2008 GA - Speaker Biographies
(Partial list; posted as of 11/20/08)

Danny Admasu has been executive director of the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews since 2006. Born in the Gondar region of Ethiopia, at the age of 8 Mr. Admasu walked with his family across the desert to Sudan and made aliyah in the framework of Operation Moses. Today he lives in Lod. Danny has extensive experience in the field of education. He worked as a youth counselor and projects coordinator for the Fidel educational organization and at the Kannot Youth Village.  Prior to coming to IAEJ, Danny served for five years as the director of the Ethiopian Israeli scouting movement, Tzofe Shva. Danny has a BA in International Relations and Management from Israel's Open University.

Ambassador Colette Avital is currently in her third term as a Knesset member, where she serves as deputy speaker. She is a member of the Constitution and Law Committee, the Knesset Committee, and the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee. In addition, she serves as international secretary of the Labor Party. While still completing her BA in Political Science and English Literature at the Hebrew University, Ms. Avital joined the Foreign Ministry and held a variety of key posts. Ambassador Avital's distinguished record of foreign postings includes serving as Consul General of Israel in New York, the highest position attained by a woman in the Foreign Service. From 1997 to 1999, Ambassador Avital was deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry in charge of European affairs.

Ehud Barak, Israel’s Defense Minister, was born in 1942 in Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon. He joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1959 and rose through the ranks to become Chief of the General Staff in 1991, with a promotion to the rank of Lt. General, the highest in the Israeli military. General Barak was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and four other citations for courage and operational excellence.
     In 1996 Mr. Barak was elected to the Knesset, and also that year, was elected chair of the Labor Party. Mr. Barak was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1999. He completed his term on March 7, 2001. In June 2007, Mr. Barak was elected to head the Labor Party. He now holds the posts Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense.

Raya Strauss Ben-Dror is co-owner and president of the Strauss Investment Company and a leading social activist in Israel. Born in Nahariya, in the northern Galilee, Ms. Ben-Dror is actively involved in philanthropic and community-oriented activities that reflect the values to which she’s committed: bringing together Jewish communities in Israel and the Diaspora, developing the geographic and economic peripheries of Israel (especially the Galilee), introducing norms of social responsibility into the world of Israeli business, and bringing business management principles and accountability to the activities of Israeli philanthropies. 

Currently, Ms. Ben-Dror sits on the board of the Jewish Agency; serves as president of Partnership 2000 for Nahariya-Northern New Jersey; co-chairs the Jewish Agency’s global Partnership 2000 program; works for organizations that assist homeless teenagers and promote leadership and excellence among marginalized teens; supports MAALA, which furthers corporate social responsibility; and serves on the board of the Ghetto Fighters Museum and as a partner in Talmei Geulat Israel, which works for the unity of the Jewish people in Israel and abroad. She has supported and worked for many years with the Reut Institute, whose goal is to bring about dramatic improvement in the political, societal and economic quality of life in Israel.

Dr. Ruth Calderon is a graduate of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, and is founder and executive Director of Alma Hebrew College in Tel Aviv and Alma New York. Ruth holds a BA in Bible and Philosophy from Haifa University, and a PhD in Talmud from the Hebrew University. In 1996, Ruth received the prestigious AviChai Prize for her pioneering work in establishing Elul, a religiously and politically pluralistic Beit Midrash in Jerusalem. Ruth also created HaCheder, a popular weekly TV series dealing with issues found in classic and modern Hebrew texts, and has written and edited several books.

Rebecca (Becky) Caspi is senior vice president, Global Operations: Israel and Overseas, and director general, UJC Israel. Ms. Caspi joined UJC in September 2007 to lead the newly formed Global Operations: Israel and Overseas division.  In this capacity, she is responsible for managing UJC’s efforts to link North American Jewry, through the Federation system, to Israel and the rest of the Jewish world in a meaningful way. Prior to joining the UJC, Ms. Caspi worked for over 16 years at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.  Her positions with JDC included serving as executive director of Worldwide Human Resource Development, deputy director for International Relations, and director of human resources and administration for the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute. 

Ms. Caspi was the first woman ever appointed to JDC’s global executive management team. Before joining JDC, she worked for the City University of New York. Upon making aliyah, she managed a private medical clinic in Tel Aviv and performed with the Israel Sinfonetta Orchestra.

