REICHMAN UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES STATE OF THE ART MEDICAL SCHOOL
THE DINA RECANATI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
PROF. URIEL REICHMAN DINA RECANATI Z”L
Managing Editors:
Tamara Mizroch / tamara.mizroch@runi.ac.il
Tamar Shachaf Schneider / tamar.shachaf@runi.ac.il
Copy Editor: Naama Oren / nammycat99@gmail.com
Graphic Designer: Guy Tamir / guy@2plustudio.com
Production Assistant: Natalie Wicks
Israel’s first private medical school
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Reichman University major building projects
Photographers: Cover pic - Yehoshua Yosef; Inside pages: Adi Cohen Tzedek, Eyal Gaziel, Rami Sinai, Ofer Amram, Alon Gilboa, Oren Shalev, Eli Dassa, Omer Mizrachi, Ronen Topelberg, Kfir Bolotin, Herschel Gutman, Gilad Kavalerchik, Amir Geron, Gadi Dagon, Sigal Blayer-Gat, Aviv Gottlieb, Yehoshua Yosef, Peter Halmagyi, David Salem, Ofir Rachbuch, Hagai Nativ, Zvi Fermaglich, Naveh Ben Shmuel, Michael Edri, Maya Amado
There is perhaps no one who can tell the story of the University’s origins more touchingly than Prof. Uriel Reichman, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors. “The story of our university is one of avantgarde commitment to Israeli society,” Prof. Reichman begins. “Our journey began in the early 1990s. At the time, thousands of potential students felt excluded from academia. The existing seven universities in Israel controlled the government allocation for higher education and they were not eager to establish additional academic institutions. As a result, social mobility was denied for many people”.
After leading the Movement for a Constitution which eventually paved the way to passing the Freedom of Occupation Act 5754-1994, Prof. Reichman and fellow Reichman University founders submitted a proposal to establish a non-governmental academic institution. It was clear from the start that they would not receive funding from the Council for Higher Education. However, according to Prof. Reichman, “It seemed to me there was sufficient goodwill and readiness from the Israeli civil society to support us in establishing a private not-forprofit university. Subsequently it took us years to build a leading research institution and find our way through the academic bureaucracy to approve all academic degrees,
including PhD degrees, and finally to be declared the first private university in the Israeli system of higher education. Since inception, our university has been a Zionist institution based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence of Israel. It was clear that once we received the recognition as a university, we could embark on building a medical school.”
As in the ‘90s, Israeli society is facing a similar situation with regards to medical education in Israel. Israeli universities are able to train only 39% annually of the physicians needed in the healthcare system. The requirements for students to be accepted to medical school are extremely high, resulting in many highlygifted Israelis leaving the country to study medicine abroad. In addition, more than 30% of physicians who immigrated to Israel from the former USSR, are now over 60 years old, and the demand for younger physicians has increased. The anticipated doctor shortage will directly impact the challenges of the healthcare system and its ability to care for the population.
Many regard our university as a miracle under the Israeli bureaucratic system. We are determined to continue providing a unique and leading education with a strong commitment to scientific research and the needs and development of our society.”
– Prof. Uriel Reichman Founding President and Chairperson of the Board of Directors, Reichman University
Israel needs 2,000 new physicians annually but only 40% of medical students study in Israel. For this reason, Prof. Reichman spearheaded the establishment of the Dina Recanati School of Medicine at Reichman University. The School, due to open for the academic year 2024-2025, will address these chronic issues and accept 80 students in its first intake.
In addition to the shortage of physicians, it will address another common problem: many Israelis who are not accepted to study medicine in Israel go abroad, remaining there once their studies are complete. Furthermore, students who complete their degrees at foreign universities don’t always have a guarantee that they’ll be able to take the Israeli medical licensing exams, due to lower standards in some medical schools abroad that offer minimal clinical training.
The two leading hospitals in Israel, and the two leading healthcare services, Rabin Medical Center, Sheba Medical Center, Maccabi Healthcare Services and Clalit Healthcare Community Division have been impressed with the School’s commitment and initiative, and have agreed to educate the students.
The project’s first major donor, businessman and philanthropist, Oudi Recanati, Reichman University Chancellor, has committed an initial donation to establishing the medical school in memory of his mother, Dina Recanati z”l. While additional financial help is still needed, “We are hoping and confident that we will receive further support in this worthy cause,” Prof. Reichman adds.
The Dina Recanati School of Medicine at Reichman University will change the way medicine is taught in Israel. A review of medical education in Israel was conducted by an international committee appointed by the Council of Higher Education and, as a result of its recommendations and those from leading medical institutions in Israel, including the Rabin Medical Center, Maccabi Healthcare Services, Clalit Healthcare Community Division and Sheba Medical Center, the program currently being formulated will combine the best qualities of modern teaching and innovative programs from around the world.
In 2022, Prof. Arnon Afek was appointed as Founding Dean of the Dina Recanati School of Medicine and Chairman of the Health Sciences Division at Reichman University. He has been tasked with building an innovative new medical school, which will be submitted for the approval from the Council of Higher Education. This is a core strategic mission facing Israel’s healthcare system.
Prof. Afek is the Associate Director General of Sheba Medical Center. He assumed these positions after completing his tenure as Director General and Associate Medical Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Health (2014-2017). According to Prof. Afek, “Our mission is to educate the physicians of the future. It is important to distinguish between training and educating. Our first step in setting up the medical school was to figure out exactly who the physicians of the future will be. We consulted with the brightest young physicians, residents, seniors and interns. We charged them with the mission to build the most innovative and novel program to be taught in the medical school. Additionally, our curriculum will be guided by an international and Israeli advisory board in order to learn from the best physicians and institutions abroad and in Israel.”
The School will also be based on the values of Reichman University, which critically means that students will be at the center. According to Prof. Afek, “The student at the center means that it is not the professor, the paper or the research that takes precedence, but it is rather the student. That is why when it comes to choosing professors, it is critical that they are teachers, as we emphasize the teaching aspect of what they’re doing.”
Another important aspect of the curriculum will be its humanist views. “We will emphasize the human needs and human-centric approach to the patient as well as to the whole healthcare team,” Prof. Afek explains. “This emphasis will be carried through to the healthcare workers themselves, such as nurses, technicians and other healthcare professionals.”
The School’s mission will also incorporate all areas of Israeli society to reflect Reichman University’s Zionist values. According to Prof. Afek, “We are proposing that the state provides grants to medical students to work in the periphery of Israel. Instead of subsidizing universities, the Ministry of Health and the Council of Higher Education would provide grants to students who will commit to work in Israel’s periphery, in this way ensuring that the peripheral areas will receive a steady supply of good physicians.”
“We are recruiting faculty and lecturers as well as advisory board members,” Prof. Afek shares. “We are currently working with the Maccabi Healthcare Fund and Clalit Community Division to develop a community-based approach to medicine and physical diagnosis. Hospitals nowadays are the standard for physical diagnosis, history-taking, and checkups. What we are trying to do is create an approach where the physicians are part of their community. Physicians of the future will need to be very innovative, so innovation will form an integral part of their training. They need to be comfortable with technology. The School will also boast a simulation center, a big data and virtual reality laboratory. Students will not learn traditional anatomy on corpses but will rather practice on VR technology, unlike other medical schools. It’s not that we will not have this capacity in the medical school; we will have microscopes and traditional labs. We will use them but in a more limited way; it will not be our focus. Now that we have digital histology and pathology, we do not need to base our studies on traditional methodologies.”
“We want to embrace Reichman University’s interdisciplinary approach to learning so for this reason, it is not only pre-med students that will be accepted to study medicine, but also students from other faculties, such as Law, and Computer Science and Engineering.
In June 2022, we established a Life Science program at Reichman University, which will teach the required seven courses that every student who graduates from other faculties apart from pre-medical studies or biology will take and once they pass an exam, they can become a candidate for medical school.”
The first phase of the medical school will be ready by the end of 2023. This will include the simulation centers, VR, Big Data, synthetic biology and other experimental labs that will all be housed in the Graziela Drahi Innovation Center, also due to be completed in 2023. “By the end of the year,” Prof. Afek continues, “We will have the capacity to teach medicine together with our partners, the leading medical institutions in Israel and others that may wish to join us. It is important to stress that this is not a competition with existing universities, but a proposal to collaborate”.
The next phase of the medical school will be a sevenfloor building that will provide the space for research and teaching facilities as well as a an infrastructure designed for students.
According to Prof. Reichman, “Many regard our university as a miracle under the Israeli bureaucratic system. We are determined to continue providing a unique and leading education with a strong commitment to scientific research and the needs and development of our society.”
Prof. Ruth Feldman and Prof. Amir Amedi , two leading neuroscientists in their fields, are running cutting-edge brain studies with astounding results. While researching different areas of the brain, and different brain activities and functionalities, both are looking to solve serious issues with what could eventually be life-changing solutions.
Prof. Ruth Feldman is the Simms-Mann Professor of Developmental Social Neuroscience at Reichman University, with a joint appointment at the Yale Child Study Center. As a world leader in developmental psychology and psychopathology, her approach integrates perspectives from neuroscience, human development, philosophy, clinical practice, and the arts within an interpersonal frame and a behavior-based approach.
The Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience at the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology is unique in its studies of the brain in its natural social environment, similar to how interactions between people happen in real life. These studies attempt to examine what happens in the brain during interactions between people, mainly between parents and their children but also between couples and close friends.
Several groundbreaking studies in “hyperscanning” are being conducted at the Center. They are considered rare and complicated to conduct, with only a few dozen having been held around the world. Prof. Feldman’s lab specializes in them. “Hyperscanning” studies examine two brains simultaneously, during different interactions between them.
One of these studies was recently published in NeuroImage and examined what happens to the brain during non-direct interactions between mothers and children aged 10-14. While initially conducted before COVID-19, this study and its results are applicable to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, when most of our social interactions were remote. The study asks, “Can we create and maintain social bonds from afar?”
During the study, participants were asked to communicate with one another either face-to-face or through Zoom in two separate rooms, all the while connected to an EEG (electroencephalogram) machine. The study examines what happens to the brain of each participant during the interactions, while they complete different pleasant tasks. During the study, the participants also give saliva samples to measure hormone levels.
The study found that while technology allows the creation of brain synchronization between participants not sitting in the same room, it does not replace direct and personal interaction, and is actually very limited. Of 36 possible combinations of brain interactions, only one occurred during the Zoom chat between mothers and their children, while nine occurred during faceto-face communications.
According to Prof. Feldman, “Imagine you’re driving down a motorway in optimal conditions; lots of lanes, the traffic moves smoothly. Now compare it to driving on a gravel road with many bumps along the way. You will still get to the same place, but it will be much more difficult getting there. This is the difference between face-to-face interactions and non-direct interactions.”
Some of the other studies Prof. Feldman and her team are working on include examining the effects of a mother’s body odor on brain synchronization with her baby; a unique study that examines the effects of the father’s body odor on brain synchronization with his baby; and two more in cooperation with the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology Clinic.
According to Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Linoy Schwartz, “Hyperscanning studies can give a unique and live response to the question, ‘How do two brains communicate with each other and impact on each other?’ And they also provide the opportunity to examine the neurological component, along with behavioral and hormonal, of synchronization between people.”
Many of the studies at the Center are longitudinal, examining the effects of interactions between mothers and their children during a period of about 20 years. A few of these studies use fMRI machines (functional MRI), to measure brain activity while conducting specific tasks.
One of the most notable follows children and their mothers from Sderot and the Gaza border. The purpose is to learn how stress that arises from the security situation influences the development of children who grew up in these areas. The control group includes children who grew up in towns that are socioeconomically similar to Sderot but have not experienced the security situation.
