Tikvah Overseas Student Institute

Rabbi Shlomo Brody

Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Brody is the executive director of the Halachic Organ Donor Society and was the founding director of the Tikvah Overseas Student Institute. A columnist for The Jerusalem Post since 2007, Brody previously served for a decade as a senior instructor at Yeshivat Hakotel and as a junior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Brody’s writings focus on making Jewish texts accessible to broader audiences while applying them to contemporary social and ethical dilemmas. His work has appeared in Mosaic, First Things, The Federalist, Tablet, Tzohar, The Forward, Hakirah, and other popular publications, and has been cited in Israeli Supreme Court decisions. His first book, A Guide to the Complex: Contemporary Halakhic Debates (Maggid), received a 2014 National Jewish Book Award. His next book, Judaism Confront War: Jewish Military Ethics for the 21st Century, will be published in 2023. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, he received rabbinic ordination from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, an MA in Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University, and his PhD from Bar Ilan University Law School, where he continues to serve as a post-doctoral fellow. Originally from Houston, Texas, Rabbi Brody now lives in Modi’in with his family.

Dr. Daniel Polisar

Shalem College

Daniel Polisar is the co-founder and executive vice president of Shalem College in Jerusalem, Israel’s first liberal arts college. He previously served as the president of the Shalem Center from 2002-2013 and also as its director of research, academic director, and editor-in-chief of its journal, Azure. From 2006 to 2009, he served as the founding chairman, within the Office of the Israeli Prime Minister, of the National Council for the Commemoration of the Legacy of Theodor Herzl. Dr. Polisar received his BA in politics from Princeton University and his PhD in government from Harvard University, where he was the recipient of Truman and Fulbright scholarships, as well as of a Mellon Fellowship. His research interests include Zionist history and thought, Israeli constitutional development, and the history and philosophy of higher education.

Rabbi Mitchell Rocklin

Rabbi Mitchell Rocklin serves as the president of the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty and is also a resident research fellow at the Tikvah Fund. He received his PhD in history from the CUNY Graduate Center, held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton University and Yeshiva University, and taught at both CUNY and Princeton. He is also a Chaplain in the Army National Guard with the rank of Major. Rabbi Rocklin has served as a member of the Rabbinical Council of America’s Executive Committee and Military Chaplaincy Committee, and as a congregational rabbi in Connecticut. His writings have appeared in a number of publications, including The Los Angeles Times, National Review Online, The Daily Wire, The Forward, The Public Discourse, and Mosaic.

Moshe Koppel

Kohelet Policy Forum

Moshe Koppel is a member of the department of Computer Science at Bar-Ilan University and serves as chairman of the Kohelet Policy Forum. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Courant Institute and did post-doctoral work in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.  Dr. Koppel’s main areas of research in computer science include machine learning and social choice theory. His work on authorship attribution is used widely in commercial, legal and security applications. Dr. Koppel has also published two books and many articles on Rabbinic literature, with special emphasis on logic and probability. He also co-founded and co-edited the journal Higayon, which is devoted to these topics.  Dr. Koppel’s political activity includes co-drafting two proposed constitutions for Israel, including a joint proposal with Michael Eitan, formerly chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution and Law committee. Several laws that Dr. Koppel drafted have been passed by the Knesset.

Yehoshua Pfeffer

The Tikvah Fund

Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer is head of the Haredi Israel division at the Tikvah Fund, running a variety of programs and projects that cater to members of the Haredi and Religious-Zionist communities. Pfeffer was born and educated in London before continuing his Torah education in Israel. He served as a Dayan (Rabbinical Judge) on a Jerusalem monetary court, as chief rabbi and moderator of an international Jewish-law website, and as chief editor of the Ner LeElef Resources program. He has written numerous books and articles on different subjects of Jewish law and thought; lectures extensively for various forums in Israel and abroad; and has taught at several Yeshivot in Israel, currently at Hedvat HaTorah. He has also served as chief halachic assistant to the former Chief Rabbi of Israel and as a researcher for the Israel Law Ministry. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree (summa cum laude) in law from Hebrew University, and clerked at the Supreme Court of Israel, also teaching at Hebrew University and the Herzlia Interdisciplinary Center. He attended the Tikvah Summer Fellowship program in 2012

Matti Friedman

Matti Friedman is an award-winning journalist and author. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Tablet, Smithsonian, and elsewhere.

Matti’s most recent book, Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, was published in 2022 in the US, Canada, Israel, and Italy. His previous book, Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel, won the 2019 Natan Prize and the Canadian Jewish Book Award. Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War was chosen in 2016 as a New York Times Notable Book and one of Amazon’s 10 best books of the year. His first book, The Aleppo Codex, won the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize and the ALA’s Sophie Brody Medal. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Matti was born in Toronto and lives in Jerusalem.

Haviv Gur

Haviv Gur is a veteran Israeli journalist who serves as senior analyst for The Times of Israel. He has covered Israel's politics, foreign policy and relationship with the Jewish diaspora since 2005. He has reported from over 20 countries and is fluent in Hebrew and English. He served as director of communications for the Jewish Agency for Israel, the country’s largest NGO.

Caroline Glick

Jerusalem Post

Caroline B. Glick is the senior contributing and chief columnist for the Jerusalem Post, and a senior columnist at Breitbart. She is also a senior columnist for Maariv. She is the author of The Israeli Solution: A One State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, (Crown 2014) and of Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad (Gefen 2008). The Israeli Solution was endorsed by leading US policymakers including Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Ted Cruz and National Security Advisor John Bolton. Shackled Warrior was endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former CIA director James Woolsey.

Ran Bar-Yoshafat

Attorney Ran Bar-Yoshafat is the Deputy Director of the Kohelet Policy Forum.

He has conducted numerous Israel advocacy speaking tours in the United States and Europe. He was the Project Manager of the Israeli Jewish Congress, worked for the Legal Department of the Knesset, directed the Jerusalem District of the EZ-Way Psychometric Company, and has instructed special classes for struggling minorities. Yoshafat has led groups of “MASA” young adult participants in Israel and has given lectures to a wide group of audiences on various matters relating to Israel and project building. Yoshafat was active with the Jewish Agency for Israel- the Zionist seminars and the Summer Delegates, with StandWithUs, WUJS, and other pro-Israel organizations. He was the CEO of Our space- a non profit that delas with the Jewish Identiy of “Hamerchav Shelanu” of the State of Israel.

Bar Yoshafat has published two books and his third is coming out this year. He speaks on TV channels including TRT, RT, I-24, and as a regular panelist on Israeli channel 14. Bar Yoshafat serves every year between 1-2 months in the army reserves in combat Special Forces.

Dr. Sharon Goldman

Dr. Sharon Goldman is a Vice President at Bar-Ilan University. Prior to making aliyah in the summer of 2018, she worked for AIPAC for 12 years and was an assistant professor of political science. She has written and published on the topics of Zionism, intersectionality and activism in Commentary, the Forward, and the Times of Israel.

Daniel Gordis

Shalem College

Dr. Daniel Gordis is Senior Vice President and Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College. The author of twelve books, Gordis is a regular columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Gordis’s history of Israel, Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn, received the 2016 National Jewish Book Award as “Book of the Year.” Ambassador Dennis Ross, reflecting on the book, wrote, “When I am asked ‘Is there one book to read about Israel?’ I now have an answer.” Gordis’s most recent book, We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel, was published in 2019. Dr. Gordis and his wife live in Jerusalem.