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The Yossi Bachar Fellowship for Leading Systemic Change in Israeli Society via JDC – Elka was established by JDC – Elka, the Bachar family, and partnering philanthropists from Israel and throughout the world to reflect the spirit and legacy of Dr. Yossi Bachar z”l. The initiative harnesses the experience, knowledge, and abilities of Israel’s senior leadership to help advance discourse and reciprocity between the public and social systems, focusing on initiatives that will improve life in Israel for disadvantaged populations.
The fellowship aims to promote change at the level of government policy that will impact on the quality of life of each and every person living in Israel. Dr. Yossi Bachar strove tirelessly to harness leaders of Israel’s business and public sectors to promote dialogue with the social sector and generate engines for policy change. He believed that only by combining the forces of the three sectors (public, social, and business) could successful resolution of Israel’s complex social issues be achieved.
The prestigious Yossi Bachar Fellowship will be granted annually to an outstanding senior figure who has successfully headed widespread change and impacted on the public, social, and /or business sectors. The Fellowship will enable visionary men and women to bring about real change in Israeli society.
JDC – Elka reinforces the public systems’ ability to provide high quality services to Israeli citizens
JDC – Elka heads inter-ministerial and inter-sectorial task forces
JDC – Elka untangles complexities within the public systems whilst re-establishes processes to resolve challenges
JDC – Elka strives to strengthen the public systems’ ability to efficiently and beneficially provide Israeli citizens with social services.
JDC – Elka is an ideal infrastructure for Fellowship recipients.
Dr. Yossi Bachar’s career was marked by diverse and extensive action, including senior roles in the public and business sectors. Yossi set an example of striving for excellence and achieving goals in every field he was active in while exhibiting accountability, wisdom, commitment, and honest compassion.
During Dr. Yossi Bachar’s term as Co-Chair of JDC – Elka’s Advisory Committee (2014 – 2020) he headed a process which resulted in changing JDC – Elka’s vision from developing leadership as a goal to developing leadership as a means to generate systemic change.
Dr. Yossi Bachar passed away in December 2020 at the age of 65, after battling cancer for years. He is survived by his wife Orit, four children, and grandchildren.
Philanthropic Partners
Steering Committee
Senior accompaniment by JDC-Elka CEO
International networking
Bachar Family
Bachar Fellow
Joint Elka – Professional team
Joint-Elka infrastructure
“Yossi’s Bus” Club
Entrepreneur in Residence Fellowship of 100K$
Research assistants
רשתות הג’וינט
Selecting a Bachar Fellow
Supporting the Fellow in drawing up an annual work plan, defining the products, and actual implementation
Monitoring achievement of the required products
Recruiting partners
The Committee will be aided by a forum of senior professionals tailored to the selected Fellow
Steering Committee Honorary President
Rani Dudai joined JDC-Israel in 2011 as director of the civil society field and of the Center for Lay Leadership. In 2014 he was appointed CEO of JDC – Elka, in which role he headed a significant change in JDC – Elka’s work approach – from a center of training, management, and leadership to partnering with the Israeli government in everything relating to promoting the efficiency of Israel’s public systems.
Rani holds an MBA from Haifa University, specializing in strategic personnel management; an MA in social work from Bar Ilan University, specializing in clinical work; and a BA in social work from Tel Aviv University. He has also completed several leadership programs for senior directors at Harvard Business School.
For over a decade Rani served as CEO of the Gevim Group, which offers consulting services to directors in the fields of mediation, constructing agreements, and negotiation. He is among the founders and entrepreneurs of the Kedem Association for Children and Youth in Israel, which is active in the field of healing justice. Currently he serves as a board member of the Ruppin Academic Center.
In April 2021 he was appointed CEO of JDC – Tevet.
Committee Chair
Ori joined the JDC in 2013, holding several positions within the organization. From 2018 to 2020 he served as Deputy Director General of JDC – Elka and Director of Cross-Sectorial Collaboration. In this role he initiated and headed varied collaborations with the government and civil society to bolster their ability to work together, promote agents of change networks, head processes of innovation in the public sphere, and more. In April 2021 he was appointed Director General of JDC – Elka.
Before joining JDC – Elka Ori served as a strategic consultant for the BDO Group, working with a range of companies in the public and private sectors. Ori holds an MBA from Ben Gurion University of the Negev’s Honors Program, and a BA in philosophy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (both cum laude). He served as a combat pilot in the Israel Air Force and serves as a flight instructor in reserves.
CEO of JDC – Elka
Representing the Bachar family, Dana is the eldest of Yossi z”l and Orit’s four children, and the mother of three.
Dana designs processes and services and is an expert in developing and implementing design thinking and heading co-creation processes for leading organizations in the three sectors (public, business, and social).
