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 has held the position of Director of the Center for Governance and the Economy since 2016 along with serving as the Director of the annual Eli Hurvitz Conference for Economy and Society.

Between 2002-2016, Aviram-Nitzan was the Director of the Economic Research division and the Chief Economist at the Manufacturers Association of Israel (MAI) and the economic advisor of the President of the business sector. Before that (1994 – 2002) Daphna served as an economist in several positions in the MAI's research and strategy department. She is the former chairman of the board of directors of Clal Finance-Mutual Funds and currently serves as an External Director of companies in the Israeli capital market.

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.

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.

Edna Harel-Fisher leads policy research at the institute on the topic of funding for culture, ‘Mamlachtiyut’, and freedom of speech.

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.

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.

Dr. Adam Asad is a researcher and a lecturer in the field of linguistics and multilingualism, his research delves into the relationship between language and society, with a focus on the development and attrition of the Arabic language in Israel. His work covers diverse topics, including linguistic multiculturalism, language and gender, and linguistic diversity in a changing world.

Dr. Asad holds two master's degrees, one in International Relations from the University of Haifa and another in linguistics from Tel Aviv University.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Prof. Daniel Statman is a lecturer at the Philosophy department of the University of Haifa and specializes in ethics and political philosophy. He 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.

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 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.

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.

Among other things, he has researched questions of right to equality, security detention, interrogation techniques, on-line surveillance and content moderation, military investigations, proportionality in the application of force, jurisdiction of international criminal tribunals and counterterrorism.

Professor Atar is a senior faculty member at the Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University. He is an empirical researcher in economics and strategy and focuses on increasing understanding of the factors behind the high cost of living in Israel.  Since the beginning of 2023, he has been editor of the "Quarterly Journal of Economics.”  At the Israel Democracy Institute, he focuses on research relating to high of cost of living and housing.

hamudia@idi.org.il

Hamudi Abureesh is a research assistant in the Arab Society Program in the Democratic Institutions and Values center at The Israel Democracy Institute.

He is also a Master’s student in the Department of Islam and Middle East at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Currently, he is writing a thesis dissertation supervised by Prof. Liat Kozma (Hebrew University) and Prof. Gadi Algazi (Tel-Aviv University). He focuses on Palestinian students at the Hebrew University between the years 1948-1967 from a social history perspective.

 

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.

rachela@idi.org.il

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.

 

 

 

meitalb@idi.org.il

daphneb@idi.org.il

elibe@idi.org.il

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.

Dr. Ariel Finkelstein holds s bachelor's degree from the Integrated Program for Philosophy, Economics and Political Science at Hebrew University, and a Master's degree in Public Policy, with a specialization in local government administration and management from Haifa University, as part of the Ministry of Local Government's "Cadets for Local Government" program. He earned his Phd. At the Department of Political Science at Bar Ilan University. His doctorate is on the reciprocal effects of religion and state in Israel, in light of the institutionalization of religious services in the country.

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

avitalf@idi.org.il

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.

Tehila is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Lecturer in the Ono Academic College.

Her research deals with the study of ultra-orthodox society: trends of change in this society, religious and cultural perceptions, interfaces between culture and religiosity, and domestic violence.

ayalag@idi.org.il

Research assistant in the Religion and State program at the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for Shared Society, and a local governance project within the Public Service Reform program. Holds a Bachelor's degree in the PPE program from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Currently a Master's student in government and public policy at the Open University.

     

gabrielg@idi.org.il

He holds a Master's degree in Economics and Environmental studies.

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

zakh@idi.org.il

Zak researches intergenerational mobility, changes in workers' skills and tasks, and environmental employment policies.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in philosophy, economics, and political science from Tel Aviv University. He is currently a Master's student in economics in the joint .research track of the Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University

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.

yardenk@idi.org.il

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).

E-mail: roek@idi.org.il

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."

yechiel@idi.org.il

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.

Dr. Rivka Neriya Ben-Shahar is a senior lecturer at Sapir Academic College in Sderot, Israel, teaching courses in research methods, communication, religion, and gender. Her doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was entitled "Ultra-Orthodox Women and Mass Media in Israel – Exposure Patterns and Reading Strategies."

She was a Fulbright post-doctoral fellow and a Scholar in Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, and worked on a study of women's cultural-religious praxes.

Dr. Neriya Ben-Shahar researches the mass media from the perspectives of religion and gender. Her most recent research project addresses the tension between religious values and new technologies among Old Order Amish women and Jewish ultra-Orthodox women.

Has a master's degree in economics from a university in Moscow, with extensive experience in applied quantitative research (market research, public opinion, and evaluation).

