Seth and Sherri Mandell

Seth and Sherri Mandell: Seth Mandell, the founder and president of the Koby Mandell Foundation, is an ordained Rabbi, and has been involved in Jewish education since 1982. Sherri Mandell is a writer who has written for many publications, including The Jerusalem Post ,The Washington Jewish Week, and Hadassah Magazine. She is the author of the book, “The Blessing of a Broken Heart.”

The Mandells moved to Israel from the United States in 1996, because they had a great love for the land of Israel, and they wanted to live in the Jewish state. Before they moved to Israel, Seth was the director of the University of Maryland’s Hillel Foundation, and the Maryland Hillel grew to new heights under his leadership, becoming one of the largest and most active Jewish college educational programs in America. After their move to Israel, the Mandells decided to move to Tekoa, a West bank settlement of about 300 families.

Seth and Sherri have had to endure every parent’s worst nightmare. On May 8, 2001, Koby, their 13 year old son , was brutally murdered by Arab terrorists together with his friend Yosef Ishran, just outside their family’s community of Tekoa, Israel.

However, the Mandells have used this unbearable pain to help others. The Mandells created the Koby Mandell Foundation to help children and parents who have lost loved ones to terrorism. They offer camps and healing retreats several times a year, to help people grieve and transform their pain into power.