About us
Zazim is the largest campaigning community in Israel. We are a movement of citizens, Arabs and Jews, working together for democracy, equality, and joint, active civic engagement. We are political- our campaigns target decision-makers and raise the hot topics on the public agenda; but we are not partisan- Zazim is an independent movement, brought together by shared values of human rights, combatting the occupation and racism, and social and environmental justice. Our primary vehicle is online tools that enable us to quickly reach a wide audience, and through which we initiate campaigns and actions both online and offline.
We believe that each and every persons’ voice is worth more than one ballot every few years, and that active and critical civic engagement is essential to any democracy. Our campaigns enable our movement activists to make their voices heard, engage and have an impact all year round during formative, decision-making moments. We are not connected to the government’s systems and don’t employ lobbyists in the halls of power, but rather are convinced that people power – when channeled in a focused and efficient manner – can change the reality on the ground.
Zazim is based on the OPEN work model, which has proven itself over and over to be effective in gaining influential victories of people power all over the world. Zazim is proud to be part of the global OPEN network, together with organizations like MoveOn in the United States, Jhatkaa in India, DeClic in Romania, Compact in Germany and so many others worldwide. Each OPEN organization acts independently in their respective countries for a better present and future. We make use of the shared professional knowledge and experience of other network organizations in order to create winning, impactful campaigns and to best serve our community.
The Team
Raluca Ganea
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Raluca is a campaigner and strategic advisor. Among other things, she worked for a number of years with the global campaign organization Avaaz.org and has a rich experience in leading public campaigns on social and political issues. Raluca has a BA in political science and philosophy from Tel Aviv University and is an Iyengar Yoga instructor.
Maayan Dak
Deputy Director
Maayan is a feminist activist, involved in campaigns to end the occupation, for asylum seekers’ rights, housing justice, and LGBTQ rights. While working at the Coalition of Women for Peace, Maayan led campaigns for women and human rights under occupation, including the flagship campaign “The Gun on the Kitchen Table”, the women’s security index and more. She has an BA in Jewish thoughts and an MA in Hebrew literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Saroj Elam
Finance and Operations Director
Saroj, born in India, is an activist with experience working at organizations for social change. Saroj worked for the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants for a number of years, amongst other things. Saroj has a BA in education and an MA in human resource management.
Eli Philip
Campaigns Director
Eli is a Jerusalem-based activist, where he is involved in grassroots anti-occupation work. Eli has a BA in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from Brandeis University. In his free time, Eli enjoys birding and hiking in nature.
Gilad Grossman
Spokesperson and media coordinator
Gilad was the legal journalist for Walla! and Ma׳ariv. Before writing about law, he was the education writer. In the past few years, he worked as the spokesperson for ACRI and for Yesh Din. He has a BA in communications and French culture.
Yonatan Zelnik
Technology Director
Yonatan is a programmer, researcher and social justice activist. He has worked for “Meturgatim,” a project about transparency in Facebook targeting for political ads. He is a student in Bar Ilan University’s masters program ‘Science, Technology, and Society’. His research is on the philosophy of information.
Karny Ben Yehuda
Campaigner
Karny is an activist for women’s rights and urban and environmental justice. Karny is a writer and editor. She has written for Time Out Magazine, where she covered social justice and urban affairs. She was one of the leaders of the fight for the Tel Aviv beach and a founder and director the group “Era (Awake),” which works to advance the rights of all women in Israel and Palestine.
Board
Ziv Stahl
Chairwoman of Board of Directors
Ziv is the director of the Research Department at the human rights organization Yesh Din. She has an MA in political science from Tel Aviv University
Yonit Naaman
Member of Board of Directors
Yonit is a writer and editor. Her book, Pining for the Tree Tops, was published in January 2015. She is a graduate of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership and has a PhD in Hebrew Literature from Ben Gurion University.
Nirit Moskovich
Member of Board of Directors
Nirit is the Director of Public Outreach at Ir Amim. Beforehand, she served as CEO of The Social Index and spokesperson for ACRI. Nirit has an MA in Public Policy.
Rawan Bisharat
Member of Board of Directors
Rawan has a BA in Education, Sociology and Anthropology from Haifa University. She joined Sadaka-Reut in 2010 and coordinated the organization’s youth program. In September 2015 she became a Co-Director of the organization. Rawan is also a board member of the nonprofit System Ali, a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Coalition Against Racism and chairwoman of the Academic Union in Nazareth.
Tammy Riklis
Member of Board of Directors
Tammy is a content editor. She manages and edits the independent website HaOkets. Previously, she worked for Haaretz.
