Team
Meet our team
Dear Prospective Participants and Parents,
If you had an entire year to do anything you wanted, what would you do?
Perhaps you’d travel. Maybe you’d learn a new skill. You’d probably welcome the chance to meet interesting people, to experience things you’ve never tried before, to reduce the stress and pressures of today’s world.
This is exactly what awaits you on Aardvark Israel.
No one ever regrets having taken a gap year, but plenty of people regret not having taken one. The world is your classroom and spending a year abroad opens the door to personal growth, developing independence, defining your values, and figuring out who you are as an adult. With Israel as the unique landscape for this adventure, you will explore how you fit into the larger Jewish Community and connect with Israeli society as well.
Within Aardvark Israel, we pride ourselves on providing students with individualized attention, opportunities, and guidance. Each student will discover a year filled with challenges, fun, fascination, learning, volunteering, self-discovery, maturity, and joy. Parents will find a partner in their child’s development and our staff will take care of your children as if they were our own. At the end of the program, students will return home more mature, better prepared to cope with the challenges of university life, and more dedicated to the future of the Jewish People and the State of Israel.
We look forward to working together with each of you on this incredible journey.
Sincerely,
Debbie Goldsmith
Leadership
Debbie Goldsmith
Executive Director
Co-Founder
Debbie has worked in the field of Jewish and Zionist education for almost 30 years. In honor of International Women’s Day 2021, she was recognized as one of Masa’s Inspiring 12 Jewish Women Working to Make a Difference. Debbie grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and after spending her gap year in Israel on USY’s Nativ program, she completed her BA at Columbia University in Religion and at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Talmud. She also earned an MA in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Prior to co-founding Aardvark Israel, she was the Assistant Director of Young Judaea/FZY Year Course in Israel. Debbie lives in Yishuv Alon with her three children. Her oldest is currently serving in the Israeli army after having taken a gap year and her middle child is exploring gap year programs for next year.
Simon Cohen
Director of Innovation and Admissions
Co-Founder
Moshe Levi
Director of Education
Yifat Nadler
Program Director
Staff
Rachel Tessema
Tel Aviv Community Manager
Lee Naftali
Tel Aviv Community Manager
Allison Hartman
Parent Liaison
Rabbi Liad Braude
Jewish Life Coordinator, Parent Liaison
Shabtai Pessin
Special Programs Coordinator
Anna Vengerovski
Internships Coordinator
Zach Freund
Internships Coordinator
Carolyn Reiffman
Registrar and Admissions Assistant
Revital Rahmani
Admissions Coordinator
Liat Warszawski
Admissions Coordinator
Emma Flanders
Admissions Coordinator
Grace Silverstein
Admissions Coordinator
Dan Katsman
Marketing and PR Coordinator
Nick Lees
Communications Coordinator
Ofir Dagan
Logistics Coordinator
Etai Gil
Logistics Coordinator
Educators
Matthew Lipman
Jordana Schiff
Rabbi Liad Braude
Moshe Levi
Jay Rosen
Jay Rosen ,originally from Washington, DC, Jay Rosen is the founder of Ḥayyati, a cross-cultural communications consultancy to better prepare local talent for international exposure and investment while empowering them with the tailor-made skills needed to become their own best salespeople. A trained mediator since high school, Jay previously served as the director of an international graduate degree on conflict resolution; the CEO of an international public relations agency and COO of its media parent company; and several other professional leadership positions to promote a nuanced and accessible understanding of Israel and the Middle East.
Jay has founded several award-winning social venture projects including The Here & There Club, a series of salon gatherings for fellow immigrants and internationals to discuss current events and promote civic involvement, and Sheik It Up, promoting a better awareness of the Middle East through food edutainment. Additionally, Jay volunteers to teach practically-minded Hebrew to new immigrants.
Avi Mandel
Yehonatan (Hona) Dodge
Maya Glaser
Sapir Agagani
Sapir was born and raised in Tel Aviv. At the young age of 16, she delved into the world of meditation, and it was on a transformative journey across Asia after completing her military service that she discovered her love for yoga. Certified as a vinyasa yoga teacher under the guidance of Ashley Sunshine School and specializing in yoga for women with Hadas Perry, she’s honed her skills with various teachers both in Israel and beyond. Now settled in Israel with her husband, Gal, and their two wonderful children, she holds an art degree and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in art therapy. As she aptly puts it, “Yoga is known to almost everyone as a philosophy or a way, but only a few know that yoga is also an art” (BKS Iyengar, The Yoga Tree).