2011‐2012 Social Justice Fellow Cohort

Dana DePietro Dana graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2011 with highest honors and a Bachelor's of Arts in both Peace, War and Defense and Arabic Cultures, as well as a minor in Hebrew. She was continuously active on her campus, organizing events on Israel and Palestine through her leadership positions in NC Hillel, Jews for a Just Peace and MEET (Middle Eastern Exploratory Talks)‐ a dialogue‐ based organization she founded with her peers. She also completed a senior honors thesis that explored conscientious military objection of Druze Israelis from the compulsory Israeli military service. This project was made possible by two UNC research grants that allowed Dana to travel to Israel and conduct original field research.

Besides her research trips to Israel, Dana lived in Israel on a kibbutz in Jerusalem for a semester in high school and traveled to Israel for social justice trips with Hillel and independently. Her studies, experiences abroad and relationship with her Jewish community have influenced Dana to care strongly about the future of Israel. She hopes to spend the following year as an NIF fellow working toward full equality for Israel’s ethnic minorities in order to create a more democratic and, ultimately, peaceful Israel.

Dana is currently placed at The Mossawa Center.

Deborah Lyssy Deborah Lyssy was born and raised in the small but beautiful city of Basel, Switzerland, where Theodor Herzl stood on a balcony 114 years ago. She studied law in Basel, completed a master in public law in Zürich and spent the last year in London doing an LL.M. in public international law.

In high school she was active in Bnei Akiva, organizing summer and winter camps. Later she was a board member of the Jewish Student Union of Switzerland and spent five years on the board of the Jewish Student Union in Basel, organizing talks, discussions, Friday night dinners and specializing in insane parties. In her free time she enjoys singing loudly, rock concerts, shopping, and reading. When nowhere to be found, check the library or the gym!

Deborah is currently placed at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

Jesse Rothman Jesse grew up mostly in Yellow Springs, Ohio with short interludes in Pennsylvania and Israel. He graduated in 2011 from Carleton College with a degree in Political Science/International Relations. While at school, Jesse founded the campus J Street U chapter and was a leader of an immigrant advocacy group. During summers, Jesse has worked as a community organizer. Additionally, he loves the outdoors and playing the mandolin very poorly.

Jesse is currently placed at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

Moriel Rothman Moriel Rothman was born at a very young age in Jerusalem, Israel, and raised in the unparalleled‐in‐ excellence village of Yellow Springs, Ohio. He attended Middlebury College, where he studied Arabic and Political Science. In addition to co‐founding Middlebury's J Street U chapter, Moriel served as J Street U's National Student Board President during the 2010‐2011 academic year. Moriel has experience as a dishwasher, a dialogue facilitator at Building Bridges for Peace, a slam poet, a blogger, an EMT, a librarian, a filmmaker and an [egalitarian] Yeshiva student at Yeshivat Hadar.

Moriel is currently placed at Rabbis for Human Rights.

Ruhi Sophia Rubenstein Ruhi Sophia graduated Summa Cum Laude from Smith College in 2007, with a degree in comparative Religion and a minor in Physics. She worked for two years as a Jewish environmental educator for the Teva Learning Center, serving as a field educator, curriculum writer and program coordinator. In September 2009, she matriculated at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, in a five year program towards Rabbinical ordination. She continued manifesting her love of nature and youth work in her summer job as the nature director of Camp JRF, the Reconstructionist movement summer camp.

While on her required year of study in Israel this past year, Ruhi Sophia found herself drawn to a deeper engagement with Israeli society. Her motivation to address Israeli social justice issues led her to consider taking a year off from her studies to participate in this fellowship. In her free time, she will be found bicycling, baking, gardening, singing and songwriting, and hosting potlucks!

Ruhi is currently placed at Bema'aglei Tzedek.

Elinor Tamir Elinor was born in Israel, grew up and lived all her life in London, all the while maintaining a strong connection with Israel, going there at least once a year to visit family and friends. Throughout her youth, Elinor’s family was very active in the progressive Jewish community in London. As a young adolescent she became involved with the Jewish youth movement NOAM, where she began as a participant and then continued as a youth camp leader for the next seven summers.

Elinor received a BA in French, Spanish and European Studies from the University of Birmingham, spending one year of her studies in Barcelona. While at University she was active in the Jewish society and organized a number of interfaith initiatives for the students. After University, she continued her interest in interfaith education and worked for the Three Faiths Forum for a year as educator and facilitator. She has just spent the last few months living in Argentina working with youth living in socially marginalized and impoverished areas of Buenos Aries. During this time Elinor coordinated one of the community centers. She is very proud to be the new UK NIF fellow and to bring a year´s worth of social action to Israel.

Elinor is currently placed at Bereaved Families Circle.

2010‐2011 Social Justice Fellow Cohort

Tamar Ariel Drawing on her experience in the Student Union Government and as a part of the J Street U Chapter at Brandeis, Tamar spent her fellowship year as a Fellow at Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME). Tamar researched the “Water Soft Path” approach to water demand management to support FoEME in creating partnerships between communities, facilitating youth education programs, and lobbying decision‐makers.