Sarit Larry
Member of Board of Directors
Sarit is an activist and has a PhD in Philosophy from Boston College, where she also worked as a research and teaching Fellow. Her dissertation deals with the impact different narratives can have on public participation in civic political action. Sarit has worked as the co-CEO of the Mahapach-Taghir organization and the public outreach director at Gisha. Sarit teaches an MA course at the Ono Academic College. She also starred in the 2014 film, “The Kindergarten Teacher”.
Betty Benbenisti
Member of the Audit Committee
Betty is a campaigner and communications advisor. She has worked at the Van Leer institute in Jerusalem, Shatil and Sister- for Women in Israel. She founded and led the media team at Koah LaOvdim- Democratic Workers’ Organization. Her dissertation deals with social activism and independent online media.
Kholod Idres
Member of the Audit Committee
Kholod is a Co-Director of the Shared Society Department for Sikkuy. Between 2009-2019 she worked as ACRI’s coordinator for Education in Arab Society. Beforehand, she served as Co-Director of the nonprofit Mahapach-Taghir for social change by education and community empowerment. She is highly experienced in education, community building, and group facilitation. She has an MA in Gender Studies and a BA in Sociology and Human Resources from Bar Ilan University.
Ben Brandzel
Co-Founder
Ben is a global pioneer in digital campaigning and one of the leading professionals in the field. After he served as Advocacy Director at Moveon.org and as a campaigns and fundraising director for President Obama, Ben founded and served as CEO of OPEN, which supports and connects organizations like Zazim in 19 countries. As a American Jew, Ben is especially grateful for the chance, through Zazim, to support the struggle for justice for all people in the land which is holy to so many people.
Benjy Cook
Advisor and non-executive Board Member
Benjy was Zazim’s Technology Director until April 2020 and is very experienced in digital campaigns for social change, with a deep familiarity with the field both in Israel and worldwide. Benjy is a programmer, indie game developer and die hard gamer. An experienced developer for companies and startups, Benjy is also an active member of the open source project Blender and a lecturer for programming and games at Shenkar College.
Who funds us?
We are an independent organization that does not receive any funds from governments, political parties or corporations. We rely strictly on private donations. Our community and our campaigns depend on donations from members like you. In 2019, over 80% of our expenses were covered by small donations from members, showing the power that many small donations build. The rest of our budget comes from private foundations- the New Israel Fund and affiliated donors as well as the Rockefeller Foundation. Transparency is important to us, and you can learn more about our financial management at the Guidestar website.
We know that the support of our members is the only way to build a sustainable and successful movement.
In order to guarantee our independence and sustainability – join our family of supporters here.
Contact us
We would love to hear from you! You can contact us through our email address on contact@zazim.org.il and we will get back to you within 24 hours.
Before getting in touch, please look at our FAQ page- maybe you’ll find what you are looking for there
FAQs
- Click here, fill in your email address, and you will be removed immediately
- Please make sure to type your email address correctly, otherwise, we will not be able to remove you
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- Check which email you used to request that you be removed from our list. Also check the email address of your last email from us. If you have multiple email addresses, it’s possible that you removed one and not the others.
- In order to remove the correct email from our mailing list, click here.
- Please note, for technological reasons, removal may take up to 24 hours and in that time it’s possible you’ll receive another email from us. We’re sorry for your inconvenience.
- Usually, this type of problem happens when there is a temporary hitch or disconnect with the internet connection. If you tried a few times and it still doesn’t work, please let us know. Our staff will fix the problem as soon as possible. In order to help us, please send us a message with the following details:
- A clear description of the problem:
- What is the notification error that you received?
- What type of device were you using (computer, cellphone)?
- If you were using a cellphone, what type? (iPhone + model/ Android)
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- Through our weekly survey and recommendations from Zazim activists, we learn which issues are the most important to our community members. Amongst the many pressing issues, we must unfortunately choose only a few to focus on in order to create winning campaigns.
- We invite you to join the thousands of Zazim members who’ve opened their own campaigns on “Zazim in the Community”. This way, even if we can’t run a campaign on the topic most important to you, you can.
- It takes just 5 minutes to open a campaign on Zazim in the Community. Once you open one, other community activists can join your cause. Click here to start your campaign
- Unfortunately, we are unable to accept donations by check or bank transfer from non-Israeli banks. The fees are too high.
- If you live outside of Israel, please donate via credit card or Paypal. American citizens can also donate through the New Israel Fund at this link, and your donation will be recognized for tax deduction purposes in the US.
- If you live abroad but have an Israeli bank account, you can donate via check or bank transfer with the following details:
- It’s possible that our emails are going to your Spam folder, or, if you have Gmail, to the Promotions folders and not to your primary inbox. In order to resolve this, add our email address: zuzu@zazim.org.il to you contacts list
- In order to make 100% sure that our messages will get to you, join one of our recent campaigns listed on our homepage
Join our team
Currently we are not looking for new staff- updates will be posted to this webpage