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

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 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, , 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 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 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. She lives in Washington Heights, New York with her husband Akiva and their three children.

Maya Mark, Advanced Institute Participant Israel

Maya Mark is a Ph.D. candidate at Tel Aviv University Law School. Her research, under the guidance of Professors Daphne Barak-Erez and Arie Naor, deals with Menachem Begin's world view of law and regime. Ms. Mark obtained her LL.B. and LL.M., both magna cum laude, from Tel Aviv University. Her thesis, under Professor Barak-Erez, dealt with the links among law, society, and state authorities during Israel's formative years. During her studies, Ms. Mark was a research assistant, a member of the Tel Aviv Law Review editorial board, and an academic assistant in various courses. After graduation she was an intern at the Israeli Supreme Court, in the chambers of Justice M. Naor, and later a senior clerk for Justice E. Hayut.

THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022

Yishai Rivlin, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Yishai Rivlin is a fourth year student of law at the Hebrew University, where he is concurrently pursuing an M.B.A., majoring in finance. He is a graduate of the Public Policy Program of the Jewish Statesmanship Center and is an intern at the National Economic Council of the Prime Minister's Office. Next year Mr. Rivlin will begin a legal internship at the Israeli Supreme Court. In his spare time he is a taekwondo instructor and international referee.

Carry Schlaff, Tikvah Summer Fellow Austria

Carry Schlaff grew up in Vienna, Austria. She completed her undergraduate degree in mathematics and education in Jerusalem and is currently finishing her Master’s degree in biomedical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology. She was part of the team that organized the European Maccabi Games in Vienna and is now in charge of the social media presence of her community’s youth commission. She is a member of Young Wizo Austria, a division of the Women’s International Zionist Organization, and a volunteer for Chai Lifeline, which provides services and programs for seriously ill children and their families.

Ariel Seri-Levi, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Ariel Seri-Levi is a doctoral student in Jewish thought and Bible at the Hebrew University. His doctoral study is dedicated to the subject of Divine anger and its abatement in the Pentateuchal sources. He is a graduate of the Revivim Honor Program for the training of Jewish studies teachers at the Hebrew University, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Jewish studies and Bible and his Master’s degree in Jewish thought, both with honors. He teaches Bible, Jewish thought, and Jewish culture at the Jerusalem Arts High School and writes textbooks for the public education system at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He lives in Jerusalem, is married to Naama, and has one son, Hillel.

Myriam Shermer, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Myriam Shermer, née Kalfon, was born in Jerusalem. At the age of four she moved to France with her parents and stayed there for 24 years. She completed her B.A. at the Sorbonne in Paris, majoring in psychology and film studies. At the age of 25 she moved back to Israel, completing an M.A. in film studies at Tel Aviv University. In 2011 she became a reporter and editor of the French edition of the Jerusalem Post. She remained there for three years, serving as acting editor-in-chief during the last six months of her tenure. Today she is a freelance journalist for the Times of Israel and the I24news TV channel. She was married last year. Her husband, Erez, will be with her in New York during the Tikvah summer fellowship program.

THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022

Alexander Steinberg, Tikvah Summer Fellow United States

Alexander Steinberg was educated in international relations at Boston University, concentrating in foreign policy, security studies, and the Middle East. After graduation he helped launch a real estate brokerage business and served as its president; today he is a licensed real estate and insurance broker in Massachusetts and New York. In addition to commercial entrepreneurship, is currently focused on developing practical non-profit programs to foster Jewish communal unity. He is the eldest of four children and is an avid basketball player.

Ortal Tamam, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Ortal Tamam is originally from Netanya. She studies medicine in the M.D.-Ph.D. program at Ben- Gurion University in partnership with the Cincinnati's Children's Hospital. Before serving as a combat paramedic (EMT-P) in the IDF, she acted as a young emissary of the Jewish Agency in Cincinnati, Ohio. Today she works as a volunteer with Holocaust survivors. She founded a focus group called Young Jewish Leadership (YJL), which operates in Netanya and Cincinnati. It studies Judaism, leadership, and Israel and works to have a positive influence on each participant’s local community. In 1986 Ortal’s uncle was kidnapped and murdered by Arab-Israeli terrorists during his army service. His convicted killers were scheduled for release in the recent round of terrorist releases by the Israeli government as a “goodwill gesture" toward the Palestinian Authority. Ms. Tamam was very active in protesting the release, which was eventually cancelled.

Dumisani Washington, Advanced Institute Participant United States

Dumisani Washington is a pastor, author, composer, and music educator in northern California. He is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and director of the Zion Academy of Music in Stockton, California. He is also senior pastor of the Congregation of Zion in Stockton. He and his wife, Valerie, have been married for 25 years and have six children, ages 13 to 25. Mr. Washington is also an Israel advocate with a vision of a strengthened solidarity with the Jewish state among black Americans and other communities of color. He focuses his efforts on young people and college students. In 2013 he formed the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, which, through education and advocacy, condemns the “Zionism is racism” ideology, defends Israel’s right to live in peace with its Arab neighbors, and seeks to help cultivate an Israel-Africa alliance. He is currently writing two books, Zionism and the Black Church: Why Standing with Israel Will Be a Defining Issue for Christians of Color in the 21st Century and The Diaspora: Discovering Israel’s Multiethnic Identity and Her Prophetic Return to the Land. Mr. Washington’s production company, June 25th Music, recently released its first album, The Hebrew Project, Volume 1: From Beyond the Rivers, a musical-cultural stand with the nation of Israel and a celebration of the Jewish people from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the “islands of the sea.” The Hebrew Project Artists has performed throughout northern California, in

THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022 places including Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland, the Israel in the Gardens festival in San Francisco, the Israel in Marin festival in San Rafael, Citizens United For Israel’s Sacramento Night to Honor Israel, and CUFI’s Stockton Night to Honor Israel.

Daniel Weiss, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Daniel Weiss is a third year student at IDC-Herzliya, majoring in law and government, with a specialty in diplomacy and strategy. He was a research assistant at the Israeli Institute for Counter- Terrorism and is chief operating officer of the Fox Foundation, a non-profit organization for IDF veterans. He served as an officer in the IDF Givati unit. He is married to Danielle and has a son, Noam.

Yonatan Zlotogorski, Advanced Institute Participant Israel

Yoni Zlotogorski recently returned to Israel from London, where he worked as head of policy and research at the Jewish Leadership Council, the British Jewry’s umbrella organization, and before that as the communications advisor to Israel’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, HE Daniel Taub, and a political analyst for the Embassy’s Political Counsellor. Before traveling to London, Yoni worked at the Hartman Institute as the iEngage Project's junior research fellow and at Agora Policy, a public policy consulting firm, where he worked on evaluating the IDF’s Shachar programs, which integrate the Ultra-Orthodox community into the military. In 2010 Yoni worked at the White House in the Office of the Chief of Staff to Vice President Joseph R. Biden. He received a B.A. in international relations and Middle Eastern studies from the Hebrew University, with a focus on foreign policy decision-making, and is currently writing his dissertation towards receiving a M.Sc. in global politics at the London School of Economics.