair of the Camp Committee of Philadelphia's Camp Galil. An urban planner, Steve does affordable housing consulting in New Jersey and Pennsylvania from his home base in East Brunswick, NJ
Simmy Ziv-El, Vice President and Chair of Israel Connections Committee
Simmy was the Mazkir of Habonim Dror in South Africa from 1976-1977 and was the leader of the United Kibbutz Movement Delegation to the United States in the 1980’s. Additionally, Simmy founded an educational software company that was later acquired by the Educational Testing Service, where he now works as the Senior Director of Business Development.
Christopher MacDonald-Dennis, Ed.D., Board Member
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Chris MacDonald-Dennis, Ed.D., is Assistant Dean of the Undergraduate College and Director of Intercultural Affairs at Bryn Mawr College. He has been a scholar-activist for more than fifteen years and has been involved with many social change movements, including the feminist movement, LGBT movement and progressive Zionism. He received his BA from Framingham State College in Massachusetts, his MS from Northeastern University and his Ed.D. in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Originally from Boston, he currently lives in Philadelphia.
Chris' activity with Ameinu has found a number of expressions. He has written regularly for the website. He serves on the joint committee Ameinu has formed with MeretzUSA to address the Left's attitudes towards Israel and Zionism and is also part of the effort to establish an Ameinu chapter in Philadelphia.
Harriette J. Leibovitz, Treasurer
Harriette is an avid and active Israeli Folk Dancer and a teacher of B’nai Mitzvah preparation (Haftarah and Torah). Harriette works as a consultant in the commercial insurance and risk management industry, specializing in software.
Barbara P. Zabitz, Secretary
Barbara is a third generation Labor Zionist, and has long been involved with the movement. An alumna of Habonim Dror Camp Tavor, Barbara works as a nurse for the Michigan Department of Community Health Division of Nursing Home Monitoring.
Jeffry V. Mallow, Phd., Immediate Past President
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Winner of a Fulbright Fellowship to study science and gender anxiety, Jeffrey writes extensively on Jewish political and cultural topics, and his articles have appeared in the Forward, Midstream, Yiddisher Kemfer. Dr. Mallow is a Professor of Physics at Loyola University Chicago, where he researches quantum mechanics.
Website Contributors
Mira Sucharov
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Dr. Sucharov is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Carleton University, in Ottawa. She holds a Ph.D.in Government from Georgetown University (2001), an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto (1996), and a B.A. in Middle East Studies (Honours) from McGill University (1994). Her specialties are International Relations theory, international security, conflict resolution, psychological & constructivist approaches to IR, Israeli foreign policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace process. She is the author of The International Self: Psychoanalysis and the Search for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (Albany: SUNY Press, forthcoming 2005), as well as numerous articles on international security, foreign policy and the Middle East. She has taught at Georgetown University and for the University of South Carolina's Washington Semester Program, and in 1999-2000 was a visiting fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Truman Institute. She is a frequent Canadian media commentator on Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
Jamie Levin
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Jamie Levin became Executive Director of Ameinu in September, 2004 and is based in New York, NY. Jamie has long been an activist for progressive Israel, serving as the elected National Director of Habonim Dror North America in 2001-02. Jamie completed an MS in Political Economy from the London School of Economics in 2004, specializing in the economic aspects of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Avi Glicksman
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Allen (Avi) Glicksman, a life-long supporter of the Zionist left, grew up in Hashomer Hatzair and is currently a member of Ameinu. He is trained as a sociologist and currently serves as Director of Research and Evaluation for the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging, Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, and as a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He also served two terms as President of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. His work has been supported by private foundations and the National Institutes of Health, whose Director has given him a special award for innovations in research methods.
