Anya Shani
Lecturer of Entrepreneurship, IDC Herzliya
Anya immigrated to Israel from Russia with her mother in the 1990s and settled in the northern part of the country, at Yavne’el. Anya is currently a Jerusalemite, and for the past two and a half years she has been working as the director of culture and events at the Jerusalem International YMCA. In reaching out and catering to the city’s diverse communities, the Y promotes tolerance and serves as a center of coexistence where Jews, Muslims, and Christians come together for cultural events, sports, and other activities. Before coming to work for the Y, Anya was a project manager and producer at 2B-VIBES; a senior event coordinator at the Student Union of Ben Gurion Unversity; director and production manager at Open Apartments, a women’s theater group; and was the first woman to operate an unmanned aerial vehicle for the Israeli Air Force. She has a B.A. in hotel and tourism management, and an MSc in business management and marketing, reciveing a scholarship to the Oxford Brookes University. In addition, recently, after her father suffered a deterioration in his health, Anya took it upon herself to oversee his ranch, which includes two herds of cattle, and is currently in the final stage of obtaining a license to become the first completely organic farm in Israel.