All six New Israel Fund/SHATIL Fellows visited Friends of the Earth Middle East. Tamar presented what FoEME does and why it is so critical given the state of the environment in the region. Together, the fellows took the Tsur Hadassah Neighbors Path Tour, viewing Beitar Elit, an Israeli settlement of nearly 40,000 ultra‐orthodox Israelis that stands tall over Wadi Fukin, a Palestinian village in the West Bank. The Fellows saw clearly how wastewater from the settlement has spilled into the Palestinian village. “We could not shake off the image all day,” Tamar said. Conditions in and around Israel inspire the group to keep fighting to better peoples’ lives.

Michal Boyarsky Upon graduating from Vassar College with a degree in Gender Studies and Linguistics, Michal completed a fellowship with AVODAH working for REACH NOLA, a non‐profit community health organization. Michal then began her Fellowship at the Open Clinic at Physicians for Human Rights in Israel with NIF/SHATIL.

The Open Clinic serves anyone living in Israel who lacks health insurance. Most of the patients are African refugees, migrant workers, victims of human trafficking, or Palestinians who have lost their status. Since the clinic is almost entirely volunteer‐run and operates on donated materials, the main challenge is to maximize care with limited resources. Michal is a caseworker in the clinic, responsible for arranging patient care in an effective and efficient manner. Michal writes that her experience on the NIF/Shatil Social Justice Fellowship has been overwhelmingly positive and powerful. “Through conversations with other fellows and NIF/Shatil Social Justice Fellowship seminars, I am learning a lot about the breadth of social justice work being done in Israel, and many issues facing the country today.”

Itamar Haritan Itamar was a Fellow at Hithabrut‐Taraabut, a social movement supporting the struggle of Jerusalem street vendors who are resisting the municipality’s efforts to evict them. Having established Kesher Enoshi: Progressives for Activism in Israel while at the University of California, Berkeley, Itamar was well prepared to establish the Jerusalem branch of the Hithabrut‐Taraabut movement. He recruited activists and planned meetings to ground this important grassroots struggle.

Connecting both Jewish‐Israeli and Palestinian vendors and activists to create a deeper and more inclusive understanding of Israeli issues had a profound impact on Itamar: “I am also connecting to different issues through the New Israel Fund and Shatil. When I am at an NIF conference or seminar with the other Fellows, I feel that I am part of a diverse community of organizers trying to make Israel a better place.”

Gabe Kravitz After graduating with First Class Honors in Anthropology and Middle East Studies from McGill University, Gabe became the Nomi Fein Social Justice Fellow at Community Advocacy, an organization, which promotes access to social rights and entitlements. Gabe gained valuable experience from research on Israeli and Palestinian archaeology and identity and summers spent on excavations in al‐Azraq, Jordan. Through his Fellowship at Community Advocacy, Gabe worked with a group of local activists to organize a food cooperative in the mixed city of Lod called Tzarchan’iat Chaverim.’

The food cooperative is positioned as the unconventional, underdog mini‐market in the strip of 12 stores. After a year and a half long planning process, the shelves are stocked with basic food supplies and the volunteer‐power is strong enough to open the market twice a week. The founding activists are reaching out to neighbors; explaining the cooperative model; and signing up members. Commitment to scheduling with suppliers, creating competitive prices and diversifying products are especially important as staple food prices in Israel are on the rise. Gabe continuously pushed towards the main goal – changing how people relate to and consume food to reduce economic and social insecurity in the region.

Maya Paley Maya recently received her Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University with a focus on gender, migration, and human rights in international development. Maya’s background has provided a great foundation for her role as a Fellow at ASSAF, an humanitarian and psychosocial aid organization for refugees and asylum seekers in Israel. ASSAF also advocates for the rights of the refugees to both the Israeli public and government. At ASSAF, Maya conducted research that maped out the self‐help, survival, community organizing, and conflict resolution mechanisms demonstrated by the Eritrean and Sudanese refugee communities in Israel. The goal of the research is to bring back information and recommendations to all the organizations working with the refugees on community development and strengthening with the refugee communities. “While it has been challenging to listen to people tell me about the torture they suffered in Eritrean prisons, or how their family members were murdered in Darfur, or the experience of being abducted from their families in South Sudan at ages as young as nine, it is precisely these stories that remind me every day of why I am here—to contribute to the greater movement for a more just Israel,” says Maya. “The New Israel Fund has provided me with an unforgettable opportunity to immerse myself in a national issue that is at a critical point within Israeli society.”

Keren Simons Upon graduating from Oxford University with a Master’s degree in Gender Studies, Keren interned at Plan International on their report detailing the lives of girls in the developing world. Keren then became a William Frankel Fellow at Alnuhud, an organization working to encourage and broaden access to education for Beduoin women. This initiative began 12 years ago and has made huge strides in the the once‐taboo path of female education in the Bedouin community. Alnuhud works to change the community’s perception on the rights of women as well as to engage the commitment to communal development within the Bedouin community, and Keren researches the effectiveness of their techniques and its community impact. She also teaches as part of the empowerment course for young Bedouin girls.

Belonging to the fellowship has made the experience of living in Israel that much more enriching for Keren. The seminars and site visits to other organizations have offered a unique window into the workings of the progressive constituency in Israel. 'Being involved in the amazing movements for change in Israel is an opportunity incomparable to any other in my life...the personal and educational benefit has been invaluable to me.'