Ronny Douek is a successful businessman and a social activist committed to improving Israeli society. He initiated the founding of Zionism 2000, a grass-roots movement to address social needs in Israel, and he is currently the chair of Sheatufim, the Israeli Center for Civil Society. Born in Haifa, Mr. Douek served as a Captain in the IDF Special Forces. In 1988, he founded Hire Pacific International Ltd., a port management, ship building and dredging company. With offices in London, Rotterdam and Israel, HPI operates in Europe and several West African countries. In 1992, Mr. Douek established the Arava Vineyard. He is also the founder of the Ach-Shav (“Returning Brother”) Foundation, which opened community centers for Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, and developed the leading mobile anti-drug abuse educational project in Israel. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin named Mr. Douek Chairman of the National Anti-Drug Volunteer Association. In 1998, he received the President’s citation for volunteerism.

Gerda Feuerstein is assistant director of the Education Department at the Jewish Agency for Israel. From 2001–2007, she served as director of the Education Department’s FSU Division and Jewish Identity Project. She previously served as director of the Jewish Identity project in the IDF, run through the Shorashim organization and in partnership with the Avi Chai Foundation. Ms. Feurstein began her career in education as a high school social studies teacher and then worked in developing programs for the IDF Education Corps.

Professor Zvi Galil has served as president of Tel Aviv University since June 2007. In addition to earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science at TAU, and teaching there since 1976, Professor Galil has even deeper roots at the university: his father, Professor Yaacov Galil, was one of the its founders.

From 1982 onward, Professor Galil held a second academic appointment at the Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, and in 1995, he was appointed as Dean of Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. During his tenure as dean, Professor Galil raised $175 million in donations, tripled the school’s endowment, quadrupled annual research funding, expanded the faculty from 92 to 155 members, and more than doubled the number of M.Sc. and Ph.D. candidates. He also held two endowed chairs during his 25 years at Columbia.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering (U.S.A.), he was elected for his contributions to the design and analysis of algorithms and for leadership in computer science and engineering. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the international learned society of leaders from academia, the arts, business, and public affairs that conducts projects and studies responsive to the needs and problems of society.

Ambassador Dan Gillerman served as Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from January 2003 to August 2008. His appointment marked the first time that Israel nominated someone from the private sector to this post. Under Ambassador Gillerman, Israel saw a number of notable and unprecedented achievements in the realm of international politics and diplomacy at the United Nations. He was instrumental in passing numerous resolutions in the General Assembly and Security Council, including the first successful Israeli resolutions ever adopted by the United Nations. As a testament to his leadership, his colleagues elected him a vice-president of the General Assembly in 2005, making Ambassador Gillerman the first Israeli representative to serve in the position since Abba Eban in 1952.
     During his tenure, Ambassador Gillerman worked closely with UN Secretary-Generals Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon, as well as the entire UN membership. He forged close relationships with many world leaders and diplomats, including from Arab and Muslim countries and whose own countries do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, some of whom are even perceived as hostile to it.
     Prior to his work at the U.N., Ambassador Gillerman served as CEO of several Israeli companies in the chemical, food ingredient, agricultural, and technology sectors. He was Chairman of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, and served on the board of major banks, including the Central Bank of Israel. His work as a member of the Prime Minister's National Economic and Social Council and other bodies led to the globalizing of the Israeli economy. He was also Chairman of the Israel-British Business Council, and a member of the Executive Board of the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Business Organization, and the Aspen Institute in Italy.

Professor Moti Herskowitz is vice-president and dean for Research and Development

at the Blechner Center of Industrial Catalysis and Process Development at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Prof. Herskowitz is responsible for promoting and facilitating all aspects of fundamental and applied R&D. He previously served as chairman of the Department of Chemical Engineering and established the Blechner Center in 1995.

Professor Herskowitz has published over 110 papers and holds 20 patents based on basic and applied research. Some of these patents deal with novel renewable and clean fuels as well as processes for their production. Others are related to environmental catalysis. Prof. Herskowitz has been associated with the Exxon (Mobil) Research and Engineering Company for more than 20 years and has been a consultant for a number of companies.     