The study’s initial analysis shows that many participants suffered from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) symptoms, regression, and other disorders. The interaction of mothers with their children showed patterns that were not age- or situation-appropriate. Researchers continued to meet participants until they were 15 years old and found differences in their hormone levels: cortisol, the hormone associated with stress; and oxytocin, the hormone associated with love and trust. The situation was unique as all participants suffered from the same stressor – the security situation, yet researchers found that while some children who lived on the same street suffered from anxiety, some did not.
Moreover, the correlation between mothers and their children was profound. Early on, they found that the interaction between mother and child meaningfully affects the physiological metrics of both, with the mother being some sort of buffer protecting the child. Mothers who were more resilient had more resilient children, and mothers who suffered more from anxiety had more anxious children.
The next stage of the study examined the gut microbiome population and in future, the study will scan the children in an fMRI machine when they are 18 years old, looking for a neurological pattern that can differentiate them from other populations.
According to Research Associate Dr. Adi Ulmer-Yaniv, who leads imaging studies at the Center, “These studies allow us to receive new insights on the long-term effects of the relationship between mothers and children on the children’s development, not just behaviorally but neurologically as well. With fMRI imaging, we can examine how attachment is represented in the brain and how social interactions shape brain regions associated with social cognition across development.”
The Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology is unique in its studies of the brain in its natural social environment, similar to how interactions between people happen in real life
Prof. Amir Amedi, Founding Director of The Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition & Technology and The Ruth and Meir Rosental Brain Imaging Center (MRI), is a world leader in multisensory research with a multidisciplinary background in computational neuroscience (PhD 2005), brain imaging, neurology (visiting research fellow at NIH and instructor of neurology at Harvard Medical School), and music. In his lab, Prof. Amedi uses a wide range of technologies and research methods that help the team understand the interplay between nature and nurture in shaping the human brain.
The uniqueness of Prof. Amedi’s lab is two-fold, according to Dr. Amber Maimon, Research Associate and Academic Lab Manager. First is their unique methodology of “developing technologies that help us study the brain, and studying the brain so the findings help us develop new technologies”. Second is their infrastructure in the form of a multi-sensory ambisonic room, a one-of-a-kind research space that allows staff to program human senses in 360°, and then export the experiences outside of the laboratory setting to the MRI machine to examine what happens in the brain during the multi-sensory experience. The room allows the team to control sound, vision and touch in various ways, and create sensory and multi-sensory experiences that cannot be created elsewhere.
Their research indicates that within the brain, there are hidden connections between the senses in addition to the unhidden ones. Synesthesia, a phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense leads to another sensory experience, is an example of an unhidden connection between the senses. According to staff, there are also hidden connections between the senses that we are not aware of in our daily experience, that shape how we perceive the world, and their research and studies are based on this understanding.
Looking to assist people with health issues and disabilities, and to enhance the capabilities of each and every one of us, the Institute is working on various solutions that will eventually become accessible to everyone who needs them. One of these solutions is “EyeMusic”, a sensory substitution device (SSD) that converts visual information into audio information while preserving shape, color, and location. This was inspired by the “echolocation” abilities of dolphins and bats that use it to determine the location of objects with reflected sound. Similarly, Prof. Amedi and his team have developed a sensory substitution device that scans the visual field and converts it with a dedicated algorithm, pixel by pixel, into what is known as a soundscape. The soundscape allows blind people, after intensive training, to “see” the identity, 3D shape, location and even color of objects through sound.
Dr. Amber Maimon and Prof. Amir Amedi Prof. Amir AmediWhen they scanned these participants in the MRI, they saw that the areas of the brain associated with vision in the normally sighted were activated. Since, in blind people, these areas are not supposed to work as they have never used them before, this is an astounding discovery and proof that with appropriate training and technology, even blind people can learn to “see” through a different sense, sound in this case. Even more astounding, the visual areas of the brain commonly thought to be divided into sub-areas were found by the team to respond to visual faces and body postures were activated to the soundscape of faces and body postures through the EyeMusic.
Another sensory substitution device created by Prof. Amedi and his team, in a project led by Dr. Kasia Ciesla and Dr. Adi Snir, include conveying audition through tactile vibrations in the fingertips. One of the implementations of this device is to help deaf people sense the vibrations of a sound, and its location.
A major project that the lab is leading, overseen by the lab’s Chief Design and Technology Officer Iddo Wald, along with Prof. Ben Corn, a world-leading Professor of Oncology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Deputy Director of the new Shaare Zedek Cancer Center and Head of the Department of Radiation Medicine, is aimed at employing what they know about the brain to influence the body and vice versa.
This project, known as “The Hope Initiative” aims to improve medical treatment and quality of life by enriching the treatment environment with scientifically grounded, multi-sensory, neuro-wellness interventions. In the new Cancer Center, the team has built a CT simulator room, a multi-sensory room with a curved LED display, a unique ambisonic audio system and infrastructure supporting touch interfaces and interactive experiences that incorporate their custom-made tools and technologies. These include 3D glasses to convey 3D within the MRI setting, which were designed by Iddo Wald. One of the many purposes of the unique multi-sensory immersive setups is to reduce the anxiety and claustrophobic feelings that arise for many people during scanning or treatment. The next step of this unique cooperation is building matching environments for additional diagnostic and treatment settings, and even relaxation rooms for the hospital staff.
The late Prof. Paul Bach-y-Rita, an American neuroscientist who specialized in neuroplasticity (the scope that studies the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization), once said that, “We see with our brains, not with our eyes.”
“And we say,” explains Dr. Maimon, “That we experience the world through the brain and not through the sensory organs. And as these studies prove, the areas in charge of specific senses such as hearing or seeing can also be activated by sound or touch; these discoveries have led us to propose a paradigm shift – that the brain is not divided into senses but into tasks, and by using technologies and perceptual learning, the plasticity of the brain can be tapped deep into adulthood, contrary to what was previously thought and accepted.”
The multisensory room at The Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition & Technology
The story of our university is one of avant-garde commitment to Israeli society.”
– Prof. Uriel Reichman
Thanks to the generous support of the Jusidman Foundation, the new Daniel Jusidman International Conference Hall at Reichman University will be a major focal point on campus and is due for completion in 2023. This significant and stately venue will become the permanent home to Reichman University’s two major annual conferences – the Herzliya Conference, Israel’s foremost global policy gathering, run by the Institute for Policy and Strategy, and the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism’s World Summit, the largest and most influential meeting on terrorism and counter-terrorism in Israel.
Thanks to the generous support of the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation the Graziella Drahi Innovation Building will be home to Reichman University’s Innovation Center. This building was also made possible by businessman Joey Low.
Thanks to the generous support of The Gerald and Gail Ronson Family Foundation the new Ronson Dormitory Building caters for shared living arrangements (as opposed to single occupancy like the other dorms) and is due for completion in 2023.
Jonathan Davis, Head of the Raphael Recanati International School and Vice President of External Relations
Four students began their studies at the Raphael Recanati International School thanks to a donation from the Parasol Foundation Scholarship Program for Ukrainian Women. One in six students at Reichman University receives a scholarship. In addition to those for the Ethiopian community, international students, and lone soldiers, the Parasol Foundation Scholarship Program for Ukrainian Women is the latest at Reichman University that provides scholarships to women from the war-torn regions of Ukraine, who can no longer attend university there. These women are supported by the Parasol Foundation and Reichman University throughout their degrees to ensure they flourish and succeed in their studies.
According to Jonathan Davis, Vice President of External Relations and Head of the Raphael Recanati International School, “We are delighted to have been given this unique opportunity thanks to Ruth Monicka Parasol and the Parasol Foundation, that will enable Ukrainian women the opportunity to study at Reichman University.
Reichman University is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in education and research and we are certain that these outstanding women will shine in their roles as Parasol Foundation Scholars.”
According to Ms. Ruth Monicka Parasol, Principal Benefactress and Trustee Director of The Parasol Foundation, “The situation in Ukraine right now is devastating and we’re working with Reichman University to create opportunities for women to continue their STEM studies in Israel. We’re offering fully-paid STEM scholarships to four talented young women so they can pursue their dreams and achieve their potential. The female students will join a growing network of Parasol Foundation female students that stretches from Israel to the US, UK and Gibraltar.”
From left: Jonathan Davis with the Parasol scholarship recipients, Anastasiia Yeremenko, Vladyslava Talan, Oleksandra Vasylieva and Sofia NadolenkoEleven buses filled with over 350 first-year RRIS students left the Reichman University campus and drove to Ben Shemen Forest for outdoor team-building activities. As Reichman’s students come from more than 90 countries, these activities aim to establish friendships and bonds of trust between strangers in order for them to form a cohesive group over the course of their time on campus.
375 first-year students and RRIS staff at Ben
Gurion’s gravesite
Jonathan Davis talks Zionism and Ben Gurion to more than 350 students
Thanks to donors such as Mitch & Joleen Julis, and Shlomo & Israela Elkayam, a delegation of 34 students and staff from the Raphael Recanati International School visited Poland in a trip organized by the Reichman University Student Union. The highly emotional and meaningful trip included a visit to the Warsaw ghetto, Jewish cemetery, Warsaw synagogue and Auschwitz among other sites. Valerie Susskind, who represented the Raphael Recanati International School, sums up her thoughts, “We ended the day, and our journey, with a ceremony at Treblinka. We sang the Hatikvah loudly in anticipation of our imminent return home. Our hearts were heavy but we were happy to be together, to have had this experience of a lifetime, to vow to continue educating ourselves and others, and ultimately to be greeted at Ben Gurion by the everlasting ‘Welcome to Israel’ sign.”
The University enjoyed hosting its international students on campus to celebrate the lunar new year - the year of the rabbit! A total of 50 people attended the celebration, which included mingling and traditional Chinese food.
Dr. Yael Hadass, Head of the International Program in Business Administration and Economics;
Dr. Daphné Richemond-Barak, Head of the International Program in Government; and other staff members from the Raphael Recanati International School together with the Chinese students
Reichman University students taking part in the 14th Delegation to Poland
Lior Biner, Chairperson Student Union; Jonathan Davis; Carine Katz, Director of the Raphael Recanati International School;
Faculty, students, and friends gathered for a candlelighting ceremony to celebrate Channukah. This was another in the regular series of events on campus that week, such as the Seymour Fox RRIS Shabbat Dinners.
Prof. Uriel Reichman, Founding President and Chairman of the Board of Directors with son Gadi Slade and family, lighting the Channuka candles
In January 2023, the University held the closing session of the diplomatic program - Ambassadors’ Club 20222023. A hundred students received a diploma after attending different sessions throughout the semester, dealing with minorities in Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a strategic tour to Jerusalem and more.
Guest speaker Mrs. Galit Baram Amdur, Former Israeli Consul General in Toronto, spoke to participants about her diplomatic journey and shared her experiences of representing Israel in different locations around the world.
Over 50 French students joined staff for a cheese & wine event held on campus. These French students make up a large percentage of the University’s international student body and Reichman University is proud to have them on campus.
The Ambassadors’ Club 2022-2023 with their certificates Jonathan Davis; Dr. Danna Tevet, Head of the International Program at the Arison School of Business; Dr. Yael Hadass, Head of the International Program in Business Administration and Economics with Raphael Recanati International School staff and French students
Reichman University and Google have partnered to establish the Hi-Tech School, a program aimed at promoting diversity and equal opportunities in the Israeli tech industry. The school was founded in October 2022 with a mission to empower candidates based on their individual skills and potential, while removing social barriers. By doing so, the school hopes to create a smarter, better, and more diverse industry tomorrow.
The Israeli high-tech industry is the country’s largest engine of growth, making the establishment of the Hi-Tech School a vital step toward promoting social mobility and introducing high-quality, skilled, and capable human capital into tech. The school is committed to providing equal opportunities to every person seeking to contribute to the industry.
