Speakers

Dafna Meitar Nechmad is a TAU alumna and longtime social investor with extensive philanthropic experience. She manages the Zvi and Ofra Meitar Family Fund, established by her parents Zvi and Ofra Meitar, which supports cultural and educational projects in Israel and overseas. Following a flourishing law career she turned her time and attention to the nonprofit sector. Since 2003, Ms. Meitar Nechmad has served as President of Meitar Collection, a private company with an archive of more than 150,000 photographs taken by photographers in Israel since 1940. The company preserves and catalogues photographs, and makes them available to museums, publishers and producers. Her various additional roles include, member of the Managing Committee of the Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Law Studies at TAU’s Buchman Law School; board member of JFN – Jewish Funders Network; a member of Committed to Give, and a Governor of Tel Aviv University. Additionally, she is a board member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center. From 1989 to 2006, she was a partner at Meitar Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal, the largest law firm in Israel, where she specialized in commercial, telecommunications and corporate law. Ms. Meitar Nechmad holds an LLB, a BA in political science, and an MA in political communications, all from Tel Aviv University. She lives in Tel Aviv and is married with three daughters and one grandson.

Eli Gelman has been serving as Chairman of Tel Aviv University’s Executive Council since December 27, 2018. Prior to that, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Amdocs Management Limited (a software company of 25,000 employees leading the customer experience domain of the communication and media space). Mr. Gelman’s career at Amdocs spanned more than 30 years, including operations, software development and sales alongside strategy and corporate development. Mr. Gelman has been a member of Amdocs Board of Directors since 2002, and was also a Board Member and Chairman of Retalix, a provider of software solutions to retailers and distributors worldwide. Mr. Gelman holds a B.Sc. in electronic engineering with a specialization in communication and computers from the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology. His 5 years of service in the Israel Defense Forces included a leadership role in developing frequency-hopping encrypted communication gear during the 1980s which is still in use today. In his charitable work, Mr. Gelman has devoted significant personal time to youth education.

Prof. Ariel Porat was elected the ninth President of Tel Aviv University in May 2019. After receiving his LLB degree and direct JSD degree at TAU, he performed post-doctoral studies at Yale Law School. In 1990, he joined TAU’s Buchmann Faculty of Law, where he is the incumbent of the Alain Poher Chair in Private Law. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Prof. Porat’s main research interests are torts, contract law and the economic analysis of the law, with many books and articles published in these areas. He served for 15 years as an Associate Member and Fischel-Neil Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago (2003-2019). He was also Visiting Professor at Stanford University, and at the Universities of New York, Columbia, Berkeley, Virginia and Toronto. He was a member of the Board of the American Law and Economics Association for three years, and is a member of the American Law Institute. From 2002 to 2006, Prof. Porat served as Dean of the Buchmann Faculty of Law, during which he introduced joint LLM programs together with UC Berkeley and Northwestern University. He also founded an admittance program for students from Israel’s geographic and social periphery, which was initially at the Law Faculty and thereafter adopted throughout the University. Prior to his appointment as Dean, Prof. Porat was Director of the Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law (1997-2002), where he founded the journal Theoretical Inquiries in Law, today ranked as one of the world’s leading journals in the field of law theory. Prof. Porat has been the recipient of numerous honors, among them the EMET Prize, Chesin Prize, Zeltner Prize and Zusman Prize.

Prof. Mark Shtaif is the Rector of Tel Aviv University. After completing his BSc, MSc, and DSc degrees in Electrical Engineering at the Technion in 1997, he joined the research team of AT&T Labs in New Jersey as a senior and then principal member of technical staff, studying communication technologies. In 2002 he joined the Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University and served as the head of the School of Electrical Engineering from 2017 to 2020. Prof. Shtaif is a communications scientist working mostly in the fields of fiber optics and optical communication systems, focusing on the integration of optics, quantum theory, nonlinear systems, communications theory, information theory, and signal processing. Over the years he has contributed to a variety of topics including optical amplification, analysis of nonlinear propagation, polarization-related phenomena, analysis of noise and signal detection, quantum information in fiber systems, and fundamental limits to optical communications. Most notable of late is his contribution to the analysis of polarization-dependent loss in fiber communications, to the nonlinear-noise model in fiber-optic transmission, to the theory of space-division multiplexed communications, and to effective phase reconstruction by means of the Kramers-Kronig receiver. Professor Shtaif is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and of the IEEE.

