Management & Experts

Yohanan (Johan) Plesner is President of the Israel Democracy Institute. In 2006, he became the first Secretary-General of Israel's new ruling party, Kadima, and spearheaded the creation of the party's organizational infrastructure. From 2007 to 2013, he served as a Member of Knesset and was a member of the Constitution, Law and Justice, and Defense and Foreign Affairs Committees, Co-chair of the Knesset Lobby for Higher Education, and Chairman of the Knesset's permanent delegation to the Council of Europe.

 

Jesse Ferris is Vice President of Strategy at IDI, where he oversees strategic planning, organizational development, and international programs. His research interests include diplomatic and military history, Middle Eastern politics, nuclear strategy and Israeli national security.

Prof. Karnit Flug joined IDI in June 2019 as its Vice President of Research and the William Davidson Senior Fellow for Economic Policy.

Prof. Karnit Flug completed her five-year term as Governor of the Bank of Israel in November 2018. In March 2019 she joined the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University. 

As Governor, Prof. Flug oversaw the design and implementation of Israel's monetary policy and served as the Economic Advisor to the government. She was widely credited for maintaining stability and supporting growth in the Israeli economy.

Suzie Navot is a full professor of constitutional and parliamentary law and, prior to her appointment, was a member of the faculty of the Striks School of Law at the College of Management Academic Studies. She earned a bachelor's degree in law from Tel Aviv University, an M.A in public policy from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tel Aviv University and holds a doctorate in law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Daphna Aviram-Nitzan is the former head of the migration research unit at the Aharon Meir Center for Banking and Economic Policy at Bar-Ilan University and the former director of the Economic Research division at the Manufacturers Association of Israel (MAI). From 2003-2016, she served as the economic advisor to the presidents of the business sector and the presidents of the Manufacturers' Association. In the years 1994-2002 Aviram-Nitzan worked as an economist in the economics department of the Manufacturers Association and headed the research and strategy department in the association. In 2016, Daphna established the unit for the study of immigration and immigration at the Aharon Meir Center for Banking Research at Bar-Ilan University.

Currently, she serves on the board of the council of the Israeli Economic Association and in a variety of companies in the capital market, and as chairman of the board of directors of Clal Finance-Mutual Funds.

 

Co-founded and co-directed Itim – the Jewish Life Advocacy Center– an organization that committed to increasing participation in Jewish life by making Israel’s religious establishment respectful of and responsive to the diverse Jewish needs of the Jewish people. In this capacity, she has appeared before the Rabbinic Courts on issues of conversion, marriage, and divorce.

Anat Thon-Ashkenazy is an attorney and social activist. In her most recent position as executive director of Itach-Maaki– Women Lawyers for Social Justice- she promoted programs working towards gender equality on the national and municipal levels, with an emphasis on the needs of women from disenfranchised populations.

 

Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer serves as the Director of the Center for National Security and Democracy since September 2022.

Prior, Eran served for over 20 years in various positions in the International Law Department of the Military Advocate General's Corps in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including as the head of the department, and retired at the rank of Colonel.

Ismael Abu-Saad is a Professor of Educational Policy and Administration in the Department of Education, founding director of the Center for Bedouin Studies and Development, and the holder of the Abraham Cutler Chair in Education at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, USA.

Amichai Cohen, Senior Fellow

Professor Amichai Cohen is a member of the Faculty of Law at Ono Academic College. He earned his LL.B. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his LL.M. and LL.D. from Yale Law School at Yale University.

Professor Yuval Feldman is a full professor at the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University and a former fellow of Institutional Corruption Lab at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.

Head of the Program on Combatting Government Corruptionof the Program on Combatting Government Corruption

Prof. Tamar Hermann is a Senior Research Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and the Academic Director of the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research. The Center applies rigorous, innovative and pioneering research methods to document the attitudes of the Israeli public regarding thousands of issues in all aspects of life: politics, culture, ideology, religion, education and national security.

Lecturer and the Kibbutzim College of Education; Head of the Regev Education Program for Outstanding Students, and member of the steering committee of the Lautman Forum for Education Policy.

Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer is a Senior Fellow at IDI and he previously served as the Institute's Vice President of Research.

 

Dr. Gilad Malach is the Director of IDI's Ultra-Orthodox in Israel program. He co-authored the Master Plan for Ultra-Orthodox Employment (along with Doron Cohen and Haim Zicherman) and was editor of the Statistical Report on Ultra-Orthodox Society in Israel (in copperation with Dr. Lee Cahaner and Dr. Maya Choshen). He was director of implementation of the Gabison-Meidan Covenant Project at the Avi Chai Foundation and content manager of the Committee on Sharing the Security Burden in the Eighteenth Knesset.

 

Professor Margalit headed a large, experimental cross-national study of the investment decisions of multinational firms, a project that he developed and carried out in collaboration with the World Bank and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

Nadiv Mordechay is the head of the program for the Defense of Democratic Values and Institutions at the Israel Democracy Institute, and the Research coordinator of the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions. He is a Postdoctoral fellow at the New York University School of Law; and at the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University.

A senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the director of the Matz Institute for Jewish Law. After completing his doctorate at the Hebrew University, he was hosted as a post-doctoral fellow by the University of Toronto

Professor Rahat is a faculty member of the Political Sciences Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an International Fellow at the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine.

A Post-doctoral fellow in the Faculty of Law at Tel-Aviv University, Idit Shafran Gittleman holds an MA in philosophy from the University of Haifa.

Yuval Shany joined IDI in 2008 as a senior researcher at the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions and the Center for Security and Democracy. He was Vice-President of Research in the Institute between 2018-2022.

Assaf Shapira received a PhD in Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at the Centre d’études européennes (Center for European Studies) at the Sciences po (Paris). His research largely focuses on political representation, political parties, the role of money in politics, and reforms in Israel's public service.

Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Climate Change: Israel 2050 and a Professor of Economics at the Graduate Institute Geneva

Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler is a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and head of the institute’s Media Reform Program and Democracy in the Information Age Program.

She holds a doctorate in law (LLD) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and completed her post-doctoral studies at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 

She is a board member of the Israel National Press Council, a board member of the Israeli Digital Rights Movement, a board member of the Center for Ethics in Jerusalem and a member of the Supreme Council of Archives of the State of Israel.

In recent years, Dr. Shwartz Altshuler has composed the journalistic code of ethics for Israel’s public broadcasting corporation (“Kan”) and for the Globes business newspaper; drafted a bill for a new privacy law in Israel; and appeared regularly in the Israeli and international media on issues relating to media, technology, democracy, and human rights. She has also published a number of books, articles, policy studies, and expert opinions on these subjects.

Prof. Daniel Statman is head of the philosophy department at the University of Haifa and specializes in ethics and political philosophy. Prof. Statman has served on several public committees, including the committee that revised the ethical code for the IDF, the committee that is responsible for decisions on new medicines to be covered by the national medical insurance, and the ethical committee of Ha-Emek hospital.

He holds a master's degree in sociology and anthropology from Bar-Ilan University. His Ph.D. dissertation was on new masculinity, father involvement and family-work interface, in the Department of Sociology at Bar-Ilan University.

Dr. Adv. Rachel Aridor Hershkovitz is a researcher in the Israel Democracy Institute’s Media Reform program and a research fellow at the Haifa Center for Law and Technology at the University of Haifa.

Research Assistant, Ultra-Orthodox in Israel Program, The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for Shared Society

Dr. Dana Blander is a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a clinical psychologist. Her PhD. dissertation – “Ambivalence as a Challenge to the Political Order”-- which combines political philosophy along with psycho-analytical insights, was awarded the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Berger Prize for 2008. In the 2010-2011 academic year, Blander was a visiting lecturer at Tufts University in Boston.

Her research focuses on Israeli politics: referendums, private legislation, civic participation, and state and parliamentary investigative committees. Blander is a co-author (along with Prof. Yitzhak Galnoor) of “The Handbook of Israel’s Political System”, published by Cambridge University Press (2018). She also co-authored a book on anti-democratic legislation with Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer and Dr. Amir Fuchs, as well as a book on human dignity and medical treatment with Carmit Haber and Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer.

