Mini-Course for Individuals

1. Ambassador Daniel Ayalon

Daniel Ayalon has been at the forefront of developing the strong relationship between the United States and Israel since July 2002, when he was appointed to be Israel’s Ambassador to the United States. He also served on three Israeli Administrations as Chief Foreign Policy Adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Deputy Foreign Policy Adviser to both Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu.

2. Professor Alan Dershowitz

Professor Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, is best known for his role in several high-profile law cases as well as his commentary on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is the author of 27 works of fiction and non-fiction, including Rights From Wrong, The Case For Israel, and The Case For Peace. Professor Dershowitz has published hundreds of articles in leading newspapers, magazines and journals and has advised presidents, UN officials, prime ministers, and business leaders about legal and political issues.

3. Bassem Eid

Bassem Eid is the Executive Director for The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group. He worked as the senior fieldworker for B’Tselem in the disputed territories and has earned international recognition for publications on human rights issues. Eid is the co-author of the B’Tselem report on the Palestinian Preventive Security Service, “Neither Law nor Justice,? and was involved in research for nearly every B’Tselem publication from 1989 to 1996. In appreciation for his work, he was awarded the 1992 Emil Grunsweig Human Rights Award by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

4. Rachel Fish

Rachel Fish is a graduate of Harvard University and a senior consultant at The David Project. She was named one of the “forward fifty” most influential Jews in America in 2003 and 2004 for her work petitioning against funds endowed by United Arab Emirates leader Sheik Zayed. Fish also produced the documentary film Columbia Unbecoming. She is currently a doctoral student at Brandies University in the field of Israel Studies.

5. Sir Martin Gilbert

Sir Martin Gilbert is Winston Churchill’s official biographer and a leading historian of the modern world. He is the author of 81 books, including Churchill: A Life, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy, History of Israel, and a three-volume work entitled A History of the Twentieth Century. Sir Gilbert is an Honorary Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, and a Distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College in Michigan.

6. Caroline Glick

Caroline Glick, a former officer in the Israel Defense Forces, is Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy and Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post. She was a core member of Israel’s negotiating team in the Oslo Negotiations and an embedded journalist with the U.S. Army’s Third Infantry Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom, joining the unit that was first to reach Baghdad. Glick was awarded a distinguished civilian service award from the U.S. Secretary of the Army for her battlefield reporting.

7. Ambassador Dore Gold

Ambassador Dore Gold is President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. From 1997 to 1999, he served as the eleventh Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations. He also served as the Foreign Policy Advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu, advisor to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and advisor to the Israeli delegation at the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991. Ambassador Gold has written numerous books, and his articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Jerusalem Post.

8. Malcolm Hoenlein

Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of major American Jewish organizations, is the founding executive director of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. Born in Philadelphia, he received his B.A. from Temple University and his Ph.D from University of Pennsylvania. Hoenlein has served as a Middle East specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and also played a key role in organizing the massive National Solidarity Rally for Israel in Washington, D.C. in 2002.

9. Professor Mordechai Kedar

Professor Mordechai Kedar, currently a lecturer in Arabic at Bar Ilan University, served in Israeli Defense Force Military Intelligence for 25 years. He specializes in Arab political discourse, Arab mass media, Islamic groups, and the Syrian domestic arena.

10. Professor Bernard Lewis

Professor Bernard Lewis is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He specializes in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West. Prefessor Lewis is also well-known for his works on the history of the Ottoman Empire..

11. Professor David Luchins

Professor David Luchins is the chairman of the political science department at Touro College. He has also served as the Vice President of the Orthodox Union since 1976 and was a senior aide and advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan for 20 years. Professor Luchins has always been at the forefront of communal social justice, serving on the Executive Committee of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the National Commissions of the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Fund for Justice.

12. Elliot Mathias

Elliot Mathias is the Founder and Director of Hasbara Fellowships, a leading pro-Israel campus activism organization working with over 100 Universities across North America. He has also been the Director of Aish International’s Campus Division in North America, bringing thousands of Jewish University students each year on educational trips to Israel and other locations. Mathias graduated from Northwestern University in 1997 with a degree in Communications and received his Rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem in 2007.

13. Natalie Menaged

Natalie Menaged, Director of Education of Hasbara Fellowships, oversees its curriculum, campaigns, training programs, leadership development, and public relations. A graduate of University of Florida, she was extensively involved in university life and was the founder and president of Gators for Israel and state politics. Menaged was active in Jewish education and outreach in Brooklyn for many years. She and her family recently made aliyah to join the Israel XP program at Bar-Ilan University, where they look forward to continuing their work in Jewish education and Israel advocacy.

14. Jessica Montel

Jessica Montel is the executive director of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Through her work at B’Tselem, she aims to change Israeli policy in the disputed territories and ensure that the government protects the human rights of residents there.

15. Alan Levine

Alan Levine, Managing Director of Hasbara Fellowships, has trained hundreds of student to be pro-Israel activists. Previously, he focused on research and writing, where he concentrated on the activities of Hezbollah and Iran in Latin America. His writings have been featured in Front Page Magazine, InFocus Magazine, and National Review Online. Levine received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UC Santa Barbara, where he first became involved in pro-Israel activism through Hasbara Fellowships.

16. Fern Oppenheim

Fern Oppenheim is the co-founder of Brand Israel Group and the President of Applied Marketing Innovations, a marketing firm she founded to provide consulting support to pro-Israel organizations. She was also a communications consultant to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and is responsible for the U.S. Segmentation Study and the implementation of its results. She also has an extensive marketing, media and management background with advertising agencies such as Young & Rubicam , Fortune 500, and companies such as Kraft/General Foods.

17. Jessica Felber

Jessica Felber, a UC Berkeley graduate with degrees in Economics and Legal Studies, served as the Co-President of Tikvah: Students for Israel, in her junior year. Subsequently, she broadened the scope of her work in Israel advocacy as the California Campus Coordinator of Hasbara Fellowships. She is currently the West Coast Director of Jerusalem Online University, where she continues to educate Jewish students and communities about Israel and its importance in the world.

18. Michelle Rojas-Tal

Michelle Rojas-Tal, the Diaspora Education Director at Stand With Us, coordinates all programs for International students in Israel including their flagship program, “The Ambassadors’ Club”. In 2009 and 2010, she was selected as a member of the ROI community; Lynn Schusterman’s network of Young Jewish Innovators. In addition to reaching out to activists abroad in South America, Australia and South Africa, Rojas-Tal has traveled to Switzerland, South Africa, Turkey, and Australia, being featured as a keynote speaker in numerous conferences and forums.

19. Mira Marcus

Mira Marcus is a communications consultant and Public Affairs Director at Headline Media, an international media consultancy firm. Prior, she served as Bureau Chief and Public Affairs Advisor to Minister of Public Security Avi Dichter. She is also an expert in public advocacy and political consulting and was selected by The European Union Parliament and the Peres Center for Peace for their Young Political Leaders Forum for the years 2009-2010. Marcus graduated from The Argov Fellowship for Leadership and Diplomacy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and was awarded the Legacy Heritage Fellowship.