rené cassin fellowship program 2015 · rené cassin 2015 fellows 1 rené cassin fellowship program...

René Cassin 2015 Fellows 1

René Cassin

Fellowship Program 2015

Cohort 3 Biographies


United Kingdom Participants


Emily Hilton is currently studying for an

MPhil in Historical Studies at Cambridge

University. Previously she completed her

undergraduate degree at University

College London, where she was involved

in various extra-curricular activities related

to human rights advocacy. She currently

sits on the Yachad UK Board as their

Youth and Student Representative. In July

2015, she will take up her place on the

Frontline Social Work Graduate Scheme

in the South-East of the UK.

Galia Shilo is an Israeli ex Journalist, currently

living in the UK. She works at Tzedek, a Jewish

International Development charity, where

she’s responsible for the overseas projects

work and Tzedek’s communications. Galia

has been active as a volunteer for the rights

of women who have been sexually abused

in Israel. She is now trying to promote funding

of income generating projects for women to

help them avoid forced marriage, empower

them and strengthen their positions in their

own communities.


Hannah Schraer holds an undergraduate and a

Masters degree in English Literature, from the

Universities of London and Oxford. She currently works

in PR in the public sector. In 2014, Hannah spent five

months interning at a human rights NGO for LGBT

refugees in Tel Aviv. This experience sparked her

interest in refugee rights and human rights more

broadly. Hannah hopes one day to work in PR and

communications for a human rights organisation. She’s

very excited to be a part of the Rene Cassin Fellowship

Programme.

James Masters is a sports writer for The

Times and CNN covering Premier League

and European football. He has reported

on human rights issues within sport from

the struggle of migrant workers in Qatar to

the homophobia laws in Russia which

caused outrage at the Sochi Winter

Olympics in 2014. James’s reporting

played an integral role in the release of

French football player Zahir Belounis, whose struggle against the ‘Kafala’ law

gained the attention of the sporting world. Keen to tell the stories of people

who need their voices heard, James has written for a number of national

newspapers and made appearances on television.


BOX

Micah Smith is a trainee lawyer at Hogan Lovells

and a Teach First ambassador, having spent

three years as an English and history teacher

before switching to the law. Before that he

studied PPE at Oxford, during which time he was

active in Jsoc and as an RSY madrich. He blogs

at theedgeofwhere.blogspot.com

Orly Goldschmidt is Swiss-Israeli. She has

an MA in Contemporary Jewry and is a

Licensed Tour Guide in Israel. During the

last few years she has planned and led

educational trips to Israel and Europe. She

came to London with her husband and

son, to work for the Jewish Agency for

Israel. She has a strong interest in the

connection between Jewish values and

human rights, and is looking forward to

deepen her knowledge around human

rights and social activism.

http://theedgeofwhere.blogspot.co.uk/


Rachel Schon is currently working at The

Young Foundation as a researcher into

social innovation and social enterprise.

She did her undergraduate degree at

Cambridge in Religious Studies, and spent

three years on a graduate fellowship at

Yale which introduced her to law and the

social sciences. She is really excited

about deepening her knowledge of both

Judaism and human rights, and is looking

forward to volunteering with a charity which works to improve educational

opportunities in East Africa.


United States Participants


Bernice Keshet moved to New York one

year ago from Tel Aviv and is working

towards a master’s degree in social work

at Columbia University (as well as towards

mastering the NYC subway system).

Focusing on International Social Welfare

within her program study, Bernice is

interested in issues of human rights,

women and girl's education and

community organizing around

progressive issues both in the US and in

her native Israel. Bernice is currently a

Social Work Intern at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York

and a Fellows Management Lead at Organizing for Action NY. She holds a

bachelor's degree from Tel Aviv University in psychology and from the

Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in cello performance.

Ilana Rothkopf currently works as a

compliance analyst, where she focuses on

anti-money laundering and know your

customer compliance in the legal industry.

Previously, she worked as a due diligence

researcher and consultant, and interned with

various think tanks and social justice-oriented

non-profits, including Gold Mercury

International (London), Political Research

Associates, and the International Institute for

Justice and Development. She also sits on the

Associate Board for Equal Justice USA, a

criminal justice NGO. Ilana holds an MSc in

International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political

Science and a BA in Political Science and Middle East Studies from McGill

University.


