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Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

 
 

Our Key People


Ambassador Dore Gold - President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
    Ambassador Dore Gold served as Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1997-1999). Previously, he served as Foreign Policy Advisor to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has served as an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was a member of the Israeli delegation at the 1998 Wye River negotiations between Israel and the PLO, and served as an advisor to the Israeli delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991. His books include Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos (Crown Forum, forthcoming 2004); Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism (Regnery, 2003); and U.S. Military Strategy in the Middle East (Ministry of Defense, 1993).

Professor Daniel J. Elazar, z"l - Founder of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
    Professor Daniel J. Elazar (1934-1999) was a leading political scientist and specialist in the study of the Jewish political tradition, Israel, the world Jewish community, federalism, and political culture. He was Professor of Political Science at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he founded the Center for the Study of Federalism, and held the Senator N.M. Paterson Professorship in Intergovernmental Relations at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, heading its Institute for Local Government. Professor Elazar was the author or editor of more than 60 books, and founded and edited the scholarly journal Jewish Political Studies Review.


Who's Who at the Jerusalem Center (in alphabetical order):

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror - Program Director, Institute for Contemporary Affairs
    Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, Program Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs, is former commander of the IDF's National Defense College and the IDF Staff and Command College. He is also the former head of the IDF's research and assessment division, with special responsibility for preparing the National Intelligence Assessment. In addition, he served as the military secretary of the Minister of Defense. His publications include "The Geneva Accord: A Strategic Assessment" (December 2003); "Israel's Strategy after the Iraq War" (April 2003); and "Israel's Strategy in Curbing Palestinian Violence" (December 2002).

Mark Ami-El - Director of Publications
    Mark Ami-El has been responsible for editing and production of JCPA's English books, monographs, newsletters, website, and Internet publications since 1986. He is managing editor of JCPA's Daily Alert Internet digest of Israel and Mideast news, as well as the Center's Jerusalem Viewpoints and Jerusalem Issue Briefs. He served as assistant to Jerusalem Center Founding President Daniel J. Elazar from 1985 to 1999, and as press and legislative assistant to Congressman William Lehman (D-Fla.) from 1973 to 1978.

Lenny Ben-David - Consultant, Internet Publications
    Lenny Ben-David is consulting editor for the Daily Alert Internet news digest, and is editor of Israel Campus Beat (for college students) and High Alert (for high school students). He served as deputy chief of mission at Israel's embassy in Washington 1997-2000, and as Program Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs (2002-2004). He was AIPAC's Director of Information and Research for 10 years, editing the Near East Report and numerous editions of Myths and Facts, then opened AIPAC's first Israel office in 1982, directing it for nearly 15 years.

Professor Gerald B. Bubis - Vice President
    Professor Bubis is the Founding Director of the School of Jewish Communal Service and Professor Emeritus of Jewish Communal Studies at Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles. His publications include The Director Had a Heart Attack and the President Resigned: Board-Staff Relations for the 21st Century (1999); "'Post-Zionist' Philanthropists: Emerging Attitudes of American Jewish Leaders toward Communal Allocations" (1998); and "Serving the Jewish Polity: The Application of Jewish Political Theory to Jewish Communal Practice" (1997).

Dan Diker - Senior Policy Analyst
    Dan Diker is head of the Defensible Borders Initiative at the Jerusalem Center. He also serves as Knesset Affairs correspondent and political analyst for Israel Broadcasting Authority's English News. His most recent publications include "Sharon�s Legacy for Israel: Competing Perspectives" (Jan. 2006), "The Murder of Musa Arafat and the Battle for the Spoils of Gaza" with Pinchas Inbari (Oct. 2005), "Are There Signs of a Jordanian-Palestinian Reengagement?" with Pinchas Inbari (July 2005), "The Expulsion of the Palestinian Authority from Jerusalem and the Temple Mount" (August 2004), and "The Struggle of Palestinian Journalists for Freedom of the Press" (May 2004).

Ambassador Freddy Eytan - Head of the Israel-Europe Project
    Ambassador Freddy Eytan, a former Foreign Ministry senior advisor who served in Israel's embassies in Paris and in Brussels, was Israel's first Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. The Israel-Europe Project focuses on presenting Israel's case in the countries of Europe, and seeks to develop ties and avenues of cooperation throughout Europe. His most recent books include La Poudriere (The Powder Keg) (1991), Shimon Peres - Biographie (1996), Keren Or (Ray of Light) (2004), and France: Le Double Jeu (Double Game) (2004).

Professor Rela M. Geffen - Director, North American Office
    Professor Geffen is the President of Baltimore Hebrew University and former Dean of Gratz College. A founding Fellow of the Center for Jewish Community Studies, the forerunner of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, her books include The Conservative Movement in Judaism: Dilemmas & Opportunities (2000); Freedom and Responsibility: Exploring the Challenges of Jewish Continuity (1998); and Celebration and Renewal: Rites of Passage in Judaism (1993).

