Board Members

Prof. Eitan Kerem is Chairman of the Pediatric Division of Hadassah Hospitals in Jerusalem and a world-renowned leader in the treatment and research of pediatric respiratory diseases. Prof. Kerem is the principal investigator of many national and international multi-center clinical trials and author of over 170 papers in the field of pulmonology. He has been at the forefront of building bridges to peace through medicine, sharing his expertise with Palestinian colleagues and promoting professional exchanges between Palestinians and Israelis.
Prof. Kerem initiated and established the center for children with chronic diseases at Hadassah ‘Har Hatzofim’, that uniquely relates to physical and mental issues in the treatment process for both the child and his family. He has been a leader in promoting the rights and proper care of these children.
Expanding his vision to the national level, Prof. Kerem currently serves as the chairman of “Goshen”.

Dr. Manuel Katz graduated in Buenos Aires .Specialist in Pediatrics. Has a Master in Public Health from Ben Gurion University, and an Academic fellowship in Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University in USA. During the last 43 years is working as a primary care pediatrician, medical director and teacher. Was President of the Israel Pediatric association, the Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association, and was the European delegate to the International Pediatric Association on his capacity as the European Pediatric Society Secretary General. Currently serves at the Council of the European Confederation of Primary care Pediatricians (ECPCP), and the international Society of Social Pediatrics (ISSOP). From 2010 is the President of the Global Initiative for Consensus in Pediatrics and Child Care (CIP).
At the past Dr. Katz was working at the different managing positions at Maccabi Health Services as District Medical Director, and at Clalit Health Services as the Soroka Medical Center Deputy Director and Director of Ambulatory Pediatrics.
Dr. Katz is in charge of the Maternal and Child health services at the Negev district at the Ministry of Health and chairs the National task force on domestic violence.
Dr. Katz has a position at Ben Gurion University teaching Risk management in medicine and is Associate Professor in Pediatrics at Maimonides University in Argentina.
As President of Goshen, Dr. Katz is overseeing Goshen’s staff strategic direction and operations and working with the Board to further Goshen’s mission. He is charged with recruiting new partners and representing Goshen to government, philanthropic, organizational and international partners. Professor Frank Oberklaid is the Foundation Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children’s Hospital – Melbourne, Co-Group Leader of Child Health Policy, Equity and Translation at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and an Honorary Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Oberklaid is an internationally recognised researcher, author, lecturer and consultant, and has written two books and over 200 scientific publications on various aspects of paediatrics. For many years he was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health; and remains on the editorial boards of a number of international journals. He has chaired or been a member of many national health committees, expert working groups and advisory boards.
Professor Oberklaid is especially interested in prevention and early intervention, and the use of research findings to inform public policy and service delivery. His clinical and research training is in child development and behaviour, and his work as a specialist paediatrician is with children who have developmental and behavioural problems.

Prof. Asher Ben-Arieh is the Director of the Haruv Institute (R.A).
Asher Ben-Arieh, PhD, is a faculty member at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and since 2007 he is the Head of the Joseph J. Schwartz MA Programs in early childhood and non-profit management.
Prof. Ben-Arieh served as the project director and editor of the annual State of the Child in Israel – a Statistical Abstract since 1990. He initiated and coordinated the multi-national project “Measuring and Monitoring Children’s Well-Being.” He was among the founding members of the International Society for Children Indicators (ISCI) and is a co-chair.
Prof. Ben-Arieh is one of the leading international experts on social indicators, particularly as they relate to child well-being. He has published extensively on the politics of social policy and child well-being in Israel, and on child well-being indicators and its measurement. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the Child Indicators Research (CIR) journal and the Children Well Being: Research and Indicators book series. Both are publications of the Springer publishing house publications.

Rotem Azar Eliyahu specializes in service development for children at risk and has over 20 years of experience, with an emphasis on services for early childhood between the ages of birth to 6 years.
Rotem has a rich record in working at a multidisciplinary environment and in cooperation with various governmental and municipal systems; in managing chance processes; in designing and managing evaluation and supervision processes; in leading complex programs and projects and in strategic planning.
Today, Rotem is the head of the Infancy Project, that advances a municipal comprehensive model for early childhood, in partnership with the Rashi Foundation, the daycare department at the labor and welfare ministry and Joint Ashalim.

