The Mandel Foundation–Israel is pleased to announce the appointment of Chen Artzi Sror as the director of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture, which is entering its sixth year of operation under the auspices of the Mandel Leadership Institute.
A journalist, educator, and social entrepreneur, Chen holds managerial, writing, and editing positions at the daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot, in parallel to her work at the Mandel Leadership Institute. Her writing focuses on Israeli society, culture and Jewish culture, politics, and women's rights. Chen is a graduate of the Ofakim honors program at Tel Aviv University, where she specialized in Jewish philosophy. Her book, The New Religious Women: When Religious Feminism Meets Social Media (Yediot Books, 2018, Hebrew), tells the story of Orthodox feminist women and the trailblazing role they are playing in the religious Zionist community through their online activities.
Chen Artzi Sror (Photo: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)
Chen herself is a graduate of Cohort 3 of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture, which aims to contribute to the vitality and diversity of Jewish culture in Israel by investing in leaders in education, culture, and community. Launched in 2017, the program recruits prominent and experienced leaders from a diverse range of fields in Israeli arts, culture, and community – including theater, visual arts, dance, music, writing, journalism, and more – who are committed to enriching Jewish culture in Israel and want to learn alongside people with worldviews, professional backgrounds and interpretations of Jewish life that differ from their own.
Chen was named permanent director of the program in April 2022, after serving as the director of its fifth cohort.
Mishael Zion, the founding director of the program, is continuing on as a faculty member of the program and will be taking on additional roles in the Mandel Leadership Institute.