Rabbi Dr. Einat Ramon
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Coming from a family of three generations of Labor Zionists in Israel, Rabbi Dr. Einat Ramon was the first Israeli-born woman rabbi. Following her ordination by JTS in 1989, while pursuing her doctoral degree at Stanford University, Rabbi Dr. Ramon served as the interim rabbi at Berkeley Hillel and then as the "circuit" rabbi of congregation Har-Shalom of Missoula, Montana. Since her return to Israel in 1994, she has been teaching at various Israeli academic institutions (including the Hebrew University, the Shalom Hartman Institute, Hebrew Union College and Kibbutzim College of Education), and supervising a Masorti (Conservative) congregation (Havurat Tel Aviv) in north Tel Aviv. In 1996-1997 (during the peak of the battle against the conversion bill) she was the spokesperson of the Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel. Today Rabbi Dr. Ramon teaches modern Jewish thought and literature and Jewish feminism at the Schechter Institute, where she also serves a special consultant for women and gender issues at Schechter's rabbinical school. She has written and published numerous articles on modern Jewish thought, Jewish feminism and Zionist intellectual history, and has completed a book on the theology of Aharon David Gordon. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband Rabbi Arik Ascherman (together they constitute Israel's only rabbinic couple) and with their two children, Adi Rinat- Yah and Ayal Elazar
Noam Dolgin
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Noam Dolgin is the Associate Director of the Teva Learning Center and an alumnus of Habonim Dror North America. He also ran for the Green Zionist Alliance in the most recent World Zionist Congress elections and has studied at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.
Yael Dayan
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Yael Dayan was born in 1939 in Nahalal, a co-operative village in Israel, to Ruth and the late General Moshe Dayan. A three time Member of Knesset for the Labor party, Ms. Dayan has chaired the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women and has been a member of several high-profile committees. An author of eight books and a signatory to the Geneva Accords, Ms. Dayan writes regularly on political affairs in both the Israeli and foreign press. She is currently the deputy mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo.
Ezra Weinberg
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Ezra Weinberg was a member of Workshop 43 and was Rosh Galil in 1999 and 2000 and was the first Director of the Habonim Dror Foundation. He was a member of Kvutsat Yovel and continues to live in Israel. Ezra is currently finishing his second year of Rabbinical School at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Ezra holds a Masters in conflict Transformation from the School of International Training
Guy Spigelman
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Guy Spigelman is the editor of "Revival", the English language news magazine of the Labor Party. Guy was born in Sydney, Australia and served as Mazkir of Habonim Dror before making Aliya in 1994. Currently, Guy lives in Tel Aviv and serves as VP Asia Pacific at XMPie, a leading provider of software for the advertising and printing industry. In 2003 Guy and other leaders of the hitech industry founded I-tech, the hitech forum of the Israeli Labor Party. Today the forum has over 500 members who have banded together to promote: support for R&D, an overhaul of the education system, reducing social gaps and political reforms. Aside from politics, Guy is an active board member of Merchavim, the Institute for the Advancement of Shared Citizenship in Israel, an NGO that has trained hundreds of teachers from across the school system in models for promoting cultural diversity inside the classroom. Guy is married to Naomi and together they are the parents of three wonderful girls Eden, Galia and Neta.
MK Colette Avital
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Colette Avital has served as a Knesset Member with the Labor Party since 1999. In the Knesset, she chairs the Ethics Committee and the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee for the Location and Restitution of Property of Holocaust Victims. She is also an observer in the Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee and a member of the Education and Culture Committee, the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women, the Finance Committee, and the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. As a career diplomat, Ambassador Avital has served as the Israeli Consul General to New York, Consul and Acting Consular General in Boston, Ambassador to Portugal, Consul in Paris, and Press Attaché in Brussels. Within the Israeli Foreign Ministry, she has served as Director of the Leadership Department, Deputy Director General of the Communications and Information Division, and Acting Director of the Publicity Department. Ambassador Avital holds a BA in Political Science and a MA in Public Administration, while her mastery of foreign languages includes English, French, Romanian, German, Portuguese, and Italian. Her articles have appeared in Le Monde, the New York Times, and the New York Post.
Howard Fremeth
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Howard Fremeth has always had a close affinity with Israel. He has visited Israel on three separate occasions. In the summer of 1997, he had the opportunity to live the Canadian-Zionist dream by playing hockey in Metulla's Mercaz Canada. From 1998-2001, he worked at Habonim Dror's Machaneh Gesher in Ontario where he learnt about and was inspired by labour Zionism. Howard has just completed a MA in Communications at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. His thesis focused on the formation of communication satellite policy in Canada. While at Simon Fraser University, Howard was heavily involved in raising Israel issues on campus through his work with the Israel Advocacy Club and writing for the campus newspaper. Howard will soon be starting his PhD in Mass Communications at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. He is generally interested in Canadian broadcasting and telecommunication policy. In particular, how the federal government has regulated communications to achieve social objectives and how these policies have recently been challenged by new technologies, consumer demands and legal decisions. He believes his work has relevance to Canada's Jewish community as the policy regime that once curbed hate speech and regulated foreign satellite broadcasts is now under disrepute.
