Our Team

 

Staff

Prof. Dorit Roer-Strier
Dorit Roer-Strier is a professor at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welafare and the director of NEVET. She is a qualitative researcher and specializes in context informed research and practice in the area of families and children in diverse cultural contexts. She has clinical training and practical experience in the areas of child and family therapy.

 

Prof. Heidi Keller
HEIDI KELLER is a Professor emeritus of Psychology at the University of Osnabrück and a director of Nevet, the Greenhouse of Context-Informed Research and Training for Children in Need at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her interests concern the interrelationship between culture and biology for the understanding of human development. She has done extensive (longitudinal) research in diverse cultural contexts across the globe and taught at different universities in different countries. She received several awards, among them the award for career achievement from the German Society of Psychology in 2014. She is interested in the application of basic science for application in the counselling/clinical as well as educational fields, especially with respect to the implementation of culture sensitive approaches. She is currently also concentrating on the development of culture sensitive approaches to attachment and their implementation in practice.

 

Dr. Yochay Nadan
Dr. Yochay Nadan is a researcher and a Senior Lecturer at The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his master’s degree at Alice Salomon University in Berlin, and completed his doctoral studies at Haifa University. Yochay’s research and teachings focus on issues relating to multiculturalism in social work  in research, practice and in the training of professionals. Alongside his research, Yochay works in couples and family therapy.

 

Dr. Iris Zadok
Dr Iris Zadok is a social worker and an early childhood specialist. She is a lecturer and a researcher at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University. She is the head of the fieldwork division at the School of Social Work and is a lecturer in the Graduate Program in Early Childhood Studies. In addition to teaching several courses in that program that focus on families of young children and observing children in their educational frameworks, she is the practicum coordinator and supervises students in their fieldwork placements. In her clinical work, Dr. Zadok works with traumatized infants, children and their families. She is a graduate of the Child-Parent Psychotherapy Training Program (CPP) and the "Training the Trainee" program.

Dr. Carmit Katz
Dr. Carmit Katz completed her PhD in 2007 and joined Cambridge University for a three-year appointment as a research associate in Forensic and Applied Psychology. Dr. Katz joined the Bob Shapell School of Social Work in 2011 and is currently a senior lecturer. She is a Kemp-Haruv Fellow, part of an international group of leading scholars promoting future directions in the field of child maltreatment. The goal of Dr. Katz’ research is to enhance the participation of children and families within intervention processes, decision-making and legal processes by developing and evaluating strategies that enhance children and family participation in these processes. She develops protocols and consults for practitioners in disciplines such as welfare, education, health, law enforcement and law. Dr. Katz also develops techniques to enhance forensic investigations with preschoolers and children from various cultural backgrounds such as ultra-orthodox and Israeli Arab children. She leads the Strong Communities initiative in Israel, an international initiative for the prevention of child maltreatment. Dr. Katz is highly committed to policy practice and is the founder and leader of the interdisciplinary group "Justice for Preschoolers".

Dr. Naomi Shmuel
Dr. Naomi Shmuel is an author and anthropologist specializing in families in transition. Her research focusses on the process of continuance and change across generations amongst Ethiopian immigrant families in Israel. She is especially interested in parenting across cultures and the effects of cultural transition on families.Dr. Shmuel is the coordinator of Nevet’s special training program for professionals working in culturally diverse environments. Her original prize winning children’s books are widely used throughout Israel in schools and pre-school programs to foster cross-cultural understanding and tolerance. She uses her children’s books to initiate discussions on sensitive topics (such as immigration, refugees, identity and belonging) in her academic courses and professional workshops. Naomi is currently teaching two courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Multiculturalism and Identity in the Department of Dentistry and Context-Informed Therapy with Immigrants and Refugees in the Department of Social Work (a DEMO course).

 

Dr. Orna Shemer
Dr. Shemer is a faculty member at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Shemer teaching and research areas are related to collaborative and participation processes, community practice,  cultural competence practice , intentional communities, rural communities (such as Kibbutz) and poverty. Dr. Shemer is a community social worker and her fields of specialty include: Enhance processes of participation in organizations; Development processes in organizations and communities with special emphasize on the importance of knowledge-from-experience; Methodology of Learning From Successes; and Participatory action research (PAR).

 

Dr. Hanita Kosher 
Dr. Hanita Kosher is a researcher and a lecturer at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Hanita's research and teachings focus on issues relating to children's well-being, children's rights and child abuse and neglect. Between 2007 to 2015 she was the head of the education center of the National Council of the Child, which is the leading advocacy organization for children's rights in Israel. Today, Hanita works at the Haruv institute and at the Legal Aid Department for Children and Youth at the Ministry of Justice.

