Speakers

Dafna Meitar-Nechmad has served as Chairwoman of the Tel Aviv University (TAU) Board of Governors since October 2021. Prior to that, she co-chaired TAU’s $1 billion global campaign, leading it to a successful conclusion after four years of visionary fundraising and international collaboration.

A former corporate attorney and partner at Meitar Law Offices, Dafna specialized in commercial, corporate, and telecommunications law. Over the past two decades, however, she has dedicated herself fully to the nonprofit sector in Israel.

In 2003, Dafna co-founded the Zvi and Ofra Meitar Family Fund with her father, supporting education, culture, and innovation in Israel and internationally. In 2014, she founded the Institute for Law and Philanthropy at TAU, placing philanthropic policy and research on Israel’s socio-economic agenda and leading the creation of the country’s first Donor-Advised Fund (DAF).

Dafna has held numerous philanthropic leadership roles, including: Chairperson of the Israeli Opera Friends’ Association (2005–2012) and Board member of the Jewish Funders Network (JFN) since 2014, where she co-chaired the 2017 annual conference in Atlanta and has been instrumental in deepening Israeli-

American philanthropic partnerships: Member of Committed to Give, an Israeli initiative that promotes active and strategic giving among high-net-worth individuals

Her impact extends well beyond Israel. Dafna is the first and only Israeli to serve on the Metropolitan Opera’s Managing Director’s Committee (2013–2017) and as a member of its Advisory Committee (2017-2020). She also served as a member of the International Director’s Council of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (2014-2022).

As a philanthropist and a woman, Dafna is deeply committed to addressing gender inequality. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, she initiated the Women’s Philanthropy Leadership Group at JFN, promoting gender mainstreaming — the integration of a gender lens into the practices of donors and foundations.

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.

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.

Professor Noga Kronfeld-Schor is the 17th Rector of Tel Aviv University and a Full Professor at the School of Zoology. She earned all her academic degrees: B.Sc., M.Sc., Teaching Certificate, Master of Health Administration (MHA), and Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University, and completed her postdoctoral research at Boston University. In 2001, she joined the university’s faculty as an Alon Fellow and later participated in the Wexner Senior Leadership Program at Harvard University.

Professor Kronfeld-Schor is a leading researcher in the fields of ecological physiology, chronobiology, and conservation physiology. Her research examines how environmental conditions and human-induced changes such as light pollution and climate change affect physiological and behavioral systems. Her work bridges basic research and applied questions related to climate change, light pollution, one health, and species conservation, and she is recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on biological rhythms in the wild.

Over the years, Professor Kronfeld-Schor has held numerous senior academic and public positions. She served as the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and as Chair of the National Council for Civilian Research and Development (MOLMOP), represented Israel and served on United Nations committees, was a board member of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and in various international scientific organizations. At Tel Aviv University, she served as Head of the School of Zoology and founded and led the new School of the Environment.

Professor Kronfeld-Schor has published over 150 scientific papers, supervised dozens of graduate students, and received numerous research grants and awards recognizing her contributions to science, environment, and Israeli society.

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.

Chair of the Tel Aviv University Student Union and an MBA student at Tel Aviv University. Gal also serves as Chair of the Board of Xtra Student, a nonprofit organization providing subsidized academic support and professional development services to students, and of Nehes, a company specializing in student engagement, events, and campus programming. Gal has experience in leadership, marketing, project management, and advancing student representation and community initiatives.