Vivian Silver

Vivian Silver "is the Executive Director of the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED).

"Vivian has extensive experience in social change work in Israel. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada, she moved to Israel in 1974 where she was a founding member and General Secretary of the re-established Kibbutz Gezer. She was the founder and first director of the Department to Advance Gender Equality in the United Kibbutz Movement and a member of the Knesset sub-committee for the Advancement of Women in Work and the Economy.

"Ms. Silver was a member of the board of directors of the New Israel Fund in the 1980s and a member of the steering committee of Shatil in the 1990s.

"Vivian is the vice-chair of the membership committee of ALLMEP ( Alliance for Middle-East Peace) and a member of their leadership committee. She is also one of the women interviewed in the publication Sixty Years, Sixty Voices – Israeli and Palestinian Women (www.60voices.org).

"Vivian is a member of Kibbutz Beeri and a founder of the kibbutz’s philanthropic fund, which supports grassroots, social change projects in the Negev. She resides in the kibbutz with her husband, Lewis Zeigen, and their two sons, Chen and Yonatan."