YAHEL STAFF
Dana Talmi, Executive Director
Dana has over 15 years of experience working in the fields of experiential education and service learning. She holds a formal tour-guiding license to guide in Israel in Hebrew, English and Dutch. After working for several years as a tour guide throughout Israel, Dana moved to the United States and continued her involvement in Jewish education. She has taught at many highly regarded educational institutions including the Teva Learning Alliance and the Florence Melton School. In 2002, Dana led her first service learning trip to Honduras and the Ukraine with American Jewish World Service (AJWS). For the next few years, she continued leading volunteer trips for college students. In 2005, she joined the AJWS staff and was responsible for hiring, training and managing group leaders for service-learning trips to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Dana holds a B.A. in Israel studies from Bar-Ilan University and an M.S.W. with a focus on community organizing and group work from the University of North Carolina. Dana returned to Israel in 2007 and lives in Zichron Ya’akov with her husband and three children. Inspired by the work of AJWS and recognizing the need for high quality immersive service learning programs in Israel, Dana founded Yahel – Israel Service learning in 2009.
Nina Wanerman, Director of Media & Recruitment
Nina hails from New York and has a long history of involvement in community service. Nina earned her B.A. from Binghamton University in Global Culture and Graphic Design. She did her independent study in Costa Rica working with a small community on biogas systems for farming, and then became a campus recruiter for International Student Volunteers. After more than two years at the Manhattan design firm Coloredge, where she quickly became the Director of Marketing, Nina moved to Israel to get back to her social impact roots. She worked in Public Relations for the Israeli NGO Zalul and became involved with The Schoolhouse, where she teaches English and Computer Literacy courses to refugees and asylum seekers. She was also employed at Awesome Israel, working on Birthright recruitment and registration. While attending Tel Aviv University, Nina became the President of their Net Impact chapter. Recently, she graduated with an International MBA focused on Social Impact and Sustainability and has done communications work at the Peres Center for Peace.
Maya Opedisno, Director of Finance
Maya graduated from the Faculty of Economics academic track and Accounting (B.A) at Ruppin College, with honors. Maya provides several Economics and Accounting services to governmental bodies and business companies in Israel. Maya lives in Karkur, is married with four children and loves to dance.
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Derek Lief, Program Facilitator - Onward Israel Diversity & Social Justice, Summer 2017
Derek has been involved in community engagement and education for the last several years, first as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in the Community Youth Development program, followed by his work as a mathematics instructor at King's Academy in Madaba, Jordan. Prior to that, Derek worked as a consultant at FTI Consulting, Inc. in San Francisco, as a Senior Researcher in the Economics Department at Stanford University and as the Resource Development Coordinator at Ir Amim in Jerusalem, Israel. Derek graduated from Haverford College in 2008 where he majored in history and minored in economics. Since his graduation, he has completed extensive coursework in Hebrew, Arabic and mathematics, and speaks Hebrew fluently and Arabic at an advanced level. Derek loves the Middle East and working in community development and as such, is very excited to join the team at Yahel.
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Inbal Samin, Consultant and Special Projects
Inbal Samin has involved in community work and education since 2005. After two years working at the New Israel Fund in New York, she spent fifteen months in Senegal where she volunteered for the grassroots NGO Tostan and led educational travel programs for Where There Be Dragons. In 2010, Inbal spent four months working with women and youth in Nepal with the Israeli organization Tevel B’Tzedek, and the following year she led service learning programs for the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) in Nicaragua. Inbal holds a B.A. in Art History and French from Tufts University and an M.A. in Art History from Yale University, and is a currently pursuing a certificate in Multicultural Group Facilitatoin at Beir Berl College in Kfar Saba. Born in Israel and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Inbal returned to Israel in 2010. She quickly found a home at Yahel and since May 2011 has led alternative breaks, summer programs and the 9-month Yahel Social Change Program.
