Shari Redstone, a highly accomplished media industry executive and philanthropist, is Chief Executive Officer of the Redstone Family Foundation, which develops wide-ranging programs to fight antisemitism and racism and promote civic and moral leadership. In this role as well as in serving as the longtime Chair of Paramount Global, Ms. Redstone has been a driving force in efforts to inform and educate audiences through highly compelling content and forums and developing multicultural programs for children, youth, and families.

A cornerstone of Ms. Redstone’s philanthropy is working with educational leaders and other highly experienced partners to create programs designed to build bridges and find common ground through dialogue, storytelling, and collective action. In the wake of October 7th, Ms. Redstone has redoubled her work to spread the message that we all must do all we can to stand up to terror, antisemitism, and hate.

Ms. Redstone, who has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and has appeared on Forbes’ Power Women and Fortune’s Most Powerful Women’s lists among others, is a recipient of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award and the American Friends of the Rabin Medical Center’s Yitzhak Rabin Entertainment & Media Leadership Award. Ms. Redstone earned a BS from Tufts University and a JD and a Masters in Tax Law from Boston University.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY-15) is a fighter from the Bronx who has spent his entire life working for the community he calls home. Like many in the Bronx, poverty and struggle have never been abstractions to him. At 25, Ritchie became NYC’s youngest elected official and the first openly LBGTQ person elected in the Bronx. He is a member of the Committee on Financial Services and the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

Hon. Elliott Abrams is the chairman of Tikvah, as well as chairman of the Vandenberg Coalition and senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He served as special assistant to the president and NSC senior director for the Near East and North Africa in the first term of George W. Bush, and as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the second term. In the Trump administration, he served in the State Department as special representative for Iran and for Venezuela. He is the author of Undue Process (1993), Security and Sacrifice (1995), Faith or Fear (1997), and Tested by Zion (2013), and writes widely on U.S. foreign policy, with special focus on the Middle East and the issues of democracy and human rights. His most recent book is Realism and Democracy: American Foreign Policy After the Arab Spring (2017).

Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik is the senior rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. He is also director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Soloveichik has lectured internationally to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on topics relating to faith in America, the Hebraic roots of the American founding, Jewish theology, bioethics, wartime ethics, Jewish-Christian relations, and more. He writes a monthly column in Commentary magazine, and his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Mosaic, First Things, Azure, Tradition, the Jewish Review of Books, and many other outlets. Rabbi Soloveichik is a descendant of one of the Jewish world’s great rabbinic dynasties. He graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva University, received his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and studied at its Beren Kollel Elyon. He has also studied at Yale Divinity School, and in 2010 received his doctorate in religion from Princeton University.

Ross Douthat is an opinion columnist for the New York Times and a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. A prolific writer, Mr. Douthat has written for The Atlantic and National Review and has been published widely in the popular press. He is the author of five books: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success (Simon & Schuster, 2020); To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism (Simon & Schuster, 2018); Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (Simon & Schuster, 2012); Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream (Doubleday, 2008), which he coauthored with Reihan Salam; and Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (Hyperion Books, 2005). He has a BA in history from Harvard University.

Kassy Akiva is a reporter and video journalist for The Daily Wire. She joined the team in October 2023 and specializes in multimedia reporting and video journalism, covering a wide variety of topics including culture, politics, policy and foreign affairs. Before joining Digital Originals, Kassy was a reporter for Fox News Digital where she created hundreds of video reports. Kassy was also the U.S. news editor for Jewish News Syndicate. Kassy was the director of digital engagement for Ambassador Nikki Haley’s Stand for America. While a college student, Kassy founded Lone Conservative, a group blog that assists students in launching careers in media. Kassy is a Tikvah Krauthammer Fellowship alumna and holds an MPP from the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy specializing in American politics and international relations.

