Participant Bios

THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022 Zionist Statesmanship: Ben-Gurion and Begin August 3, 2014 – August 8, 2014 Participant Biographies Matan Asher, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel Matan Asher, 24 years old, studies law and political science at Bar-Ilan University. He was chosen as one of the 150 most promising young people in Israel by Mozash magazine of Makor Rishon. He was one of the founders of Human Rights Blue and White, sponsored by the Institute for Zionist Strategies, and headed the Yuvalim project at BIU for the World Zionist Organization. Mr. Asher interned at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs for Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld. He won the 2013 BIU President's Prize for Social Involvement. A graduate of the 2013 StandwithUS Program for Public Diplomacy, he was a member of the 2013 Assembly of Cooperation for Peace delegation to Voices of Peace in Seville, Spain. He is a member of the Erwin & Martha Samson Center for International Communication Public Diplomacy Workshop in Bar Ilan. Gilad Be’ery, Advanced Institute Participant Israel Gilad Be’ery is a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, where he is currently involved in multiple research projects on topics including the national-religious sector in Israel, economic conditions and social protest, the mentally disabled in Jewish tradition, and religion and economic ideology. He holds an M.A. in public policy from the Hebrew University. His M.A. thesis is an empirical inquiry into the influence on economic ideology of the religious belief in God’s control of the world. His B.A. was in the philosophy, political science, and economics program at the Hebrew University, in which he also served as a teaching assistant for two years. Mr. Be’ery also pursued higher Jewish education at Yeshivat Har-Etzion from 2003 to 2008, combined with military service, and Havruta from 2009 to 2013 David de Bruijn, Advanced Institute Participant United States David de Bruijn is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. David was born and raised in the Netherlands, where he was active member of various organizations in Jewish civil society, including the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI). After receiving his BA in Political Science and Philosophy at University College Utrecht, David went on to receive a Masters in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. In his academic work, David focuses on Kantian approaches to contemporary issues in epistemology and philosophy of mind. Outside of his academic work, David maintains an active interest in international politics and the Middle East. His writings have appeared in various places, including Marginalia Review of Books and Levantoday.com. THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022 Avishai Don, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel Avishai Don graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude in 2012 with a concentration in social studies and a minor in modern Middle Eastern Studies. At Harvard he was as an op-ed columnist and editorial board member of the Harvard Crimson, as well as a gabbai and co-chair of the Harvard Hillel Orthodox Minyan. After college Mr. Don was a speechwriter and communications advisor to Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, and a general adviser to the Israeli delegation to the United Nations. In that capacity he wrote op-eds, letters, and other correspondence for the delegation and helped draft Israel’s official speech in response to the Palestinians’ unilateral UN statehood bid on November 29, 2012. He is currently a research fellow in the Israeli Ministry of Justice Department of Special International Affairs, where he aids government attorneys in litigation involving the State of Israel and Israeli officials in foreign countries. He will enter Harvard Law School in the fall of 2014. Eliana Gurfinkiel, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel Eliana Gurfinkiel was born in Paris and immigrated to Israel at age 18. She has a B.A. in Jewish studies and Hebrew from the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris and a double major B.A. from Bar-Ilan University in history and Asian studies. She is currently finishing her M.A. in history, writing on collective memory in Normandy museums. She attended the Identity and Public Policy Program of the Jewish Statesmanship Center and the JSC Fellowship. She writes short stories and poems in French and enjoys photography. She often describes herself as having sparks in her head due to “too many ideas colluding in her brain.” She lives in Jerusalem. Yitzi Hammer, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel Yitzy Hammer lives with his wife and two children in Netanya, Israel. He made aliyah from the United States in 2000, studied in Otniel Hesder Yeshiva, and served in the Combat Engineering Corps. He is currently studying towards an LL.B. in law and a B.A. in government at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliah, where he has worked as a research assistant to Professor Aaron Kirschenbaum in the field of Jewish law. Recently Mr. Hammer represented the IDC in the International Committee of the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Competition, a subject in which he is particularly interested. He is an avid reader, writer, runner, and biker and maintains a blog on the popular Israeli news site of the Times of Israel. THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022 Matan Harel, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel Matan Harel served in the Israel Defense Forces as a combat communications officer for five-and-a- half years. Since 2011 he has studied at the Technion School of Civil Engineering towards a B.Sc. in management and construction. He currently serves as chairman of the Technion debate team and vice chairman of the School of Civil Engineering Student Union. Ari Hoffman, Advanced Institute Participant United States Ari Hoffman is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Harvard University, where he serves as senior resident tutor in Lowell House. He studies contemporary fiction, with a focus on Jewish literature; his dissertation examines the ways in which Jewish American authors and intellectuals have engaged Israel and, more broadly, the relationship between literature and Zionism. A 2010 graduate of Harvard College, Mr. Hoffman has also studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Cambridge University. He has been awarded the Bok Center Award for Contribution to Undergraduate Education and is a former Tikvah- Ein Prat Summer Fellow. A former columnist for the Harvard Crimson, he has also contributed to Tablet magazine. Yaniv Holzman, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel Yaniv Holzman is a law school student at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He also works as a personal assistant to Rabbi David Stav, head of the Tzohar organization, which works to strengthen good relations between religious and non-religious Jews, both in Israel and abroad. Mr. Holzman was a member of the group that ran Rav Stav’s campaign for Chief Rabbi of Israel. Mr. Holzman served as a tank corps officer in the Israel Defense Forces, rising to the rank of lieutenant. Before his military service he studied for two years in Nitivot in the Hesder Yeshiva, which emphasizes giving to the community. Norman Kaufmann, Tikvah Summer Fellow United States Norm Kaufmann, a resident of Washington, D.C., is interested in Judaism, Zionism, and liberalism. As a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, he works with industry, academia, and the U.S. government, providing progress data and advice to investors in applied energy research. He was a 2012 Public Policy Leadership Fellow at the Fund for American Studies. Last summer Mr. Kauffman represented the United States at the 19th Maccabiah Games in Jerusalem, Israel and won a bronze medal as a member of the Maccabi USA taekwondo team. He is also a taekwondo coach and instructor in Silver Spring, Maryland. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022 James Kirchick, Advanced Institute Participant United States Jamie Kirchick is a fellow at the Foreign Policy Initiative. A journalist and foreign correspondent now based in Washington, he has reported from Southern and North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe, and the Caucasus. For over three years Mr. Kirchick worked at The New Republic, covering domestic politics, lobbying, intelligence, and American foreign policy. He then became a writer-at-large for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, based in Prague and writing about the politics and cultures of the 21 countries in RFE/RL’s broadcast region. Among the stories he covered were the fraudulent 2010 presidential election in Belarus, ethnic cleansing in Kyrgyzstan, and the Libyan Civil War. Mr. Kirchick has worked for the New York Sun, the New York Daily News, and The Hill. He was a 2012-2013 Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow in Berlin and, previously, a Hoover Institution Media Fellow and a Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellow. Mr. Kirchick was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Yale College in 2006. Chaya Sima Koenigsberg, Tikvah Summer Fellow United States Chaya Sima Koenigsberg is a doctoral student studying Jewish philosophy and mysticism at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies of Yeshiva University, where she received her M.A. in Jewish Philosophy. Previously, she studied at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, as well as Michlalah Jerusalem College for Women in Israel. She has taught at Manhattan High School for Girls in New York City and currently teaches Jewish history and Jewish philosophy at Shevach High School for Girls in Queens, New York, where she also serves as the grade level advisor for the ninth grade.

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