Eli Hurvitz (Meridor)

Eli Hurvitz (אלי הורביץ born 27 November 1970) is the executive director of the Eddie and Jules Trump Family Foundation, chairman of the Israel Forum of Philanthropic Foundations, and former member of the Israel National Board of Education. Between 2000 and 2011 Hurvitz served as the deputy director of Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild Family Foundation, and previously as an advisor to the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the Knesset.

Biography
Hurvitz was born and educated in Jerusalem, to Yair (Esq.), former Director General of the State Comptroller of Israel, and Professor Haggit (M.D.), former Head of Pediatrics at the Bikur Holim Hospital. He is the first grandchild of Eliyahu Meridor, and is named after him. His uncles are Dan Meridor, former Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, and Sallai Meridor, former Israeli Ambassador to the US and Chairman of the Jewish Agency.

Hurvitz earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees magna cum laude at the Tel Aviv University’s School of History. His M.A. thesis, titled ‘The Military Wing of Hizballah: a Social Profile’ was published by the Dayan Center in 1999. From 2009 Hurvitz writes on social affairs and philanthropy for Israeli newspapers and in ib a blog, labeled, 'The Fourth Generation'. He is a co-editor of a series of educational books and host of popular videocasts on Education, titled 'Restart' and 'Relevance'.

Career in Philanthropy
Between 2000 and 2011, Hurvitz served as the deputy director of Yad Hanadiv, a philtnrhopic arm of the Rothschild Family, which created in Israel the new National Library, the Supreme Court Building and the Knesset, and established the Open University of Israel, the Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Centre for Educational Technology. In the early 2000s, Hurvitzled Yad-Hanadiv's efforts to establish a new National Library for Israel, and represented the foundation in the Committee for Changing the Status of the National Library of Israel, headed by Supreme Court Judge, Yitzhak Zamir.

In 2011, Hurvitz joined as executive director to set up the Eddie and Jules Trump Family Foundation, a philanthropic foundation that aims to serve as a catalyst for improving educational achievement in Israel by cultivating high-quality teaching in schools with an emphasis on Mathematics and the Sciences. The foundation is responsible for Israel's success to double the neumber of high school students graduating the advanced mathemtics and physics majors ("five units"). In 2012 Hurvitz was selected by The Marker Magazine as #87 at "Israel's 100 Most Influential People". In 2015 Hurvitz was selected by Yediot Ahronot Newspaper to the list of 'Israel's 50 Heroes of Civil Society'. In 2016 he was nominated by The Marker Magazine as #57 at "Israel's 100 Most Influential People".

In 2014 Hurvitz was appointed by the Israeli government as member of the National Board of Education, in 2019 hejoined the Global Advisory Board of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, in 2022 he was nomimanted as amember of a Public Committee to expand the high tech sector in Israel, and in 2024 he was elected as chairman of the Israel Forum of Philanthropic Foundations.

Op-Ed Articles

 * 1) Eli Hurvitz, Young People are Expereiencing Intellectual Decline, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 24th, 2023
 * 2) Eli Hurvitz, Golden Chance to Reimagine Education, Times of Israel, Dec. 24th, 2020
 * 3) Eli Hurvitz, Next Gorvenment Must Focus on Middle Schools, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 4th, 2019