The Hi-Tech School aims to reach out to underrepresented populations in Israeli high-tech, including women, the ultra-Orthodox, Arabs, members of the Ethiopian community, and people from the geo-social periphery. The program is delivered in a hybrid format, with courses taking place at the Google for Startups Campus in Tel Aviv and Reichman University in Herzliya. Future courses are planned to be held in the north and south of the country.
The school offers a portfolio of various technological and business courses for entry-level positions currently in high demand in the Israeli tech market. These include programming, QA, business development, sales, data analysis, and more. Every course spans several weeks to several months, with approximately 60 students participating in each.
The courses comprise core academic studies, along with up-to-date professional training based on industry demands and standards. The program offers academic supervision, and some courses provide academic credits that can be used in the future towards an academic degree. The program also provides support to ensure high-quality placements and integration into the workforce.
In March 2023, the first cohort of full-stack web developers completed their training, and all participants are now in the process of integrating into development roles in the industry. Registration is currently open for additional technological and business programs, and the Hi-Tech School aims to have 3,000 talented students over the next five years.
Gali Shahar Efrat, General Manager of Google Reichman Tech School, commented on the partnership, stating, “In our view, identifying potential, imparting quality education, and integrating academia and industry will open many doors for our participants. By establishing the school, we are providing high-quality and local human capital, which will help shape Israeli tech’s future.”
The Hi-Tech School is a crucial step towards creating a more diverse and inclusive tech industry in Israel. By providing equal opportunities and removing social barriers, the school hopes to enable talented individuals from all backgrounds to contribute to the growth of the industry and the Israeli economy as a whole.
The Hi-Tech School’s first full stack web developer program participants
With Prof. Uriel Reichman, Founding President of Reichman University; Prof. Rafi Melnick, President of Reichman University; Prof. Yossi Matias (Vice President of Google, and founding Managing Director of Google Center Israel; Barak Regev, Country Director (GM) of Google IL; Dr. Ayelet Ben-Ezer, CEO and Vice President of Reichman University; Gali Shahar Efrat, GM of Google and Reichman Hi-Tech School; and the Hi-Tech School’s management and operations team
Every month Prof. Rafi Melnick, President of Reichman University, publishes the Melnick State of the Israeli Economy Index, which reflects the state of the economy and the turning points over the business cycle. Over the years, the Index has identified, in real time, the economic fluctuations due to both external and internal shocks.
The recent index summarises 2022 and shows a remarkable rate of growth in the business sector, reflecting a strong performance after the recession of coronavirus.
The figure below clearly shows that 2022 can be divided into two halves, with the first showing strong growth and the second showing a decline in the rate of growth. This could be due to external factors as well as in response to the rise in interest rate by the Bank of Israel.
For those interested in receiving monthly updates of the Melnick Index, subscribe at http://themelnickindex.activetrail.biz/en
Prof. Rafi Melnick, Reichman University’s President, stated, “Throughout my many years in academia, I have watched the ever-growing phenomenon of brain drain in Israel with concern and wondered how I could help to deal with the challenge. I see the advancement of quality and ground-breaking research as a fundamental national mission, and I have set the goal of connecting
with outstanding Israeli researchers in tenured positions at the world’s top universities and offering them an academic home in Israel that will serve their needs. All parties will gain from this, and the State of Israel will benefit from closer ties with its leading scientists and their integration into Israeli academia.”
As part of the project introduced by Prof. Melnick to establish an academic home at Reichman University for Israeli researchers from leading universities around the globe, the University hosted a group of eight researchers from Stanford, Minnesota, Cornell, INSEAD, Maryland and other leading universities. The purpose of the project was to strengthen the researchers’ ties to Reichman University and create fruitful academic and research partnerships.
During this session, which took place over three consecutive days, the group dealt with the topic of “resilience” on the personal, social, and national levels. Two conferences held on campus, entitled “Entrepreneurial Resilience” and “Resilience in Sport”, were held in which the guest researchers from abroad, members of Reichman University’s faculty and other experts participated.
The initiative culminated in a visit to the Gaza Strip, where they met with communities that have lived with the pervasive and constant threat of war for over 20 years. They met with local citizens and heard first-hand testimony of life under ongoing trauma, as well as with army officials dealing with resilience in the area.
The trip included a visit to the Sderot Resilience Center where they met with therapists. Connections were established that will allow for new research on the issue of resilience, based on a unique data set that has previously never been studied. According to Prof. Melnick, “We believe that this new research will contribute greatly to the study of resilience, not only in Israel but also abroad.”
The initiative will continue to expand with a new activity that is planned for the rest of 2023 and for 2024, with the organizers looking forward to welcoming experts in the field of business, economics, and computer science.
From left:
Noa Idan, Gali Kachlon, Prof. Ella Miron-Spektor, Dan Ganor, Prof. Ravit Reichman, Prof. Shahar Ayal, Prof. Roni Reiter-Palmon, Dr. Rany Abend, Prof. Ziv Carmon, Lorena Atyas Levovsky, Matthew Rubin, Prof. Anat Brunstein-Klomek, Dr. Gilad Chen, Dr. Eyal Sulganik, Dr. Michal Reifen Tagar, Lt. Col. (Res.) Uri Ben-Yaakov, Prof. Nir Halevy, Prof. Oren Gross, Prof. Rafi Melnick, Stevie Weinberg and Guy Smiloviz
Reichman University’s new Innovation Center, which is set to formally open this spring under the auspices of the new Graziella Drahi Innovation Building, aims to encourage interdisciplinary, innovative and applied research as a cooperation between the different academic schools. The establishment of the Innovation Center comes along with a new vision for the University, which puts the emphasis on the fields of synthetic biology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Reality (XR). Prof. Noam Lemelshtrich Latar, the Head of the Center, identifies these as fields of the future, and the new Innovation Center will focus on interdisciplinary applied research and the ramifications of these fields on the subjects that are researched and taught at the schools, for example, how law and ethics influence new medical practices and scientific research.
Synthetic biology is a new interdisciplinary field that integrates biology, chemistry, computer science, electrical and genetic engineering, enabling fast manipulation of biological systems to achieve a desired product.
Prof. Lemelshtrich Latar, with Dr. Jonathan Giron, who was the Center’s Chief Operating Officer, has made a significant revolution at the University, when they raised a meaningful donation to establish the Scojen Institute for Synthetic Biology. The vision of the Scojen Institute is to conduct applied scientific research by employing top global scientists at Reichman University to become the leading synthetic biology research Institute in Israel. The donation will allow recruiting four world-leading scientists in various scopes of synthetic biology in life sciences. The first scientist and Head of the Scojen Institute has already been recruited - Prof. Yosi Shacham Diamand, a leading global scientist in bio-sensors and the integration of electronics and biology. The Scojen Institute labs will be located in the Graziella Drahi Innovation Building and will be one part of the future Dina Recanati School of Medicine, set to open in the academic year 2024-2025.
The integration of AI and synthetic biology will lead the global research and industry that will affect all aspects of human lives.”
Head of Innovation Center Reichman University, Chair of Daniel Pearl International Journalism Institute (DPIJI), Chair of the Asper Institute for New Media Diplomacy, Former Founding Dean of Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Reichman University, Herzliya
Synthetic biology is expected to advance the field of personalized medicine, in which physicians provide modified treatments and drugs to fit patients’ DNA. As a part of the new medical school, for example, scientists at the Scojen Institute will use genetic engineering to develop treatments for various health conditions and diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. According to Prof. Lemelshtrich Latar, “The integration of AI and synthetic biology will lead the global research and industry that will affect all aspects of human lives including health, sustainability and the social sciences. I am delighted our new innovation center was successful in introducing this very important field of science to become an integral part of RU and its future medical school.”
The new Innovation Center also houses the Advanced Reality Lab (ARL), which examines, from multi-disciplinary perspectives, how digital technologies impact our lives. Headed by Prof. Doron Friedman from the Sammy Ofer School of Communications along with professors from other schools, the lab’s projects cover human communication, neurophysiology, psychology, computer science, art, and collaboration with the industry. According to Prof. Lemelshtrich Latar, “Augmented Reality is becoming a very important field. It employs immersive technologies for teaching and research that were proven to be very effective in affecting our cognition. AR, for example, is becoming a very important tool in medical education and our advanced AR labs will be used extensively in teaching our medical school students.”
Prof. Noam Lemelshtrich Latar
On Sunday, June 19th, 2022 the American Friends of Reichman University held an evening to honor Prof. Uriel Reichman at the Moise Safra Center in New York City. Friends, supporters, alumni, parents, and students joined in recognizing Prof. Reichman’s achievements in establishing Reichman University as Israel’s first private university. Against all odds, he built the university, ranked highly every year in student satisfaction. Emceed by alum Yoav Davis, the program highlighted university alumni living in New York City who are leaders in almost every sector, innovating and building companies as they continue to share the values of Zionism, freedom, and responsibility.
Jonathan Davis, Dennis Monette and Prof. Uriel Reichman
Chairman of the AFRU Board of Directors Gil Tenzer, Prof. Yoram Wind & Orit Tenzer
Jonathan Davis with his son, Reichman University alum Yoav Davis who was the MC for the evening
AFRU Board Member and son of Prof. Reichman Gadi Slade, with grandchildren Amalia, Leo and Ella
Leeya Fryder, AFRU Board member Gideon Argov and Alexandra Fuchs
AFRU board member Daniel Jusidman, Batya Kahane and Prof. Uriel Reichman
American Friends of RU had the honor to host Reichman University students from the GMBA Innovation and Entrepreneurship track while they were on a study tour in New York City, led by Michal Olmert Naishtein. The GMBA students met with a variety of companies, some of which were founded by Reichman University graduates including WoodSpoon, founded by graduate Merav Kalish-Rozengarten, where they met with Lee Reshef, the company’s COO.
They also made a visit to Bizzabo headquarters to meet with founder, Alon Alroy. At Lemonade, the students met with Maya Prosor, Chief Business Officer, who is also graduate of Reichman university. AFRU Board Member, and Reichman University graduate, Eli Elefant graciously hosted the students at his office for a cocktail hour, followed by a lecture. The students also had a special visit from the Israeli Consul General in New York, Ambassador Asaf Zamir.
Reichman university graduate, Lior Tal, is a tech entrepreneur and the CEO of Cyngn, a leading software company that develops autonomous driving technology.
Tal was born and raised in Givatayim, Israel. After serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, he attended Reichman University where he earned a degree in law and business. In the years following his graduation, he went on to found Snaptu with a few of his high school friends. Snaptu was an application that allowed mobile phones, even those less advanced than an iPhone or Android phone, to access mobile Internet. In 2011, the company was acquired by Facebook and the whole team relocated to Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto.
Snaptu was Facebook’s first Israeli acquisition and the team was instrumental in helping Facebook build their mobile product line and expand it internationally. In 2016, Tal pivoted away from mobile solutions and was chosen to lead the Menlo Park based company, Cyngn, as their CEO. Tal spent the next five years in research and development to build a self-driving system that would solve many industrial application needs.
In 2021, Cyngn was ready to to bring its technology to market. Lior made the decision to take the company to NASDAQ through an IPO in a record six months and on October 21, 2021, Cyngn started trading on NASDAQ.
Tal is passionate about helping entrepreneurs achieve success in the tech industry, and often speaks at tech conferences and events. He is a firm believer in the power of technology to improve lives and has said that he wants to use his experience in the tech industry to inspire others to succeed. Tal lives in San Diego with his wife and three children.
Tal Lives in San Diego with his wife, Gili (also a Reichman University graduate) and his three children.
Lior Tal at the listing of Cyngn on NASDAQ Lior Tal at the listing of Cyngn on NASDAQBernie Yenkin, American Friends of Reichman University’s founding supporter, tells his unique story in his own words.
