Rothschild Prizes 2018
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Rothschild Prizes 2018
18 March 2018 JERUSALEM
About the Rothschild Prizes
In 1959 Yad Hanadiv established the Rothschild Prizes Organization to support, encourage and advance the Sciences and Humanities in Israel. Prizes are awarded in recognition of original and outstanding published work in the following disciplines: Mathematics, Computer Sciences and Engineering; Life Sciences; and Chemical and Physical Sciences (every two years); and Social Sciences; Jewish Studies; and Humanities (every four years). Nominations for Prizes may be submitted by Presidents, Rectors and Deans of Faculties of Israeli universities, Chairs of relevant university departments, members of the Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities and previous recipients of a Rothschild Prize in the academic discipline in which they received the Prize. The winners are selected by a Board of Advisers, whose members are appointed for four-year terms. The Chair, currently Professor Shafi Goldwasser of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is appointed by Yad Hanadiv. Other members of the Board are: Professor Menahem Yaari
appointed by Lord Rothschild
Dr Lea Nass
appointed by the Prime Minister of Israel
Professor Margalit Shilo
appointed by the Minister of Education
Professor Baruch Minke
appointed by the Board of Governors of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Professor Idit Keidar
appointed by the Board of Governors of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Professor Mordechai (Moty) Heiblum
appointed by the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science
Professor Margalit Finkelberg
appointed by the President of the Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Professor Noga Alon
appointed by the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University
In addition, Professor Asher Koriat was asked to participate in the selection process on an ad hoc basis. The Rothschild Prize ceremony is traditionally held in the Knesset in the presence of a representative of the Knesset and a representative of the Rothschild family.
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THE ROTHSCHILD PRIZE IN CHEMICAL SCIENCES AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Professor Yaron Silberberg Harry Weinrebe Professor of Laser Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science
For his highly influential achievements in non-linear optics and quantum optics, which include the first observation of optical discrete solitons; for the prediction of light bullets; for pioneering experiments with shaping of entangled photons; and for his groundbreaking work in non-linear microscopy
Professor Yaron Silberberg has revolutionized our knowledge of the behaviour and properties of light and how intense light interacts with matter. His list of scientific achievements in non-linear, ultra-fast and quantum optics and microscopy has inspired an impressive body of experimental and theoretical research and his scholarly works are considered classics. He is said to be able to ‘look and find where others do not’. Professor Silberberg’s early studies of spatial solitons – optical waves capable of traveling great distances without distortion of shape or size – launched one of the most active areas of non-linear optics, with significant applications to telecommunications. His introduction of the concept of pulses of electromagnetic energy self-trapped in space and time, known as light bullets, captured the imagination of many researchers. His research group was a forerunner in studying applications of non-linear optics and quantum control to optical spectroscopy and microscopy, including the invention of third harmonic microscopy. An outstanding theorist and experimentalist, Professor Silberberg has the ability to simplify complex topics, identify key issues and devise elegant experiments. This is exemplified by, but not limited to, his investigation of CARS microscopy which enables us to identify molecules inside living cells. His more recent studies of light propagation and scattering media have had an important impact on biological and medical imaging.
Professor Silberberg’s role as a world leader in non-linear optics and quantum control is demonstrated by his election on two occasions to organise the prestigious international Gordon Conference. He has published hundreds of scientific papers in top professional journals with some 20,000 citations. Described as an inspiring, rigorous educator, Professor Silberberg has raised an impressive generation of students and postdocs, who now hold leading faculty positions in academia in Israel and abroad. They reflect the high level not only of his scientific training, but also of his ethical standards and commitment to the scientific community and to Israeli society. Yaron Silberberg is a Professor at the Department of Physics of Complex Systems at the Weizmann Institute of Science where he holds the Harry Weinrebe Chair of Laser Physics. He serves as Director of the Crown Photonics Centre, which promotes the study of light and its applications. From 2002–2008 he was Dean of the Faculty of Physics. Professor Silberberg received a PhD in Physics in 1984 from the Weizmann Institute. He carried out postdoctoral work at Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ and subsequently spent almost a decade on the Technical Staff of Bell Communications Research, Red Bank, NJ. He holds 16 patents. His scientific honours include the Weizmann Prize in Science, the Max Born Award from the Optical Society of America and the Landau Prize in Exact Sciences. He was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2013.
