Oct 30, 2024: The UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies is pleased to announce that the premier recipient of the Diane & Guilford Glazer Foundation Distinguished Fellowship is Rami Hod, Israeli public-policy specialist and social justice and education lecturer and commentator.

"After a decade in leadership roles within Israel’s civil society and policy landscape, I am honored to join UCLA's Nazarian Center for Israel Studies as the inaugural Diane and Guilford Glazer Distinguished Fellow. I view this fellowship as a valuable opportunity to reflect, think, and write about what I see as a core challenge for Israeli democracy: rebuilding education for democracy and equality as the foundation of both formal and informal education, and as a top policy priority for civil and political actors. I am deeply grateful to the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center and the Glazer Foundation for this incredible opportunity. I am confident that the Center’s rich and diverse intellectual community will contribute significantly to my work, and I am equally committed to contributing to the Center's mission of fostering a meaningful, nuanced, and open discussion about Israel and the region—an effort that is more essential now than ever." –Rami Hod

The Distinguished Fellowship offers a stipend of $50,000 per quarter to an expert with hands-on experience in contemporary public policy issues of concern to Israel and the wider world. During his 2024–2025 residency at UCLA, Hod will engage in policy-relevant research, participate in public events and conferences, and compare and exchange best practices of public policy in Israel and the US with the UCLA and wider Los Angeles intellectual communities.

Hod was selected for his extensive on-the-ground experience establishing programs that deal with policy, governance, and leadership development to strengthen Israel’s democratic camp and democratic foundation. He is currently the Executive Director of the Berl Katznelson Center (BKC), an Israeli think-and-do tank, promoting social justice, peace and equality through public policy and educational programs. While providing regular commentary to Israel’s mainstream media and major publications, Hod has concurrently established the National Taskforce to Safeguard Israel’s Public Education, initiated the 100 Days Plan for Israel's Democracy—a comprehensive blueprint of major policy programs for Israel after the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul—and served on the public Directorate of Israel’s National Social Services (Bituach Leumi) Council, which consults the Social Services Minister on key policy issues. He holds an MA in Sociology from Ben Gurion University in the Negev.

Hod’s research for the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center will focus on the fundamental inequality underlying Israel's education system, and how it plays a crucial role in the erosion of the country's democratic values. In the heated discourse surrounding the recent judicial overhaul attempt in Israel, much attention is given to the country's longtime democratic backsliding, but Hod asserts that the role of Israel’s education system therewithin is hardly discussed. His project first seeks to analyze this relationship between democratic values and the structure of education in Israel and then propose a new paradigm to guide the country's education policy, including practical policy steps to restore the teaching of democratic values across both formal and informal education frameworks. Hod makes the case that the current unprecedented civil awakening in Israel and the attentiveness of the Israeli public to new ideas is a rare, historical opportunity to push forward such new policy directions.