Speaker Bios

CHOICES BIOS

ARIELLE DI PORTO

Arielle Di Porto has been involved with The Jewish Agency for over 30 years and currently serves as their Acting Director of the Aliyah Section in the Aliyah and Absorption Unit in Israel.

Born in Safi, Morocco, Arielle made Aliyah at the age of 17 to study at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. After moving to Italy in 1985, she joined The Jewish Agency emissary offices in Rome, where she began her impressive career path of working with highly sensitive Aliyah missions. Over the years, she has used her expertise to effectively manage critical, often clandestine, missions from across the Middle East and beyond.

Her many accomplishments include bringing the Albanian Jewish community of roughly 350 people to Israel, as well as coordinating the immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Arielle also managed critical and sensitive immigration missions that passed through Italy from various parts of the world. In March 2016, Arielle worked alongside the Yemenite emissary to secretly and safely bring 50 Yemenite Jews to Israel in operation “From the Ends of Yemen”.

Today, Arielle continues to promote and process Aliyot worldwide. She currently focuses on Venezuela, the Middle East, and most recently France, where she serves at the forefront of their Aliyah and Absorption senior management team in Israel, bringing characteristic passion and profound dedication to her work.

Marie-Hélène Laramée is the Director of Major Donors and Individual Giving at Centraide of Greater Montreal, where she manages a team working in collaboration with major donors and high potential foundations. Her team works to strengthen the social fabric of Greater Montreal in the fight against poverty and social exclusion, extending to the development of the Centraide Foundation, and oversight of the Planned Giving team.

A mechanical engineer by training, Marie-Hélène graduated with distinction from McGill University, where she was conferred the James McGill Scholarship, Mechanical Engineering's Most Promising Prospect, and the J.W. McConnell Award. She enjoyed a 15-year career as an aeronautical engineer at CAE, the world leader in flight simulation and training, where she acted as a project manager and Aircraft Systems Simulation Specialist for Commercial Aircraft.

Marie-Hélène first entered philanthropy professionally in 2013 as the Director of Corporate Partnerships at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital Foundation. She acted as an interlocutor with the business community to develop opportunities and philanthropic strategies commensurate with their corporate social responsibility initiatives. As a two-time cancer survivor and patient of the Jewish General Hospital, Marie-Hélène was inspired to leave her engineering career in order to dedicate herself to improving the services and quality of life for other Montrealers.

In addition to being a mother and stepmother to four teenagers, Marie-Hélène’s daily mission is to actively contribute to a strong and supportive Montreal, where everyone has equal opportunity to succeed.

RACHEL FISH

Rachel Fish is Senior Advisor and Resident Scholar of Jewish/Israel Philanthropy at the Paul E. Singer Foundation in New York City.

Growing up in a small southern town in the US, Rachel learned the importance of education and being able to speak up for what you believe in at a young age. Her love of learning and curiosities led her to pursue her master’s degree in theological studies at Harvard University where she successfully led a campaign to return funds being accepted by the school from an anti-American and antisemitic source.

Rachel most recently served as the Executive Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. She completed her doctoral degree in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University, where she researched the history of the idea of bi-nationalism and alternative visions for constructing the State of Israel.

She has also taught at Harvard University, UMass Amherst and various adult Jewish education programs. In 2015, she held the Rohr Visiting Professorship at Harvard University, where she lectured on modern Israel and received the Derek Bok Certificate of Teaching Excellence. She is Co-Editor, with Ilan Troen, of the book Essential Israel: Essays for the Twenty-First Century.

Today, Rachel lives in Waltham, Massachusetts with her husband David Cutler, their four incredible children and their dog.

NELL SCOVELL

Nell Scovell is a television and magazine writer, author, producer and director whose remarkable creative portfolio includes creating the beloved television series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and writing for The Simpsons and NCIS, as well as Vanity Fair, Vogue, Rolling Stone and The New York Times.

In 2009, Nell, who for three decades advocated for women in Hollywood behind the scenes, courageously shed light on the hostile treatment of women she witnessed and experienced first-hand as the second-ever female writer on Late Night with David Letterman, in a widely-read piece for Vanity Fair entitled “Letterman and Me”.

In 2013, she notably worked alongside Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on the #1 New York Times bestseller Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, which discusses the pertinent and ongoing issue of gender inequality and gendered power struggles in the workplace.

Among her many notable career highlights, Nell wrote jokes and sketches for the likes of Jane Lynch, Kate McKinnon and Jane Fonda at the 2014 Kennedy Center Awards and was even called upon to join the writing team for President Barack Obama’s White House Correspondents Dinner.

Today, Nell continues to work in Hollywood. She released her first solo book project in 2018 entitled Just The Funny Parts – filled with hilarious observations, sharp insights, personal photos, memorabilia and wisdom. After years of learning how to capture the voices of others, she is now finding her own.