Meet the Team
Attorney Dana Myrtenbaum
Dana Myrtenbaum is an Israeli human rights lawyer and social innovator who has, for the past 20 years, led innovative programs giving voice to the needs of marginalized groups and empowering Jewish and Arab women leaders.
As the founder and director of the “City for All” Program at Itach- Ma’aki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice, she currently promotes Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Equality Action plans within local governments in Israel. Since 2017, she has implemented “City for All” in Rishon LeZion, Taybe, Akko, Beit HaKerem, Matte Asher, and Haifa.
Dana founded the Legal Leaders Program at the Haifa University Law Faculty (operated 2004-2014) which was later replicated nationally as a model for legal activism integrating academia with the community. She also established the National Program for Young Women at Risk (13-25), and developed a new policy that recognizes and meets the needs of young at-risk women and men in housing regulations. The resulting policy change added $ 500,000 USD to the annual budget of the Israeli Ministry of Social Services (2015).
Dana received her Masters in Law from American University, Washington College of Law in 2004, and her Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2017. She is a mom to three amazing children, ages 20, 15, and 8, and wife to Igal, a composer and musician.
Attorney Ela Alon
Ela Alon is a senior attorney, with varied experience in the public sector and in NGOs. Before joining Itach-Ma’aki, Ela was head of the legal department and deputy of the Regulator of Cooperatives in the Ministry of Economy. Ela’s legal areas of expertise are labor law and social security, including legal support to organizing workers, administrative law and municipal law, access to justice, corporate and cooperative law and legal work with communities in transformation.
Through Legal Clinics, Ela generated a project with Itach-Ma’aki dealing with barriers to employment of Arab women, using a strategy of promoting policy change. Ela took part in the foundation of “Koach LaOvdim” – Democratic Workers’ Union, and founded the union’s volunteer lawyer network.
Ela published research on legal aspects of volunteering in Israel and a comparative study, which was the basis for a Government Bill proposal on the subject. Ela holds a Bachelor of Law (with Honors) and a Master of Law (with Honors) from Tel-Aviv University. In 2015, Ela was chosen as an outstanding worker by the Civil Service Commission.
