Board of Directors
Arnon Mantver
Founding Chairman
Arnon served as CEO of JDC Israel from 1995 to 2014. He was the director of the Immigration and Absorption Department at the Jewish Agency and involved in the historical immigration of Jews from the Soviet Union and Ethiopia.
In 1988 Arnon founded CIMI as part of the JDC in order to develop expertise in areas of immigration and absorption and to assist the Israeli government and non-governmental organizations involved. Arnon has an MA in Communications and a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Arnon Ikan
Co-Chair
Arnon Ikan currently serves as the director general of the Lavy Association - the Municipal Association for Education Development in Jerusalem. Arnon has many years of experience in a wide variety of senior management positions in the public, business and voluntary sectors. In the past, he has served as the CEO of ASHRA (the Israel Foreign Trade Risks Insurance Coorporation Ltd),Vice President of the Merhav Group, Senior Deputy Accountant General in the Ministry of Finance and numerous positions in the Accountant General Division at the Ministry of Finance. He is a Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.) and holds an MA in Economics and a BA in Economics & Accounting from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Danny Pins
Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Resource Recruitment Committee
Danny Pins has over 30 years' experience in the field of immigration. He played a key role in the evacuation ofEthiopian Jews and aided in the absorption of Jews from many countries (Buchara, Syria and Yemen) into Israeli society.Danny served as the Finance Director of the Jewish Agency's Immigration and Absorption Department and assisted in the establishment and strengthening of the Agency's representative office in Russia. He is a member of the board of directors of Israel’s Association of Community Centers and Hebrew University's Center for the Study of Philanthropy.
Shimon Zurieli
Member of the Labor migrants Committee
For many years, ShimonTzurieli worked for the Working Youth and the Jerusalem Workers' Council. After that, he served as secretary of the Histadrut in Jerusalem. Before retiring, Shimon was the CEO of ILAN - an Israeli association for injured children. He holds a BA from the Hebrew University in Education, Administration and History.
Tuvia Israeli
Co-chair, Asylum Seekers Committee
Born in Romania in 1955 to a family of Holocaust survivors, Tuvia immigrated to Israel in 1962. He joined the Israeli Foreign Service in 1978. Tuvia cultivated a diplomatic career of 38 years in which he focused on two major departments: The establishment of the Department of Human Rights in the Foreign Ministry and assimilation of the human rights component in the diplomatic work and in the Israeli government activity in general. A second major area was the strengthening of the Middle East peace process; diplomatic service in Egypt (1982-85) and heading the Jordan-Israel bilateral relations Department at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem (2004- 2009). Tuvia was leading the Middle East Regional Cooperation Department (2013-16). From 2009 to 2013, he served as Israeli ambassador to South Korea.
He graduated from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Dror Rotem
Co-chair, Research, Evaluation and Development Committee
Over a period of forty years Dror directed areas of planning, development, research, evaluation, and training mainly in the field of services for elderly at JDC Israel (The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) and Eshel (JDC-Eshel). In collaboration with government agencies and other organizations he led initiatives to develop innovative services such as prevention of Elder Abuse, Technological Literacy and Assistive Technology, Relieving loneliness among the elderly, Models of Integrated Care, Centers of consultation and information and more. Dror was also responsible for long-term planning.
Dror holds an MA in Social Work from the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and a BA in Sociology and Hebrew Literature, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a graduate of the Humphrey Fellowship Program sponsored by the US Department of State, and spent one year in Boston, Mass. in 1983/4
Born in Kiryat Haim, Dror was a member of Hashomer Hatzair youth movement and later a member of Kibbutz Revadim.
Haim Factor
Chairman, Finance Committee
Haim was born in Argentina and immigrated to Israel in 1971. He completed a bachelor's degree in economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his M.A. thesis was on the topic of the pension system of Israel.
Haim was Vice President of JDC-Israel from 1992-2020. During this period, he was head of the accounts division and was responsible for planning, supervising, and implementing the JDC-Israel budget. During August 2000-March 2001 he served as Acting CEO of JDC Israel.
Haim was on the Board of Directors of Eshel (Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Elderly in Israel), Ashalim (the Association for the Planning and Development of Services for Children and Adolescents at Risk and Their Families) and Tevet. He was a researcher at the Joint Brookdale Institute for Applied Social Research from 1974-1995 and served as the institute's deputy director. In addition he was involved in the planning and development of research programs in diverse social and economic fields.
Haim has acted as a professional advisor to a number of public committees and involved in constitutional parliamentary procedures. He also served as an advisor to the German Claims Committee and is now active in auditing committees for the Jewish organization for the restitution of property.
Yaacov Kabilou
Chairman, Care-giving Committee
Yaacov was born in Morocco in 1948 and came to Israel at the age of 13. He graduated from Aliyat Hanoar at the Kfar Hasidim Agricultural School in Haifa. In the Army he served in the Armored Corps and was a mental health officer in the reserve.
Yaacov is a graduate of the Department of Social Work and holds a master's degree in criminology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also has a diploma in Gerontology from College Park in Maryland, USA and is an Aging Specialist for the Israeli Gerontological Association. In the last forty years, Yaakov has opened many services for the elderly throughout the country as part of his work at the Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Elderly in Israel, Eshel-JDC Israel. He is currently the director of Idan, an association for community services for the elderly in Jerusalem.
Among his published works are also guidelines for planning and establishing a day center for the elderly, the guide to palliative care, treating people with dementia (From petting a kitten to hugging a puppy: a guide to activities with the elderly and animals).
Pini Avivi
Chairman, International Organizations Committee
Chairman, International Organizations Committee
Pini is president of the Israel Diplomacy Association. He is a retired ambassador who has served in a wide variety of positions in the Foreign Ministry, including Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Head of the Multilateral Affairs Division. He was Israeli Ambassador to Turkey, Chile and Colombia. Upon Pini's retirement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he lectured for several years at the Technion on security as a component of Israeli diplomacy and was a strategic advisor to companies on international business. Pini has several awards of excellence and honors from the governments of Chile, Colombia and Lithuania. Pini is a graduate of the Social Sciences in Economics and International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed a program for social policy and administration for senior executives from Elka College.
