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

The Western Tradition of Liberty November 16, 2014 – November 20, 2014

Participant Biographies

Yuval Abrams United States of America

Yuval Abrams is a Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He holds a joint LL.B/B.A. (magna cum laude) in Law and Philosophy from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he served on the board of the Mishpatim Law Review, and an LL.M. from New York University School of Law. His teaching experience includes Jurisprudence, Bioethics, Business Ethics, Introductory Philosophy, and a Great Books course at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, New York University, and CUNY-Brooklyn College. Previously he worked in private legal practice, both in Jerusalem and New York, has been a Junior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and served as a Judicial Clerk to Justice Ayala Procaccia on the Supreme Court of Israel.

Hezi Amiur Israel

Dr. Amiur holds a Ph.D. in Jewish History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he also earned a B.A. cum laude in General History and an M.A. in Jewish History. His areas of academic expertise include Zionist thought, and early Zionist settlement. His book on the ideology of modern Jewish settlements will be published in the coming year by the Zalman Shazar Center. In his position as Israel Collection Curator, Hezi manages the collection development, digital collaborations, cultural series and partnerships, as well as relationships with the research community.

Isaac Aschkenazi Israel

Isaac Aschkenazi is a physics and computer science student at the Technion Technological Institute in Haifa. Previously, he taught Talmud and mathematics in NY high schools and served as editor for several publications on related topics while receiving his rabbinical ordination there. He has studied Talmudic law at the Hebron Rabbinical College in Jerusalem.

Yuval Kahan Israel

Yuval Kahan is the founder of the Israeli Academy for Leadership Tel Aviv in Memory of Ben Zion Shay Hadad. For the past eight years he has managed and directed the academy. He is active throughout, both in the educational, practical and financial capacity. Kahan has taught and educated Israeli teens at various formal and informal institutes, most notably the Shalom Hartman institute in Jerusalem. Kahan holds an M.A. in Jewish Thought (“Machshevet Yisrael”) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (graduated summa cum laude). Kahan serves as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army reserves.

Hillel Gershuni Israel

Hillel Gershuni is a blogger, a columnist for NRG and Midah websites, and writer for Makor Rishon newspaper. He holds a B.A. in Talmud and Hebrew language from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2013) and is now working on his thesis about the anonymous parts of the Babylonian Talmud as part of his M.A. studies in the Talmud Department of the Hebrew University. He works also works for the Genazim Project of Talmudic manuscripts. His paper about Maimonides’ approach towards textual variations was published in “Masorah leYosef” annual in 2014.

Sarah Greek United States of America

Sarah Greek produces Eagle Forum Live, a national radio show on politics and current affairs, in St. Louis Missouri. Her experience includes more than two dozen political campaigns, work as a lobbyist and staffer in the Missouri and Kansas State Capitols, and service with the National Day of Prayer. Ms. Greek’s writing has appeared at Humane Pursuits, The College Fix, and the Love & Fidelity Network. Previously, Ms. Greek worked with college students as a life & academic coach. She is also involved in non-profit work and counsels at a crisis pregnancy center.

Yair Hakak Israel

Yair Hakak serves as the head of the Department of Policy Planning and Strategy at the Israel Ministry of Communications, Israel’s telecommunication and postal regulatory agency. He previously served in various roles in the Economics Department of the Ministry, and has been involved in many of the notable structural reforms in the sector in recent years. Mr. Hakak also serves as vice-chairman of the OECD’s working group on telecommunications policy. In addition to his policy work, Mr. Hakak is a doctoral candidate at the School of Public Policy of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where his research focuses on the development of regulatory policy during the British Mandate for Palestine, and its enduring legacy on policymaking in Israel. Mr. Hakak holds a B.A. in Economics from Columbia University in New York, an MBA in Finance and Banking from the Hebrew University, and an M.A. in Sociology (summa cum laude) from Tel Aviv University, where his thesis concerned the Palestine Mandatory Department of Posts, Telegraph and Telephones in 1937–1938.

