Leadership and Team
Elazar
Weiss
Roundtables Coordinator, Frieze Center for Shared Society.
He holds a Doctor of the Science of Law (J.S.D.) from Yale Law School. He is a graduate of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Law and the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program, where he also completed undergraduate studies in economics and philosophy. After his studies, he clerked at the Supreme Court of Israel and worked with organizations dedicated to advancing and deepening shared life in Israeli society. His research lies at the intersection of law, culture, and language, examining how these shape constitutional law and the constitutional imagination in divided societies, particularly Israel and the United States.
Prof. Uriel
Simonsohn
Prof. Uriel Simonsohn is Director of the Frieze Center for Shared Society, a historian of Islam, and a faculty member in the School of History at the University of Haifa. Alongside his leadership of the Frieze Center, he is the founding director of the Haifa Laboratory for Religious Studies (HLRS), an academic center that connects research, education, and public engagement around questions of religion, society, and politics. His research examines encounters among religious communities and the historical development of religious institutions, while his public work focuses on building partnerships among academia, public institutions, and civil-society organizations in order to advance shared society in diverse societies.
Dr. Ran
Kuttner
Dr. Ran Kuttner, Academic Director of the Frieze Center, is a senior faculty member and former head of the International Graduate Program in Peace and Conflict Management Studies at the University of Haifa. He teaches graduate-level courses in negotiation, mediation, dialogue, conflict-group facilitation, peacemaking models, intercultural conflict management, and leadership. He previously served as academic adviser to Givat Haviva, where he led partnership-building processes between Jewish and Arab local authorities and the development of regional mediation leadership. He also advises a wide range of organizations on consensus building, collaboration, and public participation. Before joining the University of Haifa, he was a senior lecturer in the graduate program in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Creighton University in the United States, and earlier spent three years as a research fellow with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard University. Among other projects, he participated in redesigning and teaching the mediation course at Harvard Law School. Dr. Kuttner is an experienced mediator and mediation trainer.
Dr. Assaf
Turgeman
Dr. Assaf Turgeman is a faculty member and Academic Director of the master’s programs in the School of Political Sciences. His research examines the influence of myths rooted in Jewish traditions on public discourse in Israel, with particular emphasis on conflict, polarization, and diversity in Israeli society. He served for several years on the faculty of the Mandel Center for Leadership in the North and teaches social leadership in academic settings.
aturgeman@poli.haifa.ac.il
Yarin
Rosen
Works in research and in the development of social-change projects. He has experience developing training programs and applied initiatives that connect academic knowledge with practice in the field.
Keren Paz
Koplovitz
Coordinator, Frieze Center for Shared Society.
A graduate of the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies, she comes from the fields of education and content development relating to Diaspora Jewry. She teaches Bible studies and is committed to building connections among different populations in Israeli society.
Academic Committee
Dr. David Barak-Gorodetsky
Dr. David Barak-Gorodetsky is a historian of American Jewry and the State of Israel, head of the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies at the University of Haifa, and director of the Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism. His research and public work examine the complex intersections of identity, religion, and politics in Israeli and global contexts. He also heads the Religious Leaders Program in Israel Studies and serves on the Academic Committee of the Frieze Center. In these roles, he leads academic and international initiatives that promote multicultural dialogue and interreligious understanding, based on the premise that rigorous academic research is essential to social resilience and sustained dialogue.
davidbarak1@gmail.com
Dr. Rachel Getz Salomon
Dr. Rachel Getz Salomon is Head of the Department of Fashion Design and University Curator at the University of Haifa. Trained as a designer, she holds a B.Des. from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Her doctoral dissertation was completed in the design track of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion and examines fashion, identity, and memory. A scholar of fashion and culture, her research addresses the clothed body, gender, religion, and social issues. She is a graduate of the Shaharit Institute’s “120 Program,” a Mandel Institute fellow in the Jewish Cultural Leadership Program, and a member of the executive board of the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum. She hosts a fashion podcast, writes and reviews for print and television media, and is an author, creator, and curator. Her book “To Go Somewhere Else” (Am Oved) received the Brenner Prize for Literature.
RGETZSALO@UNIV.HAIFA.AC.IL
Dr. Shai
Dror Tegner
Dr. Shai Dror Tegner is a historian of the State of Israel, researcher, writer, and group facilitator. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Haifa and a researcher at the Frieze Center for Shared Society and the Haifa Laboratory for Religious Studies. His research addresses national and group identities, polarization and partnership, dialogue in societies experiencing protracted conflict, migration and asylum, and the political imagination. It examines the conditions under which shared futures become thinkable and the ways in which collective perceptions, historical memories, and political and religious traditions shape relations among groups in Israeli society. Alongside his academic research, Dr. Tegner develops and facilitates processes of dialogue, communication, and group work in situations of disagreement and conflict. He leads initiatives bringing together scholars, public figures, and representatives from civil society, government, and philanthropy, and promotes collaboration across disciplines and communities. In parallel with his academic and public work, he also engages with Jungian psychology and its applications to understanding individual, group, and social processes.
stagner4@gmail.com
Dr. Lee
Cahaner
Dr. Lee Cahaner is a social geographer and senior lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Oranim Academic College of Education. She served as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the college until 2025, as Head of the Department of Geography from 2020 to 2022, and as Head of the Oranim Research Authority from 2018 to 2020. From 2011 to 2026, she was a research fellow in the “Ultra-Orthodox in Israel” research program at the Israel Democracy Institute. In 2018, during a sabbatical year, she was a visiting scholar at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University. Her research focuses primarily on the development of Haredi spatial patterns in Israel, as well as modern Haredi groups, Haredi women’s employment, higher education in Haredi society, and non-formal education. She has participated in government ministry planning and policy teams dealing with Haredi society, including the ministries responsible for housing, transportation, labor, and the economy. Her publications include “Modern Haredism: The Haredi Middle Class in Israel” (with Dr. Haim Zicherman, 2012), a guest-edited special issue of Democratic Culture on “Modern Haredism” (2017), “Haredi Society on the Axis between Conservatism and Modernity” (2020), and co-editorship of the annual “Statistical Report on Haredi Society in Israel” published by the Israel Democracy Institute (2016 – 2025).
lee_c@oranim.ac.il
Prof. Hagit
Lernau
Prof. Hagit Lernau joined the University of Haifa’s School of Criminology in 2023 after approximately seventeen years as Deputy National Public Defender. She currently heads the School of Criminology and leads a research forum on violent crime in Arab society in Israel.