David Horovitz is editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. He was previously the editor and publisher of The Jerusalem Report newsmagazine. Mr. Horowitz has written from Israel for newspapers around the world, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Irish Times and The (London) Independent. He is a frequent interviewee on CNN, the BBC, NPR and other TV and radio stations.

Mr. Horowitz is the author of Still Life with Bombers: Israel in the Age of Terrorism, which was published in March 2004 and garnered acclaim in The New York Times, The New York Post, Jewish Week and other newspapers. He is also the author of A Little Too Close to God: The Thrills and Panic of a Life in Israel. He edited and co-wrote, with other members of staff, The Jerusalem Report’s 1996 biography of Yitzhak Rabin, Shalom, Friend, which was published in 12 countries and won the U.S. National Jewish Book Award for Non-Fiction.
 

Dganit Jenshil is the Israel director of OTZMA. During her army service, she was a Hebrew teacher for new immigrant soldiers, and has since been involved in informal Jewish education. With over 13 years of experience in the field, she has worked with several organizations in Israel including Meilitz, Young Judaea, Ramah and Netzer Olami. Dganit spent three years in New Jersey with her husband, who was a Jewish Agency Shaliach (emissary) with Young Judaea, and her twins, Lee and Maya. While in the US, she worked as a Jewish educator with two communities, as well as an educational consultant. She has an undergraduate degree in Criminology and Political Science from Bar Ilan University in Israel and a Master's degree in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

Professor Moshe Kaveh has been president of Bar-Ilan University since 1996. He is a central figure in Israeli academia, an internationally-acclaimed physicist, and one of the most prominent leaders of the global Jewish community. As rector, and later president, of Bar-Ilan, Prof. Kaveh has led the university in a series of achievements that include doubling its student body (today numbering over 30,000), tripling its number of doctoral students (from 500 to 1,500), and building 15 new teaching and research facilities

Under Prof. Kaveh’s leadership, more than 120 new courses of study, research centers, academic chairs and institutes were established at Bar-Ilan, including a 1,000-student engineering school. He also established a multi-disciplinary brain research center, Israel’s largest. During his tenure, the university absorbed more than 100 new immigrant scientists from the former Soviet Union, and it initiated a pioneer academic studies program for Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Fearlessly outspoken, Prof. Kaveh is considered one of the most original leaders of today’s “Modern Orthodox” community. He has been a resolute advocate of enlightened and open religious education, including advanced Torah education for women. Prof. Kaveh has said that “we need religious education that prepares our young to tackle the challenges of the larger world, not education that teaches them fear of, and insularity from, the modern world.”

Julia Koschitzky was chair of the Keren Hayesod World Board of Trustees from 1992 to 1997 and now serves on the organization’s executive committee. Previously, she served a two-year term as president of the United Israel Appeal of Canada.  As U.I.A. president, Mrs. Koschitzky played an important role in shaping the relationship of Canadian Jewry with Israel, with particular reference to UIA's mandate in supporting human, social and educational needs.

From 1998 to 2003 Mrs. Koschitzky served as Chair of UIA Federations Canada, the organization resulting from the amalgamation of UIA of Canada and CJF Canada.  In 1998, she chaired the highly successful Israel at 50 celebrations in Toronto. Mrs. Koschitzky was Chairman of the Toronto UJA Women's Division Campaign in 1985 and later became general co-chair of the Toronto UJA Campaign. She also served as chair of the Israel Now Consortium and as chair of Israel Advocacy for the Toronto Jewish Federation. 

Mrs. Koschitzky is on the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors, is a member of the executive committee, and is co-chair of the Agency’s Education Department.  In 1997,  Mrs. Koschitzky received the Israel Goldstein Prize for outstanding service to Keren Hayesod.

Leonardo Leiderman is Professor of Economics at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel Aviv University, and the Chief Economic Advisor at Bank Hapoalim, the largest commercial bank in Israel. Previously, he served as Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets Economics at Deutsche Bank, based in New York and London. From 1996 to 2000, he was senior director and Head of the Research Department at the Bank of Israel. 