Tamara Berens is the co-director of the Krauthammer Fellowship, the director of Young Professionals programs at Tikvah, and a contributor at Mosaic. She graduated from King’s College London with a BA in War Studies. Tamara worked for CAMERA and conducted research at think-tanks in Westminster, England, and Washington, DC, before beginning one of the inaugural Krauthammer Fellowships, then at Mosaic. Tamara’s writing has appeared in publications in the US, UK, and Israel such as National Review and The Weekly Standard and she has been interviewed by the Telegraph and Makor Rishon.

Jordan Bryk is a Managing Director at Elliott Management focused on Private Credit. Prior to Elliott, Mr. Bryk was a Managing Director at Marathon Asset Management, a Principal at Centerview Partners and an Associate at Weil Gotshal. He received a JD/MBA degree from Columbia University in 2011 and was recognized in Private Debt Investor’s list of Rising Stars in 2022.

Eric Cohen has been the Executive Director of the Tikvah Fund since 2007.  He was the founder and remains editor-at-large of the New Atlantis, and he serves as the publisher of Mosaic. Mr. Cohen has published in numerous academic and popular journals, magazines, and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Weekly Standard, Commentary, The New Republic, First Things, and numerous others. He is the author of In the Shadow of Progress: Being Human in the Age of Technology (2008) and co-editor of The Future is Now: America Confronts the New Genetics (2002). He was previously managing editor of the Public Interest and served as a senior consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics. Mr. Cohen currently serves on the board of directors of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Witherspoon Institute, and National Affairs and on the Editorial Advisory Board of First Things.

Michael Doran is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at Hudson Institute. He specializes in Middle East security issues and co-hosts the Counterbalance podcast. In the administration of President George W. Bush, he served in the White House as a senior director in the National Security Council as well as a senior advisor in the State Department and a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Pentagon. He was previously a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and held teaching positions at New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Central Florida. He is the author of several books—most recently, Ike’s Gamble— and has published extensively in Foreign Affairs, the American Interest, Commentary, Mosaic, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

Dore Feith is a third-year student at Columbia Law School, where he is a Federalist Society board member, an editor on the Columbia Business Law Review, and a student fellow in the law school’s National Security Law Program. Dore has been a summer associate in a private law firm in Washington, D.C., and an intern at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Before law school, from 2019-2020, Dore served as a special assistant to the deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Dore has published in the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, RealClearWorld and elsewhere, speaks Hebrew and Arabic, and graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University with a B.A. in History. After graduation, Dore will clerk for Judge John Cronan on the Southern District of New York and Judge Steven Menashi on the Second Circuit.

Hannah Garces is the Associate Director of Generation Zion. Born, raised, and based in New Jersey, Hannah holds a BA in History and Jewish Studies from Rutgers University as well as an MA in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Since her first trip to Israel in college, a piece of her heart remains in the land. It’s that passion that drives her in standing up for Israel and against antisemitism. Prior to joining the team at the Philos Project, Hannah worked in the Israel advocacy space with StandWithUs for six years. She also has a background in event planning in the nonprofit space and weddings. In her spare time, Hannah enjoys spending time with her family and friends, traveling, going on runs, and cuddling up with a good book.

Jake Greenspan is CEO of Skolay, a startup which connects writers and readers for 1:1 conversations. Previously, Jake received a Fulbright scholarship to Greece, developed humanities curricula for the Tikvah Fund, taught pre-college philosophy on the South Side of Chicago, and wrote about the aims and limits of liberal learning. On the side, Jake is helping produce a documentary about the post-war prosecution of Nazis, as well as a musical about DC. He also advises several experimental education ventures. Jake studied Fundamentals at the University of Chicago, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Student Marshal.

Abe Greenwald is Executive Editor of Commentary. He has contributed to The Free Press, Wall Street Journal, and New York Post on a wide range of topics including political and cultural analysis. You can listen to him daily on The Commentary Magazine Podcast.