Here we are, in a private upstairs dining room at Lindey’s Restaurant, with five other couples, at a dinner meeting Miriam and I really didn’t want to attend. But now we’re mesmerized by what we are hearing from a certain Professor Uriel Reichman whose presence in Columbus for an educational conference is the reason for this gathering.
It’s August 1999. Miriam and I are both former Board Chairs of the Columbus Jewish Federation, the central address for planning and fundraising to benefit local Jewish agencies serving social and educational needs as well as assisting endangered Jewish populations overseas. A friend, recently back home in Israel after a two-year tour of duty in Columbus as Israel’s emissary to the Federation, and now working in outreach for a college we’ve never heard of, has asked us to join some others in extending hospitality on behalf of the Federation’s leadership to his boss, the college’s founder and president, namely, said Professor Reichman. As a favor we reluctantly agreed to come to this dinner. Professor Reichman is in town to address a large group of educators who are holding their annual conference on the campus of Ohio State University. A graduate of the University of Chicago law school, and a former Dean of the law school at Tel Aviv University, he has been invited to speak at the educators’ conference about the initiative he led (unfortunately not implemented) to make needed changes in Israel’s electoral process. But tonight he is talking to us about his dream, a dream in the process of fulfillment.
Motivated by his frustration with the public universities in Israel, their bureaucratic processes, and their dependence on government funding, he had decided to try to establish a private university that would take no government funding, and thus determine its own course. So, in 1993 the Interdisciplinary Center opened on an abandoned former air base in Herzliya, an upscale community just north of Tel Aviv. Known as “IDC”, it is the first ever private university in Israel, now six years in existence, with a student population of about 3,000 and a faculty comprised of outstanding educators. Professor Reichman’s goal was to educate what would become the future leadership of Israel, and he is succeeding. (We would later hear testimony from Israeli friends and family of the high regard in which IDC is held.) And, unique among the local couples sitting around that dinner table, Miriam and I realize we might have a very personal interest in the future that Professor Reichman is so eloquently setting forth.
Let’s go back 75 years to 1924, more than two decades before the United Nations’ 1947 partition plan that established what would become the State of Israel. Palestine, as it was then known, had been taken from Turkish rule after the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, and placed under the British mandate.
Miriam and Bernie YenkinIt was populated by both Jews and Arabs. The Jewish population had increased in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, augmented by émigrés escaping the hardships of Czarist Russia, and others who had come from Western Europe to fulfill a dream of a Jewish homeland. They had come, purchased land, and established agricultural communes, largely transforming what had been desert into fertile lands on which they could live and raise their families.
Along with the physical migration, there grew an initiative for the purchase of land by Jews living elsewhere, including in America, who - while not planning to emigrate - also held the dream of a homeland for the Jewish people. Thus, on a July day in 1924, there arrived in Columbus, Ohio, an emissary from the American Zion Commonwealth, a company that had bought a large area of desert and was selling parcels of five dunamim to those interested in owning a bit of land where the Jewish people had its roots. Five dunamim equals about one acre and the cost was $300, payable at $100 per year over three years.
One of the purchasers was a young fellow, 20 years of age, named Abe Yenkin. My father, and indeed the entire Yenkin family, had long wished that there could be a Jewish homeland. They were known as Zionists. Buying the small piece of land in this place that the emissary called Herzliya would form, for my father, a physical attachment. And he did indeed love the idea of owning it. In the years that followed, he carefully made sure that the taxes were paid, and that all was in order in the transition from British rule to the establishment of Israel in 1948. No matter that his five dunamim parcel was not along the beautiful Mediterranean seaside, but instead next to a railroad track.
Years, then decades, passed. In 1961 my father, on a trip to Israel with my mother, first saw his five dunamim. Crops were growing there, tended by a farmer who lived next door. All was in order. When Abe Yenkin died in 1977, ownership of the five dunamim passed to me and my two sisters, who live in Boston. Meantime, beginning in 1968, as board members of various national organizations involved in Jewish education and philanthropy, Miriam and I were making periodic trips to Israel. On some of these, we would take a detour to see the land. There it lay, a road in the front, the railroad tracks visible in the back, crops growing, all quiet.
Occasionally I would receive a phone call from Israel. Someone at the Anglo-Saxon Real Estate agency would ask if we wanted to sell the land. It was zoned as agricultural, so one house would be allowed. I would listen, but then decline. My father had bought the land. We were not interested in selling it.
In 1994, Columbus gained a new sister city: it was Herzliya, Israel. So, on our next trip we arranged to connect with their Sister Cities Department. The representative (I’ll call her Rachel) asked us if we’d like to see the museum, historical exhibits, other venues of civic pride. (Herzliya had emerged as Israel’s high-tech center.) We demurred, asking her just to take us over to see our land. And what a surprise awaited us! The road was still in the front, the crops were growing, but in the rear, on a strip between our parcel and the railroad tracks, their walled-in gardens hiding the tracks, were three large homes.
And, now bordering our property on the south was a gated compound where lived, according to Rachel, a member of the Ofer family, owners of steamship lines and one of the wealthiest families in Israel. When the next call came from Anglo-Saxon the price quoted for our five dunamim had risen to a six-figure amount we never would have anticipated, even though its zoning would still allow only one house.
So, there we were at the August 1999 dinner, Miriam and I listening to Professor Reichman. Can you guess where this is going? Well, it’s even bigger than what you’re thinking. Just two weeks prior, I had received a call from Anglo-Saxon – but this time with some astounding news. Our land had been re-zoned. The five dunamim could accommodate not just one, but seven homes! Its value had increased seven-fold – but what should we do? It was our father’s land. Owning it had brought him much joy.
Professor Reichman was speaking. Miriam and I were looking at each other, the same thought in our heads, in our hearts. After dinner we spoke to Professor Reichman. Yes, he knew exactly where the five dunamim parcel was located; it was very valuable. Yes, it would be wonderful if we wanted to donate it to IDC. It would have a very important use. IDC was growing; it needed to expand its campus.
A large adjacent tract of land was owned by the City of Herzliya. The City would not sell it, but would trade it. Our parcel, with its now increased value, would make a perfect trade.
The next weekend Miriam and I flew up to Boston to talk with my sisters. Sandra and Linda were enthusiastic. This was a perfect way to honor our father’s memory. Abe Yenkin appreciated his Jewish heritage, Israel, and felt strongly about education. This gift would encompass all of these feelings.
But all was not done. Executing the gift had complexities. There were issues on real estate that carried over not just from the British Mandate, but even further back to the Ottoman Empire. Despite excellent legal counsel on all sides, the process dragged on for weeks. In October, Miriam and I went to Herzliya to check the progress. At lunch, Professor Reichman asked us what recognition we might want. We had not thought about that. He suggested “land for land”. So, on a sunny day in May of 2000, Miriam and I, my sisters and their spouses, our daughter Amy, numerous Israeli friends and family gathered with faculty and officials to hear Professor Reichman officially dedicate on the grounds of the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, a newly unveiled “Yenkin Campus”.
The closing of the gift had taken place as planned five months earlier on December 29, 1999, via telephone. Miriam and I were with our family in Telluride, Colorado. Our two Squire, Sanders & Dempsey lawyers were in Columbus and Cleveland. The president of the American Friends of IDC, who was himself a professor at the Wharton School at Penn called in from London where he was on winter break. Two IDC lawyers were on the phone in Tel Aviv.
Professor Reichman was in his office on the campus in Herzliya. The lawyers started the legalities of the transaction. Professor Reichman interrupted.
“Before we start I want to tell you a story – it begins in 1924 with a young man in Columbus, Ohio…”
On Sunday, March 12th, 2023, AFRU and the US Alumni Association hosted an event for alumni with Prof. Uriel Reichman, Jonathan Davis and Prof. Arnon Afek, Dean of the Dina Recanati Medical School. The event was held at the New York headquarters of Carbyne, a company founded by Reichman University graduate, Amir Elichai.
Over 70 alumni came out for a fun evening of good food, wine and conversations. Prof. Reichman gave an update about Israel’s current situation, ending his talk by telling alumni how proud he is of their accomplishments and contributions to Israel and society. Prof. Arnon Afek spoke about building the future medical school, while Jonathan Davis gave brief remarks about the Zionist spirit of Reichman University. The Reichman University alumni community in the USA is growing, and AFRU encourages everyone to get more involved.
Reichman University alumni with Prof. Arnon Afek, Prof. Uriel Reichman and Jonathan Davis
Founder and CEO of Carbyne, Amir Elichai with Rotem Basson
The new academic year kicked off with the first Israel Friends of Reichman University event. The festive evening began with the opening address of Gili Dinstein, CEO of Friends of Reichman University and External Relations Israel, who said, “Our graduates are the purpose for the establishment of Reichman University, and each of their accomplishments is a huge source of pride for us. More than 35,000 alumni from all schools and programs are members of our Alumni Association, and there are many success stories among them. They do meaningful and influential work that positively affects the Israeli economy, and they are our best ambassadors in each sector.”
Dinstein also said that she was especially happy to combine her two hats - CEO of Israel Friends of Reichman University and Head of the Alumni Association - and bring the alumni to meet the friends and supporters of Reichman University. According to Dinstein, “Our best friends are our alumni.” For this purpose, four outstanding alumni were chosen to present their achievements and their special relationship with Reichman University.
Or Offer, Founder and CEO of the Israeli unicorn SimilarWeb, is a graduate of the Arison School of Business with a B.A. in Business Administration.
Yael Arad, judoka and the first Israeli Olympic medalist from Barcelona 1992, is the current Chair of the Israeli Olympic Association and holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the Arison School of Business.
Dr. Asaf Tzachor, Head of the Honors in Sustainability Sciences Program at Reichman University’s School of Sustainability, is also a Reichman University graduate, having earned his B.A. in Government from the Lauder School for Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, in addition to being an Argov Fellow alumnus. Dr. Tzachor joined Reichman University after completing his post-doctorate at the University of Cambridge, where he continues to conduct research at different institutes, including the Cambridge Global Food Security Research Center.
Nirit Eibi Birman, Tech Business Development Manager, EMEA at Amazon Web Services, holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Financial Economics, both from the Tiomkin School of Economics. Eibi Birman served as a Senior Advisor to the Israel Ministry of Finance’s Director General, where she led reforms and long-term agreements in the Israeli economy.
The evening also included an address from Founding President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Prof. Uriel Reichman and Reichman University President, Prof. Rafi Melnick, as well as a few select segments from actor and comedian, Shlomo Baraba
The second Israel Friends of Reichman University event took place earlier in the year, where guests were introduced to the future Dina Recanati Medical School, due to formally open for the academic year 2024-2025, by Prof. Arnon Afek, its founding Dean. The evening began with the opening words of Gili Dinstein, CEO of Friends of Reichman University and External Relations Israel, who said, “As always, we aspire to establish the best, innovative and advanced school.”
Prof. Afek, who is also the Associate Director General of Sheba General Hospital and Chairman of the Department of Medical Administration at Sheba Medical Center, Secretary of the Union of Hospital Directors and former Director General and Associate Medical Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Health, presented the school’s vision, challenges and most importantly, the significance of its establishment. Prof. Afek also presented the current challenges that the Israeli medical sector is facing and especially, the growing number (60%) of Israeli doctors who are trained outside of Israel, due to the lack of available places to study medicine in Israel.
He covered how natural it is for doctors trained abroad to continue working there instead of returning and working in Israel, and the fact that Israel needs 2,000 new doctors each year, but only 40% of them receive their qualification from the Ministry of Health. This results in a huge lack of doctors in the health system, which naturally, mostly affects the periphery.
