Members – Federal Forum

Steering Committee

Welcome to our members page. Please note some Palestinians involved in the project are not listed here as they prefer to remain anonymous.

Emanuel Shahaf

Founder and co-chair of the Federation Movement. Aeronautical Engineer by training, retired senior official in the Prime Minister‘s Office, political and social activist since 2003, since 2014 promotes a Jewish-Palestinian federation to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Vice Chairman, Israel Indonesia Chamber of Commerce; Vice Chairman, Israeli-German Society

Elias N. J. Baboun

Elias Nasri Jadallah Baboun, Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem. He holds an Intermediate Diploma in Industrial Electronics from the United States of America. He worked as a teacher for 40 years. He established and held the position of President and CEO of the Association of Vocational Education and Training Institutions. He founded YEDF-NGO at Bethlehem and holds the CEO position. He is the founder and member of the Central Committee of the Collective of Independent Palestinian Personalities and Deputy Secretary-General in the West Bank. Elias is a member of the Federal Forum and he present his own Federal Plan: The United States of Jerusalem

Email:elias.baboun@gmail.com

Phone:+972 52-421-4885

Yehuda Alain Schwartz

Yehuda Schwartz, Born in Paris, France, Israeli for 35 years, Yehuda lives in Jerusalem.

Former hospital pharmacist, doctorant in Religion Sciences, a long time peace activist, he has been a Field Officer for Rabbis for Human Rights.

He now devotes his time to his two young sons, to conflict resolution and rabbinical studies.

Kamal Nawash

Yoel Oz

Yoel Oz is the co-founder of the Abrahamic Movement and the author of “Abrahamic Federation: A Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” He served as an Orthodox rabbi and educator in the Washington, DC metro area for five years. He studied at Cornell and Yeshiva Universities and Yeshivat Hamivtar and Yeshivat Rabbenu Yitzchak Elchanan. He currently resides with his wife and daughter in a suburb of Tel Aviv.

Email:yoel@abrahamic.org

Rafi Gassel

Rafi is a biotechnology professional living in Jerusalem with his wife and three children. Rafi immigrated to Israel from the USA following his studies in computer science and biology. He now manages a biotechnology business in the field of genetic sequencing located in Jerusalem.

Rafi is also a peace activist in the Israel-Palestine space promoting federalism and the idea of mutual recognition of indigenous rights.

Email:rtgassel@hotmail.com

Phone:+972-54-806-1222

Dr. Warda Sada

Dr. Warda Saada – Chemist and Educator, peace activist for numerous Israeli and global organizations, including leading roles in the Forum of Peace Organizations, and Israelis and Palestinians for Peace. Awarded the title of World Peace Ambassador at a 2023 conference held in Korea, on behalf of a global women’s organization with representatives from 138 countries all over the world.

Gideon Elazar

Gideon Elazar is a lecturer in Bar Ilan University and a researcher in the Ariel University Eastern Research and Development Authority. His research interests include religion, ethnicity and identity in contemporary China and Israel. A student of the late Rabbi Menachem Fruman and resident of Tekoa, Gideon is a founding member of the Roots Initiative, engaged in dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians residents in the Gush Ezion region and has been involved in religious dialogue between Muslims and Jews for over a decade.

Email:lazarustsfat@gmail.com

Phone:+972-54-2589868

International Members

Rebecca Sealfon

Rebecca Sealfon is the founder of Unity is Strength, a U.S. 501(c)(3) fiscally sponsored nonprofit focused on promoting cooperation in areas of shared interest between Israelis and Palestinians. Unity is Strength operates some of the Internet’s premier Israel-Palestine discussion forums, which have more than 6 million views to date. Rebecca is a former Google software engineer and a RecruitLoop Top 50 female NYC full-stack software engineer. She also has bylines in the New York Daily News, Smithsonian magazine, the Daily Beast, and Jewish Journal. Rebecca is Reconstructionist Jewish and is based in the New York City area.

Jacob Chereskin

Jacob Chereskin currently lives with his family in Washington D.C. As an observant Jew and lifelong Zionist, he has dedicated much of his career and free time to advocate for Israel and the Jewish people.

He believes the key to solving the conflict is a solution that honors the respective desires of the Jewish and Palestinian people for statehood as well as the insurance of equal rights between the river and the sea.

Nina Judith Katz

Nina Judith Katz is a writer, editor, lexicographer, and herbalist, among other professions, and also a mother. Originally from New York, Nina studied in Jerusalem/al-Quds in 1987-88 on a Fulbright scholarship and appreciated the opportunity to listen to people in the region with a wide range of viewpoints. Much of Nina’s editorial work is academic, with a focus on the social sciences.

Leonid S. Blickstein (1957-2019) was a historian, philosopher, teacher, and father. His primary academic interests were in European intellectual history and world history. He lived in Moscow until 1990, when he joined Nina in Ithaca, NY before they moved together to the Boston area. Most recently, he taught at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and at Boston College.

Leonid conceived the beginning of this plan and he and Nina continued developing it together, with input from a wide variety of conversation partners.

Challenge Team

Mario Schejtman

Founded Challenge. Has extensive experience in managing organizations and projects in civil society and the academy. He holds a master’s degree in political science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has been trained in a variety of methodological tools, combining different approaches and perspectives in his work.

Email:mario@challenge.com.il

Phil Saunders

Phil is a London Jew who now resides in Tzur Hadassah. He is chairman of Challenge, Israeli chairman of Path of Hope and Peace, co-founder of the Abrahamic Movement, and co-founder of the Federal Forum.

Email:Phil@challenge.org.il

Dora Bender

Dora is a political and social activist. She is Israeli-American and today lives in Rishon Le-Zion. She has a business degree and a strong background in Marketing & Communication. She was self-employed for many years managed a Marketing & Promotion company. Today she is the Director of Marketing & Communications at “Challenge”

Email:dora@challenge.org.il

Tel::+972-54-8912228

Sharon Gordon

Studied economics and German history in Israel and Germany and holds a doctorate in history from the Hebrew University. Engaged for many years in initiating and producing events at various academic institutions. Founder and director of “Rama – Network of Humanities and Social Sciences”.

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Steering Committee

International Members

Challenge Team

Be Part of the Change!

+972 54 5992301

info@challenge.org.il