Looking Ahead to 2026: A Conversation with NIF Leadership

SPEAKERS

Mickey Gitzin is the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the New Israel Fund. Mickey served as the Executive Director of the New Israel Fund in Israel from 2017-2025. Leading Israeli publications such as the Marker and Yedioth Ahronoth describe Mickey as a leading figure in the field of defending Israeli democracy and social change. Prior to joining NIF, he was the founding director of Israel Hofsheet (Be Free Israel), a leading grassroots organization fighting for religious freedom in Israel. Previously, Mickey served as a city council member in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, a spokesperson for MK Ilan Gilon (Meretz), and the Associate Director of Festival BeShekel, an organization advancing arts and culture in Israel’s geographic and socioeconomic periphery. He also served as a shaliach (emissary) in South Bend, Indiana for the Jewish Agency for Israel. Mickey holds a master’s in public policy from the University College-London, where he was a Research Fellow in the Israeli–Palestinian Atkin Fellowship, and a BA in International Relations and Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Idit Klein (she/her) is a national leader for social change with more than 30 years of experience in the non-profit justice sector. From 2001 to 2025, she served as the founding CEO of Keshet. Idit built Keshet from a small, local Boston organization into a national force with offices in six states. Under her leadership, Keshet supported tens of thousands of rabbis, educators, and other Jewish leaders to make LGBTQ+ equality a communal value and priority for action. Idit also spearheaded leadership development programs for queer Jewish teens and mobilized Jewish communities nationwide to fight for LGBTQ+ rights. Additionally, she served as the executive producer of the documentary film, Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School. Prior to leading Keshet, Idit worked in the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement and social justice sector in Israel, including at Shatil. She was a leader in the Israeli LGBTQ+ community and helped envision the Jerusalem Open House. A magna cum laude graduate of Yale University, Idit earned her Master’s in Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a focus on social justice education. Idit publishes frequently in the Jewish and LGBTQ+ press and has been honored by multiple organizations including the Jewish Women’s Archive, Brandeis University’s Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership, the Safety Respect Equity Network/JFNA, and The Forward as one of its ‘Forward 50,’ a list of American Jews who have made enduring contributions to public life. The granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Idit understands their resilience and steadfast hope as the foundation for her justice work and faith in a better world. She lives in Boston with her family.