About

The Shoresh Institution is an independent, non-partisan, socioeconomic policy research center solely dedicated to identifying the source nature and scope of Israel’s internal, root (shoresh, in Hebrew), existential challenges that constitute an existential threat to the future of the State of Israel.
Shoresh provides evidence-based analyses – essential for strategic perspectives and transformative policies at the national level – to Israel’s leading policymakers and the general public, with the objective of helping move the country to a sustainable long-term path that raises Israel’s standard of living and reduces the disparities within.
Shoresh definition
Shoresh definition

Our Story

Why we established Shoresh

“In 1999, I happened to look at data on Israel through a professional lens for the first time,” relates Professor Dan Ben-David, a Tel-Aviv University economist. “What I saw changed my life. While Israel has state-of-the art universities, a cutting edge hi-tech sector and medical professionals at the top of their field internationally, the average amount produced by Israelis per hour (often referred to as labor productivity) is not only among the lowest in the developed world – it has been steadily falling further and further behind the leading developed world countries for over four decades.” Read More

Shoresh Institution Objectives

Spotlighting the root socioeconomic challenges that pose a threat to Israel’s existence and development.

Moving the policy discourse and its implementation toward a focus on Israel’s root problems and their treatment within a long-term perspective and through a change in national priorities.

Motivating policy-makers to take actions that serve Israel’s long-term interests.

Our team

Dan Ben-David profile picture
Prof. Dan Ben-David
President
Ayal Kimhi profile picture
Prof. Ayal Kimhi
Vice President and Head of Research
Cynthia Wroclawski profile picture
Cynthia Wroclawski
Director-General and Head of Strategic Partnerships
Sagit Azary-Viesel profile picture
Dr. Sagit Azary-Viesel
Director of Marketing, Communication and Planning
Yael Melzer profile picture
Dr. Yael Melzer
Researcher
Pavel Jelnov profile picture
Dr. Pavel Jelnov
Researcher
Yael Mishly profile picture
Yael Mishly
Researcher
Yoav Tuvia profile picture
Yoav Tuvia
Researcher
Tomer Siedner profile picture
Tomer Siedner
Researcher
Ariela Savin profile picture
Ariela Savin
Researcher
Mina Ben-David's profile picture
Dr. Mina Ben-David
Administration and Finance
Rachel Zaken profile picture
Rachel Zaken
Administration and Finance

Professor Dan Ben-David
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Professor Dan Ben-David (Ph.D. in Economics, University of Chicago) heads the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research and is a senior faculty member in the Department of Public Policy at Tel-Aviv University.

In 2023, he received the “Knight of Quality Government Award” granted by the Movement for Quality Government “in recognition of his significant contribution to Israel’s academia and society; for providing evidence-based analyses to decision makers and the general public; and for his impact on the determination of policies at the national level.” Professor Dan Ben-David was also named ‘Person of the Year’ by Calcalist newspaper and included 3 times in the Haaretz-TheMarker newspaper’s annual list of Israel’s 100 most influential people. His academic research placed him among the ten most cited economists in Israel during the years 1990-2000. In addition, Ben-David has twice received Tel-Aviv University’s ‘Best Teacher Award.

Professor Ben-David is the past executive director of the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies, a former Research Fellow at both the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London, and has also served as an advisor to the World Bank and the World Trade Organization.


Professor Ayal Kimhi
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Professor Ayal Kimhi is the Vice President and head of research at the Shoresh Institution. He is also the Sir Henry d'Avigdor Goldsmid Professor in Agricultural Economics, serving as the head of the Department of Environmental Economics and Management at the Hebrew University. He was previously the deputy director and head of research at the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies.

Professor Kimhi received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago. His research spans the fields of labor economics, family economics, applied econometrics, agricultural economics, and development economics. He has held visiting positions at the Universities of Maryland, Yale, Pennsylvania, Nagoya, Leuven, Sydney and at the Paris School of Economics, and has published more than 50 articles in refereed academic journals.


Cynthia Wroclawski
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Cynthia Wroclawski is the Shoresh Institution’s Director-General and head of strategic partnerships. She served as Director of the Yad Vashem Shoah Victims' Names Recovery Project and deputy director of the Yad Vashem Archives Division. Specializing in marketing, communications, outreach, engagement and fundraising, Cynthia draws upon extensive professional experience in positions held in the private and non-profit sectors alongside her volunteer leadership role as chair of the steering committee of the Yoav – Lehigh Valley (PA) Partnership2Gether (Jewish Agency program) from 2012-2018.

Cynthia received her B.A. from New York University where she was a dean’s list student, with a double major in Judaic Studies and Journalism. She graduated with honors from the Hebrew University, receiving an M.A. in Communications and Journalism. Cynthia also holds a certificate in Advanced Modern Marketing from the Department for Executive Education in Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Management. An American born Israeli who moved to Israel in the late 1980’s, Cynthia lives in Kibbutz Revadim.


Dr. Sagit Azary-Viesel
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Heads the Shoresh Institution's marketing, communications and planning arm. Sagit holds a Ph.D. in public policy from Tel-Aviv University and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at UCLA. As an economist, she held research positions with Professors Dan Ben-David and Ayal Kimhi, first at the Taub Center, and then moving with them to establish Shoresh. Sagit has served as vice president of strategy and external relations as well as senior researcher at the Institute for Structural Reforms. She is a recipient of the Tel-Aviv University Chancellor's Award for excellence in teaching.


Dr. Yael Melzer
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Researcher at the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research and lecturer at Ben-Gurion University and Sapir Academic College. Yael has worked as a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and at Pareto Group. She holds a PhD in economics from Ben-Gurion University, receiving several scholarships and awards for academic excellence. Yael's research focuses on employment in the high-tech industries; comparison of Israel with developed countries within the context of the United Nations' sustainable development indicators; Covid’s impact on Israel’s economy and society; and the relationship between entrepreneurship, innovation and human capital.