Mr. Leiderman was born in Argentina, and is now a citizen of Israel. He joined Tel Aviv University in 1979, after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Professor Robert E. Lucas, Jr.  From 1988 to 1991 he was Chairman of the Economics Department, and from 1994 to 1996 he headed the Pinhas Sapir Center for Development at Tel Aviv University. Over the years, Leiderman visited various institutions, especially in the US, such as the University of Chicago, Boston University, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank.  Professor Leiderman has also consulted for various central banks and ministries of finance, including those of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Hungary, Czech Republic, Venezuela, and Turkey.

Dr. Daniel Marom is the Director of the Mandel Leadership Institute’s Visions Unit and is a graduate of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows. His work at MLI focuses on the development of educational vision among practitioners and in organizations, and has included the development of a tutoring program for the training of educational leadership. His most recent publication was Dialogue from the Heart of Confusion (Keter Publications: 2008), an account of his work over several years at Tel Aviv’s Shevach-Moffet school, facilitating an inter-cultural dialogue and philosophical-educational exploration with the school’s mix of Russian- and Israeli-born teachers. Daniel is co-editor of Visions of Jewish Education (Cambridge University Press: 2003) and has published numerous books, articles and curricula in the area of Jewish and Zionist education in Israel and America. 

Rafi Melnick joined the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya 1998 and is currently its Provost. Previously he was Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Strategy and Diplomacy. Mr. Melnick holds a PhD in Economics and served as senior economist for the Bank of Israel, where for several years he was deputy director of research. He developed the State of the Economy Index for the Israeli economy; the index is published by IDC on a monthly basis. His professional activities include serving as chair of the Investment Committee of Migdal Insurance, and previously as chair of the Investment Committee of Hamagen Insurance, economic consultant to Bank Leumi, member of the board Ofek Securities and Investment, and research associate at the Center for Social Policy Studies Research in Israel.

Dr. Nigist Mengesha has been director general of the Ethiopian National Project for the last five years. She has been a community activist and advocate for Ethiopian rights since her arrival in Israel in 1984. Dr. Mengesha has worked for the Israeli Social Welfare Department; served as coordinator for Ethiopian organizations for the SHATIL project; founded and directed Fidel, the Association for Education and Social Integration of Ethiopian Jews in Israel; and represented Israel at the Durban United Nations Conference Against Racism. 
    
In Ethiopia, Dr. Mengesha served as a social worker for the Ethiopian Prisons Authority. After making aliyah, she received an MSW from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was a fellow at Jerusalem’s Mandel School for Educational Leadership. She received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Sussex in 2007.

Ambassador Reuven Merhav is the former Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During his time in the post, from 1989—91, he finalized the Taba agreement with Egypt, established the first Israeli mission in Beijing, and laid the political and administrative foundations for “Operation Solomon,” the second massive transport of Jews from Ethiopia to Israel, which Ambassador Merhav oversaw to fruition in 1991. In 1992--93 he served as Director General of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, devoting much time and effort to Ethiopian immigrants.

In 2001 he was elected to the executive committee of the Council for Peace and Security, a non-partisan group of former senior I.D.F., Intelligence Community and Foreign Affairs veterans, academics and experts, committed to the promotion of secure peace arrangements in the area.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi is the founder and president of The Israel Project (TIP), an international nonprofit devoted to educating the press and public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace. TIP has offices in Washington D.C., Jerusalem, and Sderot.

Prior to starting The Israel Project, Ms. Mizrahi was the founder and president of Laszlo & Associates, Inc., a strategic communications and public policy company. She studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has degrees in International Relations and Judaic Studies from Emory University. Her work earned her recognition as a “Point of Light” by President H. W. Bush, and The Forward newspaper has twice listed her as one of its “Forward 50” most influential Jews in America. Mizrahi was recently named to the March of the Living’s newly established advisory board.

Ms. Mizrahi has worked on projects with the White House, President Clinton, Vice President Gore and several U.S. Senators. For six years she published a weekly column on public policy in The Daily Record in North Carolina. She has been interviewed on “One-on-One with John McLaughlin,” CNN, CNBC, FOX, MSNBC and C-SPAN. She has been quoted in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Times, Newsweek, The Economist, People and Investor's Business Daily. She also has been profiled in The Washington Post, Working Woman, the Jewish Times, Lifestyles and other publications.

Charles A Ratner is a former chair of the Jewish Community Fed of Cleveland and continues to sit on the organization’s board. Mr. Ratner is the president and CEO of Forest City Enterprises, a national owner and developer of real estate headquartered in Cleveland. 