K’lila Nooning received her MSPH in

Biostatistics from the Tulane School of

Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

She is currently the Data Linkage and

Analytics Specialist at the New York

City Department of Health and

Mental Hygiene Bureau of Informatics.

A lifelong passion for the rights of all

humans led her to study public health

and pursue a career in the public

sector. K’lila has a devotion to

volunteering, having spent numerous

hours volunteering with her Jewish community and with organizations such as

New York Cares on a large variety of projects. She believes her Jewish

learning never ends and is rarely without a subject in Judaism to study, most

recently studying for her adult bat mitzvah. In addition to learning in her spare

time she also enjoys seeking out the best parts of the south that can be

offered in New York City.

Martha Flumenbaum earned her B.A. at Brandeis

University where she interned for Random House

and Congressman Jerrold Nadler. She earned her

J.D. at Brooklyn Law School where she interned

for Liz Claiborne, the Children’s Law Center, Fried

Frank, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern

District of New York, and the United States Courts

in the Southern District of New York. Martha is

earning her M.S.W. at the Silberman School of

Social Work at Hunter College. She is doing her

internship at UJA-Federation of New York in the

Government Relations department where she

meets with elected officials, writes position papers, and prepares testimony

for the New York City Council. Martha loves reading, movies, theater, music,

tennis, yoga, travelling, going to the beach, and rooting for the Yankees.


Mike Schwartz is a sustainability

professional who has been living in

Brooklyn for the past couple years. For

three months ending in January 2015 he

was training for a new role as Corporate

Social Responsibility Analyst at EcoVadis’

headquarters in Paris. EcoVadis evaluates

supply chains on risks related to the

environment, labor, human rights, and

fair business practices. Mike struggles with

his Zionism (bolstered by his experience

as a participant and counselor on Young Judaea Year Course in Israel) and

progressive values (challenged while learning with the Olive Tree Initiative’s

educational program and trip to Israel, Palestine, and the West Bank). Mike

holds BAs in economics and modern Jewish studies from Columbia University

and the Jewish Theological Seminary and he holds a master’s degree from

the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa

Barbara. In his spare time, Mike enjoys exploring new places, riding his bike,

and playing with dogs.

Naomi Barth is the Archives Project

Specialist at the American Jewish Joint

Distribution Committee (JDC), the world's

leading Jewish humanitarian assistance

organization. In this role she seeks to

make documents and photographs from

a century of Jewish history accessible to

the public. She holds a B.A. in History with

a concentration in Near Eastern and

Judaic Studies from Brandeis University.

Her human rights interests include access

to reproductive health, the right to

education and the protection of free press.


Paul Schulman works for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality

after spending three years as a financial analyst in the

tech industry. Prior to that, he studied finance,

accounting and math at Northeastern University. Paul

recently became more in touch with his Judaism in a

practice that emphasizes holy energy as the connection

between all living things. When he’s not practicing his

Judaism or working, he enjoys cycling, wandering,

adventuring, yoga, meditation, reading, eating, and

anything that’s new and interesting. He is engaged with

organizations such as Muslims against Hunger, the NYC

Muslim Jewish Solidarity Committee, New Israel Fund,

Repair the World, and Hazon. Over the next year, he

hopes to get a better sense of human rights through the lens of Judaism.

Shimrit Adika was born and raised in

Jerusalem. After finishing her army

service, she moved to Tel Aviv where she

completed her BA in communication and

management. In November 2013, she

moved to New York where she is now

living and working. In the summer of 2011,

she joined a group of young Israelis who

started to demand justice. It was than

that she realized that justice can’t exist

without human rights being extended to

all members of society. She is deeply

committed to women's rights issues specifically in Africa and the Middle East.

Shimrit enjoys writing as a hobby and has her own blog.


Sam Permutt is currently a development

executive at UJA-Federation of New York.

Prior to joining UJA, Sam was a federal

law clerk at the United States Court of

International Trade. He received his JD

from Cardozo Law School with a

concentration in International Law and

Human Rights. During law school Sam

worked for an NGO in Gujarat, India that

focused on improving the welfare of the

local Dalit community and for various

other human rights organizations,

including Amnesty International. Sam holds an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies

from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in History from Johns Hopkins

University.