Dr. Pavel Jelnov
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Researcher at the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research, lecturer at the Department of Economics and Management at the Emek Yezreel Academic College, Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics and at the Institute of Labor Economics at Leibniz University, Hanover. Pavel holds a PhD from the Berglas School of Economics at Tel-Aviv University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hanover. Pavel's main research areas are labor and demographic economics. Pavel joined the Shoresh Institution upon his return to Israel and focuses on issues of geographic and social periphery, wage gaps, and returns to education.


Yael Mishly
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Researcher at the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research and a PhD candidate in the Department of Environmental Economics and Management at the Hebrew University. Yael holds a bachelor's degree in economics, a bachelor's degree in philosophy and life sciences, an MBA from Tel-Aviv University, and a master's degree in environmental economics from the Hebrew University. After years of work in the capital market, Yael returned to academia and research. At Shoresh, she works on housing prices, Arab women’s engagement in the labor market, and intergenerational mobility.


Yoav Tuvia
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Researcher at the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research. Yoav holds a masters degree from the Berglas School of Economics at Tel-Aviv University in a joint economics program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research in Shoresh focuses on the comparison of higher education and labor market outcomes among different demographic groups, and on consumption inequality. In the past, he was part of a “social movement” team and extensively involved in youth and children’s education.


Tomer Siedner
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Researcher at the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research. Tomer holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from the Technion, and a master’s degree in economics from Ben-Gurion University, graduating with honors in both. He previously served as a senior analyst in the Prime Minister's Office, where he was part of an interdisciplinary think tank focused on developing and implementing innovative methodologies for national intelligence. At Shoresh, Tomer’s research focuses on the employment and income of the older population and the quality of human capital in the public sector.


Ariela Savin
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Researcher at the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research. Ariela holds a masters degree from the Berglas School of Economics at Tel-Aviv University in a joint economics program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a bachelor's degree in economics from Tel-Aviv University, and summa cum laude honors in a multidisciplinary bachelor's degree program in Social Sciences from Bar-Ilan University. Ariela’s thesis and studies at the Shoresh Institution focus on the economics of education.


Dr. Mina Ben-David
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Mina joined Shoresh soon after its establishment as its administrative manager. Today, she is responsible for preparation of the annual reports to the Government Registrar, including supervision and coordination with accounting in the preparation of the financial report. Mina has a BA in economics, an MBA (specialization in finance), an MA in public policy (graduating summa cum laude) and a PhD in labor studies – all from Tel-Aviv University. She was an internal auditor at Bank Leumi, a researcher in the Bank's economic research department, and a financial analyst and an auditor at Bank Leumi in Chicago. Mina has taught economics, finance and statistics at universities in Israel and the United States.


Rachel Zaken
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Rachel Zaken is responsible for human resources and finance at the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research. Rachel holds a master's degree with honors in public policy from Tel-Aviv University and a master's degree in environmental economics and management from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She worked as a statistician and economist at the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, at the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and as a researcher at Shoresh.

Board of Directors

Dr. Zeev Feldman (chair)

Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer and Vice Chairman of the Israel Medical Association

Professor Haya Stier

Departments of Sociology and Labor Studies, Tel-Aviv University

Dr. Avner Ahituv

CEO Water Israel and former general secretary of Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan

Audit Board

Eli Yeshurun, CPA

Financial Consulting and CFO services

Daniel Shejnberg, MBA

Retired, Managing member DSAM LLC

Academic Advisory Council

Dr. Henry Aaron

Brookings Institution

Professor David Autor

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Professor Aaron Ciechanover

Technion
(Nobel Laureate and Israel Prize Laureate)

Professor Jacob Frenkel

JP Morgan Chase International and former Bank of Israel Governor
(Israel Prize Laureate)

Professor Claudia Goldin

Harvard University
(Nobel Laureate)

Professor Reuben Gronau

Hebrew University

Professor Eric Hanushek

Stanford University and Hoover Institution

Professor James Heckman

University of Chicago
(Nobel Laureate)

Professor Daniel Kahneman

Princeton University
(Nobel Laureate)

Professor Joel Mokyr

Northwestern University

Professor Howard Pack

University of Pennsylvania

Professor Steven Popper

RAND Corporation

Professor Assaf Razin

Cornell University and Tel-Aviv University

Professor Dan Shechtman

Technion
(Nobel Laureate and Israel Prize Laureate)

Professor Eytan Sheshinski

Hebrew University

Our Supporters in 2023-2024

The Shoresh Institution’s research and activities are made possible thanks to the generous support of our partners and donors and for whom we are deeply grateful. Shoresh supporters donating $1,000 and above are ordered alphabetically below:

Azrieli Foundation, Canada-Israel
Ellie and Edgar Cullman
Mick Davis
Cheri Fox
The Diane & Guilford Glazer Foundation
Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
Jusidman Foundation
Maimonides Fund
Daniel and Deborah Palestrant
Rosenzweig-Coopersmith Foundation
Roni Rubenstein and Barry Berson
Sally Gottesman
Simcha Mordecai Ben Yacov David
Josh Weston
Yaniv Zilberman

Philanthropic support of individuals and organizations enables the Shoresh Institution to conduct independent, path-breaking, socioeconomic policy research on the internal challenges that pose existential threats to Israel in the long-run. Our donors share our unwavering commitment to advancing evidence-based policies and public discourse to ensure a sustainable future for Israel and all its citizens.

We invite you to join our circle of supporters. Click here to learn about the ways you can make a donation today. Shoresh supporters contributing annual gifts of $1,000 and up are invited to be listed in this Shoresh website donor recognition section.

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