Dinstein said, “As always, Prof. Reichman addressed the problem like he always does when dealing with national challenges, and thanks to the support and generosity of the Recanati Family, we paved the way to establish the medical school.” Mr. Oudi Recanati, Reichman University’s Chancellor, said that his late mother Dina Recanati z”l, was a humble woman and they all profoundly miss her. When the family thought about ways to commemorate her, they all agreed that establishing a medical school at Reichman University would be a worthy Zionist initiative to support Israel’s future.
Prof. Rafi Melnick, Dr. Limor Afek, Prof. Arnon Afek, Prof. Uriel Reichman, Oudi Recanati and Gili Dinstein at the evening celebrating the new medical schoolcampus on a particularly hot afternoon at the end of August. Anyone happening to visit the university that day probably would have thought it was a summer camp, being surrounded by little children blowing big bubbles, enjoying arts and crafts corners, taking pictures in photo booths, playing a variety of games and watching a new Disney movie on a huge screen. No, it wasn’t a summer camp and Reichman University didn’t suddenly lower the age of its students. It was the first ever alumni and family event dedicated to the next generation.
With each of them wearing a t-shirt with the university’s motto “I was born to lead” the attendees enjoyed many attractions and a variety of tempting food (pancakes, pizza and ice-cream). For their parents, this was an opportunity not only to keep the children busy during the tedious August vacation, but to visit the campus, which changed a lot since many of them studied there, to meet old friends and simply to come back home. Judging by the reactions on social media after the event, it should probably become a tradition.
MEMORIES ARE MADE, SHARED AND ENJOYED BY NEW STUDENTS AND ALUMNI
This activity is a good example of the vision of the renewed alumni organization. According to newlyappointed Head of the Alumni Association, Gili Dinstein, who is also CEO of Friends of Reichman University and External Relations Israel, “Our vision is to strengthen the relationship between the alumni themselves, and between the alumni and the University. Each alum who attends our events, volunteers to become a mentor or a guest lecturer in one of the many programs of the University, or donates a scholarship to a student in need - actively realizes this vision. At the same time, we at the Alumni Association are committed to developing and enriching our alumni continuously, and making sure each event or project we initiate has a real added value for them.
“We put a lot of time, effort, and thought into each program and activity we offer our alumni in order to ensure we fulfill our part in that vision.” The team was filled with pride, especially when seeing the graduates give the famous campus tour to their children. According to Dinstein, “It was pure joy to witness the graduates come home, this time with their own families, and have so much fun. Throughout the year, Reichman University’s Alumni Association plans and executes many different activities and programs – all aimed at getting the alumni involved, promoting leadership, building a professional network and having fun.”
In this year’s program, the Alumni Association will continue to give its alumni community a chance to get involved, building a professional community based on Reichman University’s vision of promoting leadership, freedom, and responsibility.
The start of the academic year opened with a fresh tradition as well: the 2,400 students gathered for a photoshoot. They stood together with blue shirts emblazoned with the logos of the University and alumni organization, as well as their graduation year - 2025/6.
A drone captured the exciting moment and the resulting photo will accompany the students throughout their studies, serving as a reminder of where they came from, and the places they will go. This tradition is in line with other elite universities in the world. According to Dinstein, “It’s true that Harvard University and UPenn take the photo on the football field, but since we don’t have a football field, we found a wide open space that captured the moment!” The students continued to the opening ceremony and party, held by the Reichman University Student Union, complete with cocktails and treats.
The drone shot with the freshmen graduation class 2025/6
Our vision is to strengthen the relationship between the alumni themselves, and between the alumni and the University.”
– Gili Dinstein
After a long break, the renewed Women’s Graduates Forum was launched at the end of November. More than 200 graduates attended the special night in Tel Aviv, which was held to create relevant content for female graduates in various subjects and chapters in their lives, as well as uniting them for the greater good and to deepen their relationship with Reichman University. The event served as the kickoff for a year full of inspiration, activities, enrichment, empowerment and networking. With great food, fine wine, IL Makiage goodie bags and a standup comedy show by actress Nelly Tagar, all involved were happy to meet and reminisce. Along with the Alumni Association, four graduates, each a leader in her field, led the Forum.
Meital Itkis, who holds a B.A. in Communications from the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, manages the Forum. Itkis is an entrepreneur, fashion photographer and lecturer who promotes a meaningful life. She is also a pilates instructor and volunteers at the Migdalor pre-military preparatory (Mechina), which aims to advance young people to narrow socio-economic gaps contributing to meaningful service in the I.D.F.
May Elnir holds an L.L.B. from the Harry Radzyner Law School and a B.A. Psychology from the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology. Elnir works in the litigation department at S. Horowitz & Co., one of Israel’s leading law firms, and is a member of the Intellectual Property Committee in the field of law and fashion at the American Bar Association.
An L.L.B. holder from the Harry Radzyner Law School, Ricki Cohen also has a B.A. in Government from the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy. Cohen works as an account manager at SimilarWeb, an Israeli unicorn founded by another Reichman University graduate, Or Offer.
Graduate Noa Levy holds an L.L.B. from the Harry Radzyner Law School as well as a B.A. in Government from the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy. She works at H-F & Co. Law Offices, experts in the high-tech sector, where she consults with start-up companies as well as investors.
Women’s empowerment networking and funAs the Alumni Association’s mission is to form a social and professional community of graduates based on mutual responsibility, the team emphasizes the personal and professional development of the graduates. The mentoring program, now in its seventh year, provides recent graduates with a more experienced graduate as mentor in accordance with their field of expertise. In December, this year’s program was launched, the largest since the program’s inception, with 48 mentors and 48 mentees, all of whom go through this unique process together.
Well done to the leading mentors who work day and night for the success of this program: Sapir Nachmani, L.L.B. from the Harry Radzyner Law School and B.A. in Business Administration from the Arison School of Business, 2015, Adi Geron, L.L.B. from the Harry Radzyner Law School and B.A. in Business Administration from the Arison School of Business, 2011, Tziki Ishay, B.A. Communications from the Sammy Ofer School, 2017, Liat Oren Iluz, B.A. Communications from the Sammy Ofer School, 2015, Liel Barazani, B.A. Communications from the Sammy Ofer School and B.A. in Public Diplomacy from the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, 2017, and M.A. in Government and Political Marketing from the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, 2018, Royal Lee Shimon, B.A. Business Administration from the Arison School of Business, 2017, Ori Efraim, L.L.B. from the Harry Radzyner Law School and B.A. Government from the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy.
Reichman’s Alumni Association held a special “Love Party” dedicated to all single Reichman graduates, who came together to find love and celebrate. The party, which took place at the Dubnov Gallery on February 13th, the night before Valentine’s Day (and this was no coincidence), was attended by nearly 160 graduates, who came dressed up in their finest outfits. The evening, hosted by journalist and news anchor Omer Yardeni, featured good food and drinks, presents, and great music, as well as ice-breakers that allowed graduates to mingle and interact, including Speed Dating!
Following the party, organizers were excited to see couples walking out together and hear about relationships that had developed. There were even more positive messages on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn where graduates expressed how much they enjoyed the event and how grateful they were for the opportunity to put aside dating apps for an evening of face-to-face communication.
A few attendees even called organizers to ask for the phone number of a special person they met. But who and how many, they simply won’t reveal. It seems The Beatles were right all along - ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE!
Organizers promise another event is already in the works.
Singles waiting to be matched at the “Love Party” held for alumni
An evening spent in engaging conversation with romance in the air
Dr. Yossi Maaravi, Dean
RUNI Ventures, the University’s newly founded VC is an independent and financially-driven fund backed by top-tier investors and industry leaders, with the mission to help brilliant ideas transform into highperforming global ventures.
The fund aims to leverage the phenomenal global success of startups built by Reichman students and alumni. It does so by supporting exceptional ventures growing daily in the variety of entrepreneurship programs, innovation labs and accelerators active on campus and presenting high potential to become category-defining businesses.
As a university-based VC, RUNI Ventures cultivates unparalleled deal flow, obtaining full information about the founding teams and providing them with exclusive resources to accelerate & thrive.
RUNI Ventures operates in a unique model, according to which the fund’s portfolio companies will receive exclusive tools for acceleration. These include workspace, placement of outstanding students as interns or employees, advice from academics and industry experts as well as access to the University’s network of alumni and partners.
The fund is headed by CEO Adv. Hila Rom - an accomplished entrepreneur, early-stage investor, and business leader who brings extensive hands-on experience in building & leading high-performance ventures.
RUNI Ventures will strengthen the University’s value proposition, support its vision to nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs while establishing a growth engine for the University.
Established in August 2022, the fund is the brainchild of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship’s Dean Dr. Yossi Maaravi. Maaravi and Rom are part of the investment committee together with Prof. Yair Tauman, founding Dean of the School and one of the most active angel investors in Israel.
For further information about the fund: www.runiventures.com
This year for the first time, and thanks to the mapping work of the School of Entrepreneurship staff, Reichman University has been included in the prestigious PitchBook rankings, which rate universities around the world in terms of how many entrepreneurs they produce. Reichman University was ranked 38th in the world, due to its 350 graduates who have founded 293 companies, raising about $8.8 billion since the year 2000. Moreover, among the small universities listed in the report, i.e., those with fewer than 15,000 students, Reichman University ranks seventh worldwide.
Reichman was listed in the rankings alongside elite universities such as Stanford, which was ranked first, Harvard, and MIT. This achievement is especially remarkable in light of the fact that Reichman University is a relatively young institution – only 28 years old – and is a private university run as a public benefit corporation that does not receive funding from the governmental budgetary system for higher education. Its expenses are funded exclusively by tuition and donations.
The university rankings, conducted every year by the business information firm PitchBook, compare universities by carrying out a comprehensive study of about 150 of the “world’s leading venture capital funds that map the number of startups and founders that have come out of each university”.
Since its founding by businessman and philanthropist Sam Zell over two decades ago, the Zell Entrepreneurship Program has evolved into an acclaimed venture creation program. Designed for students from all faculties, the program is aimed at outstanding final-year undergraduates who aspire to work in entrepreneurial organizations or launch their own startups. In the spirit of Reichman University, the program combines multidisciplinary approaches and embodies a “learning by doing” ethos, enabling students to learn and develop skills as they work on creating their own startups. The current Zell 22 class is equally divided between women and men, from a wide range of faculties. They are working on startups in a diverse variety of fields, including data engineering, asset management, social sentiment, enterprise software and developer tools.
Zell Entrepreneurship Program Statistics:
· 433 alumni
· 165 startups founded
· 80 companies active
· 30 companies sold or merged
· $3.8 billion raised
· 6,480 jobs created
Following a two-year break due to the pandemic, the latest class to graduate from the Zell Entrepreneurship Program flew to the United States at the end of the academic year, after completing their intensive year-long program. The 19 students of Zell 21 visited Chicago and New York, and were able to present their ventures several times, including to program founder Sam Zell and the Equity Group management team. Four ventures continued after the program, all of which received early funding, and three were accepted to US-based accelerators –one to Y Combinator and two to Techstars.
During the 2021-2022 academic year, three alumni ventures were funded by the ZEP Fund: the first is Sherloq, which empowers data teams to work and communicate better together, so they are fully synchronized and can truly trust their data; next is Boost, which enables millions of eCommerce SMBs to scale through data-driven business analyses and access growth opportunities; and finally AudioLabs, which enables content marketing teams to drive new listeners by publishing interactive short-form videos on TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. In total, the ZEP Fund has funded 41 ventures in industries ranging from tourism to finance.
The ZEP Fund also notched up its second “exit” in 2022. Rewire, a multinational fintech company that provides online financial services tailored for migrant foreign workers worldwide, was founded by Zell 11 graduates Guy Kashthan and Or Benoz, and received funding from the ZEP Fund. It was acquired by the US-based Remitly (Nasdaq: RELY), an online remittance service that offers international money transfers to over 130 countries.