Prof. Mati Berkovitch is a Pediatrician and a Specialist in medical pharmacology. A member of the academic staff at the faculty of medicine, Tel-Aviv University. Deputy- dean for education matters
for Tel-Aviv University at ‘Assaf Harofe’ Medical center. Served as the chairman of the Pediatrics Israeli Association and chairman of the Israeli Clinical Pediatric Association.
Dr. Rinat Cohen is a Pediatrician. Educated at the Technion Medical School. Completed paediatric residency at Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer Hospital. Specializes in diagnosing and treating ADHD in children. She had lead the pediatric and child health at ‘Maccabi’ Health services. Since 2012, She is the head of the primary care division at ‘Meuhedet’. Dr. cohen is the Initiator and leader of ‘well child care Visits’ Program.
Dr. Doron Dushnitzky is a specialist in pediatrics.
He serves as the Head of Medical Systems Development Department in the Medical Division of Leumit Health Services. A specialist in pediatrics and a masters degree in Health Administration. A certified ADHD physician by MOH, a member of the National Committees of Child Health & Pediatrics and Community Health, a representative of Leumit HS in the steering committee of the National Quality Measures Program. An active clinical instructor and lecturer in the CME school of Sackler Medical School in Tel Aviv University. Serves as the coordinator of Child Development’ Autism and ADHD in Leumit HS. Represents the pediatric perspective in health policy decisions of Leumit HS, promotes technological innovation in medicine. Serves as the pediatric coordinator as a staff member of the Department of Family Medicine in Leumit HS. Dr. Dushnitzky actively promotes the status and prestige of community-based pediatrics in Israel mainly via the Israeli Pediatric Association. An active volunteer in  a non-profit association-  Midaat , committed to advancing public health and preventive medicine.

Meir Elmaliah is Deputy director general of the Rashi Foundation. Specializes in innovative service development in the civil society and the third sector. Started his career as an educator in the southern town of Dimona, eventually becoming the principal of a local high school. He then moved into local government and specialized in financial planning and management. Meir held a number of positions in local and regional authorities, including Executive Secretary of the Dimona Municipality, Treasurer of Dimona and Director of the Foundation for the Development of Dimona. He has also been the Treasurer for Lachish Regional Council and for Savion Local Council. Meir has directed the Foundation’s financial division since 1999 and was appointed Senior VP in charge of operations in 2003.

Ron Finkel is President of Hadassah Australia, the chair of the Arava-Australia partnership and the Immediate Past President of Ameinu Australia.  He is active I a leadership capacity  in the Australian Jewish community.
Dr. Eli Gazala was an active partner and founder in the construction and planning of Child Health Center of Clalit Health Services, Beer-Sheva and served as its first Medical Director for more than 20 years. Completed fellowship in General Academic Pediatrics and MPH degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Specialized in “ADHD diagnosis and treatment”. Served as a senior staff of the Division of Pediatrics at Soroka Hospital. Served as a lecturer, Tutor and examiner at the Faculty of Health Sciences of Ben-Gurion University, for Israeli medical students as well as medical students from the International Medical School at Columbia University in New York.