In the Bachar household there were constant conversations regarding the importance of realizing personal potential while harnessing one’s abilities to significantly contribute to society. These values have guided Dana throughout her life and molded her professional outlook. Dana is deeply familiar with the public and social sectors, proficient at forging cross-sector collaborations, and has much experience in working with JDC – Israel, especially JDC – Elka. Dana currently heads the field of Client Experience and User Experience at Deloitte Digital. Previously she directed the public sector unit and headed activities in the social sector at EY Israel.
Raanan Dinur was born in Jerusalem in 1952. After 13 years of service in the IDF he was appointed CEO of Telad and director of development at Audionautics. In the late 1980s he was among the founders of Young Entrepreneurs at the Van Leer Institute (the Karev Program) for educational enrichment. In the 1990s he served as Director General of the Jerusalem municipality. In 2003 he was appointed Director General of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, where he established the Tevet employment program in collaboration with JDC – Israel, and the Mehalev Program (also known as the Wisconsin Plan).
In 2006 he was appointed Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), a role he held for three years under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In this role he worked to strengthen the PMO’s abilities and was a partner to establishing the National Economic Council, integrating the National Security Council into the PMO, establishing the Policy Planning Division, the tri-sectorial roundtable, and the Authority for the Economic Development of the Minority Sectors.
Dinur laid the groundwork for the government planning guide and determined the way in which ministries were required to plan and report.
Raanan holds an MA in Public Administration and Policy, and as of 2012 he serves as Chair of the Ruppin Academic Center’s Board of Directors. Currently he divides his time between the business sector – in the Taavura Group and Pilat Group (Chair) – and volunteer activities as a social entrepreneur at the Wexner Foundation, the Mandel Institute for Educational Leadership, the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, and more.
Since 2018 Shawqi Khatib has served as president of the Injaz Center (a professional center for the advancement of local Arab authorities). He has also served as a board member of the Mercantile Discount Bank Ltd.; and between 2012 and 2020 served as Chair of the Alfanar Center – a national program established by the JDC and Yad Hanadiv to implement government programs promoting employment among Israel’s Arab population.
Khativ was appointed Chair of the National Committee for Mayors of Arab Municipalities and Chair of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel in 2001, positions he held until 2008. Between 2009 and 2014 he was responsible for realizing Stef Wertheimer’s vision of his seventh industrial park, the Nazareth Industrial Park. Khativ served as mayor of the Yafa an-Naseriyye local authority between 1990 and 2008.
Throughout his professional and public career, Mordechai Cohen has been guided by a cohesive socio-economic vision. Its main goal was and still is to bolster Israeli statehood, reduce social gaps in Israeli society, reinforce democracy and social mobility, and improve the functioning of public systems for the population’s benefit.
In his role as Director General of the Ministry of the Interior, Mordechai was appointed Chair of a task force promoting regional reform and decentralizing powers to local government. The late Dr. Yossi Bachar served on this team in his role as Chair of JDC – Elka’s Advisory Committee.
After a complex selection process, the Steering Committee chose Mordechai Cohen as the first Bachar Scholarship Fellow to promote systemic change and fulfill his vision regarding the decentralization of local authority in Israel to improve the quality of life for all Israelis.
The Cohen-Bachar report presented recommendations for a reform to promote regionalism and decentralization of power from the central government to local and regional government (November 2020). Following the report, in the past six months the Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister headed a government decision (Resolution 675), in collaboration with JDC ELKA, to decentralize powers from the central government to the local one, the implementation of which has begun these days.
Decentralization is central to the functioning of the government and local authorities in Israel, which is why we have decided the scholarship should focus on this topic.
The decision created a significant opportunity to influence the direction of the decentralization on the one hand, and to reflect challenges and dangers while learning from the experience of other countries on the other hand. Decentralization is a broad systemic move that affects the daily life of Israeli citizens, hence its great importance.
In a creative and unusual act, Dr. Yossi Bachar initiated ‘Yossi’s Bus tours’. From time to time he would invite leading businessmen, public officials, and friends to join him on a tour of cities throughout the country to expose them, first hand, to the realities of life in the social periphery.
Yossi used to say to his guests: “I cannot believe that people like you and me, who were born in Israel, have never visited Sderot, Yeruham, or even Akko.”
At the joint initiative of JDC – Elka and the Bachar family, it was decided to commemorate and continue this important work by establishing the Yossi Bachar Fellowship and revive Yossi’s Bus encounters. Passengers on the bus can play a significant role in promoting initiatives and assisting in the Fellows’ success through their professional, personal, and financial abilities, in accordance with their personal preferences.
Yossi’s Bus will hold regular activities throughout the year as part of a supportive envelope for the Fellows. Over the years, the club will grow and increase its human capital in order to cope successfully with the significant challenges that lie ahead.
“I truly believe that integrating volunteer work in our regular business activities is both an obligation and a privilege.”
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