She holds undergraduate degrees in philosophy (1992) and law (1997), as well as master’s and doctoral degrees in criminology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2003).
hlernau@univ.haifa.ac.il
Prof. Nohad
Ali
Prof. Nohad Ali heads the “Education for Equality and Fraternity” field and the “Arabs – Jews – State” Forum at the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research at the Technion. He is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the Western Galilee Academic College. His research areas include religious fundamentalism (Islamic and Jewish in Israel), majority – minority relations and Jewish – Arab relations in Israel, Arab-Palestinian women in Israel, Hebrew – Arabic bilingual education, higher education in Arab society, and violence and crime in Arab society in Israel. Prof. Ali has published dozens of articles in leading journals in his fields.
NohadA@wgalil.ac.il
Prof. Yuval
Feinstein
Prof. Yuval Feinstein is Associate Professor of Sociology and Vice Dean for Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Haifa. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a visiting professor in Harvard’s Department of Sociology. His comparative research focuses on nationalism, political emotions and attitudes, and interethnic relations. He is the author of “Rally ’round the Flag: The Search for Honor and Respect in Times of Crisis” (Oxford University Press, 2022), which received book awards from the Israel Political Science Association and the Chaikin Institute for Geostrategy. His work has appeared in leading journals including American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Science, and World Politics.
YFEINSTEI@UNIV.HAIFA.AC.IL
Prof. Haneen
Karawani-Khoury
Prof. Haneen Karawani-Khoury is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Haifa and Director of the AudioNeuro Lab. A speech-language pathologist and clinical audiologist, she completed her doctoral research on auditory training in adults and subsequently undertook postdoctoral training in neuroscience at the University of Maryland in the United States.
Her research examines the neural mechanisms underlying language and auditory processing and explores how multilingualism, hearing, and sensory challenges shape brain function and the brain’s capacity to change and adapt across the lifespan. Her work integrates approaches from neuroscience, hearing science, and language science in order to develop evidence-based interventions that promote optimal communication, healthy aging, and cognitive well-being.
As a multilingual researcher and a multilingual person herself, Prof. Karawani-Khoury views linguistic, cultural, and social diversity as a source of innovation and intellectual enrichment. She advances research that recognizes diversity as a resource and fosters inclusion across communities and cultures. She is a recipient of a prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Foundation research fellowship and actively promotes diversity, inclusion, and the representation of women in academia and leadership.
hkarawani@staff.haifa.ac.il
Prof. Merav
Roth
Prof. Merav Roth is a faculty member and Head of the Shati Ve-Erev Center for Context- and Culture-Sensitive Care at the School of Counseling, Human Development and Educational Leadership at the University of Haifa. She is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, an internationally recognized trauma expert, and an interdisciplinary scholar of culture. She has been among the leading figures involved in developing responses to the October 7 disaster, helping shape modes of assistance for survivors, the therapeutic community, and the wider public. She previously headed the Psychotherapy Program in the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. She leads three social-therapeutic organizations that she founded: “The Clinic for Everyone,” which provides at least one year of pro bono treatment to highly marginalized populations in Israel, including survivors of prostitution and people experiencing homelessness; FLM (First Line Med), which she founded and co-directs with two partners and which provides free long-term treatment to people affected by October 7 and their families and received an international award from the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA); and the Shati Ve-Erev Center, which focuses on training, research, and context- and culture-sensitive care. She has authored articles, chapters, and books on psychoanalysis and trauma, ethics, grief, literature, and related subjects, and is the recipient of the prestigious international Sigourney Award for groundbreaking psychoanalytic contributions in literature and trauma.
rothmerav@gmail.com
Prof. Avihu
Shoshana
Prof. Avihu Shoshana is a faculty member in the School of Counseling, Human Development and Educational Leadership, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa. His principal research areas include cross-cultural psychology; culture and concepts of the self; culturally responsive therapy and education; the psychology of inequality; and therapeutic experiences and therapist identities across diverse treatment contexts.
- Head, Department of Human Development
- Head, M.A. Program in Group Facilitation
- School of Counseling, Human Development and Educational Leadership
- Editor, Studies in Educational Administration and Organization
- Faculty of Education, University of Haifa
avihush@gmail.com
Dr. Keren
Sharvit
Dr. Keren Sharvit is a faculty member in the School of Psychological Sciences and also teaches in the International Graduate Program in Peace and Conflict Management Studies. She heads the Laboratory for Intergroup Conflict and Its Resolution, which examines the interaction between individuals’ psychological processes and their membership in a society engaged in conflict with other societies or groups, as well as ways of influencing these processes in order to mitigate or resolve conflict. Dr. Sharvit joined the University of Haifa faculty in 2010 as part of the establishment of the Peace and Conflict Management Studies program and served as its head from 2014 to 2021. Before joining the University, she completed postdoctoral training in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland and, prior to that, at the Swiss Center for Conflict Research, Management and Resolution at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
ksharvit@psy.haifa.ac.il