Tom is the Program Manager, Globalization and Sovereignty Cluster at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He holds a first degree in cinema and television and a second degree in political science, both from Tel Aviv University. From 2005 to 2010 he worked for three organizations: HaMoked: The Center for the Defense of the Individual; Physicians for Human Rights—Israel; and Worker’s Hotline. He later served for several years as the spokesperson for the Abraham Fund Initiatives and director of the communications department of Adalah—The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. Between 2010 and 2012 he was a member of the board of the Worker’s Hotline, and since 2014 he has been a member of the executive board of Amram—Amutat Ruah Hamizrah. Tom Mehager is a Mizrahi activist, a blogger on the HaOketz website, and a columnist on the Middle East Eye website.

Tom will be a fellow during the fall semester of 2019. He will spend his time at Harvard to formulate, jointly with Zochrot, a curriculum focused on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Employing the lens of settler colonialism, the curriculum will centralize an analysis of Ashkenazi privileges. Offered in three bilingual options, the courses will be a tool for teachers, moderators, and activists to transform public narratives.