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THE ROTHSCHILD PRIZE IN LIFE SCIENCES
Professor Naama Barkai Head of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Director of the Azrieli Institute for Systems Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science
For her fundamental discoveries in systems biology; for formulating and using the concepts of robustness and variability as design principles of molecular circuits and for demonstrating that these principles underlie basic biological processes
Professor Naama Barkai is a pioneer in the study of systems biology in Israel and worldwide. She has made vital discoveries in basic biological processes through quantitative analyses combining theory, computation and experimentation. She has addressed some of the field’s seminal problems and proposed elegant solutions. Professor Barkai makes skilful and imaginative use of computational approaches to reveal the principles underlying the design and function of biomolecular circuits. These circuits, composed of interacting genes and proteins, are used by cells to interpret their environment and adapt accordingly. Her research demonstrated that biomolecular circuits evolve to perform in a way that is largely guided by their architecture, but is relatively independent of their biochemical parameters. This defined a key biological principle and enabled her to identify the actual mechanism at work. A central focus of Professor Barkai’s research tackles biological variability, its mechanistic basis and function consequence. She seeks to determine how it is buffered, or, alternatively, whether and how it can be used to improve cellular computation. She has conducted research on the interplay between variability and robustness (persistence under conditions of uncertainty) in biological computation and the effects of random fluctuations or ‘noise’ on molecular circuits, and applied her findings to aspects of the early developmental stages of multi-cellular organisms.
Professor Barkai has identified novel mechanisms employed in various biological processes, such as nutrient homeostasis and cellular transcription. In studying phenotypic heterogeneity and persistence, she has made significant advances in unlocking the key process regulating the patterning of early embryos. Professor Barkai has been an adviser and mentor to a generation of graduate students who have taken up positions at leading academic institutions in Israel and abroad. Her lab is built around fruitful interaction among researchers with diverse backgrounds in physics, biology, computer science, mathematics and chemistry. Naama Barkai is Professor and Head of the Department of Molecular Genetics, Professor of Physics of Complex Systems and Director of the Azrieli Institute for Systems Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She is a member of EMBO, and has held positions on scientific advisory boards, including at Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute, Max Delbrück Centre, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Broad Institute. Among her awards and honours are the Vallee Foundation Visiting Professorship, the Abisch Frenkel Prize, the Teva Prize and the Michael Bruno Memorial Award. She was the first recipient of the FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award. She received her PhD in physics summa cum laude in 1995 from The Hebrew University and carried out postdoctoral work in the Physics Department, Princeton University, for which she received a Rothschild Fellowship.
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T H E R O T H S C H I L D P R I Z E I N M AT H E M AT I C S / C O M P U T E R S C I E N C E S A N D E N G I N E E R I N G
Professor Noam Nisan Professor of Computer Science, School of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
For his pioneering contributions to computational complexity, computational randomness and communication complexity; and for his foundational role in the development of algorithmic game theory and algorithmic mechanism design
Professor Noam Nisan is a towering figure in theoretical computer science. He has changed the way we think about computer science through insights that cross frontiers and inspire others to follow. His work has dramatically influenced the theory of computation and has given birth to an entirely new field at the intersection of computer science and economics. Early in his career, Professor Nisan utilized his technical strength and creativity to achieve results that revolutionized many aspects of computational complexity theory. His work in this area, which examines the cost in number of operations required to solve computational problems, has entered the canon. In a highly influential paper published in 1999 with Amir Ronen, for which he received the GĂśdel Prize, he laid down the theoretical foundations for the research discipline known as algorithmic mechanism design. The paper drew the attention of the theoretical computer science community to the challenges involved in designing algorithms for selfinterested users and provided a basis for engineering and analysing algorithms in such environments. Today, this area is a primary focus of hundreds of researchers at leading universities and institutions,
major professional conferences and a multitude of scholarly articles. Professor Nisan has, in addition, been an outstanding teacher and mentor for students who have become leaders in disciplines ranging from quantum computing, to algorithmic mechanism design and data networking at major universities and industrial research labs around the world. He also heads The Hebrew University’s undergraduate Internet and Society Programme. Noam Nisan is a Professor of Computer Science at The Hebrew University and a member of the Federmann Centre for the Study of Rationality. From 2007-2011 he served as a Senior Research Scientist at Google and from 2012-2015, as Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research. He founded and was the CTO of SeeRun Inc, a business management software company. Professor Nisan received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley and carried out postdoctoral research at the MIT Laboratory of Computer Science. He is a recipient of the Knuth Prize, the GÜdel Prize and the 2004 Michael Bruno Memorial Award.