Ariel Kallner Israel

Ariel Kallner is the founder and the chairman of the Hazon Leumi (National Vision) organization. Hazon Leumi’s goal is to raise the new generation of strong young leaders, with developed Jewish identities and intellectual ability to develop deep vision to affect the agenda of Jewish people and the state of Israel. Mr. Kallner has been an activist since his youth in several national organizations. Mr. Kallner works as Project Leader at Phillips Medical Systems in the area of Information technology. He graduated with MBA degree from Haifa University and B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. Mr. Kallner is 34 years old, married and father of two daughters and one son.

Sefi Keller Israel

Sefi Keller has LL.B. & B.A (Political Science) from the Hebrew University. He is currently studying for an M.A. in political science at the Hebrew University. He is Co-founder of PolitiWatch—Israel’s first fact-checking initiative. Mr. Keller occasionally publishes Op-eds at Mida and the Washington Post. He is a Project leader at the Public Knowledge Workshop. Mr. Keller is a dog owner and a blues enthusiast.

Joshua London United States of America

Joshua E. London is Co-Director of Government Relations at the Zionist Organization of America. Previously, he served as Deputy Director at the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs, as Director of Policy for the Jewish Policy Center, and as a Senior Editor with the American Spectator magazine. He holds a B.A. in political science from the University of California at Davis (1997), and an M.A. in social science from the University of Chicago (1998). Mr. London is the author of Victory in Tripoli: How America’s War with the Barbary Pirates Established the US Navy and Shaped a Nation (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), a history of America’s war against Muslim pirates in North Africa under Thomas Jefferson. He also writes a weekly wine and spirits column for the Washington Jewish Week which is syndicated to over a dozen Jewish newspapers in the US. Mr. London has written on a variety of topics for such media as The Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, Time magazine, The American Spectator magazine, the Middle East Quarterly, Moment Magazine, The Washington Jewish Week, The NY Jewish Week, The Jewish Press (NY), the LA Jewish Journal, Ami magazine, Human Events, Military.com, National Review Online, InFocus, and The Cutting Edge News.

Refael Minnes Israel

Refael Minnes is a lecturer at Ariel University and Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He holds a B.Sc. in Biophysics (2003; magna cum laude) and a Ph.D. in Physics (2008) from Bar-Ilan University. Dr. Minnes did a postdoctoral research at the School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (2008-2012) where he received the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) postdoctoral fellowship. After returning to Israel, Dr. Minnes served as the head of the microscopy unit and as a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and since 2014 he is a lecturer at the department of Physics, Ariel University. His current research focuses on applying physical methods to advance the biological/medical research. In his main project he is trying to develop a new method for the early detection of melanoma using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy.

Uri Perednik Israel

Uri Perednik is a journalist for the internet magazine Mida and the founder and head of the movement the struggle for Aliya of Ethiopian Jewry. He is an undergraduate student of International Relations and Media at the Hebrew University and served in the IDF intelligence Unit 8200 as a team leader. Mr. Perednik has volunteered and worked for many years with the Ethiopian community in Ethiopia and in Israel and has published articles about his activity in Ynet, Makor Rishon and The Jerusalem Post and has also appeared on several national radio and television programs. He has published over 20 articles in Mida about terrorism and Zionism and speaks English and Hebrew (mother tongues) as well as Arabic, Amharic and Spanish.

Yehoshua Pfeffer Israel

Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer was born and grew up in London, England. At age 17 he embarked on a Yeshiva career spanning close to 20 years, during which he earned rabbinical approbation, published a book on the workings of legal documents in Jewish law (awarded Bnei Braq prize for Torah literature), and served as rabbinical judge on a civil law Beis Din. He also served as halachic assistant to the Israel Chief Rabbi, and as chief editor for the Ner LeElef resource program. He holds a degree in law from the Hebrew University (hons.) and served as clerk at the Israel Supreme Court. He has published articles in numerous magazines and journals on the subject of Jewish Law and Thought, and was for many years chief halachic editor of a renowned Jewish website. He is currently a Tikvah Fellow, and is working to initiate and run Tikvah programs for the Haredi community in Israel.