 

 

Dr. Dafna Tener
Dr. Tener is a faculty member at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has studied child sexual abuse for the past ten years, has conducted numerous research projects focusing on survivors, families and professionals’ perceptions of sexual abuse, and has specialized in qualitative research methods as well as mixed research methods. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Crimes Against Children Research Center supervised by Professor David Finkelhor, and is currently a research fellow at the Haruv institute, a training and research center in the field of child maltreatment and a member of NEVET.

 

Dr. Orna Shemer

Prof. Orya Tishbi
Prof. Orya Tishby is a clinical psychologist and researcher at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare and in the department of psychology, at the Hebrew University. She is also the director of the Freud Center for research in psychoanalysis. Orya completed her BA and MA at the Hebrew University. She earned a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, New Jersey, and received the NJ best dissertation award. Orya's research focuses on change process in psychodynamic therapy (specifically short-term) and the therapeutic relationship. As a member of NEVET, she is part of a research team studying immigrant parents and their perceptions of child rearing and parent-child relationships. Orya also works as a therapist with adolescents, young adults and parents.

Prof. Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian

Prof. Ruth Pat-Horenczyk
Ruth Pat-Horenczyk, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a clinical psychologist who received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University and completed her post-doctoral training at the University of California in San Diego. Her current research topics focus on risk and protective factors for childhood PTSD, relational trauma, emotion regulation and posttraumatic growth. Ruth's current research project is on “Predicting effective adaptation to breast cancer to help women to BOUNCE back” with experts from the fields of oncology, computer modeling, psychology, and social medicine from Finland, Israel, Greece, Italy and Portugal.

Dr. Yael Dayan

 

Alumni

Dr. Yael (Julia) Ponizovsky-Bergelson 
Dr. Yael Ponizovsky-Bergelson is a faculty member at the School of Social Work, Ruppin Academic Center as well as a Social Workers (MSW). Yael completed her post-doctoral fellowship at NEVET greenhouse at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Freie Universität Berlin that focused on children’s perspectives among Jewish communities who immigrated to Israel and Germany from the Former Soviet Union. During her doctoral studies at the School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yael investigated the multifaceted phenomenon of post-migration filial responsibility among young immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel. Yael's scientific interests are migration processes, cross cultural transitions, risk and protection in multi-cultural perspective and children's worlds. For the last years, she has specialized in studying young children’s perspectives in multicultural contexts. In her studies Yael uses qualitative and quantitative methodologies (mix methods) from resilience perspective.

 

Dr. Natalie Ulitsa
Dr. Natalie Ulitsa is a post-doctoral student at the Department of Community Mental Health at the Faculty of Social Welfare & Health Sciences at the University of Haifa. She received her master's degree in Early Childhood Studies and completed her doctoral studies at The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her PhD research, conducted in NEVET (supervised by Prof. Dorit Roer-Strier and Prof. Heidi Keller), focused on parenting beliefs and practices as well as parental perceptions of risk for children among  the 1.5 generation of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel. She is currently engaged in research on ethical aspects of the early diagnosis and prediction of dementia in various soci-cultural groups.

Dr. Ibtisam Marey-Sarwan
Ibtisam Marey-Sarwan is an early childhood education lecturer at Sakhnin College and the Arabic College of Haifa for Teacher Education. Her PhD research focuses on Bedouin families in the Naqab (Negev) and examines attachment and risk from context informed perspectives. Her postdoctoral thesis is about Perspectives of Risk and Protection among Young Bedouin Children in the Unrecognized Villages of the Naqab. She has written several articles and has participated in international conferences.

 

Dr. Sameer Kadan

Dr. Yael Ventorero-Hochman

Dr. Anna Kosner

Dr. Michal Gatenio-Kalush

 

Noémie Bloomberg
Noémie Bloomberg is a parental counselor and gives lectures and workshops in France and Israel. Noémie researched Parental Perceptions among French Mothers and is now a research assistant in Kedem researching the process of a community centered project among families with children at risk.
Website: www.lamamanpositive.com

Netanel Biton
Netanel Biton is a social worker at a private mental health organization in Beer-Sheva and teaches at the school of social work at Sapir Academic College. In his thesis research, he explored the parenting experience of gay fathers who underwent surrogacy.

Loui Jaber
Loui Jaber is a student at the School of Social Work and a research student at NEVET at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2010 he finished his first M.A. in Nonprofit Management & Leadership at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

Efrat Lehman-Shalit
Efrat Lehman-Shalit is a social worker, researcher and master's student at The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Over the last five years she has worked in Youth Law for the Social Welfare Office in Jerusalem. As a part of her work, she has handled and dealt with families and minors who are on the continuum between risk and danger. Among other things, she has dealt with various cases of sexual abuse among minors .During her studies and her work has taken a number of courses and workshops on sexual vulnerability and has participated in several courses in qualitative research at the School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Or Kedem
Or Kedem is a social worker and researcher on the subject of refugee mothers. She recieved her bachelor's degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is now a research student with NEVET. Since 2012 she has worked with refugee NGO's, and has worked in the mental health department since 2016. The value of equality leads her in her professional and private life.

Eliya Gal
Eliya Gal is a social worker studying for her master's degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, working as a parents' guide at the Social Services' 'Parents-Children Center'. She completed two bachelor degrees; a B.Sw at Bar Ilan University and B.Sc in medical and biological sciences at Tel Aviv University.

Loui Jabar
Loui Jaber is a student at the School of Social Work and a researcher at NEVET at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2010 he finished his first M.A. in Nonprofit Management & Leadership at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Zohar Sharvit
Zohar Sharvit is completing her thesis in a research for her MA degree in a study group with NEVET. Her thesis focuses on parent education experiences in the welfare services. She completed her master's degree at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Early Childhood expertise. Zohar works full-time as a researcher at the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute which focuses on applied social research. Alongside her research work and her studies, Zohar is an guest lecturer on group processes and communication in group training courses.

Sabita Deshu
Sabita Deshemaru is a multilingual international development professional. Currently engaged in preparatory research for her PhD, she has also worked at the Center for International Migration and Integration (CIMI) as a counselor to Nepali migrant workers in Israel on their employment rights. Sabita has previously worked as an area coordinator to recruit international volunteers in community development with Tevel B’Tzedek. Prior to this, she worked with an education project as a coordinator in the western part of Nepal. In addition, she has volunteered for a number of aid organizations in Nepal and in India, including UNDP. At Reproductive Health Rights, India, she designed and implemented a reproductive health awareness project and conducted health training for local staff and women leaders. Sabita has excellent academic credentials from leading universities and long lasting interest in international development with a focus on health.

Or Alter

Shani Rotem

Netanel Biton

Michal Tier

Dima Gutman

Liraz Mizrachi

Revital Katz Yekutieli

Gilat Biton

Sarah Issa

Channan Khouri

Gali Shtein

Anna Gogonsky

Hila Madhalafar

Meor Kaplan

Hadas Barabie

Tsofnat Melamed

Boaz Cohen

Galit Itzik-Meir

Ahlam Abokirn

Naomie BenChimol

Orly Erlichman

BatChen Karny

Hodaya Bashan

Gali Shtein

Mani Pollack

Naden Jeries

Natali Zohr

Rachel Yishai

Moran Anaki

Paulina Ekel-Monir

Gili Amorai

Liat Nuzik

Lina Phaticha

 

Doctoral Candidates

Yan Serdtse
Yan Serdtse is a Ph.D. candidate at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. His research focuses on the experiences of fathers, fatherhood and fathers’ perceptions of risk in immigrant families both from the former USSR in Israel and Israeli born fathers. He has a master’s degree in Clinical and Educational Psychology from the School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His master thesis was titled: “Shared traumatic reality: Characterization of the factors that contributed to the efficiency of the psychological treatment of children, after the second Lebanese war”. In addition to his research, Yan lectures for several methodological and clinical courses at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare and at The School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Rivky Keesing
Rivka Keesing is an experienced occupational therapist (BOT, NDT) who works with children, parents and adults with various disabilities. Rivka worked for 18 years at 'ALEH Center' as an OT and as a manager of different professional departments and projects. Rivka completed her master's degree at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is now a doctoral student. She is a member of the NEVET Greenhouse for research at the Hebrew University. Her study focuses on context informed research in the field of child risk and protection within the Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel.

Lior Birger
Lior Birger is a social worker and a PhD candidate at the School of Social Work and Social Welfare at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a fellow at the interdisciplinary program "Human Rights Under Pressure", a joint program of The Hebrew University and The Freie University, Berlin, and at NEVET. Her PhD research, supervised by Prof. Mimi Ajzenstadt and Dr. Yochay Nadan, explores the contextual dimensions of the relationship between social workers and refugees from Eritrea in both Germany and Israel. Since 2009 she has been working with refugees and asylum seekers through different social services, NGOs and community initiatives. Her M.A Thesis dealt with the perceptions of gender and sexuality among Eritrean men in Israel. Recently, together with two other colleagues, Lior has published a research report, including testimonies of refugees who “voluntarily” departed Israel to Rwanda and Uganda and after a hazardous journey, gained protection in Europe. Together with Dr. Yochay Nadan, Lior is teaching the course “The Narrative Study of Lives” at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Sarah Dar-Issa
Sarah Dar-Issa is an occupational therapist who finished her master's degree in Early Childhood Education and is a doctoral candiate. She works at a therapeutic kindergarten in Jerusalem for children with developmental and speech delay.

