Center for Applied Research at Tel Aviv University
The Center for Applied Research on Risks to Democracy at Tel Aviv University aims to promote innovative and multidisciplinary research focused on the key challenges that threaten the stability and functioning of democracy, in Israel and around the world. The Center was founded with the understanding that democracy is not a fixed and self-evident entity, but a dynamic system that depends on public trust and its ability to adapt its institutions to a changing reality.
By combining theoretical research with practical application, the center strives to be a central academic focus for critical discussion and the development of sustainable solutions to strengthen democracy, and to promote informed public discourse based on principles of tolerance, equality, and the rule of law.
The center operates under the auspices of Tel Aviv University and strives to be a diverse academic home for researchers. The center's activities are made possible thanks to the generous contribution of the Shusterman Foundation, which has supported the center since its first day.
The center focuses on identifying social, political, and economic processes that undermine social cohesion and trust in state institutions, with the goal of developing practical tools that will strengthen the principles of democratic governance and ensure its proper functioning. Alongside empirical research and comparative policy, the center works to develop practical responses to the challenges facing Israeli democracy, while critically examining existing institutions and proposing innovative models for effective democratic governance.
Center staff
Prof. Eyal Benvenisti
Academic Director of the Center
Attorney Rachel Edri Hulata
Director of Research and Partnerships
Fellowship Team and Fellows
Dr. Raouia Avorbia
Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the School of Law at Sapir Academic College
Mr. Roi Maor
Co-Founder and Director of Policy Development of the 121 Association - Engine for Social Change
Prof. Yuval Feldman
Professor of Legal Research named after Maury Laszrop at the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Yuli Tamir
President of Beit Berl Academic College
Dr. Yaakov Ben Shemesh
Senior Lecturer in Public Law at the Ono Academic College
Professor Nissim Mizrahi
Full Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University
Prof. Issachar (Issi) Rosen Zvi
Professor of Law and Director of the Edmond Y. Safra Institute for Ethics at Tel Aviv University
Prof. Hanna Lerner
Professor of Political Science, Government and International Relations at Tel Aviv University
Attorney Tali Nir
Social entrepreneur, lawyer and journalist
Prof. Assaf Sharon
Professor of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University and head of its PPE program
The research team
Mr. Tal Elovitz
Consultant for the advancement of public policy, specializing in providing creative solutions in the world of public policy.
Attorney Ira Hardy
Attorney in the Litigation Department
B. Horowitz & Co.
Dr. Nadiv Mordechai
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Minerva Center for the Rule of Law in Extreme Situations, University of Haifa
Dr. Rachel Friedman
Senior Lecturer at the Buchman Faculty of Law
Prof. Itay Bar Siman Tov
Member of the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Amichai Cohen
He holds a Doctor of Laws degree from Yale University School of Law, USA.
Prof. Oren Pizmoni Levy
Associate Professor at the Department of International and Intercultural Studies at the School of Education, Columbia University
Prof. Gideon Rahat
Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Prof. Tamar Hostovsky Brands
Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the Ono Academic College
Dr. Tali Yariv-Mashal
Lawyer and Doctor of Education Policy
Dr. Mickey Peled
Researcher at the Berl Katznelson Foundation's Think Tank, Israeli economist and policy researcher
Dr. Yael Shomer
Senior Researcher at the School of Political Science, Government and International Relations at Tel Aviv University
Our partners
The Israel National Election Studies (INES)
