Shemtov Hollinger, IDF Special Forces

Shai Davidai is an assistant professor at the Columbia Business School, where he teaches negotiations and studies economic inequality and zero-sum thinking. Shai was born and raised in Israel and lives in New York City with his wife and two kids.

Shortly after October 7th, as protests at Columbia University unabashedly celebrated the slaughter of Jews, Shai made a speech on campus that has gone viral on social media. Since then, he's been outspoken in documenting the growing antisemitism around the country and demanding that universities enforce their own rules and protect the Jewish and Israeli  members of their community.

Shemtov Hollinger is a reservist with the IDF Special Forces. He's 29 years old and in  civilian life is a certified nurse. He currently works at a gaming tech company in account management. He was also a pro basketball player who played for a few Division 3 teams. He studied at Tel Aviv University, enjoys scuba diving, and has just finished a forth round of  in reserve duty in the current war against Hamas.

A native New Yorker, Dana is a writer and creative director working professionally in the field of advertising. He brings 25+ years of creative communication experience.

Dana’s work has been recognized by the One Show, the Andys, the Kelly Awards, the Obies, the Clios, the Effies, New York Festivals, Communication Arts, Lurzer’s Archive, and at Cannes. He has worked extensively in the automotive category, touching brands like Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, Ford, and Lincoln, and has stretched far beyond that into categories including healthcare, finance, fashion, entertainment, apparel, sports, spirits, travel and tourism, and casual dining.

On the personal side, Dana has self-published the Go, Go, Greta children’s book series and in February 2012, he founded and ran TastySpace gallery and exhibition space in Las Vegas. In 2015, he relocated to Houston to be closer to family and more recently pulled up stakes and landed in Kansas City, where he is heading up several pieces of business, including Red Lobster and AMC Theatres at Barkley, as SVP, Creative Director.

He is married and the father of two incredible children who inspire him everyday.

Ronny Vance, former president of Geffen music and Interscope music has over 40 years of experience in the music industry. The artists and writers he signed in that time have cumulative sales of over 200 million records. Built upon his uncanny knack for spotting songwriting, talent and superstar artists in all music genres, each of his endeavors has enjoyed unprecedented achievement. 

Over the course of this career, Vance has been responsible for the signings of Tupac Shakur, New Edition, Stephen Sondheim, Bruce Hornsby, and Gwen Stefani and No Doubt and for the placement of such notable songs as Maniac, New Attitude, and Eric Clapton's two time 1998 Grammy winning song Change The World, among so many others. 

He's also the president of My Part, a company that serves creators, owners and representatives of songs as well as anyone looking for songs to cut or license through AI-powered song matching an incredible company. He lives in Jerusalem in the heart of the Old City, with his wife and son.

Lisa Coleman is a musician and composer who plays piano and keyboards and she was a member of Prince’s band 'The Revolution' from 1980 to 1986. She is one half of the incredible musical duo Wendy and Lisa, formed with Wendy Melvoin.

She was 19 years old when she auditioned and was hired as a part of Prince’s backing group in 1980, for his Dirty Mind album and tour. Lisa played keyboards for Prince on his Controversy and 1999 albums and the three albums as a member of The Revolution, which were Purple Rain, Around The World In a Day, and Parade.

Shortly after the completion of Prince and The Revolution’s Parade project, Lisa and Wendy started their own journey and under the Wendy and Lisa musical partnership. They released five full-length albums.

Today, Lisa and Wendy continue to work together as film and television composers and have provided the musical scores for television shows including Crossing Jordan, Heroes, Nurse Jackie (which won them an Emmy for Outstanding main title theme), Prime Suspect, No Tomorrow, Witches of East End, Shades of Blue, and Touch which they were nominated for an Emmy. She is currently working on a new show called The Hospital, an adult animated sci-fi comedy from Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne’s Animal Pictures.

Lisa, along with Wendy also shares the honor of winning a Grammy and Oscar for being part of The Revolution as Purple Rain won two Grammys and the Oscar for Best Original Score. She also received the inaugural ASCAP Shirley Walker award with Wendy in 2014, which honors those whose achievements have contributed to the diversity of Film and Television Music.

She recently self-released her first solo instrumental album titled Collage. And incidentally, she also created the theme music for this, the music on my podcast.

Shirley Halperin is Executive Editor of Music at Variety, where she spearheads music coverage for the print magazine and Variety.com. Through her 20-year career, she has held staff positions at Entertainment Weekly, Teen People and Us Weekly and was also a regular contributor to Rolling Stone. Shirley joined the Hollywood Reporter (THR) as Music Editor in 2010, later adding sister magazine Billboard to her resume. Until 2017, she oversaw music news coverage for both publications. Shirley is the author of three books: 2008’s “Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life,” 2010’s “Reefer Movie Madness” and 2011’s “American Idol: the Official Backstage Pass.”