The new 3D program (Dream. Dare. Deliver.) was created to encourage entrepreneurship and impart technological knowledge and skills to entrepreneurs from the Arab society. The program lasted two semesters, with 40 participants, experts, and mentors, in collaboration with academic professors from various fields and industry managers. The program combined guest lectures with speed dating events with leading companies in the Israeli ecosystem and prominent figures from the industry.
The program took participants from passion to action: team building, finding venture ideas, designing business models, best practices in entrepreneurship, soft skills, mentoring, and more.
It was run as a collaboration between Takwin, a top VC led founded famous serial entrepreneur Mr. Imad Telhami, Dr. Yossi Maaravi, Dean of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship and the University’s Executive Education unit, with The Israeli Innovation Authority as a sponsor.
Among the projects presented were Buddy, an the onboarding caregiver project aimed at improving the absorption of new employees in the organization; Ovolixa, a project that offers optimization of tracking the fertility window and ovulation times during fertility treatments, through a simple home test; Biocomf, a platform for monitoring the effectiveness of medical cannabis treatment in cancer; and Sorlis, a project that develops stickers for diagnosis and monitoring treatment of pressure ulcers for those admitted to hospital or hospitalized at home.
At the closing ceremony, Dr. Maaravi, who acted as the academic director of the program, stated that its purpose is to empower participants with various skills and soft skills that they have not been exposed to in their day-to-day lives. It lets them dream big and strengthen their confidence, leadership, team management, creative thinking, while dealing better with failures. The program emphasized the acceleration of people and technological ventures while combining entrepreneurial skills, personal skills, and connections to high-tech industry leaders.
Prof. Uriel Reichman gave strength to participants with the message, “Believe in yourself, write your own life story, and don’t let others dictate it for you.”
2022 was a busy year for the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy. The School is proud to announce that in the 2022 Shanghai Ranking of World Universities, it was ranked in the top 151-200 programs in the political science category. It is also the fourth most highly ranked program in Israel. Additionally, the school is pleased to share that Amb. Mark Regev has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations. He succeeds Amb. Ron Prosor in this position, who has been appointed as Israeli Ambassador to Germany. A veteran diplomat, Amb. Regev served as the Prime Minister’s Senior Advisor for Foreign Affairs and International Communications between 2020-2021. Other previous posts include Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Prof. Assaf Moghadam, Dean
Amb. Ronald S. Lauder
On the event front, November 2022 saw a moving event held in commemoration of Prof. Ehud Sprinzak, founding Dean of the Lauder School, to mark 20 years since his untimely passing. The event focused on issues of terrorism and extremism, and was co-organized with the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT). In the same month, the Program on Democratic Resilience and Development (PDRD) hosted a Lauder Forum event on the impact of the Russian wars on the liberal international order. The event featured a lively discussion, thanks to an excellent panel featuring Reichman University Visiting Scholar Prof. Thomas Risse, Amb. Regev, Dr. Jennifer Shkabatur, and Dr. Amichai Magen, who moderated the event.
Forum Ofek, a forum composed of students serving in the Israel Defense Forces, hosted Maj. Gen. (ret.) Sami Turgeman, Chairman of the Noga company, for an eye-opening discussion on trends and challenges related to energy and security.
The Lauder School was delighted to host several high school delegations this year, too. Visiting delegations included students from the Diplomacy and International Communication Major of the “Yovel” High School in Herzliya and the “Ironi” High School in Tel Aviv.
As with every year, students of the Lauder School planned and organized “Democracy Day”, the largest student-led event on campus. Co-sponsored by the Lauder School’s own Institute for Liberty and Responsibility (LIBRES) and the University’s Student Union, the event featured a host of politicians, including ministers and other Members of the Knesset, and additional public figures. The speakers included a panel of Reichman University students, who delved deep into some of the main issues on the Israeli political agenda, the state of Israeli democracy, as well as challenges and opportunities lying ahead.
2022-2023 also saw a major curricular reform for the Lauder School led by Dean Prof. Assaf Moghadam, aimed at preparing Government students for the challenges of the 21st Century. The curricular reform introduces new study tracks in BA in Government, in both Hebrew and English, and new and revised study tracks in Public Policy and Administration, Diplomacy and Global Affairs, Contemporary Middle East, Security Studies and Counter-Terrorism, and Data, Government Systems and Democracy. The revised curriculum contains new courses on such issues as great power competition, democracy and dictatorship, and the politics of climate change, as well as innovative workshops on creative thinking and problem solving, and team building, among others. It culminates in capstone courses that incorporate student immersion in practical training.
In the fall of 2022, the Lauder School hosted several academics as visiting professors and scholars. They included Prof. Thomas Risse of Freie Universität Berlin; Dr. Michael Signer, the former Mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia and an instructor at the University of Virginia; as well as Dr. Emily Blout of Georgetown University. The school was also pleased to welcome back Prof. Shmulik Nili, an Associate Professor at Northwestern University’s Political Science Department and one of the world’s leading political theorists.
The Lauder School also sent a delegation of 14 students to the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, as part of a long-running academic collaboration between the two schools. The students traveled to the United States for three weeks, took classes at Syracuse University, and visited a number of destinations in Washington, DC and New York.
In January 2023, the Cluster on “Data and Democracy” of the Lauder School organized a conference titled “Between Pegasus and Predator: When and How is it Permitted (or not) to Use Offensive Cyber?” The conference was led by the Head of the Cluster, Prof. Karine Nahon, and journalist Dr. Ronen Bergman. Speakers and panelists from the government, private, and non-profit sectors offered engaging discussions on the many challenges raised by the use of this technology.
Council on Higher Education Heaps Praise on the Lauder School
In December 2022, an international committee of the Israeli Council of Higher Education submitted a formal evaluation of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy. The Council’s report came in the wake of an assessment of all political science programs in Israel, including an on-campus visit. In its final report, the Council noted its impression with the research excellence of the faculty; the level of overall student satisfaction, and the campus facilities. The Council’s report also commended the leadership of Lauder School Dean, Prof. Assaf Moghadam. In the Committee’s words, Prof. Moghadam has “made great strides in curriculum reform, and in inspiring his faculty to be committed both to the institution and its students”.
The School also wishes to mention some of the achievements of its students and alumni. This year, Benaya Cherlow, a third-year student in the Honors Program on Strategy and Decision-Making, published an article on the decision-making of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. Cherlow flew to Berlin and gave a lecture on the panel of the Research Institute for Foreign Relations-DGAP, which zoomed in on the relationship of China and the Middle East.
As for alumni, the Lauder School’s Nava Gethon Peshao was included in the list of 40 Promising Young People published by The Marker. Nava is a graduate of the BA and MA degrees in Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, of the “Israel at Heart” program, and of the Argov Fellows Program in Leadership and Diplomacy. She currently serves as Israel’s economic representative in South Africa.
The Lauder School also congratulates Roei Gabai, who was recently elected as Mayor of the Yavne municipality. Gabbay graduated with honors from the MA in Government, with a Specialization in Public Policy and Political Marketing.
The Lauder School mourns the passing of Prof. David Nachmias z”l. A founding member of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy and a long-time member of its core faculty, Prof. Nachmias served, inter alia, as Head of the BA Cluster in Public Policy and Administration, as well as Head of the MA Program in Public Policy. A devoted teacher and world-renowned scholar, Prof. Nachmias published extensively on public policy and public administration, having authored or edited more than a dozen books and scores of articles on these topics. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award of the Israeli Political Science Association, among numerous other scholarly awards.
The Lauder School also mourns the passing of Prof. Benny Neuberger z”l, a beloved teacher and respected scholar of political science, whose areas of interest included religion and politics, comparative politics, nationalism and history, and government and politics in Israel and Africa. An adjunct instructor at the Lauder School since 2009, Prof. Neuberger was particularly interested in the interplay between democracy on the one hand, and security, religion, and nationalism on the other.
The Argov Fellows Program strives to cultivate a core group of highly qualified and skilled individuals with a strong passion to lead change on issues crucial to Israeli society and the Jewish people. For the past 17 years, the more than 350 program alumni (50% women) have attained leading roles in the public, private and non-profit sectors in Israel and around the world.
According to the founding academic director, Dr. Alisa Rubin, the program has taken an interdisciplinary approach to give the students the skills to deal with an uncertain and rapidly changing world: the ability to think creatively, critically and flexibly; to communicate effectively; and to work well with others. The curriculum now emphasizes the acquisition of skills rather than knowledge since the information revolution has flooded the world with data and highlighted the acute need to be able to make sense of it.
The fundamental purpose of the program is to invest in Israel’s human capital by educating for leadership, and invest in the fellows as individuals who want to affect change in our society. Throughout the Argov year, the program focuses on helping each fellow identify their guiding values and fulfill their goals through a highly individualized approach, with a significant devotion to mentoring and personal development.
The Argov Program has an increasing emphasis on group dynamics to combat trends of polarization around the world. It sets the goal of working together harmoniously while respecting difference as a model for our society. The group experience is a major part of the fellowship, and a new class on “Psychological Aspects of Leaders and Groups” is dedicated to identifying personal strengths and engaging in extensive group work as preparation for the real world.
The program is now open to students from all of Reichman University’s schools, and each class includes students from a wide range of backgrounds. The Class of 2023 includes: our first Bedouin student who is eager to promote Israel’s image in the world; the CEO of the IDF Paratroopers 890 NGO who is passionate about improving the state of mental health in our society; and an entrepreneur working on a high-tech venture to improve the vision of children suffering from “lazy eye” in a fun and effective way.
Earlier this year, the program hosted the Bavarian Elite Academy delegation and exchanged thoughts and ideas about the ties of our countries and the challenges facing democracies. The University will continue to partner with them in its visit to the EU during the annual winter study tour to the United States and Europe.
The group of fellows with Jonathan Davis, VP of External Relations and Head of the Raphael Recanati International SchoolThe annual conference, held by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University, convened senior officials and experts from Israel and around the globe in September to discuss the most burning issues in the field of counter-terrorism.
On the agenda for discussion at this year’s World Summit on Counter-Terrorism, were challenges such as the threats emanating from Israel’s northern border, and from Gaza and the West Bank, the Iranian nuclear program and potential signing of a nuclear deal, far-right terrorism, and the role of technology in terrorism and counter-terrorism. Participants hailed from Israel and around the world, and included senior officials and experts from the fields of security, intelligence, policing, and technology.
Like every year, on the first day of the conference, a memorial ceremony was held to mark the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and in memory of the victims of terrorism in Israel and around the world, in the presence of the US Ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides.
Amb. Nides sat down for a one-on-one conversation with Prof. Boaz Ganor, ICT’s Founder and Executive Director, during which he said, “Obviously Iran and its proxies are a fundamental significant threat to the State of Israel, and the US will not stand by and allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. But equally as important is what is going on in the West Bank. I try to keep the vision of the two-state solution alive. I fundamentally believe that to keep Israel a democratic Jewish state, we must have a twostate solution.”
US Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, addressed the conference in pre-recorded remarks saying, “I am proud of the close partnership we have built and continue to strengthen with the State of Israel and with so many of the nations represented here today. I am grateful for the work of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. It is through such institutions – it is through partnerships – that we will successfully counter the threat that so solemnly brings us together in Herzliya today to remember the tragedy of 9/11 and redouble our collective efforts to protect the freedom of our people and our way of life.”
Conference attendees had the opportunity to hear from Israel’s top security officials, including Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Head of the Mossad David Barnea, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, National Security Advisor Dr. Eyal Hulata, and Military Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva.
In his remarks, Mossad Chief Barnea said that Iran, “Is a regime that bases its rule on intimidation and espouses violence as a legitimate measure. This is state terrorism carried out upon the explicit orders of the leader. Terrorism is perpetrated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian intelligence organizations. It is not spontaneous; it is planned, systematic state terrorism – strategic terrorism. The leader of Iran orders the expansion of nuclear activities, supports terrorist organizations and spreads terrorism around the world… Iran is leading a worldwide campaign to harm Jews and Israelis.”