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld - Chairman of the Board of Fellows
    Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, an international consultant specializing in business and environmental strategy for multinational corporations, is the Chairman of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He is the founder and director of the Center's Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism Project and edits its monthly publication. He also founded the Jewish Environmental Perspectives newsletter. Dr. Gerstenfeld's most recent book is American Jewry's Challenge: Addressing the 21st Century, part of the project "Jews in the American Public Square" initiated by the Pew Charitable Trusts. His publications include Europe's Crumbling Myths: The Post-Holocaust Origins of Today's Anti-Semitism (2003); "The Academic Boycott Against Israel" (2003); "The Mahathir Affair: A Case Study in Mainstream Islamic Anti-Semitism" (2003); and "Jewish War Claims in The Netherlands: A Case Study" (2000).

Chaya Herskovic - Director General
    Chaya Herskovic, named as Director General of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in July 2004, served since 1988 as JCPA's Director of Projects, responsible for the organization and management of numerous Jerusalem Center research projects, conferences, and seminars in a variety of fields including privatization, education, law enforcement, local government, Israel's political system, and the Druze minority. She has also been responsible for the editing and production of the Center's Hebrew publications.

Zvi R. Marom - Former Director General
    Zvi R. Marom served as Director General of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs from 1984 to 2003. He was particularly involved in the Center's research projects on electoral and constitutional reform, privatization of Israel's economy, forecasting Israel's law enforcement needs, the study of educational systems, and the Druze minority. Prior to joining the JCPA, he held a variety of senior positions at the Prime Minister's Office and retired with the equivalent rank of Major General.

Professor Shmuel Sandler - Editor, Jewish Political Studies Review
    Professor Sandler, director of the Center for International Communications and Policy and chairperson of the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University, is Secretary of the JCPA Steering Committee. He has served as co-editor of the Jerusalem Center's Israel at the Polls series for the elections of 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2003. His other books include The Arab-Israeli Conflict Transformed: Fifty Years of Interstate and Ethnic Crises (2002); and The State of Israel, The Land of Israel: Statist and Ethnonational Dimensions of Foreign Policy (1993).

Sharon Shenhav - Director, International Jewish Women's Rights Project
    Sharon Shenhav, an international women's rights lawyer, founded the International Jewish Women's Rights Project in 1998, in cooperation with the International Council of Jewish Women, to help end discrimination against women in marriage, divorce, and family law. She has been a member of the Israeli delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and currently serves as the only woman on the Commission to Appoint Religious Court Judges (Dayanim) in Israel.

Professor Gerald M. Steinberg - Editor, NGO Monitor
    Professor Steinberg is director of the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation at Bar-Ilan University. A consultant to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Security Council, he specializes in Middle East diplomatic and security issues with an emphasis on arms control and CBMs, Middle East peace efforts, Israeli foreign and security policy, and the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

Justus Reid Weiner - Scholar-in-Residence
    Justus Weiner is an international human rights lawyer and a member of the Israel and New York Bar Associations. His publications include Illegal Construction in Jerusalem (2003); "The Use of Palestinian Children in the Al-Aqsa Intifada" (Jerusalem Letter, 2000), and "'My Beautiful Old House' and Other Fabrications by Edward Said" (Commentary, 1999).


Administrative Personnel

Secretaries: Rachel Elrom, Odelia Zaguri
Projects Director: Edna Weinstock-Gabay
Institute for Contemporary Affairs Project Coordinator: Tzipi Senderov
Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism Project Coordinator: Elisabeth Mayman
Bookkeeper: Esther Zalis


Steering Committee of the Board of Fellows

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, Chairman
Prof. Gerald Bubis, Vice Chairman
Prof. Yakir Plessner, Vice Chairman
Prof. Shmuel Sandler, Secretary
Prof. Efraim Torgovnik, Treasurer
Prof. Rela M. Geffen, Assoc. Secretary-Treasurer
Prof. Arthur Eidelman
Zvi R. Marom


Fellows

Chairman of Board of Directors:
    Manfred Gerstenfeld, Jerusalem ***

Mordechai Abir, Jerusalem
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, Jerusalem
Yehuda Avner, Jerusalem
Ella Belfer, Ramat Gan
Gabriel Ben-Dor, Haifa
Eytan Bentsur, Jerusalem
Marshall Breger, Washington, DC
Michael Brown, Toronto
Gerald B. Bubis, Los Angeles ***
Steven M. Cohen, Jerusalem
Arthur I. Eidelman, M.D. Jerusalem ***
Joel Fishman, Jerusalem
Rela Mintz Geffen, Philadelphia ***
Manfred Gerstenfeld, Jerusalem ***
Dore Gold, Jerusalem
Aryeh Hecht, Jerusalem
Efraim Inbar, Jerusalem
Sherry Israel, Newton, MA
Raphael Israeli, Jerusalem
Chaim Kalchheim, Jerusalem
Eliyahu Kanovsky, Rehovot
Jacob Landau, Jerusalem
Ruth Lapidoth, Jerusalem
Robert Licht, Philadelphia
Deborah E. Lipstadt, Atlanta
Zvi R. Marom, Ramat Hasharon
Avraham Melamed, Haifa
Reuven Merhav, Jerusalem
Alan Mittleman, Allentown, PA
Yakir Plessner, Rehovot ***
Meir Rosenne, Jerusalem
Mordechai Rotenberg, Jerusalem
Colin Rubenstein, Melbourne
Shmuel Sandler, Jerusalem ***
Jonathan Sarna, Newton, MA
Ismar Schorsch, New York
Dan Segre, Jerusalem
Steven Spiegel, Los Angeles
Gerald M. Steinberg, Jerusalem
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, New York
Efraim Torgovnik, Tel Aviv ***
Shmuel Trigano, Paris
Ilan Troen, Beersheva
Mervin F. Verbit, New York
Harold M. Waller, Montreal
Justus Weiner, Jerusalem
Howard Weisband, Jerusalem
Steven Windmueller, Los Angeles
Jonathan Woocher, Maplewood, N.J.
Nathan Yanai, Haifa
Ben Zion Zilberfarb, Jerusalem