Norman Gelman
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Norman I. Gelman was a public affairs consultant to major U.S. corporations including IBM, Citicorp, and Ford Motor Co., among others. Prior to that, he was on the professional staff of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, specializing in international trade policy. He is now retired. Mr. Gelman served as president of the American Jewish Committee's Washington, D.C., chapter and is currently a member of AJC's Board of Governors. He is also vice-chairman of the American Jewish International Relations Institute(AJIRI).
Avi Melamed
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Avi Melamed was born in 1960 to an old Jerusalemite Sefardi family. Avi is a sought-after lecturer in Israel and abroad, specializing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, democracy, education, the West and Islam. For thirteen years Avi, worked for the Government of Israel in civilian affairs and counter-terrorism. By the mid 1990's Avi was a Senior Advisor on Arab Affairs for the Mayor of Jerusalem. Based on this experience, Avi co-authored "Separate and Unequal-The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem" (Harvard University Press, 1999). Avi has delivered lectures to the UJC, the World Bank, The Israeli Foreign Office, The Peres Institute for Peace, AJC, and The Jerusalem Foundation. He is also the Founder of The Teachers for a New Leadership movement (TNL) and a member of the Board of The Israeli Forum and a member of the Young Israeli Leadership Forum (YLF). Currently, Avi works as an Educator and Lecturer in the Maayan-Shachar educational campus.
Cary Sperling
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Cary Sperling has a highly diverse background. Having obtained Master's degrees in both Education and Sociology, she also completed doctoral course work in Sociology at the New School for Social Research, now New School University. She has taught every grade level from nursery through university including several years at Baruch College, CUNY and Haifa University in Israel, where she not only taught many classes to Ethiopian students but also worked closely with their community. In both Israel and American she has conducted research, written articles, edited dissertations, books and articles as well as grant-writing on varied topics.
Amnon Hadary
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Amnon Hadary was born in Palestine in 1929, spent the years '38 to '48 in Chicago, and returned to Eretz Yisrael in time to serve in the Palmach during the War of Independence. So he has experienced life in the diaspora in one of the world's oldest democracies and homecoming to one of the newest. A founding member of a kibbutz Gesher Haziv, where he lived for 20 years, he has spent the past 35 years in Jerusalem, writing, editing and lecturing. His first book, To Royal Estate: The American Jewish Novel, (in Hebrew) was a critique of American Jewish literature. Married, with children and grandchildren, his commitment to Zionism remains vital: its realization attainable only through the imperative of peace. The affirmations of an unrepentant Zionist are written in that spirit. Amnon was a shaliach to Habonim in Philadelphia and Vancouver in the late 50?s and served as Workshop Madrich at Gesher Haziv for 6 consecutive years.
Carolyn Amacher
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Carolyn Amacher has been spent 15 years working in executive management of several Jewish Community Centers throughout the United States, and is currently Director of Development for the JCC of St. Louis.
Amacher has bachelor's degrees in journalism and psychology from Syracuse University. She also earned a master of social work degree from Yeshiva University and a Jewish studies certificate from the WUJS Institute in 1985, when she also worked for United Press International covering the Lebanon War and the absorption of Ethiopian immigrants.
She has served as vice president for the Association of Jewish Center Professionals, president of the Syracuse University Alumni Club of Central Virginia and chair of the Community Advisory Board for KXCI Community Radio in Tucson, Ariz.
As a member of the Western Region Partnership 2000 Steering Committee, she developed an environmental educational workshop with American and Israeli teens. She currently serves as Co-President for JNF in St. Louis and co-chair of Ameinu's St. Louis chapter.