Rabbi Mark Gottlieb is chief education officer of Tikvah and founding dean of the Tikvah Scholars Program. Prior to joining Tikvah, Rabbi Gottlieb served as head of school at Yeshiva University High School for Boys and principal of the Maimonides School in Brookline, MA, and has taught at The Frisch School, Ida Crown Jewish Academy, Hebrew Theological College, Loyola University in Chicago, and the University of Chicago. He received his BA from Yeshiva College, rabbinical ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, where his doctoral studies focused on the moral and political thought of Alasdair MacIntyre. Rabbi Gottlieb’s work has been featured twice in the Wall Street Journal and his writing has appeared in First Things, Public Discourse, SEVEN: An Anglo-American Literary Review, The University Bookman, Tradition Online, the Algemeiner, From Within the Tent: Essays on the Weekly Parsha from Rabbis and Professors of Yeshiva University, and, most recently, Strauss, Spinoza & Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith. He is a trustee of the Hildebrand Project and serves on the Editorial Committee of Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought. He lives in Teaneck, NJ, with his wife and family.

Talia Katz is an aide to U.S. Senator Dave McCormick. Originally from Atlanta, she holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in public policy and international studies. She has worked at AIPAC, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and completed a two-year fellowship program with the Public Interest Fellowship. As a Tikvah Beren Summer Fellow (2019), Talia consulted various commentators, lawyers, policy analysts, and diplomats to create a policy memo for Senator Tom Cotton regarding next steps for the U.S.-Israel relationship. Prior to joining Senator McCormick’s office, Talia was Operations Director and Jewish Outreach Director for his 2024 campaign in Pennsylvania.

Rabbi Ari Lamm is Co-Founder and President of SoulShop Studios, a new media venture for faith-driven Gen Z audiences, and Chief Executive of the Bnai Zion Foundation. He is s a leading Jewish public intellectual using digital media to bring great Jewish ideas to the wider English-speaking public. He is the host of the top-ranked weekly podcast on the Bible and society, Good Faith Effort. And his popular Twitter threads on “Why Read the Bible in Hebrew?” have garnered over 4 million views to date, and been covered by major international news outlets. For his leadership in the world of Jewish ideas, The Jerusalem Post recently ranked him #38 on its list of the world’s 50 Most Influential Jews. Rabbi Lamm earned his rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and his PhD in Religion from Princeton University. He received his Master’s in Judaism and Eastern Christianity from University College London via a Fulbright Scholarship. His writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Tablet Magazine, SAPIR Journal and The Jerusalem Post.

Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Previously, he was senior foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Aaron served on active duty as a U.S. Marine for seven years, deploying to Afghanistan as an infantry officer in 2009–2010. Following his time in the operating forces, he was assigned to the faculty of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was the 2013 recipient of the Apgar Award for Excellence in Teaching. Aaron received a B.A. in philosophy and the history of math and science from St. John’s College, Annapolis, and an M.Phil. (Dist.) in medieval Arabic thought from the University of Oxford. He has been a Boren Scholar and a Marshall Scholar and lives in Virginia, where he was born.

Jonathan Mack is Manager of Campus Initiatives at Tikvah and an alumnus of numerous Tikvah fellowships and programs. Previously, he worked as a corporate strategy analyst at a Fortune 500 company, where he focused on the financial impact of federal value-based care and home healthcare policy. Jonathan holds a BA in Middle Eastern Studies from Washington University in St. Louis and studied at Yeshivat Eretz HaTzvi and Yeshivat Har Etzion.

Hon. Steven Menashi was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on November 14, 2019. Previously, he served as special assistant and associate counsel to the President in the White House and as acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education. He was assistant professor of law at Scalia Law School, George Mason University, where he taught administrative law and civil procedure, and a research fellow at New York University School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center. He was also a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York, where he practiced appellate and commercial litigation, and served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge Douglas Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He graduated from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as senior articles editor of the Stanford Law Review, and from Dartmouth College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Oren Poleg is the Founder and President of Cedar Strategies, an international strategic business consulting company that advises and advocates for clients in a diverse range of industries. Poleg helps clients navigate the complexities of the business, political and regulatory landscape to achieve and exceed their business goals. He provides smart, nuanced and effective strategic guidance and tactical support to challenging problems.
 
