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Advisory Board

Debra Berman

Debra is a former diplomat for the U.S. State Department, serving in Peru, Venezuela, Washington D.C., Germany and Israel.  After resigning from government service, Debra became an active supporter of Jewish Educational Outreach programs.  Debra is a Board member of the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a Washington D.C. based think tank educating Congress on Islamism (radical Islam) in America as well as areas of mutual U.S./Israel interest. She is also a board member of Aish HaTorah, Maryland.  Debra now lives in Potomac, Maryland with her husband, Dennis.   If you ask Debra, her most exciting and fulfilling experiences to date are being a wife to Denny and a grandmother to eight of the most amazing, scrumptious, fabulous, sweet, and wonderful grandchildren in the world.

Bob Diener

Bob is currently President of getaroom.com. After receiving his law degree in 1982 from Cornell Law School, Bob practiced securities and corporate law with the law firm of   Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. He later founded, headed and sold several travel companies including Travel Mart, Fly N Save Travel and Travelers Choice. In 1991 he co-founded, together with his Cornell Law School colleague Dave Litman Hotel Reservations Network, which became hotels.com and went  public in early 2000. The Company was merged with Interactive Corp and Expedia and is now the world’s leading online hotel booking service.

As a leading travel industry expert, Bob is a frequent source for news organizations including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, and CNN as well as a recurrent guest on hundreds of major radio stations across the country including WABC New York, WSB Atlanta, and KGO San Francisco. Bob is a regular guest on many television programs including Bloomberg, NBC Morning News and Fox News.

Bob is active with many organizations and is a founder of Mt Sinai Hospital, Hillel Community Day School in North Miami, The Miami Children’s Museum and The Miami Children’s Hospital. Bob is on the National Board of Directors of Israel Bonds, and is a past North America New Leadership Chairman. Bob is the immediate past Chairman of the Dade County Aipac campaign and serves on the Aipac National Board of Directors. Bob is also on the International Board of Directors of Aish Hatorah and a member of the South Florida Board of Directors. Bob with his wife Michelle founded the new Nativ program at Hillel Community Day School, which integrates Judaic studies and specialized education for dyslexic students.

shmuel katz

Dr. Shmuel Katz was born in Debrecen, Hungary and was raised in Jerusalem, Israel.  He served as an officer in the Israeli army during the Six Day War (1967) where he decided to become a doctor.  He enrolled in the University of Milan's Medical School and graduated Summa cum Laude.  Shortly thereafter, he gained extensive trauma experience while serving during the Yom Kippur War (1973).  Dr. Katz further enhanced his formal education by obtaining degrees of CS and MS from the University of Tel Aviv. Dr. Katz is double-boarded in Surgery, a Fellow of the Israeli Surgical Society and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is a member of multiple other medical societies.

Dr. Katz is currently the Senior VP and past Chairman of the Executive Board of the Greater Miami Hebrew Academy; the President of the Greater Miami chapter of Friends of the IDF; on the Board of Trustees of The Shul of Bal-Harbour; a member of the international Board of Bar Ilan University, StandWithUs, HonestReporting and has played a key role on multiple additional committees both in the United States and abroad.

In order to make relevant information concerning Israel and the West readily available to the masses, Shmuel and his wife Evelyn have sponsored and Shmuel has personally helped edit, publications of multiple books, pamphlets and DVDs, in multiple languages.

Len Leader

After spending 25 years successfully building industry-leading information technology and Internet companies, Len Leader is now pursuing his philanthropic interests which are focused on working with organizations that promote Jewish education, inform the world about the growing threat of radical Islam and help ensure a strong and secure State of Israel.

