Board of Directors

• Prof. Yael Barda

  Board Chair

  Lawyer and a professor of sociology at the Hebrew University, as well as a research fellow at the Middle East Initiative, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Previously, Yael worked as a human rights lawyer and was actively involved in community-political work.

• Prof. Naomi Chazan

  Board Member

  Former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Meretz Knesset member; former president of the New Israel Fund and Chair of the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace; founder and leader of the Israeli feminist-human rights movement; Professor (Emerita) of Political Science and African Studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem; lecturer and fellow at leading universities around the world; head of the School of Government and Society at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo.

• Dr. Maya Kahanoff

  Board Member

  Lecturer in conflict resolution at the Hebrew University, Ben Gurion University and the Jerusalem Charedi College; researcher at the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University; academic director of the Palestinian Israeli Bereaved Families’ Reconciliation Center.

• Atty. Elias Khouri

  Board Member

  Attorney specializing in policy issues, property and human and civil rights in Jerusalem.

• Dr. Alon Liel

  Board Member

  Former Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Former Israeli Ambassador to South Africa, expert on Israeli-Turkish relations, Chair of the Movement for Israel-Syria Peace, a private consultant, and a university lecturer.

• Dr. Ari Paltiel

  Board Member

  Retired demographer at the Central Bureau of Statistics; adjunct lecturer at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; board member of Bizchut – The Israeli Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities.

• Dr. Malka Greenberg

  Board Member

  Architect and urban planner working in management of urban renewal projects in Jerusalem. Her research focused on the everyday practices of Palestinian and Israeli women in Jerusalem's urban spaces.

• Dr. Assaf David

  Board Member

  Dr. Assaf David is the director of the Israel in the Middle East Department at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the co-founder and academic director of the Forum of Regional Thinking. He also teaches comparative politics of the Middle East at the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

• Haifa Sabbagh

  Board Member

  Haifa is the program director in the Israel in the Middle East Department at the Van Leer Institute (VLI), where she develops and manages educational projects on a wide range of topics and creates study materials on democracy and civics suitable for all Israeli youngsters. She holds a BA in sociology and an MA in education. Prior to joining VLI, Haifa worked for several years as a field officer with the International Red Cross, responsible for the areas of Jericho, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem.

• Dr. Shaiya Rothberg

  Board Member

  Lecturer on Jewish Thought and Kabbalah at the Conservative Yeshivah in Jerusalem. Shaiya holds a PhD from Hebrew University in Jewish Thought and a B.A. in Jewish Philosophy and Talmud from Bar-Ilan. He has taught rabbinical students from across the spectrum of liberal Judaism, including The Jewish Theological Seminary, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Hebrew College, The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, ALEPH Rabbinical School, and The Academy for Jewish Religion, California. Shaiya also teaches Jewish human rights theology and activism at Achvat Amim and has been a human rights activist for many years.