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

The Case for Nationalism December 8, 2014 – December 12, 2014

Participant Biographies

Aviad Bakshi

Dr. Aviad Bakshi is the head of the legal department of the Kohelet Policy Forum. Dr. Bakshi, a former Hesder Yeshiva teacher, completed his first and second law degrees with honors at Bar-Ilan University. He was admitted to the Israeli bar after his internship in the High Court Department of the State Attorney’s Office. Dr. Bakshi wrote his doctoral thesis as part of the president's scholarship for excelling Ph.D. students on “proper constitutional significance of Israel as a ,” which won the Begin Award in 2012. During his doctorate, Mr. Bakshi was a research fellow at the Schwartz Institute of Political Philosophy Studies at Beit Morasha. Since 2004, he has been involved in legislative and constitutional initiatives as an independent scholar, a member of the Institute for Zionist Strategies constitution team, the legal editor of MK Michael Eitan and Professor Moshe Koppel’s proposed constitution, head of the Weiler Foundation’s legislative project at Bar-Ilan University, and director of a of the Berliner Institute—a clinic for legislative initiatives at the Ono Academic College. The research conducted by Dr. Bakshi in public law focuses on issues relating to the identity of Israel as a democratic nation-state and issues related to separation of powers. Dr. Bakshi serves as a legal adviser of the Department of International Law of the Military Advocate General in his reserve duty. Alongside his work at Kohelet, Dr. Bakshi teaches constitutional and administrative law at Ono Academic College, the University of Haifa, and Bar- Ilan University.

Ran Bar-Yoshafat Israel

Mr. Bar-Yoshafat has conducted numerous Israel advocacy speaking tours in the United States and has also worked for the Legal Department of the . Mr. Bar-Yoshafat was previously the District Director for the EZ-Way Psychometric Company, where he taught classes for struggling minorities. In addition, he has led groups of “MASA” young adult tours throughout Israel and has given lectures to a wide range of audiences on various matters relating to Israel and project building. Mr. Bar-Yoshafat has also been active with a variety of pro-Israel organizations including the Jewish Agency for Israel (The Zionist Seminars and the Summer Delegates programs), StandWithUs, and WUJS. Mr. Bar-Yoshafat received an LL.B. from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, an M.A. in American Jewish History from Haifa University, and is now completing his MBA from Tel-Aviv University.

Randy E. Barnett United States of America

Randy E. Barnett is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and is Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. After graduating from Northwestern University and Harvard Law School, he tried many felony cases as a prosecutor in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago. A recipient of a Bradley Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Constitutional Studies, Professor Barnett has been a visiting professor at Penn, Northwestern, and Harvard Law School. Professor Barnett’s most recent books are Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (2nd ed. 2014), The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law (2nd ed. 2014), A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (2013), Constitutional Law: Cases in Context (2nd ed. 2013), Contracts: Cases and Doctrine (5th ed. 2012), and The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Contracts (2010). In 2004, he argued the medical marijuana case of Gonzalez v. Raich before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2012, he was one of the lawyers representing the National Federation of Independent Business in its constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act. In 2013, he appeared on PBS’s Constitution USA with Peter Sagal and he portrayed a prosecutor in the 2010 science-fiction feature film, InAlienable.

David Bernstein United States of America

David Bernstein became Executive Director of The David Project in August 2010. During his time at The David Project, Mr. Bernstein has transformed and rebranded the organization, focusing on the need for expanding relationships with campus opinion leaders. Mr. Bernstein spent thirteen years at the American Jewish Committee, where he began as director of the Washington regional office and served in management roles overseeing regional offices and national and local programming and advocacy. During his time at AJC, Mr. Bernstein was a leading advocate for Israel on the legislative, diplomatic, media, and intergroup relations fronts. He was a founder of the Israel on Campus Coalition of Greater Washington. He is author of AJC’s Israel in the Media, and dozens of op-ed pieces and letters appearing in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, the Jerusalem Post and Chronicle of Higher Education. He has provided pro-Israel media training in cities across the country and to Israeli diplomats based in the United States. Mr. Bernstein was a leading player in the successful nationwide effort to overturn the decision of the Presbyterian Church USA to divest its holdings from Israel. Sarah Chin Israel

Sarah Chin recently moved to Israel and is a Research Assistant at the Institute for Cognitive War Research. Additionally, she is a freelance writer having been published in the Jerusalem Post Magazine and the N’shei Chabad Newsletter. Recently Ms. Chin was a 2012-2013 Israel Government Fellow at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has worked for StandWithUs, the Zionist Organization of America, and the United States Senate. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Global Studies from the University of Minnesota (2004) and an M.A. in International Security Affairs from the University of Denver (2010).