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THE ROTHSCHILD PRIZE IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Professor Maya Bar-Hillel Professor Emerita, Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
For her contribution to the study of the cognitive processes underlying judgement and decision; for her significant research on probabilistic reasoning, distributive justice, and paradoxes; and for her quest to understand rationality and implement it in public and private life
Using behavioural data in unique ways she showed that, whether authentic or fake, the name of a famous poet on a poem significantly enhances its evaluation. Her studies have disproved the direct causation of ‘wishful thinking’ – the alleged enhancing effect that wishing an outcome has on the probability that it will occur. Professor Bar-Hillel’s research has been published in leading journals in experimental, cognitive and social psychology, and is taught in a wide array of disciplines where decision making in conditions of uncertainty has relevance, such as business, law, public policy and medicine.
Professor Maya Bar-Hillel is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of human judgement and decision making. In her pursuit of rationality and reason, she has combined brilliant and rigorous experimental methodology in an approach that spans psychology, probability theory, statistics and economics. Her research has been called ‘insightful’, ‘creative’ and ‘original’, and has gained her an exceptionally high standing among her academic peers. Professor Bar-Hillel’s early contributions to the psychology of probability include a trailblazing article (with over 1,000 citations) on the base-rate fallacy – the neglect of the background distributional information that gives rise to the a priori probability that an event will occur. In contrast to many great scholars, her writing is accessible to wide audiences and her investigations into people’s erroneous intuitions about randomness – whether examining their reluctance to exchange one lottery ticket for another, or their inability to produce a single ‘mental coin toss’ – have led to significant practical contributions to society. Her series of papers on multiple-choice tests led to changes in policies and practices regarding testing and evaluation worldwide. With persistent scientific sleuthing and rigorous methods, she challenged ‘falsepositive psychology’ in the so-called ‘Bible Code’, as well as the validity of hand-writing analysis; as a result its broad use by employers and in law courts has declined.
Maya Bar-Hillel is a Professor at The Hebrew University and a member and former Director of the Federman Centre for the Study of Rationality, which she helped establish in 1974. She has been a visiting scholar at Stanford, MIT, the University of Oregon, Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton, Columbia and the Australian National University, as well as at the Russell Sage Foundation. She was the first non-American elected to head the prestigious Society for Judgement and Decision Making (2004– 2005) and is currently on the editorial boards of the journals Mind and Society, Judgment and Decision Making and Thinking and Reasoning. Professor Bar-Hillel received a PhD in Psychology from The Hebrew University in 1975 under the supervision of Professor Amos Tversky.
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Rothschild Prize Winners Since 1959
1959 Prof. Max Kurrein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Shmuel Agmon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Dan Patinkin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
1964 Prof. David Ginsburg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chemical Sciences Prof. Yitzhak Be’er. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jewish Studies Prof. Zeev Lev. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Physical Sciences
1960 Dr. Avraham Komarov . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Ephraim Katzir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences
1965 Prof. Abraham Kogan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Engineering Prof. Chaim Leib Pekeris . . . . . . . . . . . .Mathematics Prof. Gad Tedeschi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Social Sciences
1961 Prof. E.D. Bergman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. Hans Jacob Polotsky . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Gershom Scholem . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Yoel Rokach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences
1966 Prof. Aharon Bondi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Agriculture Prof. Shmuel Sambursky. . . . . . . . . . . . .Humanities Prof. Yitzhak Bernblum. . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences
1962 Prof. Markus Reiner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Abraham Halevy Fraenkel . . . Mathematics Prof. Louis Eliyahu Guttman . . . . . . Social Sciences
1967 Prof. Michael Sela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chemical Sciences Prof. Ben-Zion Dinur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jewish Studies Prof. Yuval Ne’eman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Physical Sciences
1963 Prof. Yitzhak Wahl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Yigael Yadin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Georg Haas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences
1969 Prof. Shmuel Ruchman . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Engineering Prof. Zvi Herbert Riesel . . . . . . . . . . . . .Engineering Mr. Myron Melman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Engineering Prof. Aryeh Berger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Life Sciences Prof. Shimshon Abraham Amitsur . . . .Mathematics Prof. Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt . . . . . . .Social Sciences
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Rothschild Prize Winners Since 1959
1971 Prof. Yair Mundlak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Aharon Katchalsky-Katzir. . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. Joshua Prawer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Zeev Ben-Hayyim. . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Yigal Talmi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences
1979 Prof. Izchak Steinberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. Haim Blank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Harry J. (Zvi) Lipkin . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences
1973 Prof. Franz Ollendorf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Michael Zohary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Michael Rabin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Michael Bruno. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
1981 Prof. Gad Loebenstein. . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Sol R. Bodner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Yeshayahu Tishbi . . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Hans Lindner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Saharon Shelah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Joseph Ben-David. . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