Shoshana Smolen received her JD from the Benjamin

N. Cardozo School of Law with a concentration in

International Law in 2014 and her BA in Political

Science and Sociology from Rutgers University. She is

currently the Interim Manager of the Asylum Program

at Physicians for Human Rights. During law school,

Shoshana was able to pursue her passion for

international human rights through internships, clinical

work, and academics. Shoshana spent her summers

interning at the Global Justice Center and the Center

for Reproductive Rights where she wrote shadow

letters to UN treaty monitoring bodies, contributed to

briefing and fact-finding reports, drafted research

and strategy memos and compiled reference documents for public

education. As a student in the Human Rights and Genocide Clinic, she

represented an asylum seeker and collaborated with the UN Office of the

Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide to write a risk analysis report

sectarian violence in Afghanistan. After law school, Shoshana worked as a

legal fellow at the New York Civil Liberties Union working on reproductive

rights legislative advocacy, and at HIAS, the international refugee agency of

the American Jewish community. Shoshana enjoys travelling, baking, and

going to concerts.


Israel Participants


Chen Deri holds an LLB degree in Law and

Interdisciplinary studies from Hebrew University

Jerusalem. In the last 4 years Chen was studying

and working in the public sector. She worked at

the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance as

a student-intern. At the same time she volunteered

at the Law Student Union for two years and led the

program Mevoot Mishpat (introduction to law) a

program in which law students teach law and

democracy in different middle schools in Jerusalem

(including the bilingual school "Yad B'yad" for Arab

and Jewish pupils). In her third year of school Chen

was deputy editor of the Israel Law Review, focusing mainly on issues of

human rights. Chen defines herself as a Mizrahi feminist activist.

Noa Eshet was born and raised in

Jerusalem. After high-school she spent a

year in the pre-army Mechina leadership

program at "Mayan Baruch"- in the Upper

Galilee. She started her army service at

Galey Tzahal the army radio station as a

producer where she produced programs

concerning military matters as well as her

own program on the "myth of the Israeli

soldier". Her second half of the service

was as an officer in Mechva Alon an

army base that helps soldiers who

dropped out of high-school complete their studies and also teaches Hebrew

to Ethiopians, Bedouin and Druze soldiers . Noa completed her BA in

psychology and brain science at Ben-Gurion University. Her time spent in the

Negev was very meaningful and let her to the understanding of the

importance and potential of developing the periphery of Israel. Noa served

as a tour guide in different programs for youth travelling in Israel and she

plans to live in the Negev and hopefully work for an NGO there.


Merose Haran was born and raised in Kibbutz

Shefayim, north of Tel Aviv. She went to high

school in Tel Aviv and was a 5-month student

exchange in Texas. After a shnat sherut

(community service year) with the Hanoar

Haoved VeHalomed youth movement and an

army service in a combat unit, she fell in love with

contemporary communal life and joined Dror

Israel, a movement of educators who live in urban

kibbutzim all around Israel. Today Merose lives in

the lovely southern town of Mitzpe Ramon, near

one of the most beautiful places on earth - the

Ramon Crater. In addition to studying for a degree in informal education,

Merose runs high school educational trips around the country and works with

the Habonim Dror youth movement. Merose is one of the madrichim (guides)

for Kvutzot Am, the emerging chain of urban kibbutzim founded by

graduates of Habonim Dror who have made aliyah to Israel from all around

the world.

Gali Gavarbovitz was born in Kfar-Sava.

As a teenager she was part of the

Hashomer Hatza'ir, a socialist and left

wing youth movement. During that

period of time she started to develop her

values and opinions about society and

human rights. Today Gali is a B.A student

in sociology, anthropology and

communication at the Hebrew University

in Jerusalem. She works at the Hebrew

Union College, the academic center for

Reform Judaism in Israel, as an

administrative coordinator at the

Blaustein Center where she is in charge of developing a training program for

teachers, educators and youth counselors. Gali volunteers at the

educational department of the Rape Crisis Center in Jerusalem where she

runs workshops for high school student about prevention of sexual violence.

