Ron Skolnik - Executive Director

Ron Skolnik is the Executive Director of Meretz USA / Partners for Progressive Israel, a progressive American Zionist organization dedicated to the achievement of a durable and just peace between Israel and all its neighbors, including a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and equally dedicated to the realization of human and civil rights, equality and social justice for all of Israel's inhabitants.

Mr. Skolnik brings to this position nearly three decades of experience – most of them in Israel, where he encountered Israeli society and the Israeli-Arab conflict in a wide range of roles and capacities. 

During the Oslo process and the second Intifada, he served as political advisor to the British Ambassador to Israel - analyzing political developments and trends in Israel and the Middle East, and conducting political research for the British Foreign Office in London.  His political analyses have appeared in American and Israeli publications, including the Jerusalem Report magazine and the preeminent Israeli daily, HaAretz, and he has been interviewed on the BBC, Al-Jazeera English, the Air America network, Germany’s ARD radio, and other outlets.

A dual American-Israeli citizen, he served in the Israel Defense Forces as a medic, both in his regular tour of duty in the 1980s and, subsequently, in Israel’s reserves – experiencing Israel’s occupation of Lebanon and the West Bank on the ground level.

After immigrating to Israel in the 1970s, Mr. Skolnik attended Haifa University, where he received his BA in History.  He completed his Master’s Degree at Tel Aviv University in Diplomatic and Military History, graduating magna cum laude.

Fluent in both English and Hebrew, he has also worked as a translator and editor, and even as a farmer during his years living on an Israeli kibbutz.