The 36th program of the elite Wexner Foundation is underway, and nine Israeli senior civil servants and security workers will join the Wexner Israel Fellowship program in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the foundation announced on Monday.
The Wexner Foundation, a philanthropic institution created by noted Zionist Leslie Wexner in the early 1980s aims to strengthen Jewish leadership. The foundation intends to “inspire leaders in the North American Jewish Community and the State of Israel through diverse, cohort-based educational programs," according to their website, "making their leaders more skilled, visionary and collaborative."The program consists of three different missions and a 3,000 member network that has seen prominent names in Israeli leadership pass through its doors. The Wexner graduates include IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, previous Director-General of the Health Ministry Prof. Hezi Levi and senior Mossad and Shin-Bet agents.Leslie Wexner founded many philanthropic organizations and received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship.
The Foundation faced some dispute last year when Netanyahu accused the Foundation of associating with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a once trustee of the foundation. Netanyahu claimed that the state’s association with the foundation should be investigated, saying “senior Israeli civil servants who’ve devoted themselves to the Wexner Foundation are protecting it with all their might.”
At the time, the program also experienced a hiatus due to the coronavirus.
This year’s team includes doctors, lawyers and security figures. One of these is Dr. Yasmeen Abu-Fraiha, a Bedouin-Israeli entrepreneur and head of GENESIS, an NGO addressing the issue of genetic diseases in the Bedouin community, a sector suffering high rates of genetic diseases due to consanguine marriages.
Dr. Abu-Fraiha was named one of the "40 to watch under 40" by Globes magazine when she was 27 and won the 2007 Ramon award for quality, leadership and excellence.She will be one of the nine members of this year's cohort, alongside Dr. Itamar Caspi of Bank of Israel, Attorney Shira Kenny Tal Alush from the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office, Lt.-Col. A from the IDF Intelligence Corps and Lt.-Col Yael from the IDF Cyber Defense Unit, among others.
“I am happy for the continuation of a program whose mission is to enhance the professionalism of civil workers in Israel,” said Wexner program Director General in Israel Ra’anan Avital.