Dr. Sharon Goldman

Director of Kivunim Gap-Year Program

Dr. Sharon Goldman was appointed Director of Kivunim’s Gap Year Program as of May 15, 2024. Sharon is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Barnard College and holds a PhD in political science from Yale University, where she was a National Science Fellow. Her dissertation, entitled “Politicized Identity Groups’ Impact on a Democratic Society,” explored the intersection between group and individual rights, particularism within universalism, and questions of social justice in a larger society. From 2001-06, she served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ramapo College in New Jersey, where she designed new coursework with creative approaches to educating a diverse student body and mentored and advised undergraduate and graduate students.

With the outbreak of the Lebanon war in 2006, Sharon left academia to become the Northeast Regional Political Director of a national Israel organization. In that capacity, she worked with lay leaders, candidates for office and members of Congress, educating them on the need for bi-partisan support of the State of Israel. 

Upon moving to Israel in 2018 Sharon served as Vice President of Shalem College in Jerusalem and then Vice President of Bar-Ilan University.

Sharon explains her excitement at joining the Kivunim team: “…Kivunim offers a positive and hopeful understanding of Jewish life rooted in shared traditions and history, expressed through mutual respect and openness to a multiplicity of interpretations and analyses. Kivunim provides its students the opportunity to build a powerful connection to the Jewish people and the State of Israel, one that coexists with a love for all humankind and reflects a strong commitment to peaceful co-existence across the globe. That is my understanding of Judaism, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to share and strengthen it within the Kivunim family.”

Sharon lives in Jerusalem and is the proud mother of Jen, Shoshana (m. Usani) and Zachary.

Sharon follows a distinguished group of educators who have led the program since 2006: Eran Rosenberg, Lea Landowne and Tal Kita, Rabbi Dov Lerea, Jay Leberman, Dr. David Mendelsohn, and Rabbi Jonah Geffen (Interim Director 2023-24).

EMAIL: sgoldman@kivunim.org