Yishai Fleisher Israel

Rabbi Yishai Fleisher is Director of Programming and radio personality at the new network (launching this month) and Israel’s only English- language broadcast-radio talk show host (106.5 FM Galey Yisrael). He is a columnist at the Jerusalem Post Magazine and a contributing editor at JewishPress.com. Rabbi Fleisher is the founder and director of Kumah, an organization dedicated to deepening understanding of the Middle East and inspiring connection to Israel through media projects, seminars, and cultural events. Rabbi Fleisher holds a B.A. in political science from Yeshiva University (magna cum laude), a J.D. from Cardozo Law (concentration on International Law), and a rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Aharon Ziegler of Kollel Agudat Achim. From 2003 to 2011 he was Director of Programming at Israel National Radio, building the English-language internet station from two to thirty shows—including his own “Yishai and Friends”—and establishing it as one of the largest independent providers of English-language radio content on Israel and the Middle East. In 2006 Rabbi Fleisher ran for Knesset on the Atid Echad - Ethiopian party list, and in 2013 he directed the English division of the Jerusalem United Party list in a successful bid for two seats on the Jerusalem Municipality. Rabbi Fleisher served as a Paratrooper in the IDF and continues to participate in an elite battlefield reserve unit. His analysis and commentary have been featured on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Russia Today, Xinhua, MTV, Sipa Press, and Fox News. He speaks Hebrew, English, and Russian.

Stanislav Gluzman Ukraine

Stanislav Gluzman was born in Kharkov, Ukraine. In 2003, he graduated from the Economics Faculty of Moscow State University (bachelor’s degree) and in 2005 from the Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation with specialization in Financial Management (Master’s degree). He returned to his hometown and opened his own company, which is engaged in wholesale trade. Since 2007, he has been taking an active part in the life of his city’s Jewish community, and in late 2009, became the chief organizer of the Jewish Business Club (JBC), which became a platform for closer communication between young Jewish businessmen in Ukraine and other CIS countries by improving their business education and ensuring greater involvement in the life of their Jewish communities.

Tara Helfman United States of America

Tara Helfman is an Associate Professor at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Yale Law School in 2006, where she was the Yale Journal of International Law Young Scholar of the Year and the recipient of the Joseph Parker Prize for Legal History. An undergraduate alumna of Queens College (1999), she was one of the first two recipients of a British Marshall Scholarship to have graduated from the City University of New York. She went on to obtain advanced degrees in intellectual history and legal theory from Cambridge University and University College London. Professor Helfman teaches contracts, constitutional law, Law of the Sea, and international law. Her primary research interests are public international law and constitutional history. She is the co-author with Edgar McManus of the two-volume Liberty and Union: A Constitutional History of the United States (Routledge: 2014). She is a regular commentator on legal affairs for Radio Free Europe’s Russia Service, and her articles on constitutional issues have appeared in Commentary magazine. Before joining the academy, Professor Helfman was an Associate at the New York office of Debevoise and Plimpton, LLP, in the International Dispute Resolution and Securities Law Practice Groups.

Rachel Hoff United States of America

Rachel Hoff serves as Director of External Affairs for the Foreign Policy Initiative. She recently received a Master of Global Policy Studies from the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Rachel was a founding staff member of FPI in 2009 and served as Director of Government Relations & Outreach until 2012. From 2006 to 2008, she worked as a Legislative Assistant and Research Analyst for Congressman Mac Thornberry (R-TX), focusing specifically on foreign affairs and national security issues. From 2004 to 2006, Ms. Hoff conducted research at the American Enterprise Institute with several prominent foreign policy scholars. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University.

Elyakim Kislev Israel

Elyakim Kislev is a Fulbright fellow and a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, New York. He holds three master’s degrees, in sociology, public policy, and counseling. He is the co-editor and co-author of Through Justice I Will See Your Face and is now editing a book of selected writings on vision and leadership. His research papers relate to public policy, immigration, minorities, and identity. These papers were published in various journals such as Social Forces and Global Networks. In the past, Elyakim was the director of the Beit Midrash for Social Justice and a faculty member at Mandel Leadership Institute.

Ayelet Libson Israel

Ayelet Libson is a post-doctoral fellow at University’s Law Faculty. She holds a B.A. with honors from Hebrew University and a Ph.D. from New York University. Ms. Libson was an inaugural fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute’s Judaism and Human Rights program, and has received awards from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Minerva Center for Human Rights, the Hadassah- Brandeis Institute, as well as NYU and Cardozo Law Schools. She has also taught Talmud and Jewish law as a faculty member at institutes for adult Jewish education, such as Matan in Jerusalem and Drisha in New York. Ayelet is a graduate of the Advanced Talmud Institute of Matan and the Beit Morasha program in Jewish law, both in Jerusalem, and is a member of the Beit Hillel rabbinic organization.