Ido Aharoni Aronoff is an Israeli diplomat, writer, lecturer, consultant and investor. He has served as a member of Israel’s Foreign Service for 25 years and held all of his overseas postings in the Usa (New York and Los Angeles). He is Israel’s longest serving consul-general in New York (2010-2016). He is the founder of the Brand Israel Program and a well-known country branding specialist. He has served on the Board Governors of Tel Aviv University since 2015 and a visiting lecturer at the university’s Coller School of Management since 2018.

Irwin Cotler is the International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, an Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and longtime Member of Parliament, constitutional and international human rights lawyer and counsel to Prisoners of Conscience. Feature articles refer to him as “Counsel for the Oppressed”, while the Oslo Freedom Forum characterized him as “Freedom’s Counsel.” He is a member of the Organization of American States (OAS); Independent Panel of Legal Experts on Venezuela; member of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom; Canada’s first Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism; and Special Envoy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Community of Democracies on the case and cause of imprisoned Russian democratic leader, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who in 2023 was named Canada’s newest honorary citizen. As parliamentarian from 1999 to 2015, Professor Cotler was at the forefront of the struggle for justice and human rights, both domestically and internationally. He served as chair of the first-ever Parliamentary Assembly for the International Criminal Court; chair of the Parliamentarians for Global Action (Canada); chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Group for Human Rights in Iran; chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Group of Justice for Sergei Magnitsky; chair of the All-Party Save Darfur Parliamentary Coalition; co-chair from Canada of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance for China; and co-chair of the International Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism. He was elected 2014 Canadian Parliamentarian of the Year by his colleagues. As Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 to 2006, Irwin Cotler launched Canada’s first National Justice Initiative Against Racism and Hate; initiated the first-ever prosecution for the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act; initiated the first-ever law on human trafficking; crafted the Civil Marriage Act, the first-ever legislation to grant marriage equality to gays and lesbians; quashed more wrongful convictions in a single year than any prior Minister; initiated the first-ever comprehensive reform of the Supreme Court appointment process and helped make it the most gender-representative Supreme Court in the world; appointed the first-ever Indigenous and visible minority justices the Ontario Court of Appeal; and made the pursuit of international justice a government priority. An international human rights lawyer, Professor Cotler has served as counsel to high profile Prisoners of Conscience including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov and leading human rights dissident, Nathan Sharansky (former Soviet Union); Nelson Mandela (South Africa); Jacobo Timmerman (Argentina); Professor Saad Eddin Ibrahim (Egypt); and was a Member of the International Legal Team of Chinese Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo. More recently he has served as international legal counsel to imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi; Venezuelan political prisoner Leopoldo López; imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh; and Swedish-Eritrean Dawit Isaak, the longest-imprisoned journalist in the world. A constitutional and comparative law scholar, Professor Cotler is the author of numerous publications and seminal legal articles and has written upon and intervened in landmark Charter of Rights cases in the areas of free speech, freedom of religion, minority rights, peace law and war crimes justice. He is the recipient of seventeen honorary doctorates, where he has been recognized as “a scholar and advocate of international stature” (as cited in his various honorary doctorates). He is a Privy Councillor, an Officer of the Order of Canada, an Officer of the National Order of Quebec, and is the recipient also of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He has been awarded the Canadian Bar Association’s President’s Award; was the first Canadian recipient of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation’s Centennial Medal; the first recipient of the Romeo Dallaire Award for Human Rights Leadership; the recipient of the Sir Zafrullah Khan Award for Distinguished Public Service; the recipient of the Dalhousie University 2015 Ethical Leadership Award; and was the first recipient of the 2015 Sergei Magnitsky Global Human Rights Award. In 2015, Professor Cotler received the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Inaugural Human Rights Award. In its citation, the Law Society recognized “The Honourable Irwin Cotler’s tireless efforts to ensure peace and justice for all. In his varied roles as law professor, constitutional and comparative law scholar, international human rights lawyer, counsel to prisoners of conscience, public intellectual, peace activist, Member of Parliament, and Minster of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Mr. Cotler has been a leader and role model. Through his advocacy work both in Canada and internationally, he has transformed the lives of many." In 2022, Professor Cotler was honored by the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy when they bestowed upon him their Award for Excellence. In the summer of 2023, The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice recognized him as one of the world’s foremost human rights lawyers, and will award him their highest honor, the Lantos Human Rights Prize in October in Washington DC. In September of 2023, Israeli President Isaac Herzog conferred upon Professor Cotler the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor in a ceremony in Jerusalem, characterizing him as “a world-renowned human rights advocate who has made a special contribution in the field of the struggle for human rights, and in the fight against antisemitism, hate crimes, and racism.”