1975 Prof. Joshua Jortner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. David Ayalon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Shlomo Pines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Haim Harari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences
1983 Prof. Meir Wilchek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. Nachman Avigad. . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Ephraim Elimelech Urbach. . . Jewish Studies Prof. Yakir Aharonov. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences
1977 Prof. Yehudith Birk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Leo Sachs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences
1985 Prof. Isaac Harpaz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Yitzhak Kidron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering
Prof. Hillel Furstenberg. . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Roberto Bachi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
Prof. Michael Feldman . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Israel Gochberg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Yaacov Katz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
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Rothschild Prize Winners Since 1959
1988 Prof. Abraham Patchornik. . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. Meir Kister. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Shraga Abramson. . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Jacob Bekenstein. . . . . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences
1996 Prof. Edward Kosower. . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. Moshe Gil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Yoseph Imry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences 1998 Prof. Yona Chen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Yitzhak Hadar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Jacob Bear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Ruth Arnon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Ehud Hrushovski . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Sergiu Hart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
1990 Prof. Ilan Chet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Dan Shechtman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Alexander Levitzki. . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Achi Brandt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Nissan Liviatan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
2000 Prof. Zeev Luz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. Hayim Tadmor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. David Flusser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Amnon Aharony. . . . . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences
1992 Prof. Raphael Levine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. Yehoshua Blau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Ezra Fleisher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Zeev Vager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences
2002 Prof. Nachum Kedar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Haim D. Rabinowitch . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Jacob Ziv. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Zvi Selinger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Alexander Lubotzky. . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Elhanan Helpman. . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
1994 Prof. Jaacov Katan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Moshe Zakai. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Shmuel Shaltiel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Adi Shamir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Menahem Yaari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
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Rothschild Prize Winners Since 1959
2004 Prof. Joseph Klafter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. David Shulman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Haim Beinart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Asher Peres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Physical Sciences
2012 Prof. Raphael Mechoulam . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences
and Physical Sciences
Prof. Margalit Finkelberg. . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Moshe Idel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Chaim Cedar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Gil Kalai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics
2006 Prof. Gedeon Dagan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Ada Yonath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Benjamin Weiss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Asher Koriat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
and Engineering
2014 Prof. Shlomo Havlin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences
and Physical Sciences
Prof. Eli Keshet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Shlomo Shamai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics
2008 Prof. Itamar Willner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences Prof. Etan Kohlberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Moshe Bar-Asher . . . . . . . . . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Mordechai (Moty) Heiblum. . Physical Sciences
and Engineering
Prof. Avner de Shalit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences 2016 Prof. Hagai Bergman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Ya’akov Kaduri (James Kugel) . . . . Jewish Studies Prof. Reshef Tenne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences
2010 Prof. Shalom Applebaum . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture Prof. Abraham Lempel . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering Prof. Yoram Groner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. David Kazhdan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics Prof. Ariel Rubinstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
and Physical Sciences
Prof. Yohanan Friedmann . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Prof. Nathan (Nati) Linial . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics
and Engineering
2018 Prof. Yaron Silberberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemical Sciences
and Physical Sciences
Prof. Naama Barkai. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life Sciences Prof. Noam Nisan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mathematics
and Engineering
Prof. Maya Bar-Hillel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Sciences
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THE ROTHSCHILD PRIZES CEREMONY
Programme
MUSICAL INTERLUDE GREETINGS
MK Dr Ze’ev Binyamin Begin
Professor Menahaem Yaari Board of Advisers Rothschild Prizes Organization
Lord Rothschild MUSICAL INTERLUDE AWARDING OF THE PRIZES ACCEPTANCE SPEECH ON BEHALF OF THE RECIPIENTS HATIKVA RECEPTION
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