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Boyanna Grubeshich, Director of Yahel Social Change Program
Boyanna is originally from Bosnia and Hercegovina and currently lives in Tel Aviv. For the past 10 years, she has been involved in community mobilizing and development. During this period she has initiated and implemented numerous programs addressing issues of identity, peoplehood, belonging, and self- determination. She has guided grassroots projects that reinforce individual leadership and self-sustainable community-building, underscored by a strong sense of change and civil activism. Boyanna has been involved in the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation/JDC International Jewish Summer Camp in Eastern Hungary as a unit head in educational program development. She served as an Israel Hillel fellow at Baruch College, in NY from 2009 to 2011 following her work in Hillel Israel for the past 4 years. She has been involved in a Roma Genocide Remembrance Initiative in Europe, Schusterman Connection Points and professional development programs in the International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies initiated by Nadav Foundation. Boyanna holds a BA in Jewish philosophy and Multidisciplinary Arts Program at Tel Aviv University and is currently working on her M.A in Public Policy at Tel Aviv University.
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Roey Kapach, Yahel Social Change Program City Coordinator in Rishon LeZion
Roey was born in Ramat Eliahu in Rishon Letzion and and lives there to this day. He studied in institutions in the neighborhood and the city. In 2005 he graduated from high school in the subject of media and film. In the army he served in the tank corps commander of a tank crew until his release in 2008. After being released from the army, he volunteered with “youth at risk” as a mentor and took part as a representative and as an accompanist to delegations of the “Jewish Agency” for Israel and abroad. In 2015 he took part in local leadership with Representatives from communities across Europe to promote community projects together. He will finish law school next year and then start an internship in the field. In his spare time, Roey loves to travel the world, he’s an amateur mountain climber, plays the harmonica, and speaks Hebrew, English and Spanish. He is excited to meet everyone and help them get to know the neighborhood safely and believes that the common experiences will be very interesting, educational and challenging.
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Helena Jonas, Yahel Social Change Program City Coordinator in Lod
Helena has over 8 years of experience empowering youth from underprivileged environments. After completing high school she served in the Israeli National Service for two years working with children from broken homes in Tel Aviv. Her background in theater, which she studied as an elective in high school, helped to make herself accessible to youth in distress and create innovative activities to guide them in achieving personal awareness. Today she lives in the Ayalim student village in Lod and for the past 3 years has been volunteering in the community helping children and youth develop crucial skills to grapple with tasks which are challenging for their families. Helena is a certified mediator from Gevim. She established and headed the Ramle branch of the Zameret youth program working to develop young Zionist leadership and social engagement with particular emphasis on strengthening Israeli-Jewish identity and bringing religious and secular youth together. She is also a licensed aerobics, Zumba and Pilates instructor and volunteers in her community providing free classes for women. She spent a year at an intensive Jewish Studies program at the Shuva seminary for higher education. Helena holds a BA in Social Sciences from Bar Ilan University. Born to American Olim on Kibbutz Shluchot, Helena was raised in Jerusalem along with her 5 siblings. She is married and mother to Hallel.
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Michal Maman, Coordinator of Summer Seminars
Michal Maman was born in Rosh Pina and is an experienced educator. She was part of the Educator’s Kibbutz in the Hadar neighborhood in Haifa. In this capacity she worked with immigrant youth, with youth at risk and started a workers union for youth. As part of her work she also coordinated a Yahel summer service learning program which was run in collaboration with Onward Israel and CJP Boston in the summer of 2012. From 2012-2014 she was the educational coordinator of a Masa program for volunteers from the US which was based in Kiryat Shmona run by Project Ten and Tlalim. As part of the program, Michal placed volunteers in community projects, schools and other service placements around Kiryat Shmona. Michal studied film at the Tel Chai academy where she focused on writing and directing short films. Today she runs her own business called Hydromedia which offers film, branding and marketing services for small businesses in the North and around the country.
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