American Friends of Latet

Zachary Fasman practiced labor and employment law in Chicago, Washington D.C. and New York. He retired from practice and now teaches employment discrimination law and professional responsibility at the University of Michigan Law School, having previously taught at NYU Law School. He is the Chair of the Board of American Friends of Latet, the best-known charity in Israel, and is one of two ad personam members of the Board of Directors of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. He previously was a member of the Board and the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and was a Board member of the Community Security Service and the Claims Conference. Professionally, Zach is a member of the Board of the American Bar Foundation, previously was a member of the American Law Institute, has written four books in his field and is a long-time member of various professional Boards and honorary societies. He and his wife live in Connecticut and have three grown children and two grandsons.

Rony Bejarano grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel. She was an officer in the IDF and then completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in law from Tel Aviv University. In 1999 she and her family moved to the U.S., and for over 20 years have been living In Tenafly, NJ where she and her husband Seffi raised their three sons- Michael, Rod and Gilad.
After a career as an attorney and entrepreneur, she established the NY Chapter for the Israel Venture Network, a not-for-profit organization. Rony has strong ties to Israel in her business capacity as well. For the past 15 years she is the Co-Founder and Partner at Forte- Talent Acquisition, an Executive Search firm, specializing in Israeli Tech companies operating in North America,
For 16 years, Rony has been leading the Tenafly chapter of Friends of Israel Scouts, “Shevet Metzada”, as a volunteer Chairwoman. In this capacity, she grew the chapter from 80 to 500 members and established it as a leading organization in the Northern NJ community.

After stepping down from her role as Shevet Metzada Chairwoman, Rony accepted the challenge of heading and establishing the FOIS alumni network, which would provide continuous programming and networking opportunities for the graduates and alumni of FOIS programs in the U.S. and Israel.

Reuven S. Avi-Yonah is the Irwin I. Cohn Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. He specializes in corporate and international taxation and has served as a consultant to the US Department of the Treasury and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on tax competition. He also is a member of the steering group for OECD’s International Network for Tax Research.

Avi-Yonah is a member of the American Law Institute, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the American College of Tax Counsel, and an international research fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Business Taxation. In addition to prior teaching appointments at Harvard University (law) and Boston College (history), he has practiced law with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York; with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York; and with Ropes & Gray in Boston.

He has published more than 250 books and articles, including Advanced Introduction to International Tax Law, Global Perspectives on Income Taxation Law, and International Tax as International Law.

Andrew Fruchter is a Portfolio Manager at Discovery Capital Management, a global macro fund, where he leads investments in the Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT) sector. Prior to joining Discovery, Andrew was a Partner and Co-Portfolio Manager at Mark Asset Management. He began his career in London at Deutsche Bank and Brevan Howard Asset Management.
Andrew earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Brandeis University and a Master of Science in Global Finance from NYU Stern School of Business and HKUST.

Having grown up in Antwerp, Belgium, his family later immigrated to Israel. Andrew, his wife, and their two children live in New York City and maintain strong connections to Israel.

Steve Koppel is a is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP. Steve’s 's practice focuses on all aspects of real estate private equity and real estate finance, including a national practice in community development law. Steve represents institutional equity investors throughout the United States and in Europe in the acquisition, development and financing of office buildings, hotels, multifamily housing, public storage facilities, student housing, assisted living, shopping malls and condominium projects. He also has extensive experience in real estate finance and development. In addition, Steve represents major financial institutions and owners in real estate workouts, restructurings, foreclosures and deeds in lieu of foreclosure and has done so for more than 30 years. Steve is the Chairman of the Board of The Doe Fund, Inc. and was the past Chair of the Board of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps. Steve has served on the Board of Trustees of Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, and the Rabbinical School advisory board at JTS. He was a founding president of the American Friends of the Peres Center for Peace and is a member of the Center’s International Board of Governors.

He holds a BA from Columbia University, a general course degree from the London School of Economics, and a JD from George Washington University. Steve and his wife, Lynette Koppel, have two daughters: Sarah and Caroline, two sons-in-law, Joshua Smith and Eric Weintraub, and are proud grandparents of Ezra and Hank.

Raphael Ades is Managing Partner at Aston Capital, a Miami-based advisory firm, where he oversees Private Credit SMA allocations for single-family offices.

With 14 years of specialized experience in the private credit niche, his allocations focus exclusively on U.S. Credit funds. Previously, he managed cross-border credit transactions and investments throughout the U.S. and Brazil.

Originally from São Paulo, Raphael co-founded an IT firm and relocated to Miami with his wife and four children in 2009 following the company's sale to a publicly traded enterprise.

Laurent Benissan is a founder, operator, and investor whose career spans healthcare, high-growth technology, and global capital markets. As an operator, he founded and led medical-device company Silhouette Lift from inception through its acquisition by Sinclair Pharma. He also co-founded SPRIM Ventures, an early-stage life-sciences fund backing emerging companies at the intersection of healthcare and technology.

As an investor, Laurent has backed high-growth technology companies, pairing an operator's eye for execution with the discipline of an institutional capital-markets background. He began his career as a structured finance professional at Merrill Lynch and Standard Chartered, structuring complex fixed income and private credit transactions. He holds a Master in Management from HEC in Paris.