Photo by Keren Manor, Activestills
Noa Sattath
Executive Director
Noa Sattath took the helm of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) in November 2021.
Since becoming ACRI's Executive Director, Noa has led the organization during a critical period, as it battles the government's attempts at a judicial overhaul and confronts unprecedented human rights violations in Israel and the Occupied Territories following the Gaza war that erupted after October 7th. Under her direction, ACRI has had pivotal and precedent-setting legal and public successes: petitions to the Supreme Court that curbed government overreach; protecting the rights of prisoners during the war; defending freedom of protest and expression; protecting marginalized communities; and challenging abuses of power by police, the military, and public officials. Through persistent legal action, public campaigns, and field advocacy, ACRI under Noa’s leadership has remained at the forefront of defending democracy, civil liberties, and human dignity.
Noa is an ordained Reform rabbi who previously served as Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), where she led campaigns addressing religion and state, gender equality, and anti-racism. While there, she played key roles in fighting against women's exclusion in the public sphere and the election of racist Knesset candidates.
Before her work at IRAC, Noa was Executive Director of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance, where she helped lead the first Pride March in Jerusalem. She also served as Executive Director of MEET, an organization that uses technology to develop joint leadership initiatives between young Israelis and Palestinians.
Read an interview with Noa from October 2022 in the Israeli newspaper HaAretz.
Professor Michael Karayanni
President
Professor Michael Karayanni was appointed president of ACRI in November 2026.
Professor Karayanni is a law professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he holds the Bruce W. Wayne Chair in International Law. He previously served as the Dean of Faculty, and is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Professor Karayanni has been a visiting professor and research fellow at leading academic institutions around the world. His books include A Multicultural Entrapment: Religion & State Among the Palestinian-Arabs in Israel and Conflicts in a Conflict: A Conflict of Laws Case Study on Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
Professor Karayanni is an internationally renowned scholar of private international law, interreligious law, and multiculturalism. He earned doctorates from Hebrew University and the University of Pennsylvania. He has also received prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Fulbright Fellowship, the Rothschild Fellowship, the Michael Bruno Memorial Award, the Zeltner Prize as both a young scholar and senior scholar, and the Cheshin Award.
Together with his academic work, Professor Karayanni has been involved in public initiatives to advance minority rights and equality in Israel. He participated in an Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities committee on education indicators in Israel, and wrote its chapter on educational disparities and equal opportunity. Together with Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer, he coordinated a Jewish-Arab forum on behalf of local Arab authorities to develop ways to promote equality and tolerance in education, the media, and local government.
Professor Karayanni served on ACRI's Board of Directors from 2004 to 2006. He was born and raised in the village of Kafr Yasif in the Western Galilee, and now lives in Wahat al-Salam-Neve Shalom with his wife and children.