Mr. Leader is an information technology pioneer and one of America's most successful high technology executives. He was named President of AOL Time Warner Ventures in 2000 and President of AOL Ventures in 1998 after serving nine years as AOL's Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. As the head of AOL and Time Warner corporate venture capital operations, Mr. Leader oversaw the investment in and portfolio management of over 30 companies. Under his leadership as AOL Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Leader helped manage the company's growth from $20 million in revenues and 100 employees in 1989 to more than $2.5 billion in revenues and 9,500 employees in 1998. During that time, Mr. Leader led efforts to fund the company's growth by securing several billion dollars of equity and debt, equipment lease and real property financing and also played an integral role in AOL's active acquisition strategy. In 1992, he guided AOL's initial public offering when the company had a market value of $65 million and helped the company increase its market value to $29 billion in 1998. Before joining AOL in 1989, Mr. Leader was Vice President for Finance for Legent Corp., a publicly traded software and services company. Prior to that, he was Chief Financial Officer of Morino Inc., a publicly traded systems software company, helping the company become a leading independent systems software supplier. He oversaw the company's initial public offering in 1986. Prior to entering the information technology industry, Mr. Leader had a career in public accounting with Price Waterhouse, specializing in auditing and advising emerging, high growth technology-based companies. In 1998, Mr. Leader was named Chief Financial Officer of the Year by the Northern Virginia Technology Counsel. In 1999 he was awarded the Albert Einstein Technology Medal. Mr. Leader graduated with honors from the University of Baltimore and is a Certified Public Accountant.

In addition to previously serving on many publicly traded and privately owned company and not-for-profit organization boards, Mr. Leader is currently on the Boards of Directors of The Israel Project, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Endowment for Middle East Truth, is an advisor to Aish HaTorah, and is on the Board of Trustees of the Flint Hill School. Mr. Leader is a Trustee of The Leader Family Foundation and The Leader Family Charitable Trust. Mr. Leader resides in Northern Virginia with his wife Michelle and their two sons, Brandon and Jared.

Sidney Mathias

Sidney Mathias is currently the State Representative for the 53^rd District of the Illinois General Assembly, having served since 1999.  He is the Minority Spokesperson on both the Local Government Committee and the Mass Transit Committee.  From 1991-1999, Sid served as the Village President of Buffalo Grove, Il.  From 1988-1991, he served as a Village Trustee.

Sid’s involvement in the Jewish community is longstanding.  He was the President of the Northwest Suburban Jewish Community Center from 1986-1988 and served as a Director of the JCC from 1988-1999.  Sid has been on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago since 2004.

Sid was born and raised in Chicago, went to Roosevelt University for his undergraduate degree and received his Law Degree from Depaul University.  He has been a practicing attorney for over 30 years.  He currently lives in Buffalo Grove, Il with his wife Rita.  His two sons and their families, including 5 grandchildren, live in New Jersey and New York.

Adam Milstein

Adam Milstein was born and raised in Haifa, Israel. In 1971, at an age of nineteen, Adam joined the Israeli Defense Forces.  He was an active soldier in the Yom Kippur War of October 1973 and served under General Ariel Sharon with the army units that crossed the Suez Canal into Egypt and surrounded the enemy armies.  After the war Adam was released with honor from the IDF with the rank of Sergeant Major.

Adam graduated in 1978 from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.  Adam arrived to the US in 1981 and in 1983 earned his MBA with a major in Entrepreneurship from University of Southern California.

After graduating USC, Milstein began a successful career in commercial real estate, forming an investment company, Hager Pacific Properties, with two partners. Hager Pacific Properties and its related entities now owns and manages several million square feet of commercial and industrial property throughout the United States.

As Adam’s company grew more successful, he began to devote more of his time and financial support to community and philanthropic organizations.  Today he focuses most of his efforts with organizations training and educating Jewish students and young professionals to be future leaders, as well as with international humanitarian organizations.

Adam is a founding member and on the Board of Directors of the Israeli Leadership Council.  He is also involved with AIPAC, Hillel, StandWithUs, The Israel Christian Nexus and many other organizations.

Milstein lives with his wife Gila in Encino, California.