Board of Directors

Sharon Brick-Deshen is the CEO of Kolech – Religious Women’s Forum. Kolech is an Orthodox feminist organization that advances religious feminism, women’s leadership and equality in religious communities. She held a senior position at Aluma, an organization that helps young religious Zionist women during their IDF service. She was a board member of the Ramban Synagogue for a decade, working with R’ Benny Lau to integrate women in Orthodox synagogues.

Sharon has a BA in criminology and psychology, and an MA in organizational consulting, from Bar Ilan University. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and four daughters, and is passionate about systemic change that strengthens connections between diverse sectors in Israeli society.

Born and raised at the religious kibbutz and chose to live in Jerusalem, married to Or and mother to 3 kids and the manager of Hadar in Israel.

Orit holds a Bachelor’s Degree in psychology and Tanakh, a teaching certificate from Bar Ilan University, and a Master’s degree in nonprofit management from the Hebrew University. She is a graduate of the High Beit Midrash for Women in Migdal Oz. Orit has professional experience in development and management of social programs, development of partnerships and fundraising, as well as communication management and development of tools for evaluation and measurement in social organizations.

Shira is the director and founder of the Gesher Leadership Institute, which trains Israeli leaders to create connection and unity between different groups of the Jewish people in the State of Israel and in the Diaspora. Shira is responsible for all programs and staff at the institute, including leading delegations to Jewish communities in the Diaspora.

She is a Group facilitator and holds a master’s degree with honors in managing non-profit organizations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She also holds an International NLP Practitioner Certificate.  She coordinates the “Tevel Forum”, a forum for managers of leadership programs with delegations to the Diaspora.

Shira believes in the need to connect different people, from the perception that we are one people, one society and must be able to live together. She was born and raised in Jerusalem, and she has been a member of the “Rashut Ha’Rabim” forum since it was established. She is a social activist in the city, married and a mother of three sons and a daughter.

Rabbi Mass is one of the foremost leaders of the World Movement for Humanistic Secular Judaism. She is also the initiator and chairman of the Israeli network of activities “Secular Judaism” (https://www.israeli-judaism.org.il/), a forum for the activities of secular Judaism in Israel.  Rabbi Mass has served as dean of the International Institute for Secular Humanist Judaism “Tmura Israel”, the institute for training humanist secular leadership and rabbinate, since its establishment.

Michal Muszkat-Barkan is an Associate Professor of Jewish Education in the Parallel Track at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She is the Director of the Department of Education and Professional Development at the HUC-JIR Jerusalem campus. She heads the Rikma MA program in Pluralistic Jewish Education in partnership with the Melton Center for Jewish Education at Hebrew University. Michal is the founder and head of the “Teachers’ Lounge” in memory of Shira Banki , a professional development program for Arab and Jewish educators in Jerusalem. Her fields of research include professional development for teachers and rabbis. She is a teacher in ideologies and pluralism in Jewish education.