Our scientific committee

Prof. Yoel Mansfeld, Emeritus Prof. of University of Haifa and President, Gordon College of Education, Israel. He obtained his BA and MA (with distinction) from the University of Haifa, Israel, and his PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE), University of London, UK.

His main areas of academic interests include: Cultural tourism; heritage tourism; religious tourism; community-based tourism; sustainable tourism; tourism planning and development; development of small & medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs); tourism and consumer behaviour; tourism and environmental management; Tourism, security and safety issues; tourism and crisis management.

Yoel Mansfeld is the founder and the former Head of the University of Haifa’s Centre for Tourism, Pilgrimage & Recreation Research (CTPRR). He is  also a member of the UNESCO UNITWIN Network on Culture, Tourism and Development and a member of the University Network of the European Institute of Cultural Routes.

Jeremy Leigh teaches Israel Studies and Modern Jewish History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem. He is the coordinator of the Richard J. Scheuer Israel Seminar for the Year-In-Israel Program as well as director of the HUC-JIR-JDC Fellowship for Global Jewish Responsibility. He leads the Year-In-Israel Program’s program in Lithuania and coordinates the annual professional development program in the Former Soviet Union.

Prior to coming to HUC-JIR, Leigh taught Ethnography of Israeli Society through Cinema, at Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University. As well as teaching at various academic institutions in Jerusalem, he is the director of ‘Jewish Journeys,’ a long standing initiative to develop and advance the field of global Jewish travel. He has worked for many years training teachers and guides in the theory and practice of site education, in particular with UK teachers through the Holocaust Educational Trust. Leigh studied at University College London and the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He has written extensively about the field of Jewish educational travel, including his last book, Jewish Journeys: Reflections on Jewish Travel (Haus, London 2006). Leigh was born in London, England and moved to Israel in 1992.

Expert in cultural heritage management and cultural and creative tourism. PhD in Geography and History at Universitat de Barcelona. From 1999 is professor at Cultural Management Program at the Universitat de Barcelona and from 2012 is director of LABPATC Lab of Cultural Heritage, Creativity and Cultural Tourism, a spin-off of Universitat de Barcelona and IBERTUR – Network of Heritage, Tourism & Sustainable Development. He was assistant professor of cultural tourism in the Center for Latin American and the Caribbean Studies at New York University (2001).

Currently visiting professor at the Masters and Doctorate Program in Heritage Management and Tourism at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and at the Cultural Management Postgraduate. Program at Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar.

Consultant for international organizations (Council of Europe, European Commission, IADB, ILO-UN, OEI, SEGIB, SICA, UNESCO, UNWTO, World Bank) and national cooperation agencies (AECID, Alliance Française, Cooperazione Italiana allo Sviluppo, Cooperation Suisse, GIZ, HIVOS, JICA).

Member of the UNITWIN Network of the UNESCO Chair on Culture, Tourism and Development, the University Network of the European Institute of Cultural Routes and the Culture and Gastronomic Tourism Product Clubs at Catalan Tourism Board.