In addition, she is doing her internship for communication studies at the

Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel. Gali studies Judaism at Elul, a

pluralist Beit midrash in Jerusalem.


Silvana Kandel Lamdan was born and raised

in Buenos Aires Argentina and moved to

Israel 15 years ago. She studied Jewish

Philosophy and received rabbinic ordination

at the Israeli rabbinic program of Hebrew

Union College in Jerusalem. Her commitment

to Human Rights was inspired by the Jewish

demand for tikkun olam, and that is why she

dedicates most of her time to teaching

children and adults about Judaism in a

humanistic light. Silvana returned recently

from a two year stay in Argentina. Now she

lives in Haifa and strongly believes in the

importance of coexistence and interaction between Jews and Arabs.

Ilana Kishko was born in Moscow, and immigrated

with her family to Israel at the age of six. She holds a

B.A in mass communication from Sapir Academic

College, and an M.A in community development

studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ilana works at a local NGO in Be'er Sheva that is

devoted to provide social and educational support

for new immigrants and coordinates an after school

club for children of asylum seekers in Arad. In

addition to her work Ilana has been working and

volunteering for many years at the third sector,

promoting human rights, Israeli-Palestinian conflict

resolution, animal protection etc. On the international level, Ilana interned for

two months at a local activist media organization, in Kathmandu, Nepal, and

then went on to volunteer at a small village in the Himalayas, helping to

establish a community bakery. Ilana is a proud mother to a two year old boy,

Amit.


Carolina Rios Mandel was born and

raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She had

the privilege to live in various countries,

including Switzerland, Brazil and the U.S

and currently resides in Israel.

Carolina holds a B.A. in Psychology and

International Studies from California State

University (Long Beach) and a Masters in

Social Work from Columbia University. She

had the opportunity to work with various populations in the U.S. and Israel,

including undocumented survivors of domestic violence, youth at risk,

refugees and asylum seekers. She currently works at Enosh in Jerusalem, an

organization that provides social rehabilitation services to people coping with

mental illness, where she serves as the Director of the Anat Art Center and as

the Coordinator of the English speaking social group. Carolina is passionate

about spirituality, social justice and the arts. She enjoys dancing, meditation,

listening to people's stories and reading good books in French.

Maya Norton is a nonprofit fundraiser

working on behalf of the Bedouin

community in Israel's Negev, Israeli-

Palestinian partnerships, and the

development of the periphery. She

strongly believes in the strength of the

Jewish community in Israel and

abroad. Born and raised in the United

States, Maya has been an activist for the

rights of indigenous peoples and

marginalized minorities, and youth

leadership and education. She firmly

believes in the values of volunteerism,

community service, and tikkun olam

(healing the world through service). Maya is the proud mother of two

boychiks, who attend the bilingual, multicultural school in Beer Sheva.


Matan Rosenstrauch has been working

with asylum seekers in the Israeli AIDS Task

force for the last two years, promoting for

health rights for the status-less living in

Israel. Matan was involved in some

programs of the Jewish Agency and

taught Hebrew in Rio de Janeiro. He was

also sent for a temporary job in Angola,

by the ministry of foreign affairs. Matan

has a B.A. in management and Jewish

history from Ben-Gurion University, and

today he is studying for his M.A. in

community development at Hebrew

University. Human Rights has always a subject close to his heart and, as a

peace activist involved in various educational programs, Matan does

whatever it takes to raise awareness for peace, coexistence and violations of

human rights.

Naama Weinberg was born and educated in

Rishon Le Zion and has been living in Jerusalem for

the last six years. She completed her degree in law

at Hebrew University, after which she interned in

the international law department at the Ministry of

Justice and was admitted to be a lawyer in

November 2014. She is now working on becoming

a teacher in high school so she can pursue her

passion which is educating teenagers. Naama

has been working as a facilitator in an

educational organization called Gesher leading

workshops on the topic of Jewish and Israeli

identity for youth and IDF soldiers. She has also

been volunteering at the Shnieder children hospital, a place she considers as

her second home. Naama loves hiking, travelling to new and interesting

places and learning about different cultures.

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