Dr. Blander oversees the research at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) and is editor of the online magazine “Parliament”, published on the IDI website. 

An expert on ultra-Orthodox Judaism and its religious formation. The author of the book The Chazon Ish, Brown did his post-doctoral work at Harvard University.

Adv. Amir Cahane holds a master's degree in law from the University of Cambridge, a bachelor's degree in law from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, and a bachelor's degree in statistics and management from Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Lee Cahaner, a social geographer, is a senior lecturer and head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Oranim Academic College of Education. Cahaner is also a research associate in the Israel Democracy Institute's Ultra-Orthodox in Israel Program.

Researcher, Ultra-Orthodox program

Ariel Finkelstein is a PhD student at the State Science Department of Bar-Ilan University. His PhD deals with the reciprocal influence between religion and state in Israel after the establishment of religious services.

Dr. Chen Friedberg has co-written many papers published by the Israel Democracy Institute.

Dr. Amir Fuchs holds a doctorate from the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a lecturer in the Politics and Communication Department at the School of Government and Social Sciences at Hadassah Academic College.

Research Assistant, Ultra-Orthodox in Israel Program, The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for Shared Society

Research Assistant, The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for Shared Society

Gabriel Gordon is a researcher at the Center for Governance and the Economy and at the Center for Religion, Nation and State. He holds a Master's degree in Economics and Environmental studies.

His research focuses on demographics and trends within the Israeli labor force.

Is a researcher at Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research in the Israel Democracy Institute. He holds a master’s degree in sociology and anthropology from Bar Ilan University, specializing in social psychology, and has extensive experience in conducting and analyzing market research and opinion polls. Previously he served as a quantitative researcher at consulting firms and research institutes.

Prof. Ofer Kenig is a senior lecturer in Ashkelon Academic College and a research fellow in Israel Democracy Institute. His areas of research include comparative politics, political parties, leadership and candidate selection and Israeli politics. He co-authored the books Reforming Israel's Political System (2013), The Promise and Challenge of Party Primary Elections (2016) and From Party Politics to Personalized Politics (2018).

Dr. Guy Lurie is an attorney and holds a PhD in History from Georgetown University (2013). He a former coordinator of the Shamgar Commission for the Formulation of Rules of Ethics for Members of the Government, and served as a post-doctoral fellow on the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa.

Dr. Asaf Malchi is a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, in the Ultra-Orthodox in Israel program. His research focuses on current social and economic trends  in the community, in the areas of employment,  higher education, military and Civilian  National Service, and more. These studies provide important input to  decision makers in crafting policy on the ultra-Orthodox.

Holds a PhD from the School of Political Science at the University of Haifa on the subject: "The role and survival of primordial structures in modern politics: A Neo-Institutional Analysis of Clan Continuity in Arab Politics in Israel."

Adv. Oded Ron holds an LL.M. from the Human Rights Cathedral at College of Management Academic Studies and LL.B. from the Faculty of Law at the Bar-Ilan University
Interned at the legal department at ACRI: Association for Civil Rights Israel

Dr. Rudnitzky has been researching Arab Israeli issues for almost two decades. His fields of expertise cover political, national and social developments in Israel's Arab society; Jewish-Arab relations; and government policies on Arabs in Israel. Rudnitzky holds PhD degree from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University, as well as MA (magna cum laude) and BA degrees in Middle Eastern History from the Faculty of Humanities and an MBA degree from the Faculty of Management, Tel Aviv University.

Hila Shoef-Kollwitz is an economics and policy researcher in the Civil Service Reform program, in the Israel Democracy Institute's Center for Governance and the Economyץ She has a bachelor's degree from the Hebrew University in the combined program "Philosophy, Economics and Political Science", and a master's degree from Oxford University in the Department of Economic History.

Itamar is a PhD candidate at the School of Public Policy, Hebrew University.
His Dissertation deals with the response of minorities to reforms made in labor market programs

Research Assistant, Political Reform Program, Center for Governance and the Economy

Research Assistant, Military and Society Program, Center for Security and Democracy

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