Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004, after serving on the Ontario Court of Appeal for 12 years. She practiced civil and criminal litigation until she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court in 1976. She subsequently chaired the Ontario Law Reform Commission and the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
Justice Abella was the sole Commissioner and author of the 1984 Royal Commission Report on Equality in Employment, creating the term and concept of “employment equity.” She was the Boulton Visiting Professor at McGill Law School from 1988 to 1992, where she taught jurisprudence, administrative law, and constitutional law. She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in classical piano. She has served as a judge for the Giller Literary Prize, has written more than 90 articles and written or co-edited four books on a wide variety of legal topics. In addition, she chaired the Rhodes Selection Committee for Ontario. She holds 39 honorary degrees. Justice Abella is married to Canadian history professor Irving Abella and they have two sons, Jacob and Zachary, both lawyers. She is the first Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada and retired from the Court in 2021.
Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat is Senior Counsel at Covington and Burling LLP, where he heads the firm’s international practice. He currently serves as Special Advisor to the Secretary of State on Holocaust issues. During a decade and a half of public service in three U.S. administrations, Ambassador Eizenstat held a number of key senior positions, most recently as Ambassador to the European Union, Under Secretary of Commerce, Under Secretary of State, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton.
He was a domestic policy adviser to President Carter and a staff member of the Johnson White House. As Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues in the Clinton administration, Ambassador Eizenstat negotiated major agreements with European countries for restitution of property and other compensatory payments resulting from Nazi atrocities. He is published often in the international press and prestigious journals, and is the author of three books — Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II, and The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces Are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and Its Relationship with the United States and President Carter: The White House Years. He has received nine honorary degrees and civilian citations from the governments of the United States, France (Legion of Honor), Germany, Austria, Israel and Belgium. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Ambassador Eizenstat is a cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard Law School. He was married to the late Frances Eizenstat and has two sons and eight grandchildren.
The Honorable Dan Meridor recently served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy in the Israeli Cabinet. He served as Senior Partner at Haim Zadok and Co., a leading Israeli legal firm. Mr. Meridor was Minister of Strategic Affairs until February 2003. He served as the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset from 1999 to 2001, as Minister of Finance from 1996 to 1997, and as the Minister of Justice from 1988 to 1992.
From 1982 to 1984, Mr. Meridor served as the Secretary of the Cabinet under Prime Ministers Menahem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir. A member of the Knesset between 1984 and 2003, and again from 2009 to 2013, Mr. Meridor served on the Committee of Constitution, Law and Justice, and on the Ethics Committee. He is Captain (res.) in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and fought as a tank commander in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. He served as Chairman of the Board of the Israel Museum and as Chairman of the Public Council of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and of The Truman Center for Peace and he is the President of Israel Council on Foreign Relations. From 2003 until he joined the Cabinet in 2009, Mr. Meridor served as Chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation. He is married to Dr. Leora Meridor, an economist, and they have four children.
Professor Amitai Ziv, M.D., M.H.A. is the Founder and Director of MSR — the Israel Center for Medical Simulation and Deputy Director of Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer. Influenced by his training as a combat pilot in the Israeli Air Force, he has become a world leader in the field of simulation-based medical education, which aims to improve patient safety.
Simulation is used to enhance the clinical and communication skills of healthcare professionals – training them to make better decisions for their patients, enhancing teamwork, improving responses in emergency settings and extracting invaluable lessons from past errors — without endangering real patients. Professor Ziv is broadly involved in humanitarian initiatives and in developing national training and evaluation programs in collaboration with other social and medical organizations, and has advised the Israeli Defense Forces Medical Corps’ on preparedness for battlefield conditions. Medical centers and organizations around the world have sought him out — including the Mayo Clinic, Case Western Reserve University, McGill University, Albert Einstein Medical Center (Brazil), and the U.S. Department of the Army. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and briefed the Department of Homeland Security on the use of simulation in medical emergency preparedness. He is married to Dr. Margalit Ziv, an education specialist, and they have three children.
Professor Ziv was the recipient of The Charles Bronfman Prize in 2007.
*Of blessed memory
James Wolfensohn has had a long and distinguished career in business, finance and public service, focusing primarily on investment banking and the economic development of emerging market economies. He currently serves as Chairman of Wolfensohn & Company LLC, a private investment firm that advises corporations and governments.
He was Chairman of the Citigroup International Advisory Board from 1995-2005, and an adviser to Citigroup’s senior management on global strategy and international matters. From 1995 to 2005, Sir James served as the ninth President of the World Bank Group. During his ten years in that capacity, he returned the spotlight to the Bank’s true purpose: fighting global poverty and helping the world’s poor forge a better life. He has participated in a wide range of cultural and volunteer activities throughout his life, particularly, the performing arts. He established the Wolfensohn Center, a research initiative at the Brookings Institution centered on global poverty.