Ron Werber
Ron Werber is the newly appointed head of the Labor Party emergency restructuring program, which is overseeing radical political, organizational & financial change in the party while it prepares for the next election. Ron's assignment also includes holding the position of Acting General Director of the party. A leading political & media strategist, Ron Werber served as campaign director & chief strategist for many successful national, municipal & referendum campaigns in both Israel & in Europe, where he is widely recognized for his expertise in strategic planning, message formulation & grass-roots campaigning, as well as effective media & campaign training for grass-roots activists and national leaders. Mr. Werber is also the president of the Tel-Aviv based Werber Public Affairs agency.
Jerry Goodman
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Jerry Goodman is Executive Director of the National Committee for Labor Israel, which works to build support for and educate the public about the achievements of Israel, especially its labor sector. He was founding Executive Director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and was Executive Director of the International Committee for Sepharad '92. He has spoken and written widely on Israel and the Middle East, and is author of the weekly Internet bulletin "Labor Israel News."
Brad Rothschild
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Brad Rothschild currently serves on Ameinu's Policy and Advocacy Committee, while also working at Citigroup's Global Consumer Bank. From 1995-97, Brad worked as a speechwriter and Director of Communications at the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations. After graduating college, Brad lived in Israel for two years. During this period he worked as a research associate at the Israel Democracy Institute, a think tank advocating political and economic reform. Brad is a passionate advocate for Israel and is deeply committed to achieving peace and social justice. He lives in New York.
Steven Hancoff
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Steven Hancoff is a guitarist and recording artist, as well as a long-time Rolfer (R) and psychotherapist. His four CD's of solo acoustic guitar music have been released by DGM Records. He is also the author of two books of guitar music for Warner BROS Publications and Mel Bay Publications. In 1993 he was formally designated an Artistic Ambassador by the US State Department, representing the United States all over the world. In that capacity, he has conducted master classes and performed concerts that describe and demonstrate the history and evolution of American folk music and jazz, and its relationship with the development of American democracy. In 2002, during the height of the intifada and in response to concert cancellations by some international artists, he organized a free, ten-city concert tour throughout Israel, bringing Andy Statman (and his trio - Jim Whitney, bass, and Bob Weiner, drums) and Peter Himmelman with him. Each concert also featured a prominent Israeli artist. Presently, he is at work recording his guitar transcriptions of the Six Suites For Solo Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach. Much more information is available on his website, www.stevehancoff.com.
Gershon Baskin, PhD
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Gershon Baskin, Ph.D., is the Israeli Co-Director and founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) - a joint Israeli-Palestinian public policy think. Dr. Baskin initiated the founding of IPCRI in 1988 following ten years of work in the field of Jewish-Arab relations within Israel, in Interns for Peace, the Ministry of Education and as Executive Director of the Institute for Education for Jewish-Arab Coexistence (established by the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Prime Minister's Office). Dr. Baskin has published books and hundreds of articles in the Hebrew, English and Arabic press about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including: A Model Interim Agreement, Aspects of Internal Security in During the Interim Period, The Future of Jerusalem , How to Conduct Business in the Palestinian Territories , The Future of the Israeli Settlements in Final Status Negotiation, and more. Dr. Baskin meets regularly with Israeli and Palestinian policy makers at their invitation as well as similar people from the international diplomatic community and international organizations. Dr. Baskin was a member of the Jerusalem Experts Committee established by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office during the Final Status Negotiations in 2000-2001. Dr. Baskin holds a Ph.D. in International Affairs. His dissertation was on Sovereignty and Territory in the Future of Jerusalem, parts of which were published as a book Jerusalem of Peace. Dr. Baskin is a member of the Israeli Council for Peace and Security; he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of MAKOM, the Israeli Center for Environment Mediation and he was a founding chairman of Kehilat Kol Haneshama in Jerusalem where he served as Chairman for three years. Dr. Baskin speaks Hebrew, English and Arabic.
Yona Prital
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Yona Prital, a recipient of the Excellency Award from the Jewish Agency, is the Central Shlicha for Habonim Dror North America. Yona holds a Masters degree in Education from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is a graduate of the Mandel Institute for Leadership in Education. For twelve years, Yona was the Head of the Kibbutz Movement Education Department where she was the Kibbutz representative for the Israel Labor Party.
