Barak Cohen is the Director of International Communications for the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI). Mr. Cohen develops communications and outreach strategy for IDI, overseeing international press relations, IDI’s English website, international marketing efforts, and grant-writing. Mr. Cohen serves as a liaison to international guests, the diplomatic corps, visiting academics, donors, research institutes, and student groups. He is IDI’s staff writer and an op-ed contributor to the English-language press.
Prior to moving to Israel in 2006, Mr. Cohen served as the assistant director of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Southeast region. At the ADL, Mr. Cohen was responsible for monitoring and studying domestic terrorism and extremist groups. He conducted training seminars for thousands of local, state, and federal law enforcement officials in the areas of radical ideology, threat assessment, officer safety, and hate-symbol/tattoo identification.
Mr. Cohen was a registered mediator for the state of Georgia and served as an advisor to Georgia Congressman John Lewis on issues related to the Jewish community. In 2003, he founded the Peace By Piece Project- an interfaith educational program for Muslim, Christian, and Jewish youth- and served as its director until his departure for Israel in 2006.
Mr. Cohen earned a Master’s degree in Conflict Research and Management from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (with distinction) and a BA as a John Dewey Honors Scholar of Cultural Anthropology from the University of Vermont.