Nehoray Erdinast Ofri is a tech and social entrepreneur and the Co-Founder of Community O, a pioneering non-profit in Israel dedicated to strategic and sustainable philanthropy. Before this, he led Skillsup, focusing on enhancing employability through a personalized career navigator. Nehoray's extensive policy consulting and government-relations background has equipped him to shape public policy and effectively foster impactful stakeholder engagements. Nehoray is driven by a commitment to leveraging education, technology and philanthropy to create significant societal change.

Galia Feit is the Executive Director of the Institute for Law and Philanthropy at the Buchmann Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, which she co-founded with leading philanthropists and Faculty members. Her research focuses on mapping giving trends in Israel, on the blurring boundaries of philanthropy and the public and (for-profit) private sectors, and on ethos and ethics in government-philanthropy relations. She is a graduate of the TAU Law School and an active lawyer in the social field. In her previous positions within the Law School, Galia served as Deputy Director of Clinical Programs and a Clinical instructor and supervisor at the Microbusiness and Economic Justice Clinic which she founded (2003-2014). As part of the clinic, Galia advised on microfinance and social business projects and published articles in these fields. Prior to joining the Law School Clinical Faculty Galia served as Legal Assistant to Justice Shlomo Levin, Deputy-President of the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice (1997-2003).

Dr. Anita Friedman has a distinguished record of public service, both as a professional and as a volunteer leader. Her roles in the Jewish and general communities extend from the Bay Area to the national and international arenas. Professionally, Dr. Friedman heads Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the largest and oldest family service institutions in the United States. JFCS programs are internationally distinguished for their excellence, innovation, and compassion. As a speaker, lecturer, and author, Dr. Friedman’s expertise includes social policy and programming for diverse populations that include children, youth, families, and the aged; the financing of health and human services; and the development of innovative business and social enterprise models. Dr. Friedman’s expertise also includes Holocaust and genocide education. She is the editor of the recently published Rywka’s Diary (Harper), now translated into 15 languages and the subject of a forthcoming film. Dr. Friedman has served on various local, state, national, and international commissions, including as a longtime Commissioner of the San Francisco Human Services Commission, overseeing the City and County of San Francisco’s social welfare budget. As a policy consultant to the State of Israel Ministry of Social Affairs, she has advised on effective policy strategies for human service provision and immigrant absorption. She is currently a trustee on the national boards for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and the Koret Foundation, where she serves as President of the Board. Dr. Friedman’s numerous awards include the 2015 San Francisco Business Times’ “Most Influential Woman in Business Award,” the State of California’s Family Service Council Distinguished Leadership Award, the International Louis Kraft Award, the National Myrtle Wreath Award, Jewish Community Federation’s Professional of the Year, the Raoul Wallenberg Club Public Service Advocate Award, and A Wider Bridge’s Leadership Honor.

