Kobi Skolnick

Director of Leadership Development at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution

B.A in Professional Studies , St. Francis College

Biography

Kobi is the Director of Leadership Development at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University (CRDC). Kobi was born into a Hasidic family in Israel and moved to a settlement in the West Bank during his high school years. He was a member of the fundamentalist Kahana youth movement that promoted an extreme religious ideology and regularly encouraged its members to assault Palestinians. However, during his service in the Israeli army he became aware of the complexity of the conflict and began to open his mind to other perspectives. Today, Kobi is highly involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement. In his work, he draws on his experience of having lived in an ultra-religious Jewish community and his former membership in settler movements. His extensive medical training and experience in combat also influences his understandings of human psychology and physiology.

Kobi has an educational background in cultural studies, psychology, and religion. He is also a trained facilitator and mediator. His writing has been published in number of media outlets around the world and write regularly on Conflicting Peace, a weblog he co-founded with his Palestinian peacebuilding partner, Aziz Abu Sarah. Kobi has lectured for various international organizations and universities, such as Stanford, Yale, Harvard, American University, and Oberlin, and has also appeared on several radio programs.