Poleg was previously the President & CEO of Israel Aerospace Industry (IAI) North America, the U.S. subsidiary of Israel’s largest defense company. He directed the company’s business in North America and brought his strategic vision to the government relations and business operations of the company and its U.S. subsidiaries. Poleg cultivates nuanced and effective communication and robust industry partnerships in the U.S. aerospace, government and commercial sectors. He embodies the cultural intersections among the global business and defense communities. His strength lies in identifying and creating synergies with potential acquisition targets, boosting sales and product portfolios in the U.S., and promoting North American procurement of strategic products, capabilities and technologies.
 
Prior to leading IAI North America, Poleg served as Vice President for Strategy & Business Development at Rafael USA, where he strengthened the company’s foothold as a foreign defense contractor in the U.S. market and led projects that resulted in multiple historic captures. Before that, he worked for a decade optimizing complex business processes for large private-sector and government organizations.
 
Poleg served for six years as an Executive Naval Officer in the Israel Defense Forces and for eight years in the Israel Diplomatic Corps. Poleg holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland.

Simone Rizkallah is the Director of Philos Catholic at The Philos Project. As a first-generation American of Egyptian-Armenian descent, Simone has a particular interest in matters of religious freedom, culture, and the Eastern roots of the Faith. Her graduate degree is in Theological Studies from Christendom College. Her undergraduate studies and professional background include marketing communications, media, radio, and theatre. She is a frequent guest on Catholic Answers Live and a faculty member of the Avila Institute.

Reihan Salam is the fifth president of the Manhattan Institute, a research and advocacy organization that advances opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in America and its great cities. Before joining MI in 2019, Mr. Salam served as the executive editor of National Review. Mr. Salam previously worked for The New York Times op-ed page and NBC News. He was a 2010 Bernard L. Schwarz Fellow at the New America Foundation and a 2015 Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago, and in 2017, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader.

Jonathan Schatz-Mizrahi is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Judaic Studies at NYU, where he studies the intersection of modern Jewish thought and political philosophy. Previously, Jonathan taught PPE and English at the Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey. Jonathan holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge in the history of political thought and a BA from Columbia University in history.

Ben Silver is an attorney practicing in New York City. He has worked as an assistant editor at National Affairs, served as a judicial law clerk for Judge Steven J. Menashi, and has been a teaching assistant and instructor of several Tikvah programs. His writing has appeared in the Vanderbilt Law Review, Commentary, Jewish Review of Books, as well as other outlets. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School as well as an A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. in political theory from the University of Chicago.

Jonathan Silver is the Chief Programming Officer of Tikvah, the editor of Mosaic, and the Warren R. Stern Senior Fellow of Jewish Civilization. As the host of the Tikvah Podcast, he has hosted hundreds of writers, rabbis, educators, military officers, artists, and political figures, including members of Israel’s Knesset, the U.S. Senate, and the prime minister of Israel.

Ofir Zigelman is Senior Manager of Product Management for Expansion Strategy at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud and AI unit. He guides AWS’s infrastructure investments, go-to-market strategy, and strategic initiatives in Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA). Prior to AWS, he was Senior Intelligence Officer in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Team Commander in Unit 8200, an elite Israeli technology intelligence unit. Ofir served as Research Fellow at Harvard and holds an LLB from Tel Aviv University, an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, an MBA from the Wharton School, and an MA in international relations from the University of Cambridge. His Cambridge dissertation explored AI’s geopolitical implications in the 21st century. He serves as Vice President of the Harvard Club of Israel and sits on the advisory board of The Tikvah Fund.