Age: 29
Residence: Tel-Aviv
Occupation: Accountancy
Family & Childhood: I was born on a Kibutz but at the age of seven moved to a Moshav (cooperative settlement) called Karmey Yossef. I have five brothers and sisters including a twin brother. My father’s family is originally from Germany but he was born in Israel on a Kibutz. My mother’s family is originally from Iraq but she was also born in Israel
Studies and work: I studied accountancy and economics at the Ben-Gurion University in the Negev and am currently doing an MBA at Tel-Aviv University and working in a successful company for strategic business consultancy.
Sport: during my childhood I played competitive basketball. Since then, I play regularly but only for fun basketball, volleyball, squash, kite-surfing and gym.
Politics & the “other side”: As a child I was involved in the youth movement “Young Maccabi” (that also do the Jewish world sport championships), was send by them to the Jewish communities of Slovenia and Italy, and today I still help them as an advisor.
As a young adult, I was sent as a representative from the Jewish Agency to accompany a Jewish summer camp in the USA.
In the army I was in an elite combat unit in different positions. I “met” the other side only through the army “lenses” – I was part of many operations, including “Homat-Magen” in 2002 in Jenin. However I don’t have any personal acquaintance with Palestinians outside my army service.
Unfortunately I also suffered personally from the conflict as I lost a family member in a terror attack. In this project, as I first meet Palestinians, I now find myself contemplating this family trauma, wondering what hard life situations the Palestinians have been through like me, and how we will be able to deal with all these sensitive issues.