Yoseph Haddad, an Arab-Israeli from Nazareth, is the CEO of Together Vouch for Each Other, a commentator on i24 News, and an IDF combat veteran. He is also a frequent commentator in the international and Israeli media on Middle Eastern politics. At age 18, Yoseph volunteered to serve in the IDF in the Golani brigade where he served in the Second Lebanon War. After being critically injured in the war, he dedicated his life to showcasing the truth about the State of Israel abroad, fighting BDS, and working to improve relations between Arabs and Jews by bridging gaps and encouraging integration in Israel. Today, Yoseph has a following of over 2 million people across social media, and has been named as one of the top 40 digital influencers for Israel by JNS, and the top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life by the Algemeiner. He is the recipient of the "Light of Israel" award from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he is also the 2022 recipient of the Menachem Begin Prize for his contributions to Israeli society.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman joined the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) as Managing Director in 2022. Prior to joining INSS, Maj. Gen. (res.) Hayman was Chief of the IDF Intelligence Directorate from 2018-2021. During his 34 years of IDF service, Maj. Gen. (res.) Hayman held a wide range of command positions in the ground forces including operational combat experience in the security zone in Lebanon and in the Palestinian arena. Maj. Gen. (res.) Hayman joined the IDF General Staff in 2015, and served as commander of the National Defense College, while also acting as commander of the Northern Corps, where he led the largest training exercise ever carried out by the IDF. His period of service in Intelligence was characterized by ongoing tension in the Palestinian arena, Gaza; and intense struggles aimed at limiting Iranian entrenchment in Syria and dealing with the Iranian challenge emerging throughout the Shia axis. Maj. Gen. (res.) Hayman holds a Bachelor’s degree in political science and economics, and a Master’s degree from the National Defense College.

Prof. Dan Peer is Vice President for Research and Development as well as Director of the Laboratory of Precision Nanomedicine at Tel Aviv University. He is the Founder and Managing Director of the SPARK Tel Aviv, Center for Translational Medicine. Moreover, Prof. Peer is on the Scientific Advisory Board of numerous international companies and an invited keynote speaker at many conferences. Prof. Peer’s work was among the first to demonstrate systemic delivery of RNA molecules using targeted nanocarriers to the immune system and he pioneered the use of RNA interference for drug discovery in immune cells. In addition, his lab was the first to show systemic, cell- specific delivery of modified mRNA expressing therapeutic proteins that has enormous implications in cancer, inflammation and infectious diseases. Prof. Peer is one of the pioneers in the use of molecular medicines (gene silencing, gene expression and gene editing) for therapeutics and diseases management.

Dr. Colonel (Res.) Michael Milshtein is an expert on the Palestinian Arena and the Head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel-Aviv University. Up until 2019, he served as the Advisor on Palestinian Affairs in COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), and the Head of the Department for Palestinians Affairs in IDF Military Intelligence (AMAN). Colonel (Ret). Over the years Michael has published four Books in Hebrew: Between Revolution and Statehood - Fateh and the Palestinian Authority (Moshe Dayan Center, 2004); The Green Revolution - The Social Profile of Hamas (Moshe Dayan Center, 2007); Muqawama: The Challenge of Resistance to Israel's National Security Concept (INSS, 2010)` and Not Here, Not There: The Palestinians Young Generation (Moshe Dayan Center, 2022). In addition, he has published dozens of articles about strategic developments in the Middle East and the Palestinian Arena, as well as the various professional approaches to modern intelligence research. His PhD thesis entitled The Collective Palestinian Memory of the Nakba since 1948. During 2024 He plans to publish a book about the future of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is involved in civil and governmental project regarding the fight against Crime and violence in the Israeli Arab society, and in Legislation in the Knesset regarding studying Arabic in the Israeli Hebrew System.

Professor Milette Shamir is the Vice President for Academic International Affairs at Tel Aviv University and a researcher in the field of American Studies at the Faculty of the Humanities. Shamir joined Tel Aviv University in 1998 after earning her PhD from Brandeis University. Her research on 19th-century literary and cultural history has been published by Columbia University Press, Penn University Press, and other leading venues. She has been invited as visiting researcher to several universities including Duke University, The University of Texas in Austin, and New York University. Shamir is currently the editor-in-chief of the journal Poetics Today. From 2015 to 2019 she served as Vice Dean of the Humanities for Academic Affairs. She co-founded TAU’s American Studies program in 2006, and served as its head for thirteen years. She served as chair of the Department of English and American Studies from 2006 to 2009. In 2012 she founded TAU’s pioneering undergraduate program for international students—the BA in Liberal Arts—and served as its academic director until 2016.