Yaffa Stokar 
Yaffa Stokar is a licensed Medical Psychologist heading the Psycho-Oncology team at the Sharett Institute of Oncology at The Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, and a founding partner at the Psyfass Clinic which specializes in medical psychology and psycho-somatic therapy. She completed her master’s degree in Psychology at The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, and is currently working towards her PhD at The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Yaffa's research interests include the topic of End of Life, the well-being of medical health professionals (eg. Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Growth and Meaning), and medical education. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and three children

Efrat Lusky-Weisrose
Efrat Lusky is a PhD student at The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she also completed her master’s degree. Efrat’s research focuses on child sexual abuse among Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Alongside her research, Efrat worked as a medical social worker with patients with chronic diseases. Currently, she is a coordinater at the Center for Disability Studies at the Hebrew University, as well as the Erasmus+ project carried out at NEVET.

Amitai Marmor
Amitai Marmor is a researcher and a PhD student at The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his master's degree at Tel Aviv University. Amitai's research focuses on issues relating to sexual abuse in children and families and children at risk. Alongside his research, Amitai works as a therapist for children, youth and adults, specifically within sexual assault.

 

Netanel Gemara
Netanel Gemara, MSW, is a doctoral student at the Paul Baerwald School of Social
Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses
on risk and protection of children in minority religious communities. He utilizes a
context-informed perspective, and qualitative methodology in exploring perceptions
and constructions of community members and professionals.

 

Hannah Bartl
Hannah Bartl is a psychologist and a PhD candidate at the Department of Psychology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She completed her B.A studies at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and holds an M.A (Diploma) in Clinical Psychology and Developmental Psychology from the University of Osnabrueck, Germany. Her PhD deals with belief systems and perception towards early attachment relationships in various socio-cultural backgrounds in Israel. Her research aims to provide a culture-informed perspective to trainings of professionals working with children and families from various backgrounds and to influence the formation of ‘context-sensitive’ social policy. She is a member of NEVET and voluteered to become part of the Quality Assurance Commitee of the Erasmus+ project DEMO. Moreover, she worked as a teaching assistant at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem for the NEVET seminar.

Rawan Dahabre
Rawan Dahabre is a Ph.D. student at The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She completed her master’s degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on issues relating to coping with breast cancer among women and the differences between Jewish and Arab women in this field. Alongside her Ph.D. she works as a social worker at the Oncology Outpatient department at Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem.

Elichen Amitai
Elichen Amitai is a PhD. Student at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his master's degree in social work at The Hebrew University. Elichen's research is about the spiritual and religious coping mechanisms of Jewish Ultra-Orthodox mentally ill people. Alongside his research he works as a sex therapist in Jerusalem.

Yaara Shilo

Ruthi Senesh

Shelly Engdau-Wanda

Esther Fanta

Nofar Eini

Roi Gidon

Salwa Qicks Halbi

Lital Yona

Zev Ganz

Mati Angel

Yael Lanzkron-Rubenstein

International Advisory Board

Prof. Deborah Best, Psychology, Wake Forest University, North Carolina, USA

Prof. Alicia Lieberman, Department of Psychiatry, University of California at San Francisco, USA

Prof. Çigdem Kagitcibasi, Social and Cultural Psychology, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey

Prof. Jill Korbin, Department of Anthropology and Director Schubert Center for Child Childhood Studies, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Prof. Mark Tomlinson, Developmental Psychology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Prof. Marten W. deVries, M.D., Social Psychiatry at Maastricht University, the Netherlands

Prof. Tom Weisner, Departments of Anthropology and Psychiatry, UCLA, USA

Prof. Carol Worthman, Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

 

Masters Students

Partners and Affiliates

Prof. Cory Shulman

Dr. Shirli Werner

Prof. Sharon Shiovitz

Prof. Mona Khoury

Dr. Shalhever Attar Schwartz

Dr. Osnat Zamir

Michal Goldberg

Michal Barak

Dafni Moshiov

Dr. Galia Plotkin

Dr. Michal Komem

Post Doctoral Students

Dr. Nira Wahle

Dr. Sara Zalcberg

Dr. Yasmin Abud Halbi

Dr. Maya Zfati

Dr. Bella Kovner