Mr. Ratner currently sits on the boards of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Musical Arts Association and United Way Services.  He is also a trustee of the Mandel Associated Foundations, the David and Inez Myers Foundation and  University Hospital.
Mr. Ratner is on the board of directors of American Greetings and RPM. IN addition, he is on the Board of Governors of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. 

Rabbi Marc Rosenstein is a graduate of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows. Marc has lived in Israel since 1990, and is the founding director of Makom Bagalil: the Galilee Foundation for Value Education, based on Moshav Shorashim. Through informal education, Makom Bagalil works to develop the Galilee as a model of civil society, addressing three major fault lines in Israeli society and the Jewish world: Jewish-Arab, Jewish-Jewish (primarily Orthodox/non-Orthodox), and Israel-Diaspora. Rabbi Rosenstein was ordained at HUC-JIR in 1975, and served as principal at the Solomon Schechter Secondary School in Skokie, Illinois, and at the Akiba Hebrew Academy in Lower Merion, Pa.

John Ruskay is executive vice president and CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, the largest Federation in North America and the largest local philanthropy in the world. After earning his doctorate in Political Science at Columbia University, Ruskay served for six years as educational director of the 92" Street Y and then eight years as vice chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He came to UJA-Federation in 1992, where he served in several positions before being appointed to his current office.

Allan Schneiderman is the director of Community Planning and Allocations at the Federation Combined Jewish Appeal of Montreal. Mr. Schnedierman spent many years as a volunteer before becoming a Federation professional. He is a graduate of the community’s Leadership Development program, a recipient of the community’s Young Leadershi, and co-chair of Super Sunday in 1996. Over the course of seven years, he served in various capacities in Planning & Allocations. As Chair of P & A for services to seniors, Mr. Schneiderman played a pivotal role in the creation of the Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors, a merger of two agencies serving Montreal’s senior population. In 2000, he assumed the presidency of the agency for two years. In 2002, Allan returned to the Community Planning and Allocations group as vice-chair and again played a major role in the merging of two entities into Jewish Employment Montreal (JEM).
Prior to joining federation in November, 2003, Mr. Schneiderman spent 25 years as a businessman in the distribution and manufacturing sectors, primarily in operations, and later as a management consultant.

Robert Singer is Director General and CEO of World ORT, one of the world’s largest non-governmental education and training providers. As the organization’s chief professional, he directs ORT’s operational and fundraising activities across five continents, managing its professionals and liaising with its lay leaders.

Since taking up his post in 1999, Mr. Singer has worked to increase ORT’s internal efficiency and raise its external visibility. Under his leadership, new relationships have been forged with the Jewish communities of the United States and with major communal philanthropic organizations.

Prior to joining World ORT, Mr. Singer spent 12 years with the Office of the Prime Minister in Israel in a number of senior posts.  From 1993 to 1997, he was Consul and Head of the Prime Minister’s North America Mission, dealing with the U.S. government, ministries and other bodies on issues relating to the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, the CIS and the Baltic States.  He was also responsible for building links with Jewish communities throughout the United States and Canada.

Professor Gerald Steinberg chairs the Political Studies department at Bar Ilan University, and is Executive Director of NGO Monitor. He specializes in Middle East diplomatic and security issues, from nuclear proliferation to soft power and public diplomacy, with a particularly emphasis on the politics of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). 

Professor Steinberg’s op-ed columns appear in the Jerusalem Post; the Wall Street Journal (Europe); National Review Online; International Herald Tribune, and other publications. He also is a frequent commentator on CBS News, NPR, the BBC, etc.
Recent publications include “Soft Powers Play Hardball: NGOs Wage War against Israel,” “The UN, the ICJ and the Separation Barrier: War by Other Means” (Israel Law Review), and “NGOs and the Durban Review Conference: History Repeating Itself.” In 2008, Prof. Steinberg received a prestigious award from the Israel Science Foundation for research on NGOs and politics during the 2006 Lebanon War.

Yarden Vatikay is director of the National Information Directorate in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Previously he was the spokesperson and head of the Communications and Information Unit at the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization. Mr. Vatikay held several positions in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, including head of the Foreign Press Branch.