Colette Avital MK
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Colette Avital has served as a Knesset Member with the Labor Party since 1999. In the Knesset, she chairs the Ethics Committee and the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee for the Location and Restitution of Property of Holocaust Victims. She is also an observer in the Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee and a member of the Education and Culture Committee, the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women, the Finance Committee, and the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. As a career diplomat, Ambassador Avital has served as the Israeli Consul General to New York, Consul and Acting Consular General in Boston, Ambassador to Portugal, Consul in Paris, and Press Attaché in Brussels. Within the Israeli Foreign Ministry, she has served as Director of the Leadership Department, Deputy Director General of the Communications and Information Division, and Acting Director of the Publicity Department. Ambassador Avital holds a BA in Political Science and a MA in Public Administration, while her mastery of foreign languages includes English, French, Romanian, German, Portuguese, and Italian. Her articles have appeared in Le Monde, the New York Times, and the New York Post.
Theodore Bikel
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In a career spanning half a century, Theodore Bikel has starred in countless movies, plays and television shows, and has recorded numerous albums showcasing folk music from around the world. The original Captain Von Trappe of "The Sound of Music" and the Treya of the original run of "Fiddler on the Roof", Bikel went on to portray a German U-boat captain in the film "The Enemy Below" and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in the 1958 movie "The Defiant Ones". An accomplished musician, Bikel reguarly performed on the weekly television series Hootenanny, before co-founding (with Pete Seeger) the Newport Folk Festival. His autobiography, "Theo: The Autobiography of Theodore Bikel", was recently re-issued in paperback by University of Wisconsin Press and his latest CD, "Theodore Bikel's Treasury Of Yiddish Theatre And Folk Songs", is now available on Rhino Records and Hatikvah Music.
David Backman
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David was born in Philadelphia, PA and graduated from Akiba Hebrew Academy in 1971. He was involved in Young Judaea as a high school student and attended Camp Tel Yehudah in 1968 and in 1971. Additionally, he attended the Young Judaea Year Course Program 1971-1972.
David obtained a B. A. in Sociology from Temple University in 1976, and an MSW from Temple in 1979.
David has worked in Jewish Communal Service from 1979-1981, and then as a Missouri State Probation and Parole Officer in St. Louis, Missouri from 1983-1988. Since 1988, he has been employed as a United States Probation Officer.
Ron Finkel
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Ron Finkel is the President of Ameinu Australia. Ron has been actively involved in the Australian venture capital industry since 1986 with time at both the Advent and Pratt venture funds. Prior to founding Momentum (with Ergad Gold), Ron was Director of Investments at Advent Management Group for many years where he was actively involved with several investments and divestments, was a director of a number of portfolio companies, and also identified and developed the opportunity to establish a fund investing in businesses serving the Australian tourist industry. Ron has also worked as a corporate advisor and as an executive in the travel industry. He holds degrees in Law and Commerce from Melbourne University.
Rabbi Leila Gal Berner
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Rabbi Leila Gal Berner received ordination from the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College and a doctorate in medieval Jewish Studies from UCLA.
She received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, where she lived for ten years. A citizen of both Israel and
the United States, Rabbi Berner is also a licensed Israel Government
Tourist Guide.
For two decades Rabbi Berner has combined rabbinical and academic work,
and has taught at Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr Colleges, the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Emory University. She currently
teaches at the George Washington University and American University. She
has served Reconstructionist congregations in Maryland, Pennsylvania and
Georgia and an unaffiliated congregation in Washington DC.
Rabbi Berner was the founding director of the Center for Jewish Ethics
and has taught and written extensively on a values-based approach to
Jewish ethics A nationally known creator of new Jewish liturgy, she is
also a commentator in the Kol Haneshamah prayer book series published by
the Reconstructionist Press. Rabbi Berner has also authored many
articles on Jewish feminism, Jewish spirituality, new Jewish life cycle
rituals, and innovative approaches to Jewish family and community.
Most recently, Rabbi Berner has been trained as a Jewish Spiritual
Director at the Lev Shomea (Hearing Heart) program sponsored by Aleph:
The Alliance for Jewish Renewal. She now works actively as a spiritual
director to individuals and groups and is working with a colleague on
creating and developing Lev Tahor: A Center for Jewish Spirituality and
Learning in the Washington DC area.
Rabbi Berner lives in Kensington, Maryland with her life-partner, Franna
Ruddell, and their daughter, Kayla Moriya Gal.
