Nicholas Saphir

Chairman

Nicholas Saphir's career was spent in commercial food, farming and rural affairs, including Chairing several governmental and industry organisations. He is currently the Executive chairman of OMSCo (the UK Organic Milk Suppliers Co-operative) and Coressence Ltd.

Since 2007 Nicholas has been a trustee of the Kessler Foundation.
Previously he was also Chairman of Federation of Jewish Relief
Organisations (1970s); Chairman British Israel Chamber of Commerce (1991 - 1994); and chairman Chatham Memorial Synagogue - unaffiliated (1990s).

Nicholas believes "the New Israel Fund is an organisation that is vital in providing overall support to various NGOs in Israel dedicated to the maintenance of a just and equal society.

This at a time when the many challenges facing the State often seem to conspire to undermine Israel's moral commitments."

David Altschuler

David Altschuler qualified as a Chartered Accountant in South Africa and joined Marks & Spencer plc as Group Treasurer in 1977.

In 1980, he jointly founded National Leasing & Finance Co., and has subsequently been responsible for setting up a diversity of projects, including the Capricorn Science Park in Cape Town, South Africa, and bio-technology companies, Inpharmatica Ltd., and Arrow Therapeutics Ltd, in partnership with University College London.

David has extensive experience in initiating and managing charity projects. He was founding chairman of the charity, Refusenik and co-founded The One to One Children's Fund with Rita Eker, MBE. David is also a trustee of Nicro UK Trust and Trustee of the National Family & Parenting Institute.

Sir Jeremy Beecham

Sir Jeremy Beecham, DL (born 1944) is a British Labour politician and a senior figure in English local government. He was leader of Newcastle City Council and the first Chairman of the Local Government Association. He is the elected Chairman of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party (Oct 2005 - Sep 2006). Beecham was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne and University College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class honours degree in law. He became a solicitor.

Beecham has been a member of many boards and committees in Newcastle and New East England, and advising government. He has been a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee since 1998 and was its chairman. He became a Knight Bachelor in the 1994 Birthday Honours and was made a Freeman of the City of Newcastle in 1995. He is Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Tyne and Wear and continues to represent Benwell and Scotswood on the City Council. He is also a member of Theatre Royal Trust Limited.

David Bernstein

David Bernstein graduated from Oxford University in 1978 and began his working life in the civil service, before qualifying as a lawyer. After practicing briefly in London he moved into the business world. He is now on the board of a small food importing company and a small private investment company – both based in London.

He sits on the boards of three voluntary organisations, and of two grant giving foundations, all UK based. In 2009 he joined the Middle East & North Africa Advisory Council of Human Rights Watch.

He is interested not only in the Middle East, but also penal affairs, refugee issues, human rights more broadly, and alcohol and drug addiction.

Alexander Bodin Saphir spent his gap year in Israel living on two different kibbutzim, doing 3 months basic training in the IDF (through the Marva programme) and spending 6 months working with autistic children in Tel Aviv.

He studied ‘Neurophilosophy’ at Duke University, North Carolina and “Experimental and Avant Garde film” at Berkley, California before gaining anMA in Scriptwriting from Goldsmiths College, University London.

Having made films in America, Denmark, England and Israel, he studied at the Woolf Institute’s Center for Muslim/Jewish Relations (CMJR) at Jesus College, Cambridge.

He is currently based in London and works as a filmmaker and children’s fiction writer in addition to co-chairing NIF’s New Generation group in the UK.

David Goldberg

David Goldberg taught law at the University of Glasgow until taking early retirement in 2000. Now, directing deeJgee Research/Consultancy, he works as a freelance academic and researcher, specialising in freedom of expression and information issues at universities in Scotland, England and outside the UK.

David Goldberg is a co-founder of IMLA: the International Media Lawyers Association. He has been a Member of the Executive of the Scottish Human Rights Centre and Chef de Mission with the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues. He is a co-convener of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland and on the Executive of the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Human Rights.

Mark Goldberg

Mark Goldberg is a former chairman of The Company Growth Team, set up by Scottish Enterprise to offer long-term strategic assistance to companies with growth potential. He began business life as a lawyer, then joined the retail firm of the same name, helping it grow to c£50m of sales, and developing a number of successful retail brands, including Schuh, Ted Baker and Stylecard.

In 1967 Mark volunteered for service during the Six Day War and again during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. He served as Chairman of Glasgow UJIA and Project Renewal Dimona.

Martine Halban
Secretary

Born in Egypt, Martine joined the many thousands of Jews who were expelled from the country in 1956. Arriving in London as a child, she later studied English and French at Sussex University.

Martine then moved to Israel, where she lived for 3 years and worked as an editor mainly for the Truman Institute and also writing occasional book reviews for the Jerusalem Post.

She and husband Peter left Israel to set up the very successful Halban Publishers. A general publisher of fiction, biographies, memoirs and history, Halban Publishers is also renowned for publishing books of Jewish interest. Amongst their authors is A B Yehoshua, one of Israel's most celebrated authors, winner of the Israel prize for Literature and recently short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize.

June Jacobs

June Jacobs rose to prominence as a founder and first Chair of the National Council for Soviet Jews, regularly leading missions to visit refuseniks in the 1970s Soviet Bloc.

June has become best known since that time as a strong advocate of Jewish women’s issues. As President of the International Council of Jewish Women, June represented the organisation at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York. She remains involved today through her membership of the European Women’s Lobby and Women’s International Commission.

June is currently also a member of the Black Jewish Asian Forum, Life President of Jewish Childs Day, a trustee of the Kessler Foundation, Vice President of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Trustee of the Next Century Foundation and Chair of the Nahum Goldmann Felowship Committee.

Daniella Jaff Klein.

Daniella qualified as an attorney at one of South Africa’s largest law firms Bowman Gilfillan Inc in 2000. She helped set up South Africa’s first free university, CIDA City Campus where she managed the education programme for 500 students, established the mentorship programme and developed corporate relationships. In 2003 Daniella moved to London where she obtained a first class Masters degree in International Law at LSE focusing on the use of armed force in and by Israel. She worked as Communications and Events Director of New Israel Fund for 2 years before having two children. She is currently involved with research at the London School of Jewish Studies, looks after her children and remains passionate about the causes that New Israel Fund supports in Israel.

Jon Mendelsohn

Jon is a senior practitioner in public affairs, communications and business environment analysis. He is the Managing Director, LLM Communications and FD International Business Communications and Public Affairs. Jon has worked with major private sector companies and public sector agencies in the UK and across Europe. A former adviser to the Rt. Hon Tony Blair MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Jon has extensive political experience. Jon is a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of Policy Network, an international progressive think tank and network which also acts as the Permanent Secretariat to the Progressive Governance meetings. He serves as Treasurer of Progress, the UK political organization for Labor Party members and Trade Unionists.

Jon has had a long involvement in Anglo Jewry, and at present is Chairman of Labor Friends of Israel (LFI). Jon read politics at Leeds University.