Jacob Reses United States of America

Jacob Reses is Research Assistant to the CEO of Heritage Action for America, a policy advocacy organization affiliated with the Heritage Foundation. He holds a B.A. in Public Policy from Princeton University (2013; awarded with high honors); where he wrote a senior thesis on the relationship between trust fund accounting rules and growth in federal domestic spending. In college, he served as a Senior Columnist at The Daily Princetonian, as a Managing Editor of The Princeton Tory, and as President of the Princeton College Republicans. Prior to joining Heritage Action in 2014, Mr. Reses worked as a researcher at Baron Public Affairs, a political risk analysis firm, and interned for Charles Krauthammer of The Washington Post, for the Senate Budget Committee, and for the Honorable Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Yechezkel Rosenblum Israel

Yechezkel Rosenblum is a lawyer for renewable energy and real estate companies and Deputy Chairman of the Israel Bar Association’s Committee of Energy and Infrastructure. He is a Rabbi and social entrepreneur, a director of the Government Company of Community Centers (IACC), and a director of the National Insurance Institute. He was the founder of and remains member of board for the KEMACH fund for Ultra-Orthodox advancement in education and employment. Mr. Rosenblum holds a B.A. in Talmud from Bar-Ilan University (2003), LL.B. in Law from Ono College (2004), and studying LL.M. in Law at the Hebrew University. He is a Member of the National Secretariat, Agudat Israel Workers Union (PAI). Mr. Rosenblum is the founder and chairman of “TOV” (Working Haredies movement) (Jerusalem, Beitar Illit, Beit Shemesh, Elad and Emmanuel). He co-wrote a position paper about Orthodox citizenship and its integration in the country.

Yedidya (Julian) Sinclair Israel

Yedidya (Julian) Sinclair serves as Vice President for Research at Energiya Global, a prominent Israeli solar energy company. He is also Senior Rabbinical Scholar at Hazon, the world’s largest Jewish environmental organization. Trained as an economist as well as a rabbi, he began his economics career advising the UK Government. Previously he served as campus rabbi at Cambridge University, where he also taught Jewish Thought in the Divinity School. His translation of Rav Kook’s Introduction to Shabbat Ha’aretz was just published, and his translation of Micah Goodman’s Secrets of the Guide to the Perplexed is due to be published by JPS in May 2015. Rabbi Sinclair holds a B.A. (First Class Honors) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University, an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, as well as Orthodox semicha. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and their five children.

Orit Sklar United States of America

Orit Sklar is the Development Director at the Faith & Freedom Coalition, America’s largest and most influential organization dedicated to educating and mobilizing people of faith for effective civic action. A political blogger and commentator, Ms. Sklar has contributed to leading publications and provided election and political analysis for CNN’s Newsroom and a wide range of radio programs. She appears as a guest panelist on Fox 5 Atlanta’s weekly political television show, The Georgia Gang, and is a frequent guest speaker at conservative conferences. Ms. Sklar has been particularly involved in issues related to culture, millennials and Israel. She is known nationwide for her advancement of First Amendment rights and academic freedom on American university campuses, and is the co-recipient of the 2009 Ronald Reagan Award from the American Conservative Union. Ms. Sklar serves on the alumni board of Young America’s Foundation and co- chairs the young professional division of the Republican Jewish Coalition of Atlanta. Ms. Sklar graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in civil engineering. A native of Mount Vernon, New York, Orit resides in Atlanta, Georgia and attends Congregation Ariel.

Jeff Stier United States of America

Jeff Stier is a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and heads its Risk Analysis Division. Mr. Stier is a frequent guest on CNBC, and has addressed health policy on CNN as well as other network newscasts. He does over 100 radio shows a year, including on NPR and other nationally syndicated radio shows. His National Center op-eds have been published in top outlets including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Newsday, Forbes, The Washington Examiner, and National Review Online. Mr. Stier has testified at FDA scientific meetings, met with members of Congress and their staff about science policy, and has submitted testimony to state government legislative hearings. Mr. Stier worked both in the office of the Mayor and in the Corporation Counsel’s office in the Giuliani administration in New York City. His responsibilities included planning environmental agency programs, legal analysis of proposed legislation, and health policy. Mr. Stier is Chairman of the Board of the Jewish International Connection, NY. While earning his law degree at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Mr. Stier served two terms as Editor-In-Chief of the Cardozo Law Forum.