Judd Weinberg
Judd was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1983 and immigrated to Australia as an infant. He attended Moriah College, Sydney’s largest Orthodox Jewish day school, graduating in 2001 as College Captain and second dux. Not one for Anglo sterility and plasticity, Judd has since travelled extensively overseas. A passionate Labor Zionist, Judd finally made aliyah at the end of June, enrolling at Tel Aviv University to finish his Bachelor of Arts degree as part of an exchange program and then begin a Masters in Middle Eastern History. Judd holds dear the ideals of social democracy, the separation of religion and state and the imminent coming of the Second Altalena.
Nomika Zion
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Nomika Zion is Program Director of Van-Leer Jeruslaem Institute’s Center for Social Justice in memory of Yaakov Hazan. In this position, she runs seminars on social and economic justice topics. She also works for the Gvanim Association where she creates and oversee programs that use technology to foster dialogue between different sectors of Israeli society (Jews-Arabs, kibbutz-cities, religious-seculars, and more.) Previously, Nomika worked as a journalist with Al-Hamishmar and Hotam. After a pre-army year of service with Hashomer Hatzair in Holon, she spent her army service teaching school drop-outs. After the army, she continued working with youth through the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. In 1987, Nomika Zion pioneered a new form of collective living in Israel when she founded Kibbutz Migvan in Sderot, an urban kibbutz that seeks to balance social-educational involvement and personal fulfillment. Nomika’s social activism and commitment to communal solutions are a natural outgrowth of her family background. Born and raised on Hashomer Hatzair Kibbutz Reshafim in the Beit Shean Valley, Nomika is the granddaughter of Yaakov Hazan, co-founder (with Meir Yaari) of Hashomer Hatzair.
Eran Schafferman
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Eran Schafferman is the Chairman of Young Labor, Jerusalem.
Mihal Eliav
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Mihal grew up in chicago, and is a 2nd generation Hashomernik. Mihal came to Israel before in 1976. Since then she has done a little of everything: dairy farmer, cook, zoo keeper, artists model, grade school teacher, translator, reception clerk, housecleaner, gardener, beach cleaner, graphic artist, document manager and more. Currently she live in Be'er Sheva.
Danny Shapiro
Danny Shapiro was active in Hashomer Hatzair in New York and Canada in the 1970s. He has lived in Israel since making aliya in 1980, was a member of Kibbutz Harel, and served in the IDF between 1984-86. In 1995, he founded the ShomerNet, an internet forum for past and present members of North American Hashomer Hatzair, which has grown to nearly 500 members. Danny has worked for Tel Aviv University for the past 10 years, and is currently the University's director of development and public affairs.
Jonathan Baum
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Jonathan Baum was born in Philadelphia in 1953 to a Zionist family. A member of Habonim for many years, he made Aliya in 1979 and moved to Kibbutz Sasa, a kibbutz on the Lebanese border in 1983. There he has worked as an electrician, in tourism and as an educator, and today runs a business information and bibliographical service. He has a grown son, Ariel, who is a student at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. His parents, Ruth and David, live in Tel Aviv.
Barry Steinberg
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Barry Steinberg was raised in Brooklyn and Long Island. He first arrived in Israel in 1969, participating in a kibbutz volunteer program. In 1971 he was part of the second contingent of western immigrants that reestablished Kibbutz Adamit in Western Galilee. He remained there until 1989 when I moved to Kibbutz Eilon. He have worked as a fruit farmer in both communities. He represented Adamit at Mapam and various kibbutz federation functions. Barry developed strong ties with our Bedouin neighbors of Arab al-Aramshe. He was involved in the earlier stages of Aramshe's integration into the local regional counsel. He am married with three sons.
Yigal Sela
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Yigal Sela is the Senior Advisor to the Treasurer of the Jewish Agency on Foreign Affairs. He is a member of Kibbutz Machaniyim.
Russel Harris
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Russel Harris serves as MarComs Director of an Israeli security software developer; writing marketing collateral and managing the company website. In his spare time he freelances as a writer, commenting on life in Israel for the Cape Times; and as a photographer for the PictureNET Africa online photographic agency.
