Dr. Merav Ben-Nun is the Director of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Min HaBe’erot program. She received her PhD in International Education from New York University, and her BA in Political Science and Sociology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Previously she was the Director if Resource Development at Tovanot B’Hinuch, an education NGO that partners with at-risk schools to turn them around and improve life chances of children in Israel’s social and geographic periphery.

Merav completed a post-doctorate at Haifa University while also founding and serving as the first principal of the Hand in Hand bilingual integrated Jewish-Arab preschool in Haifa and as a community organizer, building a shared adult community of Haifa residents, Jews and Arabs.

Merav also lectured and was a teachers’ educator at Oranim Academic College. As a social and political activist for more than 15 years, she has been involved in a number of initiatives focused on strengthening Israeli democracy, social justice and building shared Jewish-Arab political cooperation. She also taught in New York City at Harlem Hebrew, a public charter school in Harlem, and at Beit Rabban Day School.