Discussing the talks on a possible nuclear agreement with Iran, Barnea emphasized that they, “Are not a restraining factor in any way. On the contrary, terrorist activity is being carried out and expanding to the United States and Europe, while the negotiations in Vienna are going on. Bold and fearless attempts are being made to harm American officials on US soil, opponents of the Iranian regime and human rights activists. From the point of view of the Iranians, this is proof that it is possible to maintain a civilized discourse on the nuclear agreement on the one hand, and on the other hand, to plan terrorist acts. This artificial separation will continue to exist for as long as the world allows it to… One can only imagine how Iran will act when the agreement is already signed, when it will not be under diplomatic pressure and all the barriers will have been removed. The agreement will actually bring Iran closer to realizing its nuclear program – it may be effective in the short term, but very dangerous in the long term.”
Barnea concluded his remarks by saying, “It is important for me to emphasize that we are not taking part in this charade and turning a blind eye –we do not close our eyes to the proven truth. We rely on facts; we know the Iranian vision and we see it being realized in practice. Therefore, even if the agreement is signed, Iran will have no immunity from the actions of the Mossad. As the head of the Mossad, I want to make it clear: the Iranian regime does not have and will not have room for immunity. The Mossad will continue to exact justice from all those involved in terrorist attacks, from the perpetrators to the decision makers. The Iranian leadership must be aware that the use of force against Israel or Israelis, directly or via proxies, will be met with a painful response against those responsible, on Iranian soil.”
From left: Prof. Rafi Melnick, Prof. Uriel Reichman, David Barnea and Prof. Boaz GanorHead of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, echoed Barnea’s view on a potential deal with Iran: “Iran is the main axis of most of the phenomena in the region and plays a significant role in the instability we are experiencing in the Palestinian arena. Iran isn’t just a nuclear problem; it is the primary problem of the Middle East. We can only imagine the scope of its future influence if a nuclear agreement is signed and the Iranian coffers are bolstered with an additional 85 billion dollars, some of which will clearly be earmarked for the purposes of terrorism, and influencing and strengthening organizations such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
Bar also said that the Shin Bet has identified the “most complex” challenge Israel is facing as the, “Deep rift that is developing within Israeli society. From the intelligence that we have read, from the interrogations of attackers we have conducted, and also from many years of familiarity with our adversaries, we can say today without a shadow of a doubt that the political instability, the growing internal strife… are an encouragement to the axis of evil, to the terror organizations and individual attackers. The prevailing feeling among our adversaries is that our historical advantage, our national resilience, is fading. This insight should trouble us more than anything else.”
Chairman of the Board and Founder of Reichman University Prof. Uriel Reichman also expressed concern about the internal discord in Israel, saying, “We are once again entering an election period, which will to a great extent determine the fate of Israeli society, in which there is currently a deep rift. I want to call on all political parties in the State of Israel – we must understand that we have no choice but to live together and work together for the future of the State of Israel.”
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Ronen Bar
The Memorial Ceremony for the Victims of 9/11 from left: Jonathan Davis, US Army War College Fellow at ICT; Lieutenant Colonel James M. Snowden, Assistant Director of the FBI Counter-Terrorism Division; Kevin Vorndran, Chairman of ICT Board of Directors; Former Mossad Director Shabtai Shavit; Prof. Boaz Ganor; Prof. Rafi Melnick; Prof. Uriel Reichman; and Thomas Nides, US Ambassador to Israel
The new Institute for Liberty and Responsibility (LibRes) is a prestigious research institute dedicated to the study of democracy in Israel. Headed by Dr. Amnon Cavari of the Lauder School, and with the generous support of the Nadav Foundation, the Institute brings together leading academic scholars, experts, and experienced practitioners to study, teach, and enhance democratic and liberal values in Israel.
The Institute held its annual conference titled “Israel – a Voting State: Challenges and Democratic Resilience” on the historic day of November 29th, 2022. Amidst efforts to form a stable government, after five electoral campaigns within three years of political instability, the conference brought together academics, politicians, and social entrepreneurs from Israel and abroad to discuss challenges to Israeli democracy and the means to address them.
Dr. Cavari in his opening remarks laid out the Institute’s mission, saying, “In all our activities, research, teaching as well as public outreach, the institute’s goals are aimed to encourage knowledgebased discourse, strengthen public involvement, and mark the red lines for Israeli democracy.” President of Israel, Mr. Isaac Herzog, greeted the audience and emphasized Israel’s commitment to maintaining a liberal democracy based on the principles stated in the November 29, 1947 historical U.N. partition resolution and in Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Former speaker of the Knesset, MK Mickey Levy warned that the outcome of the recent elections and the forming coalition suggests not only a change of government, but a regime transformation that will strike a blow to Israeli democracy.
Prof. Rafi Melnick, President of Reichman University, argued that militant Israeli groups, weakening of the founding political forces, and Palestinian terror are the three factors that prevent Israeli society from reaching a consensus regarding our desired
borders, which in turn impedes building a shared consensus based on the values of liberal democracy stated in the Declaration of Independence. Prof. Uriel Reichman, Founding President of the University and Chairman of the Board of Directors, expressed his concern that the suggested reforms of the new coalition will change the founding social and political contract of the state of Israel and its basic principles of liberal democracy, as stated in the Declaration of Independence and supported by most groups of Israel’s society. The keynote speakers, Prof. Yascha Mounk and Micha Goodman, emphasized the shared challenges to liberal democracy around the world due to the rise of populism, economic stagnation, spreading use of social media, multicultural societies and environmental changes.
As part of its extensive research program, LibRes conducts numerous surveys of Israeli public opinion to measure the pulse of Israeli democracy. These are used to generate an index of government trust, public support of government, and levels of polarization in Israeli society. The work of LibRes appears regularly on various popular and academic venues. LibRes also supports research of scholars in Israel and abroad that examines levels of political responsiveness, and means and effects of public participation in Israel. Following its commitment to promote publicly accessible fact-based empirical knowledge of Israeli democracy, LibRes publishes routine accessible summaries (in Hebrew) of newly published academic studies on Israeli politics and society.
LibRes is engaged in academic teaching at Reichman University. It runs a competitive honors program for excellent undergraduate and graduate students from all schools at Reichman University, which combines theoretical research and practical experience to address dominant policy issues on the Israeli political agenda. The topic for this year, selected with cooperation with the students in a two-day off-campus retreat, is education reform. In addition, LibRes offers internship opportunities for RU students for hands-on research experience, and grants a competitive prize award for the best paper on political representation in Israel.
LibRes is routinely engaged in public outreach, and its researchers and fellows routinely write op-eds to various newspapers in Israel, are active on social media outlets, and publish reports and research summaries on its accessible, informative, and dynamic website. LibRes also holds occasional conferences that are open to the public and are live streamed. Among these, LibRes held in 2022 three day-long public events: the annual Democracy Day conference (in cooperation with the RUNI Student Union), a conference on political polarization in Israel, and a conference on political violence in Israel (in cooperation with ICT).
The Herzliya Conference takes place yearly at Reichman University, and is Israel’s foremost global policy gathering, drawing together the most senior Israeli and international participants from government, business, and academia to address pressing national, regional, and global issues. This year, the 20th Annual Herzliya Conference will take place from 22-23 May 2023.
According to Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilead, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) at Reichman University and Chairman of the Institute’s Annual Herzliya Conference Series, the conference will be held this year after being paused for the past few years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Gilead explained that the state of Israel is now facing combined multidimensional threats emanating from the interactions between internal processes that endanger the national resilience, and its ability to address growing external challenges.
It is up against the risk of its internal cohesion and economic resilience being seriously damaged, as well as the possibility of a sharp and rapid deterioration in its relations with the Palestinian Authority, and the aggravating threat posed by Iran. At this point, Israel still enjoys diverse strategic assets, among them the special relationship with the United States and the cooperation with the Arab countries. However, the steps that the newly formed Israeli government is taking that are in contrast to the basic views of the U.S. administration - particularly on issues related to the shared liberal and democratic values and relations with the Palestinians - might put at risk strategic relations with the U.S. It also might harm the achievements that have been made in recent years with the Arab world.
In light of this, the conference this year is entitled “Vision and Strategy in an Era of Uncertainty”. Discussions during the conference will focus on analyzing and mapping out processes and threats in the internal, regional, and global arenas in this era of uncertainty, while outlining the strategy required to address them.
Among the issues to be discussed: the Iranian nuclear threat; Israel as a Jewish democratic state; the strategic relations between Israel and the U.S.; the Palestinian arena; implications of the war in Ukraine; Israeli-European relations; how to deal with antisemitism; economic resilience in an era of internal and global uncertainty; and more.
Herzliya Conference
Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State
Prof. Uriel Reichman, Founding President and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Dr. Daphné Richemond-Barak, Academic Head of the Government Program at the Raphael Recanati International School wanted to enhance the financial understanding of her students in a novel way. To implement her vision, Dr. Richemond-Barak invited Dr. Yael Hadass, Academic Head of Economics at the Raphael Recanati International School to create a unique curriculum that will incorporate both the fundamentals of personal finance as well as the basics of government budget and public finance. Dr. Hadass is the founder of the website Economics for All that provides personal finance and economics education to the public, with the vision that every person should be able to take informed economic decisions and should also understand how a government’s financial decisions affect the citizen. Through this activity, Dr. Hadass has gained expertise in translating the technical language of economics to an audience that does not have previous economic knowledge.
The course, entitled “Fundamentals of Personal Finance”, is based on leading academic studies in the field of personal finance and public finance. It will cover a wide range of topics, including budgeting, saving, investing, debt management, and retirement planning. Students will learn about the different types of investments, such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. They will also learn about the various savings and retirement options. Moreover, they will learn to analyze the government budget using the tools that they learned.
Both Dr. Richemond-Barak and Dr. Hadass wish to thank Prof. Assaf Moghadam, Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy, for his constant support for this ground-breaking academic initiative. As Dr. Hadass explains, “The International Program in Government at Reichman University is one of the first BA degrees to offer a class on personal finance for non-economists.”
The Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy & Foreign Relations (formerly known as The Abba Eban Institute for International Diplomacy), is pushing through in its mission to help both officials and future Israeli leaders to make the most effective case for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
Growing global and regional instability have amplified the need for fresh insights, innovative policies, and concrete action to help Israel navigate the stormy waters of the international system. The Abba Eban Institute is stepping up to tackle these challenges with a wide range of programs, all bringing to the forefront the power of diplomacy.
The Institute takes pride in the part it plays in educating the next generation of Israeli leadership as part of Reichman University. The Institute’s senior team of experts teach several Bachelors and Masters courses to hundreds of students from several of the University schools, also in conjunction with the acclaimed Public Diplomacy Honors Program. This year too, dozens of Israeli and international students will take part in our academic internship program, where they’ll receive close mentorship, various workshops and masterclasses, all to provide them with the necessary tools to successfully reach their future professional goals.
Dr. Yael Hadass Dr. Daphné Richemond-BarakOne of the Institute’s flagship projects is its engagement with the IDF Strategic Directorate, and its Foreign Relations & International Cooperation Division. Earlier this year, the Institute hosted a special program in association with the IDF School for Military Diplomacy for IDF officers who liaise with counterparts from other countries.
Focusing on harnessing the art and power of diplomacy, this program was tailored specifically to the needs of those officers serving at the forefront of Israel’s international cooperation.
The Institute’s staff shared their knowledge and expertise in the fields of public and digital diplomacy, providing the Israeli officers with tools with which they can better carry out their duties in advancing fruitful cooperation between Israel and its partners, both old and new.