Oonie Chase has been working at the intersection of strategy and design for over 20 years, leading high-impact and award-winning teams at IDEO, Wieden+Kennedy, frog design, Digitas (where we met, worked together on a bunch of stuff, and became friends), and GMMB. 

As a Partner at IDEO, she works across industries and markets - from media, technology, and consumer products, to financial services, health, and the public sector.  

She specializes in complex challenges that span human, physical and digital systems. 

Prior to joining IDEO, Oonie was the Executive Creative Director at frog design, leading the San Francisco headquarters as well as acting as a global practice lead of product strategy and applied data.  

Oonie co-founded a design and technology practice at Wieden+Kennedy, built a digital strategy team for President Barack Obama’s communication team, and is the co-founder of two start-ups.

As the founder of the Israeli-based "yes Studios" Stern created a distribution and development content powerhouse, focused on delivering premium content for international platforms. 

She has been credited with helping bring Israeli content to global audiences and is responsible for the successful launches of numerous titles including “Fauda", "Shtisel", “The Devil Next Door” and “On the Spectrum”. In addition, Stern spearheaded the adaptation of Israeli formats in multiple territories including “Your Honor" (originally ‘Kvodo”) which has become one the bestselling scripted global formats of recent years; the multiple award winning series "On the Spectrum" (as Amazon Prime Video “As We See It”), “68 Whiskey” (Paramount +) , “The Good Cop” (Netflix) etc..

Stern is an international television veteran, having managed all aspects of programming, content acquisitions, channel creation and branding in her previous role at yesTV. Stern has been selected twice as one of Variety Magazine’s “top 500 global media leaders”. 

She is a journalist by trade with extensive content development and production experience as well as acute business acumen.  She holds a BA in English Literature from Tel-Aviv University and a MBA from Kellogg-Recanati. 

Yotam Polizer  is the CEO of IsraAID – Israel’s biggest humanitarian NGO – and leads more than 250 people that support those affected by humanitarian crisises – they partner with local communities around the world to provide urgent aid, assist in recovery, and reduce the risk of future disasters.

Right now, IsraAID is active in 15 countries supporting communities affected by Covid 19.

Following the August 2021 Afghanistan crisis, Yotam led a rescue operation to save the lives of 167 at-risk Afghans from the hands of the Taliban. In September 2015 refugee crisis in Europe, he led IsraAID’s humanitarian mission in Lesbos, Greece, to support Syrian refugees on the island and also established IsraAID Germany, which provides long-term support for Yazidi and Syrian refugees in Germany. 

Over the last 15 years, Yotam has also built and led programs in Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, and in South Korea to support the reintegration of North Korean defectors. He has also led missions in Nepal following the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake and in Sierra Leone for Ebola survivors, health workers, and affected communities. He has 15 years of experience in education, humanitarian aid, and international development. 

Prior to his work at IsraAID, Yotam worked in the Israeli Embassy in Nepal and was the program coordinator for Tevel Btzedek an Israeli NGO focused on long-term development programs in the Himalayas. 

Yotam is married to Mayo and is the father of beautiful twins - Nao and Taiyo. He is also fluent in Japanese, Nepalese, English, and Hebrew. Yotam graduated from Tel Aviv University where he studied International Relations & African studies. 

International lawyer, diplomat, writer and activist, Hillel C. Neuer is the Executive Director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds four degrees including an honorary degree from McGill University for his work to advance human rights, and for being “a voice for those without one.” 

On September 14, 2016, the City of Chicago and Mayor Rahm Emanuel adopted a resolution declaring Hillel Neuer Day, citing his role “as one of the world’s foremost human rights advocates” and his contributions to “promote peace, justice and human rights around the world.”

TheTribune de Genève has described him as a human rights activist who is “feared and dreaded” by the world’s dictatorships.

The Journal de Montreal wrote that he “makes the U.N. tremble.”

Israel’s Ma’ariv newspaper named him to its list of the “Top 100 Most Influential Jewish People in the World.”

Hillel Neuer is an acclaimed speaker who has testified often before the United Nations and the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Hillel taught international human rights at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, and has served as Vice-President of the NGO Special Committee on Human Rights in Geneva.

Since 2009, he has headed a coalition of 25 human rights groups as chair of the annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, a renowned international gathering that provides a global platform to courageous pro-democracy dissidents from around the world who put their lives on the line to demand fundamental freedoms in oppressive regimes. Concordia University Magazine said he is “helping to shape history.”

Prior to joining UN Watch, Hillel practiced commercial and civil rights litigation and even represented Oprah Winfrey and other high-profile individuals and corporations.  

In 2007, Hillel Neuer’s banned U.N. speech became the most viewed and written-about NGO speech in the history of the United Nations. News reports described it as a “stunning rebuke of the U.N. Human Rights Council” and “a diplomatic moment to remember.” In 2017, Neuer’s “Where Are Your Jews?” speech before the UNHRC, replicated in multiple languages across social media, was seen 3 million times on Facebook and nearly 5 million times on YouTube.