Aaron MacLean United States of America

A combat Marine veteran of Afghanistan, Aaron MacLean is Managing Editor of the Washington Free Beacon and a 2014 Novak Journalism Fellow. In addition to the Beacon, his writing has appeared in the Weekly Standard and the Washington Post. Aaron served in the Marine Corps from 2007 to 2014, and deployed during that time to Afghanistan, where he served as a rifle platoon commander in the Battle of Marjah. His final assignment in the Corps was teaching English literature at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was the 2013 recipient of the Apgar Award for Excellence in Teaching. His military decorations include the Bronze Star with “V” and the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal. He was educated at St. John’s College, Annapolis, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar and earned an M.Phil. in Medieval Arabic Thought. He has been a Lincoln Fellow and a Boren Scholar, and lives in Virginia, where he was born.

Bradley A. Patty United States of America

Bradley A. Patty is currently finishing a doctorate in philosophy, with areas of specialization in political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, and medieval philosophy. His latest paper was awarded the 2014 Aristotle Prize by the Metaphysical Society of America. He has served as a member of the Iraq Adviser Task Force, working with American forces outside the wire in Iraq on tribal affairs and information operations. He has also advised the National Security Council’s task force on counter-propaganda and undertaken cutting-edge entrepreneurial efforts to reform human intelligence.

Ashley Perry Israel

Ashley Perry has been an adviser to Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs since April 2009. He has also worked with the Ministers of Tourism, National Infrastructure and Water, Agriculture, Internal Security, Immigrant Absorption, and the Deputy Minister of the Interior. Mr. Perry has also worked in the Prime Minister’s Office. He served as Deputy Director-General for Communications at the Yisrael Beytenu political party and as a senior strategic adviser for national and municipal elections. He has also worked as a consultant with many other Israeli politicians, political parties, and leading international Jewish, Zionist, and Hasbara organizations. Mr. Perry holds a B.A. (with honors) in History from the University College London (UK) and an M.A. in Government from the IDC Herzliya (Israel). He made from London in 2001 and serves in the reserves in the IDF Spokespersons Unit.

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.

Jonathan W. Pidluzny United States of America

Jonathan W. Pidluzny is an Assistant Professor of Government in the School of Public Affairs at Morehead State University, where he teaches a broad range of courses in American Politics. He received his Ph.D. from Boston College in 2012. His research focuses on democratization and constitutional design in the Middle East, especially as it pertains to U.S. foreign policy. He is presently co-editor of the Commonwealth Review of Political Science and has published recent book chapters and journal articles on the social prerequisites of liberal democracy in the context of the Islamic Resurgence, the Obama Administration’s failed approach to the Arab Spring, and the importance of a vibrant localism to healthy republican government.

Matt Ronen United States of America

Matt Ronen is a service-year advocate, combat veteran, social entrepreneur, and founder of Service Year Corps, the first American national service program modeled after Israeli national service (www.serviceyear.org). Previously, Matt worked at Colgate-Palmolive and Gerson Lehrman Group. Matt received his M.B.A. from Cornell University and B.A. from Colorado College, where he was President of the Student Body and Campus Manager for Teach For America. Following graduation, Matt turned down an offer to join an investment bank to volunteer as a lone soldier in the , a challenging national service experience Matt credits for inspiring Service Year Corps. Matt is the co-founder of Aluf Stone, the IDF lone soldier veterans association and the founder of January In Israel, a newly launched initiative to encourage American Jews to travel to Israel independently. Matt is one of the youngest members to serve on AIPAC’s National Council and was recently named to the American Express 50 Under 40. Matt is originally from Cleveland, Ohio.

Benjamin Schwartz United States of America

Benjamin Schwartz has served in a variety of national security positions within the United States government, including in the Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and completed his Masters degree in International Relations and International Economics at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. His writing has been published in The National Interest, Orbis, and various newspapers. His first book, which focuses on nuclear security issues, is scheduled for publication in early 2015.

United States of America

Jeffrey R. Woolf was born in Boston in 1954 and moved to Israel in 1993. He serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Talmud Department at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where he specializes in the History of Halakhah, Medieval and Renaissance Jewish History, and the interaction between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. He is the director of Bar-Ilan’s Institute for the Study of Post-Talmudic Halakhah. Dr. Woolf received his B.A. in History (summa cum laude with distinction) from Boston University in 1976, alongside a B.H.L. (cum laude) in Talmud and Midrash from Boston Hebrew College. He received his M.A. (1981) and Ph.D. (1991) in Medieval Jewish History and Literature at Harvard University, under the guidance of the late Professor Isadore Twersky. While at Harvard, he spent a year at the Hebrew University as a Lady Davis Graduate Fellow (1983-1984). He spent two years in the Department of Religion at Yale University, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting Lecturer. Woolf has served as a visiting professor at Yale University, Yeshiva University, and New York University. He has delivered guest lectures at Harvard University, Boston University, Yeshiva University, Drew University, Washington University, University of Leiden (NL), Potsdam University (Berlin), and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO; Paris).