Born in South Africa, he moved to Israel in 2004. He has been involved in the high-tech industry for 10 years, initially as a journalist and then later in a PRO and Corporate Communications capacity for companies such as Ericsson and HP.
Prior to that he worked as a news writer for the Zionist Record newspaper and freelanced for other South African entertainment and tourist publications.
Russel studied Visual Communications at the Johannesburg Art foundation, graduating in 1988.
Edyth Geiger
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Edyth Geiger, a resident of Safed, built a free library in her apartment over many years which serves villages from all around the Galilee.
She also has a variety of games, puzzles, jigsaw etc. that she circulates to everyone.
After her small apartment got overwhelmed (more than 10,000 volumes) she built with her own funds a separate unit which now operates with coded and numbered books.
Danny Cohen
Danny is a strategic consultant for Labor Party Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer. Danny is a member of the Labor party and is also a succesful businessman in Israel. Danny lives in Ashdod with his wife and four children.
Mairav Zonszein
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Mairav Zonszein was born to an Israeli mother and a Polish-Mexican father in New York City in 1981. After completing high school she moved to Israel, where she earned a BA from Tel Aviv University in English Literature and Middle East History. During her last year of studies, Mairav worked as a proofreader and contributing writer at the Haaretz English Edition newspaper.
Upon arrival back in New York City in 2004, Mairav began working in the American Jewish nonprofit world, fighting for open debate and nuance regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict. She just moved back to Israel, where she currently resides in Yaffo, and will be starting her MA in International Relations at Tel Aviv University in the fall.
Ephraim Sneh
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Dr. Ephraim Sneh, Israel's Deputy Defense Minister, served as a career officer in the IDF until 1987, reaching the rank of Brigadier-General. He has held a variety of important positions in the army, including Commander of the Medical Teams during the Entebbe Rescue Operation in 1976, Chief Medical Officer of the IDF Paratroops and Infantry Corps, Commander of the Security Zone in South Lebanon in the early 1980's and Head of Israel’s Civil Administration for the West Bank from 1985 to 1987. A Member of Knesset from Israel's Labor Party, Ephraim Sneh was first elected to Knesset in 1992 and has served as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and has held various cabinet posts, including Minister of Health and of Transportation.
Bruce Temkin
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Bruce Temkin is the New York Director of the New Israel Fund, an organization that advances civil rights, equality and social justice for all Israelis. Bruce was in Habonim Dror garin Gal Hadash to Kibbutz Ravid, was Mazkir Tnua in 1986-87, Rosh Tavor '85 and '86, and was on workshop 31.
Ruth Kestenbaum Ben-Dov
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American-born Ruth Kestenbaum Ben-Dov lives in the Galilee community of Eshchar with her family. She is a professional painter and part-time writer and fundraiser for Neighbors.
Eran Schafferman
Eran Schafferman, the Chair of Young Labor, Jerusalem, lives in Jerusalem.
Eran holds an MA in public policy from the Hebrew University and a BA in business administration from the Ruppin school of business.
Currently, Eran is the assistant to the regional coordinator in the Forum of Civil Peace Service. FCPS is an NGO that deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Prior to that Eran was a parliamentary adviser to M.K. Colette Avital (Labour).
Rabbi Miri Gold
Rabbi Miri Gold went to the University of Michigan and made aliyah to Kibbutz Gezer in central Israel in 1977. She quickly became a lay leader at the kibbutz synagogue, Kehilat Birkat Shalom. Miri completed her rabbinic studies at Hebrew Union College, was ordained in 1999, and has served as rabbi of the congregation ever since. The congregation has 180 members from Kibbutz Gezer and the surrounding communities.
Since Rabbi Gold is not recognized by the state, she receives her salary directly from the congregation. Gezer regional officials have backed her bid for government funding and support the Israel Religious Action Center’s petition with the High Court of Justice to compel the government to recognize her and pay her salary, like any other community rabbi. Her case has been reported extensively in Ha’aretz, the Forward, and the Jerusalem Post.
Noah Taft
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Noah Taft is a graduate of Habonim. He spent a year at the Hebrew High School in Sde Boker and another year at the Machon L'madrichai Chutz L'aretz. For many years he was a sit-com writer and is currently the V.P. of Sales and Marketing for California Faucets.
