Barak Cohen was the Director of International Communications for the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) from 2007 through 2011. Mr. Cohen developed communications and outreach strategy for IDI, overseeing international press relations, IDI’s English website, international marketing efforts, and grant-writing. Mr. Cohen was also a liaison to international guests, the diplomatic corps, visiting academics, donors, research institutes, and student groups.
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 is a PhD candidate in the Department of International Relations at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned a Master’s degree in Conflict Research and Management from Hebrew University (with distinction) and a BA as a John Dewey Honors Scholar of Cultural Anthropology from the University of Vermont.