His nine books in these fields were published with, among other, Manchester University Press, Oxford University Press, University of Toronto Press and Routledge https://cst.tau.ac.il/our-team/

Justice Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004. She is the first Jewish woman appointed to the Court. She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1997, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007, and to the American Philosophical Society in 2018. In 2020, she was awarded the Knight Commander‘s Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Germany. She attended the University of Toronto, where she earned a B.A. in 1967 and an LL.B. in 1970. In 1964 she graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music in classical piano. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1972 and practised civil and criminal litigation until 1976 when she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court at the age of 29, the first pregnant person appointed to the judiciary in Canada. She was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992. She was Chair and author of the Ontario Study on Access to Legal Services by the Disabled in 1983 and the sole Commissioner of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, creating the term and concept of “employment equity”. The theories of “equality” and “discrimination” she developed in her Royal Commission Report were adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in its first decision dealing with equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1989. The report has been implemented by the governments of Canada, New Zealand, Northern Ireland and South Africa. She subsequently served as Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board (1984 to 1989), Chair of the Ontario Law Reform Commission (1989 to 1992), and Boulton Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law of McGill University (1988 to 1992). She also served as a commissioner on the Ontario Human Rights Commission; as a member of the Ontario Public Service Labour Relations Tribunal; as Co-Chair of the University of Toronto Academic Discipline Tribunal; and as a member of the Premier’s Advisory Committee on Confederation. She has written over 90 articles and written or co-edited four books. She was made a Senior Fellow of Massey College in 1989, has given, among others, the Harlan Lecture at Princeton, the Ryan Lecture at Georgetown, the Winchester Lecture at Oxford, the Anderson Lecture at Yale, the Robert L. Levine Distinguished Lecture at Fordham Law School, the Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture at Brandeis University, and the David J. Bederman Lecture in International Law at Emory University School of Law. She was the first Bullock Chair at the Hebrew University, the Mackenzie King Distinguished Visiting Professor at Harvard, the Floersheimer Distinguished Jurist in Residence at Cardozo Law School, a Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the University of Toronto Law School, and Bright International Jurist in Residence at the University of Hawaii School of Law. She was a judge of the Giller Literary Prize; Chair of the Rhodes Selection Committee for Ontario; director of the Institute for Research on Public Policy; moderator of the English Language Leaders’ Debate in 1988; a member of the Canadian Judicial Council’s Inquiry on Donald Marshall, Jr.; Program Chair of the Governor General’s Canadian Study Conference; Chief Rapporteur in Halifax and Co-Chair in Vancouver of the 1992 Renewal of Canada Conferences; Trustee of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada; Governor of the International Board of Governors of the Hebrew University; and Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute. Justice Abella has been active in Canadian judicial education, organizing the first judicial seminar in which all levels of the judiciary participated, the first judicial seminar in which persons outside the legal profession were invited to participate, the first national education program for administrative tribunals, and the first national conference for Canada’s female judges. She has 41 honourary degrees. She was also awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law; the Alumni of Influence Award from University College; the Distinguished Service Award of the Canadian Bar Association (Ontario); the International Justice Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation; the Human Relations Award of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews; the Honourable Walter S. Tarnopolsky Human Rights Award; the Bora Laskin Award for Distinguished Service in Labour Law; the Global Jurist of the Year from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; the Ethical Leadership Award from the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University; the Calgary Peace Prize; the Women in Law Lifetime Achievement Award; the Goler T. Butcher Medal for International Human Rights from the American Society of International Law; the Gunther Plaut Humanitarian Award; the Rose Wolfe Distinguished Alumni Award; an Honourary Bencher of Middle Temple; a Harvard Law School Honoree on International Women’s Day; the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Award, World Jurists Association; the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals Medal; the Canadian Freedom of Association Award; the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice 2023 Justice Medal; and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame, receiving the Humanitarianism Award. Upon retirement from the Court, she became the Samuel and Judith Pisar Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is also a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School and Distinguished Visiting Jurist at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. In the spring of 2022, she was the William Hughes Mulligan Distinguished Visiting Professor in International Studies at Fordham Law School. Justice Abella was born in a Displaced Person’s Camp in Stuttgart, Germany on July 1, 1946. Her family came to Canada as refugees in 1950. She is the first refugee appointed to the bench in Canada. In 1968, she married Canadian historian Irving Abella (1940-2022) and they have two sons, Jacob and Zachary, both lawyers.

Daniel Zilber has been actively involved in the Tel Aviv University Students Union for the past three years, having recently assumed its leadership as Chairwoman. Previously she held the titles of Coordinator, Deputy Head, and Deputy Chairperson. She studies philosophy and psychological sciences at the Gershon H. Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences.