Yael Hess is the director of the Mandel Leadership Institute. A colonel in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reserves and a graduate of the Israel National Defense College, Yael served in key positions in the IDF Education Corps for many years. She commanded the Shaare Avraham training base, which trains the educational staff of all IDF units; she headed the Education Corps’ Culture Branch; and she commanded the IDF’s education system, which includes high-school completion courses, matriculation studies, preparation for enlistment, and the IDF’s Gadna bases, where future conscripts participate in week-long preparatory programs. In her last position in the IDF, Yael headed the Education Division of the IDF Chief Education Officer’s headquarters. In this combined educational and managerial position, she was responsible for defining the IDF’s educational approach; implementing the IDF’s spirit and values; and overseeing the work of the educational staffs of all IDF units, and the work of IDF hasbara (information) units throughout the country. She was also responsible for cultural activities for soldiers and for Holocaust education and commemoration throughout the IDF. From 2000 to 2003, Yael served as a community emissary of the Jewish Agency to North America and taught Hebrew in the department of Middle Eastern studies of the University of Arizona and at the Tucson Hebrew Academy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a master’s degree in national security studies from the University of Haifa. Yael is a graduate of the Mandel IDF Educational Leadership Program.
Efrat Aran is the director of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership. Before
joining Mandel, she was the deputy executive director and vice president of content
and development of Aluma, a non-profit organization, which encourages young adults to play productive, influential roles in Israeli society, while maintaining their own, unique identities, values, and ways of life. In this capacity, she developed and led programs and processes designed to reduce educational-social gaps and to
increase the social mobility of young people in Israeli society. These initiatives were conducted in partnership with the central and local government and with other
organizations and foundations. Prior to that, she was the head of the social mobility
program of the Rashi Foundation, where she worked on educational projects and
promoted policy issues. Efrat is a graduate of Cohort 21 of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership. Before embarking on her educational journey at Mandel, Efrat held senior managerial positions at Intel, both in Israel and abroad, where she worked for 17 years and gained experience in strategic thinking and policy making. Efrat holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and management from Tel Aviv University, and a master's degree in business administration from the Kellogg-Recanati Executive MBA Program at Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Ayal Shaul is the head of the Keshet Center for Professional and Continuing Education at Beit Berl College. Prior to this, he served as head of development and learning at the Avney Rosha Institute, where he founded the Institute’s professional development programs for school supervisors. Previously, Ayal was the Ministry of Education’s general supervisor of high school education in Tel Aviv-Yafo, responsible for implementing the Ministry’s policies as well as those of the city’s educational administration. He is also a former principal of the ORT Yad Singalovsky education center in Tel Aviv and of the Givat Gonen high school in Jerusalem. Ayal holds a bachelor’s degree from a multidisciplinary program for outstanding students of psychology, anthropology, and education, and a master’s degree in sociology and anthropology, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a doctorate from the Sorbonne Business School in Paris. Ayal is a graduate of Cohort 14 of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, where he is now responsible for the individual tutoring system and for mentoring the tutors, together with Dr. Raya Yoeli. He also serves as a personal tutor himself, and as a facilitator at fellows’ workshops.
Alan J. Berkley, a chartered accountant, is the chairman of the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens. Leading a dynamic team, Mr. Berkley’s active involvement has helped transform this vital Jerusalem asset financially and experientially, benefitting the citizens of Jerusalem, Israel and the world. Mr. Berkley was born in South Africa. He is a proud member of a family that, from generation to generation, understood the need to lead and to continue being involved in community work, including the City of David archaeological dig, the Russian and Ethiopian aliya to Israel, and various higher education scholarship programs. In 2022, Mr. Berkley joined the general assembly of the Jerusalem Foundation. He is an executive director and shareholders representative of the Yehuda Group of Companies in Israel and serves as director of various companies in Israel and abroad. He happily resides with his wife and children in the beautiful city of Jerusalem.
Rana Fahoum was appointed Director of the Center for Shared Society at the Shalom
Hartman Institute in May 2022. Prior to that, she was the CEO of the Jerusalem International
YMCA for a period of three years. Born in Nazareth, Rana lives in Jerusalem, where she
established a girls’ high school in East Jerusalem and was later appointed general supervisor of the Ministry of Education, responsible for elementary education in East Jerusalem. She has also taught English as a foreign language at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served as a research assistant. Rana is a member of the Israeli Council for Culture and the Arts and the acting chair of the Arab Culture Committee. She is also a member of the Board
of Directors of the Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem and of Lavi, the Municipal Association for the Development of Education in Jerusalem. Rana holds a master’s degree in English
linguistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a second master’s degree in political and public leadership from Tel Aviv University. Rana is married and the mother of three
children. She is a graduate of Cohort 21 of the Mandel School of Educational Leadership.
Michael Krasner is a musician and educator with an interest in expanding musical
education and making it available to all students. Today he is the Director of the Gonenim Music and Dance Center in the Gonenim Community Center in South
Jerusalem. In the past, Michael coordinated the music program at the Shevach Moffet High School in Tel-Aviv. He also directed and coordinated the music program in the Kinor David yeshiva high school for music. In cooperation with the Mateh Binyamin regional council, he cofounded "Playing in Binyamin," a program for
teaching music in small groups as part of the school curriculum that exposed more
than a thousand children to music through playing different instruments. In his
capacity as musical advisor, Michael developed a unique spiral model for researching
musical education in the third to sixth grades. In addition, he constructed a support
website for research papers, which contains much musical information. Michael holds a bachelor's degree in saxophone performance from the jazz program at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and a master's degree in musical education from Levinsky College of Education. Michael is a graduate of Cohort 24 of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership.
Ahmir Lerner is the executive director of Beit Issie Shapiro, a social start-up in the
field of disabilities. Beit Issie Shapiro’s mission is to drive social change by developing and providing innovative therapies and state-of-the-art services, researching these they are evidence based, and then scaling them, thereby impacting over half a million people annually in Israel and globally. Previously, Ahmir served as the manager of Education 2.0 implementation at Education Cities, where he worked to
introduce educational networks into schools and to drive substantial change in pedagogical processes in order to make them better suited to today’s information age. Prior to that, Ahmir served for 22 years at the Prime Minister’s Office. In his last position there, he directed the Leadership School and was responsible for the
development and implementation of training courses and individual mentoring of
managers at all levels. Ahmir holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics, and a master’s of business administration with a major
in finance from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. A graduate of Cohort 26 of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, Ahmir was born in the United States and moved to Israel at age 12. He is married to Irit and they have four children.