Ann Shlay
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Ann Shlay a Professor of Urban Studies at Temple University.
Ann is in Israel this semester on a Fullbright Scholarship with her 16 year old daughter and has written several interesting pieces about her adventures in Israel.
Elihu Davison
Elihu Davison is an alumnus of the 17th Habonim Workshop in Kibbutz Urim. He lives in Morristown, NJ.
Benjamin Murane
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Benjamin Murane is the co-chair of the New York City chapter of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, a contributing editor to Jewschool.com, and the former director of the Jewish Student Press Service, publisher of New Voices magazine. His blog can be read at www.judaismwithoutborders.org.
Zach Luck
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Zach Luck graduated from Columbia in May. He currently lives in Washington, DC, where he is a research assistant.
Dan Fleshler
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Dan Fleshler, a New York-based media and public affairs strategist, is a board member of Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now and the Givat Haviva Educational Foundation. He blogs at Realistic Dove (www.realisticdove.org/)
Moises F. Salinas
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Dr. Moises Salinas is a professor of psychology at Central Connecticut State University. He was a winner of the 2004 WZO Herzl Centennial Award. His latest book “Planting hatred, Sowing Pain: The Psychology of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” (Greenwood/Praeger) will appear in May 2007.
Daniel Orenstein
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Daniel Orenstein, Ph.D., is a visiting fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies and Ameinu representative on the Jewish National Fund USA Board of Trustees.
J.J. Goldberg
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J.J. Goldberg is Editor of the Forward.
Yigal Tzachor
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Yigal Tzahor is Chairman of the World Labor Zionist Movement and Manager of the Ideological-Educational Center at the Berl Katzenelson Foundation in Israel.
Daniel Levy
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Daniel Levy is a Senior Fellow at the New America and The Century Foundations and directs their respective Middle East Peace policy initiatives. He formerly worked as an adviser in Israeli Prime Minister Barak’s office and as an official negotiator and as lead Israeli drafter of the informal Geneva Initiative peace plan.
Leonard Gordon
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Leonard Gordon serves as rabbi at the Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia, PA. This fall, he is teaching Talmud at the Reconstructionist Rabbinic College where a version of this article was presented at a pre-High Holiday workshop.
Diana Bletter
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Diana Bletter, an Israeli writer who lives in the Western Galilee, has just completed her first novel, The Dead Can Never Thank You. She has written for The International Herald Tribune and other publications and is a member of a Jewish-Muslim-Druze-Christian women's peace group, Acco Women's Vision.
Tom Segev
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Tom Segev is a columnist for Ha’aretz, Israel’s leading newspaper, and the author of three now-classic works on the history of Israel: 1949: The First Israelis; The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust; and One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice for 2000. Segev’s latest book is 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East. He lives Jerusalem.
Gilead Sher
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Attorney Gilead Sher, former Israeli Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff and Policy Coordinator, acted as co-chief negotiator in 1999-2001 at the Camp David summit and the Taba talks as well as in extensive rounds of covert negotiations with the Palestinians. He teaches frequently as a guest lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, mainly Dispute Resolution and Negotiations in Times of Crisis. The English version of his book The Israeli- Palestinian Peace Negotiations, 1999-2001: Within Reach was published by Routledge in 2006.
Tamara (Tammy) Shapiro
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TAMARA (TAMMY) SHAPIRO, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin (Madison), is the executive director of the Union of Progressive Zionists (UPZ).
Gadi Baltiansky
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Gadi Baltiansky is the Director General of the Geneva Initiative and was Press Secretary to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak
Sharon Brous
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Shelly Goldwater
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Gavri Bargil
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James Horrox
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Rabbi David Gedzelman
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Rabbi David Gedzelman is Executive Director of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life.
Saadia Gelb
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Michael Givel
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Avram Lyon
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Avram Lyon, an Ameinu board member, is a consultant to labor and Jewish communal organizations.
Julia Chaitin, Ph.D.
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Alex Sharone
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Alex Sharone is the National Director (Mazkir Tnua) of Habonim Dror North America. Born in Israel and raised in Los Angeles, Alex was a member of Workshop 48 and served as Rosh Camp Gilboa in 2003 and 2004. Alex completed a B.A. in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 2003.
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