2012- 2013
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Seminary Students Environment Project<br />
Yonatan Shefa, who holds one of our four rabbinical student/young rabbi positions, devoted part of his<br />
time in the second half of <strong>2012</strong> to facilitating groups of Jewish, Christian and Muslim seminary students<br />
who engaged in joint study about the overlap between human rights and the environment. This project<br />
comprises a series of intensive seminars that to date have focused on the subjects of water, the desert, and<br />
olive trees. The project is being run in partnership with the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development<br />
and will continue through <strong>2013</strong>.<br />
Emerging Religious Leaders Project<br />
In May <strong>2012</strong>, Yonatan Shefa also began co-facilitating a project that brings together emerging Palestinian<br />
and Israeli religious leadership to develop mutual understanding and trust, with the aim of creating<br />
collaborative projects promoting peace and human rights. This yearlong project is sponsored by Search<br />
for Common Ground and the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land.<br />
RHR in the News<br />
During <strong>2012</strong>, RHR continued to implement the strategic decision taken during 2010 to promote our unique<br />
voice to the Israeli public. After Yariv Mohar began to work as our spokesperson during 2011, RHR began to<br />
enjoy increased exposure in the Israeli media and diversified coverage in the internet media as well as in the<br />
more traditional print media, television, and radio during <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
In <strong>2012</strong>, RHR was mentioned in 149 media items, including three items on Channel 2, the leading and most<br />
selective television station in Israel; 17 items on Kol Israel, the leading Israeli radio network; 11 items on<br />
YNET, the country’s most popular internet news site and nine on MAKO, the internet site of Channel 2; as<br />
well as 30 items in Ha’aretz, which appeals to Israel’s elite and decision makers. In addition, we were cited<br />
numerous times in both the general and Jewish press abroad. RHR also contributed hundreds of op-eds to<br />
local newspapers and internet news sites.<br />
With the dedication and knowledge of Matti Shmueloff, our Social Media Director, our online presence has<br />
also increased. Our near daily posts on Facebook in English and Hebrew are widely and increasingly read<br />
and reposted. In the beginning of <strong>2012</strong> alone, 46,688 unique visitors accessed RHR’s Hebrew and English<br />
language websites; 30 percent are regular readers and follow our activities on an ongoing basis.<br />
During <strong>2012</strong>, our Communications Department also completed a video diary presenting the daily life and<br />
hardships of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl from the South Hebron Hills. The first two clips of this diary were<br />
launched at the end of December in an internet-based campaign designed to raise awareness of human rights<br />
abuses in this area. The diary seeks to reach the generally apathetic Israeli public: most Israelis are unaware of<br />
the existence of and hardships faced by the people of the South Hebron Hills. The story of this young woman<br />
will lend a human element to the issues in this area.<br />
Staff and Board<br />
RHR would like to thank Nico Sokolovsky, who left RHR’s staff after serving as the director of our Hadera<br />
office. Nico was one of the four rabbinical students/young rabbis whom we hired with a special grant.<br />
We wish him good luck in his rabbinical studies in the US. We also thank Shatil/New Israel Social Justice<br />
Fellow Moriel Rothberg for his contribution to RHR over the past year, as well as the outgoing Human<br />
Rights Yeshiva director, Rabbi Gideon Sylvester.<br />
In <strong>2012</strong>, RHR welcomed Advocate Miya Keren to RHR’s Legal Department; Rabbi Sigal Asher, as our<br />