Dr. Gazala has been active in research in the Department of Public Health and the Division Pediatrics. Main research topics: Nutrition, Vitamin A deficiency and asthma. Active in the research network of Hipa (IPROS) and a member of the grant approval committee. He is a member of the Borad of the Israel Ambulatory Pediatrics (Hipa), in charge of academic and research affairs. Up till recently served as the Pediatric Coordinator of the School of Continuing Studies at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University. Member of the American Society for Ambulatory Pediatrics (APA) and the Alumni Association of the Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Zachi Grossman is a primary care pediatrician. He has graduated Hadassah medical school in Jerusalem in 1982, and his pediatric residency in Hadassah Hospital in Tel Aviv in 1991. Dr. Grossman established IPROS, the Israel Pediatric Research in Office Setting Network in 1995, and is currently the director of the Network.
Dr. Grossman was president of the Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association, and today he is the Secretary General of the Israel Pediatric Association.
Dr. Grossman has published more than 30 papers in international journals and chaired various Israeli guideline committees on the following issues: acute otitis media, community acquired pneumonia’ urinary tract infection, obesity.
Dr. Grossman is currently the scientifi director of the European Pediatric Research in Ambulatory Setting Network affiliated with the European Academy of Pediatrics.
Prof. Jacob Kuint is the Director of Pediatrics, Maccabi Healthcare Services since 2012. Professor of Pediatrics, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University. Specialist in Neonatology and author of 120 articles in this field. Head of the Neonatal Department, Sheba Medical Center (1993-2012). Community Pediatrician (Maccabi) since 1991.
Prof. Basil (Boaz) Porter Has been active throughout his career in the field of Community Pediatrics. Was a founding member of the Faculty for Health Sciences of Ben Gurion University, and was responsible for the first teaching clinic for Community Pediatrics, which he established in Ofakim, where medical students and pediatric residents were exposed to the unique problems encountered in community settings. He later established the Child Development Center in the Soroka University Medical Center, and studied the field of Behavioral Developmental Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center, under the leadership of Prof Barry Zuckerman.
He was responsible nationally for the field of pediatrics in Maccabi Health Services and published the first extensive study of Community based pediatrics in Israel, where the need for widening the role of the community pediatrician was documented.
Prof. Porter is one of the central figures in establishing ‘Goshen’ and he continues to accompany ‘Goshen’ today as a member of the Board, lecturer and researcher.

Professor Mary Rudolf is head of Population Health at Bar Ilan Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee. She arrived in Israel in 2012 from Leeds, UK where she was Professor of Child Health. As a practicing paediatrician, she specialised in the areas of child nutrition, growth and development. She is an international authority on childhood obesity; her HENRY programme (Health Exercise Nutrition for the Really Young) is delivered in 54 regions of the UK and has been introduced across Israel by the Israeli Ministry of Health in a 5 year plan. Professor Rudolf expertise also lies in medical education. She has authored three undergraduate and postgraduate textbooks which have been translated into ten languages, and has run Educating the Educator courses internationally. In light of her academic contributions, she received a prestigious distinction award from the UK National Health Service. She is Principal investigator on 22 grants and has 82 publications in peer reviewed journals.

Ilona Sahar is the Director of the Pharmadom Foundation- a french foundation focused in the medicine and health fields. She specializes in formulating a results-oriented policy and devising effective strategies of implementation, in the non-profit sector. In her previous position as Director of Early Childhood and Healthcare at Rashi Foundation,  She Lead Rashi’s all healthcare related projects and, since July 2015, also the Early Childhood Project, a primary focus of Rashi’s current endeavor. As manager of healthcare projects, she initiated, developed and implemented projects and partnerships with the Ministry of Health, the Sick Funds, philanthropic partners and the healthcare industry. As manager of Early Childhood, she lead the team developing the strategic plan for Rashi’s activity in this area and forged strategic partnerships with additional NGO organizations and philanthropic funds.

Prof. Eli Somekh is Head of the Pediatric Division and the infectious and immunologic diseases unit at the Wolfson Medical Center. Chairman of the Israeli Association of Pediatrics, Member of the advisory board for vaccinations at the Ministry of Health. Member Council and The Scientific Board, European Pediatric Association. Operates a Vaccine Education and consultation Center  at the Wolfson Medical Center.


Prof. Jacob Urkin is the Director of the Child Health center at ‘Clalit Health Services’ in Ofakim. Serves as a Tipat Halav pediatrician in the south. Head of the ‘Mother and Child’ MPH program at Ben-Gurion University and a senior lecturer at the child division in Soroka Hospital. Head of the pediatrician unit in the division of community health, at the health science faculty in Beer-Sheva.