The Jerusalem Fund

The Jerusalem Fund for Education & Community Development is an independent, non-profit, non-political, non-sectarian organization based in Washington, DC. Funding for operational expenses is derived from investment income. This, together with donations from private individuals throughout the U.S., supports our humanitarian grants.

The Jerusalem Fund is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the United States. Donations to The Jerusalem Fund are deductible from U.S. federal income taxes to the extent allowed under the law.

New! A complete audit of the Jerusalem Fund's revenue and expenses during FY2005 is available online (PDF format, 861 KB).

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Board Members

A 9-person Board of Directors governs The Jerusalem Fund and its humanitarian, educational and cultural programs. The Board of Directors has three sub-committees: the Executive Committee, comprised of the Board Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer; the Grants & Finance Committee, comprised of the Board Chairman, Treasurer, and Board members Dr. Mohayya Khilfeh, Dr. Nabil Khoury and Dr. Sari Nabulsi; and the Palestine Center Committee comprised of the Executive Committee, Board members Dr. Naseer Aruri and George Hishmeh, and noted scholars Dr. Edmund Ghareeb of American University and Dr. Halim Barakat of Georgetown University.

Subhi D. Ali, M.D., F.A.C.S., is Chairman of the Board. A graduate of Howard University Medical School in Washington, DC, his training in General Surgery was completed at Howard University Hospitals where he was appointed as Assistant Professor of Surgery prior to relocating to Waverly, TN in 1976, where he serves as Chief of Surgery at Three Rivers Hospital. He is currently the President and Treasurer of Howard University’s LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. Surgical Society Foundation. In Tennessee, he has been active in the Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) since 1980. He served as President of TMA in 2003-04 and chaired the Tennessee Medical Education Fund for several years. He continues to chair the Investment Committees of both organizations in addition to serving on the Tennessee Delegation to the American Medical Association. In 2004, he was appointed by the Governor to the Tennessee State Board of Medical Examiners and is a Fellow of the National Federation of State Medical Boards. Currently, he serves on the boards of several academic and professional organizations. He is president of the State Guard Association of the United States (SGAUS) Foundation since 2001 where he served as the National President in 2000-2001. He is a retired Brigadier General of the Tennessee State Guard Medical Corps where he served as Surgeon General from 1991-2001. Dr. Ali serves SGAUS currently as Treasurer and Editor of the Journal and Website. In 2004, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the national Physicians Foundation for Health Systems Excellence (PFHSE) where he chairs the Investments Committee in addition to serving on the Grants and the Finance Committees.

Omar J. Fayez, Esq., is Secretary of the Board. He is a litigation attorney with Querrey & Harrow in Chicago, Illinois, and a member of the American Bar Association, Arab-American Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, and other professional associations. He also serves as pro bono counsel for several non-profit organizations and has published on legal and political issues.

Eid B. Mustafa, M.D., F.A.C.S., is Treasurer of the Board. He is an honor graduate of Alexandria Medical School. He was trained in general surgery at Howard University in Washington, D C, where he received the Resident of the Year award. He was trained in plastic surgery at Brown University in Providence, RI. Dr. Mustafa is in private practice in Wichita Falls, TX, where he is chief of plastic surgery at United Regional Health Care System and at Kell West Regional Hospital. He served as President of the Wichita County Medical Society, Vice President of the Texas Rehabilitation Commission Medical Committee and as Treasurer and Vice President of the National Arab American Medical Association, for which he is the current President. He is a member of many professional organizations, including the AMA, ACS, ASPS, TMA, and ASAPS. Dr. Mustafa serves on ANERA Medical Committee, Physicians for Peace Board of Trustees and is the founder of its Palestine Chapter. He is the President of the North Central Texas Medical Foundation, is deeply involved in medical volunteer work, particularly in Palestine, and was recently awarded the Americanism award by DAR and the President’s award by Physicians for Peace.

Dr. Naseer H. Aruri is Chancellor Professor (Emeritus) of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Trans-Arab Research Institute (Boston), a member of the Palestine Center Committee (Washington, D.C.), and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Criminal Investigations (The Hague). He is a member of the Independent Palestinian Commission for the Protection of Citizens Rights (Ramallah) since its inception in January l994, a Founding Member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, Cairo and Geneva in 1982, and a member of the editorial board of Third World Quarterly (London). He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch/Middle East, 1990-1992, and a three-term member of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, USA (1984-1990). Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, he holds a Ph.D (Political Science) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth from 1965 to 1998. His many publications include The Palestinian Resistance to Israeli Occupation (1970), Enemy of the Sun: Poems of Palestinian Resistance, with Edmund Ghareeb (1970), Occupation: Israel Over Palestine (1983), The Obstruction of Peace: The U.S., Israel and the Palestinians (1995), and Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return (Pluto, 2001). His latest book is Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role In Israel and Palestine (South End Press, 2003).

George Hishmeh is a founding member of the Jerusalem Fund. He was on the staff of the Washington Post and Chicago Sun-Times and editor of Mideast Magazine before joining the U.S. Information Agency as senior writer/editor, where he helped to start the Arabic-language service. Since his retirement from USIA, he has written for the Jordan Times, Gulf News, and the Daily Star. He is President of the Washington Association of Arab Journalists.

Mohayya H. Khilfeh, M.D., M.P.H., is currently a pediatrician at the South Holland Health Center, Illinois. Her medical career has included serving as chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, IL. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, NAAMA, and several other professional societies. She served on the Board of Trustees at An-Najah University in Nablus, Palestine, from 1983 through 2000.

Sari A. Nabulsi, M.D., M.B.A., is currently a pediatrician at the Pediatric Medical Center and a Pediatrics Professor at Texas Tech University, Midland, TX. He has presented on several medical topics including the diagnosis and treatment of Autism as well as the management of Down’s syndrome. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Texas Medical Association and the Midland County Society. He presently serves on the Board of Directors for NAAMA (National Arab American Medical Association).

William Youmans is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. He is a columnist with the Arab-American News and a blogger (www.blogspot.kabobfest.com). His writings have been published in UCLA's Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law and in several anthologies. As the political hip-hop artist, the Iron Sheik, his work has been featured by the New York Times, CNN, BBC and Rolling Stone (France), among others.

Ms. Samar Assad is Executive Director of The Jerusalem Fund and its educational program, The Palestine Center. She is a member (ex-officio) of the Board and its three sub-committees, in addition to functioning as its Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer. Download her Profile.

Hisham Sharabi, Ph.D. (deceased), was Chairman of the Board from 1977-2005 and a founding member of the Jerusalem Fund. At his passing, he was professor emeritus of European Intellectual History and was the Omar al-Mukhtar Professor of Arab Culture at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Former President William J. Clinton was one of his many distinguished students. He authored 18 books, and numerous articles and monographs. He helped found the Association of Arab-American University Graduates as well as the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, among other organizations. For more information on his life and legacy, see his obituary. Condolences

Samih Farsoun, Ph.D. (deceased), was one of the first members of the Jerusalem Fund Board of Directors, and was a founding member of the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, now The Palestine Center. Before his passing in June 2005, he served as Dean of Academic Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences at the newly established American University of Kuwait. Prior to that he was Professor of Sociology at the American University in Washington, DC, a position he held for 30 years. His books include Palestine and the Palestinians and Culture and Customs of the Palestinians. He has published over 75 papers, chapters, and articles. For more information on his life and legacy, see Obituary. Condolences