Shada Edress

Shada is the Director of the Communities Department at Hand in Hand. A Palestinian citizen of Israel, Shada leads social change efforts impacting thousands of Arabs and Jews in six regions across Israel. Under Shada’s management, the Communities Department fosters interactions and activities shared by some 10,000 Jewish and Arab community members throughout the year. Shada also oversees Hand in Hand’s alumni program, which serves a network of over 1,300 graduates and includes Jewish-Arab student communities on two Israeli university campuses.

A founding parent of Hand in Hand’s Kfar Saba “Alif-Beit” school, Shada is a business owner and former optometrist. She pivoted to community organizing a decade ago, when her daughter Nai began attending the Kfar Saba school, out of a commitment to advance shared society and equality between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Shada served as a community organizer in Hand in Hand before progressing to the role of Deputy Director and then Director of the Communities Department.

Shada was born and raised in Taybeh, and obtained her undergraduate degree in optometry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

You can read more about Shada’s story here.