Meir Buzaglo, Senior Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Hebrew University

Dr. Meir Buzaglo’s interests include the philosophies of mathematics and language and Jewish philosophy. He is one of the initiators of the revival of the traditional piyut (Jewish liturgical poetry) in Israel and was a founder of the website “An Invitation to Piyut”. Dr. Buzaglo was a member of the Task Force for the Advancement of Education in Israel (Dovrat Commission).

Eli Gottlieb, Director, Mandel Leadership Institute and Vice President, Mandel Foundation-Israel

Dr. Eli Gottlieb is director of the Mandel Leadership Institute and vice president of the Mandel Foundation-Israel. He holds degrees in philosophy and developmental psychology from the University of Cambridge and a doctorate in the psychology of education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Gottlieb has served as a visiting professor in cognitive studies in education at the University of Washington, an adjunct lecturer at the school of education at the Hebrew University and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. His research examines the relations between cognition, identity and education. In September 2011 Dr. Gottlieb featured alongside the CEOs of nine other leading education organizations at number 12 in The Marker magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in Israel.

Annette Hochstein, President Emeritus, Mandel Foundation-Israel
 
Annette Hochstein served as president of the Mandel Foundation-Israel (MF-I) from 2002 to 2010, following twenty years as its director. She is a member of the founding group of Mandel endeavors in Israel, including the Mandel Leadership Institute. Prior to joining the Mandel Foundation, Annette was a planner at Jerusalem's municipal planning department (1975-1978), following which the then mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, appointed her to direct Project Renewal in the city's Musrara neighborhood. Annette was co-founder and director of Nativ, Policy and Planning Consultants (1980-1990) until joining the Mandel Foundation. Key projects in which she contributed have included the West Bank Data Project, the Israel Experience Project and the Commission for Jewish Education in North America, for which she served as director of research. A graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with majors in philology and art history, Annette holds an MA from the New School for Social Research in urban affairs and policy analysis. She was a Humphrey Fellow at MIT (1983-1984).


Assaf Inbari, Author

Dr. Assaf Inbari is a novelist, essayist and literary scholar. He is the author of the documentary novel Home (published in Hebrew) that unravels the story of a kibbutz. Among his publications are his research into the thought of Haim Nahman Bialik and essays on the identity of Hebrew culture and literature. Dr. Inbari teaches at Kinneret Academic College and the Kibbutzim College in Tel Aviv.





Yitzhak Levy, Former Minister of Education

Rabbi Yitzhak Levy was born in Casablanca and immigrated to Israel in 1957. He studied at Netiv Meir yeshiva high school in Jerusalem and later studied for rabbinical ordination, and became rabbi and educator.  He retired from his army service at the rank of major. Rabbi Levy was the head of the Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Kfar Maimon; a member of the national board of the Bnei Akiva movement and of its world secretariat; and the secretary general of the Mafdal political party (acronym for National Religious Party). He was first elected to the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in 1988. In his years of service in the Knesset and government, Rabbi Levy served in a long line of parliamentary and ministerial positions, among them: chairman of the Mafdal, Minister of Transportation, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Minister of Religious Affairs, Minister of Education, Culture, and Sport, Minister of Housing and Construction and Minister of Tourism. At the end of 2008 Rabbi Levy resigned from political life. In 2009 he joined the Israel Democracy Institute where he serves as head of project implementation.


Daniel Marom, Academic Director, Mandel Leadership Institute
 
Dr. Daniel Marom is the academic director of the Mandel Leadership Institute. Marom received his doctorate in education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and went on to teach philosophy of education and educational planning there and at other academic institutions. He has developed model curricula for Israeli and Jewish education in a wide range of settings, from kindergarten through to higher education. Daniel's research and publications focus on the educational ideas of Israeli and Jewish thinkers. As a member of the founding group of Mandel Foundation endeavors in Israel, he established its Visions Unit in 2003 and directed it until 2010, and launched its publication program through the editing of its Monographs series and co-editing Visions of Jewish Education and Dialogue of the Disparate. He also developed the tutorship component of programs at the MLI.


Mordecai Nisan, Head of the Academic Faculty of the Mandel Foundation-Israel
 
Professor Mordecai Nisan is the head of the academic faculty of the Mandel Foundation-Israel, founder and head of the Mandel Scholars in Education Program, and a professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a developmental psychologist whose extensive research has focused on motivation, moral development and behavior. Prof. Nisan has held research fellowships at Harvard and Oxford Universities, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Palo Alto, California. He has also served on many public committees, including the Council for Higher Education. Prof. Nisan is one of the veteran members of the Mandel Leadership Institute. In addition to serving as its academic director, he founded and directed the IDF Educational Leadership Development Program and the Mandel Fellowship for Educational Researchers Program.

Prof. Jehuda Reinharz is president of the Mandel Foundation. Born in Israel, he received his high school education in Germany, and then earned BA degrees from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He holds an MA in medieval Jewish history from Harvard and a PhD in modern Jewish history from Brandeis University. He was the first professor of Jewish history at the University of Michigan, where he established the program in Judaic Studies. After holding a succession of posts at Brandeis University, including Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History, Director of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Prof. Reinharz served as the university's president from 1994 to 2010. He has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.


Sam Wineburg, Stanford University
 
Prof. Sam Wineburg is the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education and Professor of History (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Wineburg, who began his career as a history teacher, is an educational psychologist and one of the world's leading experts on how history is taught and learned. His focus includes the nature and development of historical thinking, new forms of educational assessment, the gap between research and what actually reaches practitioners, and the technological tools that might bridge this gap. His book, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past won the 2001 Frederic W. Ness Award from the Association of American Universities for work that makes the most important contribution to the “improvement of Liberal Education and understanding the Liberal Arts.” Wineburg is married to Susan Monas and father to Shoshana (25), Michael (23) and Raphael (22). 

Hefzi Zohar, Deputy Mayor, City of Beer Sheva
 
Dr. Hefzi Zohar, a graduate of cohort 8 of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, is deputy mayor of Beer Sheva and holds the city's education portfolio. Previously she was a lecturer at Achva College in the life sciences department, founded and led the Maof Center for Gifted and Outstanding Students and served as the national superintendent of the department for gifted and outstanding students at the Ministry of Education. In 2000 she completed her doctorate in biochemistry in the department of life sciences at Ben Gurion University, under the guidance of Dr. Claude Aflalo and Prof. Noun Shavit.