new manager of the Hadera office; Rabbi Tlalit Shavit as co-coordinator of the Human Rights Beit<br />
Midrash in Jezreel Valley College; civilian service intern Aviv Nesher; Everett Fellow for Social Justice,<br />
Vicky Liderman; and volunteers Ilana Sabu, Maria Gavrilova and Katie Deutsch.<br />
Rabbis Susan Silverman and Michael Klein-Katz, Rabbi Professor Yehoyada Amir and rabbinical student<br />
Josh Weinberg all joined our Board in <strong>2012</strong>. Stepping down from our board this year were Rabbis<br />
Gil Nativ, Miri Gold, Galia Sadan, Yehoshua Engelman and Ehud Bandel, who has joined our Audit<br />
Committee. We welcome Rabbi Amy Klein back to our board.<br />
Contributors<br />
RHR’s work would not be possible without you. We value each and every one of you, regardless of the<br />
amount of your contribution. We are blessed with far more contributors than we can possibly list here. The list<br />
that follows acknowledges contributions of $360 or more received between November 2011 and December<br />
<strong>2012</strong> If we have inadvertently omitted your name, please let us know and we will correct it in future copies<br />
of the report.<br />
Osei Tesdakha,<br />
$5,000 +<br />
The Ada G. and Stanley I.<br />
Halbreich Foundation<br />
AECID<br />
Alan Sussman<br />
Alexander S. Preker<br />
Alfred Bader<br />
Anonymous<br />
Caritus Belgium<br />
Church of Sweden<br />
European Commission<br />
Firedoll Foundation<br />
Foundation for Middle East<br />
Peace<br />
George and Bella Savran<br />
Google Matching Gifts Program<br />
Human Rights Defenders Fund<br />
Iris O’Brien Foundation<br />
The Social Justice Fund<br />
Karl Kahane Foundation<br />
Kerk in Actie<br />
Liberal Judaism- The Montagu<br />
Center<br />
Lois Q. Whitman<br />
Lois and Richard England<br />
Foundation<br />
Luis Lainer<br />
Michael J. Hirschhorn<br />
Michael Ratner<br />
Misereor<br />
The Moriah Fund<br />
New Israel Fund<br />
NGO Development Center<br />
Norwegian Church<br />
Overseas Resources<br />
Foundation Ltd.<br />
Quail Roost Foundation<br />
Robert L and Edith Zinn<br />
The Samuels Foundation<br />
Topol Family Fund<br />
Sparkplug Foundation<br />
Stein Sharpe Family Fund<br />
Tal Pritzker<br />
Tom and Gail Kaneb<br />
Trocaire<br />
Vivian and Paul Olum<br />
Charitable Foundation<br />
Winograd-Hunter Fund<br />
Shomrei Mishpat,<br />
$1,000-$4,999<br />
Almoney Fund<br />
Amcha For Tsedakah<br />
Rabbi Amy E. Eilberg<br />
Rabbi Amy Schwartzman<br />
Rabbi Andrea C. London<br />
Asia Connection, Inc.<br />
Barbara Dobkin<br />
Rabbi Barbara J. Zacky<br />
Susan & Benjamin Baxt<br />
Beth El Synagogue, St. Louis<br />
Park, MN<br />
Bureau of Jewish Education<br />
Catherine S. England<br />
Rabbi Charles M. Feinberg<br />
Coggeshall Restoration, Inc<br />
Congregation Beth El of Sudbury,<br />
MA<br />
Craig M. Oettinger<br />
Daniel Bogard<br />
David Smiley<br />
David Berkal<br />
Rabbi David Stern<br />
Rabbi David A. Teutsch<br />
David and Rabbi Jacqueline<br />
Koch Ellenson<br />
Edward Witten<br />
Eleanor Friedman<br />
Elizabeth Lehman and Ruben<br />
Kraiem<br />
Ellen Grobman<br />
Rabbi Ellen Lippmann<br />
Rabbi Elliott Tepperman<br />
Rabbi Elyse D. Frishman<br />
Enid Shapiro<br />
Evely L. Shlensky<br />
Freeman Family Foundation<br />
Gail Tomberg<br />
Glickenhaus Foundation<br />
Google Matching Gifts<br />
Program<br />
Rabbi Gordon Tucker<br />
Harriet & Richard Orkand<br />
Family Educational &<br />
Charitable Fdn<br />
Howard J. Wial<br />
Daniel Rice and Ilise S.<br />
Cohen<br />
Rabbi Isaac D. Serotta<br />
Jeanne Blaustein<br />
Jeffrey Justin<br />
Dr. Jeremiah P. and Alicia<br />
Ostriker<br />
Joan M. Karlin<br />
Rabbi Joel Sisenwine<br />
Rabbi Jonathan Kligler<br />
Rabbi John L. Rosove<br />
Rabbi Jonathan P. Slater<br />
Rabbi Joseph Wolf<br />
Joshua Newman<br />
Judith A. Jarashow<br />
Judith Orloff<br />
Judith Scheuer & Joseph<br />
Mellicker<br />
Jules Bernstein<br />
Rabbi Kenneth M. Chasen<br />
Kit Colbert<br />
RHR <strong>2013</strong> 32<br />
33 RHR <strong>2013</strong>
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