     

Itamar is a researcher in the Economic Reform Program at IDI and holds a PhD from the School of Public Policy, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He studies social policy, labor markets and political economy.

His Dissertation deals with the response of minorities to reforms made in labor market programs.

Lital Piller is a second-year research master’s student at Tel Aviv University. Her research focuses on the representation of the Arab-Palestinian minority in the land administration institutions in Israel. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in law and a bachelor’s in government (both with distinction) from Reichman University. Until 2017, she worked as a lawyer in the Administrative Law Department at the Spigelman Koren Zamir & Co. law firm. There, she provided legal advice in the field of administrative law, including local government, tenders, contracts, and litigation in administrative, commercial and civil matters. She was involved in drafting tenders and contracts for clients in the public sector, providing legal opinions, accompanying, and participating in tender committees, and representing clients in legal proceedings in various courts, including administrative courts.

In addition, she works as a teaching assistant and research assistant in the field of constitutional law, intellectual property, and international law.

     

Holds a joint degree in law and economics and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in economics at the Hebrew University.

primary research interests encompass labor market dynamics, the cost of living, and the impact of climate-change on labor market.

     

morank@idi.org.il

Researcher and lecturer in the fields of public law. Dr. Kandelshtein-Haina holds a doctorate from the Faculty of Law at the Bar-Ilan University and is a lecturer in the school of Law at the Netanya Academic College. The doctoral thesis she wrote dealt with the constitutional status of the prime minister in parliamentary systems. Areas of expertise: institutional constitutional law, administrative law, the Executive.

miritsh@idi.org.il

Adv. Mirit Sharabi holds a bachelor's degree in law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and a master's degree (cum laude) in international dispute settlement and arbitration from Leiden University. Before she started working at the IDI, Mirit worked at the Israeli Embassy to the Netherlands, focusing on international law and the various international courts and organizations in The Hague. She also worked at the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (International Law) in the Israeli Ministry of Justice, in the fields of international economic law and international technology law. She previously conducted research in the fields of space law, cyber law and privacy law.

asafh@idi.org.il

erezs@idi.org.il

Since 2019 he has been leading and coordinating the climate response initiative on behalf of IDI and in cooperation with the government. He is a member of the content team for the Eli Hurvitz Conference on Economy and Society

 

 

 

 

M.A. with a thesis and B.A. specializing in public policy and political marketing from Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at Reichman University. Experience in the study of local government in Israel, parliamentary cohesion, voting methods and public agendas.

     

     

Advocate Paz completed her undergraduate studies in law with excellence at the Hebrew University in 2020. She completed her specialization in the Department of State Prosecutors at the State Attorney's Office and was licensed as an attorney in Israel in 2021.

In 2022, she worked as a legal assistant for Judge Eyal Avrahami, the President of the Regional Labor Court in Jerusalem, and later as a legal assistant to Judge Vered Vert-Libnah, the President of the National Labor Court.

Parallel to her work in the Institute, Sapir is sitting towards her Masters in the Cultural Studies program at the Hebrew University.

     

Tomer Lotan has served as CEO of the Ministry of National Security during the years 2021-2022. Prior to this he established and led “Magen Isael”, the national headquarters in the fight against Covid-19. Tomer is an expert in public governance and policy who has held a variety of positions in the government and civil society. He has consistently worked to strengthen and improve Israeli public service.

David is a graduate of the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students at Tel Aviv University, and holds an MA degree in Public Policy in the field of Development Economics, with high distinction. He has extensive experience in designing, executing, and managing interdisciplinary research in Southeast Asia and Africa.

     

          

Dr. Yael Litmanovitz holds an MSc and a doctorate from the University of Oxford.  Her thesis developed the evidence-base for police training in democratic societies. She worked with Israeli Border Police to design and trial a training intervention on procedurally just policing of protests.

Since 2008 she has collaborated with and studied police organizations in Israel and abroad, focusing on issues of police reform, police training, fair and equitable policing, and evidence-based policing. Her papers have been published in leading journals.

She is also a Teaching Fellow at Centre for Criminology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, teaching policing-related undergraduate courses as part of the Israel Police academicization program.

Prior to joining IDI, Dr. Litmanovitz was a Researcher at the Myer-JDC Brookdale Institute, where she worked with the Arab Society Research Group, leading the comprehensive evaluation of the five-year socio-economic development plan for the Bedouin population.

uriz@idi.org.il

Dr. Dagan Holds a PhD from Bar-Ilan University, LLM with specialism in Public Law and Human Rights Law from University College London (UCL), and LLB from the University of Haifa.

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