Integrating Arab youth into Israeli society and the economy

Safa Aburabia holds a PhD from Ben-Gurion University. She was a postdoctoral fellow in Anthropology at Harvard University from 2016 to 2018. Her primary areas of expertise are Anthropology and gender; feminist discourse in the Arab and Islamic world; and oral history, with a focus on Bedouin collective memory and documenting silenced voices. At the Mandel Centre for Leadership in the Negev, Safa developed and delivered leadership training, working with mayors and heads of local councils, and senior officials in the civil, public and business sectors, while also teaching part-time at Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and Sapir College. She joined Yad Hanadiv in 2019.

Athar is Senior Programme Officer in the Arab Community Programme. She has extensive experience in managing social programmes, developing policy and strategy, and working with local authorities and government ministries. Most recently, she managed the Operations and Maintenance, Safety Systems Division at Israel Railways, where she also established the organisation’s community relations department. Previously, she directed social programmes for children and at-risk youth, as well as employment rehabilitation programmes at the Municipality of Tira and Beit Cham Association. Athar is a graduate of the Mandel Programme for Leadership in Social Change. She holds a BA in Social Work, an MA in Non-Profit Management and Leadership from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an MBA from Bar-Ilan University. She joined Yad Hanadiv in 2025.

Naama is Programme Coordinator for Arab Community. Before joining Yad Hanadiv she worked in a variety of non-profits and social change organisations; among them Chotam, as head of Marketing and Knowledge Management, and later as Coordinator of Programmes in the Joint’s Masad Disabilities programme, which includes Masira – a programme for advancing individuals with disabilities in the Arab Community in Israel. More recently, Naama managed the Academic Preparatory programmes for the Azrieli College of Engineering in Jerusalem. The ‘mechina’ preparatory programmes give access to higher education to students and first generation students who would otherwise not be eligible for admission. Naama has a degree in Interior Design and is a graduate of a course in group facilitation. She joined Yad Hanadiv in 2022.