*** Member of Board of Directors


Board of Overseers

Caryn Rosen Adelman, Chicago
Gabriel Bach, Jerusalem
Mandell Berman, Detroit **
Herschel Blumberg, Washington, DC
Sidney N. Busis, M.D., Pittsburgh
Shoshana Cardin, Baltimore *
Betsy Cohen, Philadelphia
Edward Cohen, Philadelphia
Edward S. Cohen, Jerusalem *
Avern Cohn, Detroit
Harriet Elazar, Jerusalem
Raymond Epstein, Chicago
Jesse Feldman, San Francisco
Herbert A. Fierst, Washington, DC
Max Fisher, Detroit
Abraham J. Gafni, Philadelphia *
Byron H. Gerson, Franklin, MI
Betsy Gidwitz, Chicago *
Conrad Giles, Detroit
Robert B. Goldmann, New York
Richard S. Gunther, Los Angeles
Ivan Himmel, Chicago *
Irwin Hochberg, New York *
Max Kampelman, Washington, DC
Ted Kanner, Los Angeles
Edward Kaplan, Washington, DC
Herbert Katz, West Palm Beach
Ron Kaufman, San Francisco
Henry Koschitsky, Ontario
Esther R. Landa, Salt Lake City
Betsy Landis, New York
Donald Landis, New York
Isi Leibler, Jerusalem
Julius Lesner, Los Angeles
H. Irwin Levy, West Palm Beach *
Leon Levy, New York
Norman Lipoff, Miami *
Haskell Lookstein, New York
Robert E. Loup, Denver
Uriel Lynn, Tel Aviv
Phyllis Margolius, Washington, DC
Lowell Milken, Los Angeles
Alan Molod, Philadelphia
Alberto Nasser, Rio de Janiero
Moshe Nissim, Jerusalem
Robert A. Riesman, Providence
Michael Rukin, Boston
Jack Rose, Toronto *
David G. Sacks, New York
Avraham Schenker, Tel Aviv
Miriam Schneirov, Philadelphia *
Frank Schochet, Minneapolis
Robert Shafton, Los Angeles
Daniel Shapiro, New York
Meir Sheetrit, Yavne
Zalman Shoval, Tel Aviv *
Matthew Simon, Washington, DC
Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto, Tel Aviv
Barbi Weinberg, Los Angeles
Lawrence Weinberg, Los Angeles
Maynard Wishner, Chicago
George M. Zeltzer, Detroit

* Member of the Executive Committee
** Chairman of the Executive Committee


Associates

Irving Abella, Toronto
Zeidan Atashi, Ussifiya
Irwin Cotler, Montreal
Eliezer Don-Yehiya, Rishon le-Zion
Moshe Drori, Jerusalem
Nitza Druyan, Plainview, NY
Andre Eshet, Haifa
Robert Freedman, Baltimore
Gordon Freeman, Walnut Creek, CA
Alan Glicksman, Philadelphia
Harvey Goldberg, Jerusalem
Sidney Goldstein, Providence
George Gruen, New York
Jonathan D. Halevi, Tel Aviv
Vladimir Khanin, Jerusalem
Samuel Klausner, Philadelphia
Jerome Kutnick, Philadelphia
Joseph Lanir, Givat Brenner
Fadal Mansur, Haifa
Ivan Marcus, New York
Chaim Milikovsky, Jerusalem
Alberto Milkowitz, Sao Paulo
Ben Mollov, Jerusalem
Fiamma Nirenstein, Jerusalem/Italy
Gustavo Perednik, Efrat
Earl Raab, Waltham, MA
Ira Robinson, Montreal
David Schnall, New York
Carl Schrag, Chicago
Ze'ev Segal, Tel Aviv
Sharon Shenhav, Jerusalem
Max Singer, Baltimore
Baruch Susser, Ramat Gan
Morton Weinfeld, Montreal
Ruth Wisse, Cambridge, MA


The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs - Jerusalem Institute for Federal Studies is registered in Israel (No. 58-003-960-0) and recognized by the tax authorities as a non-profit organization (No. 550039606).

The Center for Jewish Community Studies is registered as a non-profit educational institute (according to para. 501(c)(3)) by the tax authorities in the United States and the State of Pennsylvania (Confirmation No. 23-2009062).

Last Updated: August 2004