Looking east, the Abba Eban Institute continues to cultivate working relations with leading research institutes and official bodies from Asia and the Arab Gulf, in order to further enhance Israel’s position through new partnerships, especially in the Indo-Pacific region. To achieve that, it has held two events. The first was a conference dedicated to Israel-Japan-Arab Gulf Relations and new opportunities in the changing Middle East. Speakers from Bahrain, the UAE, India, Japan and Israel came to Reichman University to discuss global and regional developments, and ways in which trilateral cooperation, ranging from business and technology to infrastructure, may create new political and economic opportunities, facilitating regional stability.
This was followed up with an event addressing the shared and different security challenges that Japan and Israel face, in the context of intensifying superpower competition, at a time when their most valuable strategic partner, the United States, appears nearly overstretched by multiple unstable international crises in Eastern Europe, the Far East and the Middle East. Both events featured highlevel participants from Israel and Japan, as well as senior official representatives of other countries stationed in Israel.
A prominent aspect of the growing international instability remains the continuous crisis in Ukraine and its wider implications on international security, and, by extension, on Israel’s foreign policy. Taking stock of global developments, the Institute convened a panel of experts from Israel, the United States and Asia, to discuss the impact of the war on a potential global arms race and the danger of further proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), and possible linkages with the then-looming nuclear deal with Iran. The participants, all senior experts, assessed the international dynamics and possible ways in which Israel, the United States, and other countries should prepare. Conclusions and insights from the webinar were collected in a special report presented to policymakers.
Diving deeper into all issues relating to the role of diplomacy in national security, the Institute has launched a new action-oriented research project, which aims to counter the efforts of rogue entities to fund illicit activities by exploiting advanced new technologies. The project brings together a special interdisciplinary team of experts from the Institute, Reichman University faculty and external contributors, to engage both conceptual issues and their technological and policy implications head-on.
This new project follows the successful “Janus Initiative”, which helped degrade and significantly disrupt some of Hezbollah’s funding mechanisms across Europe, resulting in concrete measures taken by law enforcement authorities in countries of particular concern.
Not forgetting the University’s mission to share and transfer knowledge beyond the confines of academia, the Institute’s online magazine The Arena, continues to serve as a platform for original writing and a resource of knowledge. The harvest of this year covers the budding relations between Israel and the Arab Gulf since signing the Abraham Accords, the superpowers’ fight for dominance in Asia, and topical articles regarding Israeli and world geopolitics. For 2023, it plans to focus, among other things, on the intersection between diplomacy and the cyber domain, and the present and future role of foreign aid as a tool of foreign policy.
The Abba Eban Institute online activism section, Act-IL, continues to fight against online antisemitism and anti-Israel incitement and to support Israel’s global standing. It harnesses the power of social media to mobilize activists all over the world for these goals. In 2022, among other things, it was successful in fighting the spread of antisemitism in some of the most unlikely places, including popular streaming apps. Through a concentrated effort, its activists managed to take down anti-Israeli content from those platforms. Similarly, Act-IL mobilized activists to share the Israeli response following the death of Al-Jazeera’s Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh – an incident that was utilized as a “justification” to incite further violence against Israelis.
As we look ahead, these days under the leadership of Chairman Ambassador Mark Regev and Executive Director Goor Tsalalyachin, the Abba Eban Institute continues to work to strengthen its alreadyestablished relations with counterparts in Israel and around the world, generating new applied research and policy advice, and contribute to the education and development of future leaders.
The 20th Annual Herzliya Conference that will take place during a particularly sensitive time globally and in Israel, aims to examine the evolving strategic setting regionally and internationally from state-security aspects, as well as its interactions with the regional and international communities.
For more Information - Visit the conference website: bit.ly/Herzliya-Conference
Equipping students in an era of digital transformation.
Prof. Niron Hashai, Dean
“International collaborations make the Arison School of Business at Reichman University stronger,” says Prof. Niron Hashai, the School’s Dean. In order to make its programs more attractive and expose and enhance the social networks of its students, the School has initiated collaborations with the best business schools in the world.
As such, 20 students participated in a four-day innovation and entrepreneurship workship at Duke University this summer. The School has a longstanding collaboration with Columbia Business School, where students participate in block week courses, as well as join MBA students for a one-week “Startup Nation” study tour in Israel, organized by the school’s faculty. Other exciting collaborations involve joint groups of students from the Arison School of Business and New York University, who spend time devising plans on how to penetrate the North American market for Israeli firms and startups. A similar collaboration is conducted with Dartmouth College, where MBA students from both institutions collaborate in an online course, with the aim of advising an Israeli startup on how to penetrate the US market.
When it comes to top European business schools, this year the School initiated a joint program with the University of Cambridge in the UK, where students and their counterparts participate in a week-long course to learn about the innovation ecosystem at Cambridge, and then spend a week doing the same in Israel. A different type of collaboration is the one with INSEAD, one of the leading global business schools. In it, the School takes the traditional casestudy approach used in many business schools one step forward and together, develop Virtual Reality (VR) case studies that give students a much more immersive learning experience. They believe this to be the next generation of how business schools teach case studies, and are proud to be one of the leading business schools in the world to advance this novel teaching method.
The School is currently looking to expand its portfolio of collaborations with top business schools from different countries – believing that this not only makes programs more exciting and unique, but also allows students to build themselves a strong global social network, which is pivotal for their future career.
The Arison School of Business recently launched a new internship program for top third-year students in the full business program. The purpose is to help them gain relevant job experience in their field of specialization and expand their professional skills. As part of the internship, students work for leading firms for one semester, and are assigned to ongoing work or a specific project related to their specialization – marketing, finance or digital innovation.
This year, nine students are participating, three of which are from the international school. Among the firms they’re working with this year are: Wissotzky, a leading food & beverage manufacturer and distributor; Phoenix Investor Relations, a leading institutional investment group that manages close to 100 billion NIS; Radware, a leader in cyber security and application delivery solutions; Revuze, an AIpowered market research startup that just raised 12 million dollars; and others.
For international students specifically, working as interns is a unique opportunity to gain relevant experience in the Israeli job market. Daniel Benarroch, one of the participating interns, received a job offer from the firm he interned in. “This is my last year at university, so I was feeling insecure about my job opportunities here in Israel after graduation,” he explained. “My Hebrew wasn’t good enough and finding a job is difficult for international students, so I was already thinking of going back to Spain. Going into an internship was the step that was missing for me. Not only did I gain career experience I also found a job that I like.”
Dr. Danna Tevet, Head of the internship program said, “Through our program, interns gain valuable hands-on experience in their field of specialization and deeper understanding of how a business in the industry operates. Our internship program aligns with our goal of providing students with the most current theoretical and practical knowledge to excel in their careers. From the firms’ perspective, interns bring fresh perceptions to the company and provide additional support to the existing team. So far, we received excellent feedback on the program, both from students and from the firms who employ them. Due to its huge success, we are going to expand the program significantly starting next year.”
Prof. Niron Hashai, Dean of the Arison School of Business adds, “This is a huge step we are doing to make our degree more practical and train our students to become more prepared for the job market.”
Reichman University’s Arison School of Business is proud of its intensive Full Business Digital Innovation undergraduate track. This unique program is designed to give students the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the high-tech industry, equipping them with a competitive advantage that will make all the difference when applying for marketing, management, and even entrepreneurial positions.
The Digital Innovation track is structured around two core themes: data science and digital product development. In the data science component, students gain a deep understanding of the technical aspects of the field, learning programming languages such as Python and SQL, and gaining hands-on experience working with data and building machine learning models. This enables them to effectively communicate with tech and R&D teams, and manage the development of businesses based on advanced technology solutions.
The digital product development component includes courses such as UI/UX, product management, mobile app development, and web development. Through these courses, students develop a portfolio of realworld projects and gain an in-depth understanding of the technical components that are a must in the digital transformation of businesses, including the business and marketing aspects of utilizing these technologies. This prepares them for a wide range of roles in the high-tech industry, including data analysts, product management, and brand management.
Reichman University is committed to providing students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in the fast-paced, constantly evolving world of technology. The Digital Innovation track is an exciting upgrade to its offerings, and the University is confident that students will benefit greatly from this program.
Students of the Arison School of Business have a unique set of courses that aim to position them not just as business leaders, but leaders who can manage firms at the frontier of finance and technology. For the past couple of years, Prof. Asaf Manela has been teaching a semester-long fintech workshop. This course provides an overview of financial technology followed by hands-on applications to several topics in fintech. Topics covered include: data-driven credit modeling; crypto; blockchain; algorithmic trading; algorithm fairness; and natural language processing. The course also discusses the regulatory aspects of fintech, covers different methods and emphasizes practical applications. In the course, students develop coding and data analytics skills to address real-world problems faced in the financial sector.
The two most disruptive technologies currently reshaping the finance industry are artificial intelligence and blockchain. Students in the course gain a deeper understanding of what AI can do and what it cannot do yet, and learn how to think about the role of human business managers in the presence of powerful artificial systems of intelligence. Beyond the important technological advances in machine learning, such systems require domain expertise and data generation strategies, which are often overlooked.
Blockchain technology, familiar to many from popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, is gradually transforming the financial sector. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) promises to replace centralized financial intermediaries that require a high degree of trust (think Lehman Brothers in 2008 or FTX in 2022), with blockchain-based smart contracts that are more transparent, automatic, and require less trust. Students in the course learn how blockchains work and what parts of the DeFi promise are feasible and realistic to expect in the near and long term.
The Arison School of Business at Reichman University has launched a new initiative to help honors students realize their potential and guide them in planning, developing and advancing their careers. The Arison Mentoring Program, which started as a successful pilot last year and was launched fully this year, has already received great feedback from both students and mentors.
The mentors are all successful Arison School graduates with significant experience in their fields. They serve as role models for the students, providing them with valuable insights and guidance as they navigate their careers. In addition to sharing their experiences and providing tools and tips, the mentors also help students with job searching and networking.
The program is structured in two parts. In the first, the students have the opportunity to meet with all of the mentors to get to know them better and find the best match. In the second part, students choose their mentor and meet, both in small groups and individually, to receive personalized guidance and assistance.
The Program was developed and is led by Dr. Talia Rymon, Head of Marketing Studies at the Arison School. Dr. Rymon is dedicated to helping students succeed and is committed to providing them with the support they need to achieve their goals.
Overall, the Program is a valuable resource for honor students at the Arison School of Business. It provides them with the opportunity to learn from the experiences of successful graduates and gain valuable career development skills. The School looks forward to seeing the success of the program’s participants in the future.
A training hub for content marketing, media and journalism.
Dr. Amit Lavie-Dinur, Dean
The way people consume media has changed dramatically in recent years. Social media platforms are flooded with information including fake news (and deep fakes). This often makes it challenging for people to identify and decide between reliable information and misinformation, and to trust the system.
In today’s media landscape, many influence operations are carried out daily in the digital realm in various spheres including social, political, military, and public ones. In this reality, we must understand the complexity and develop tools to deal with this new situation, which is why the School of Communications has decided to open a new specialization - Digital Influence & Perceptions (DIP).
DIP students will learn and practice strategic communications and cross-platform content creation, conveying messages to diverse target audiences, and managing online communities, while identifying and understanding target audiences, various platforms, and the most effective way to create an impact. The students will gain practical experience in various projects while being mentored by leading figures from the industry, and get to see, in real-time, the impact it has on audiences.
This year, in addition to the courses and workshops, DIP+ was launched. It’s a series of extra curriculum activities with guest lectures and workshops, providing students with a rich understanding of the field and a glimpse behind-the-scenes from leading professionals in the industry.
During the first semester, the students had various guest lectures and activities such as N12 News journalist Adva Dadon’s talk about her investigative work in exposing scammers, an online session with Hollywood producer Shaked Berenson who shared insights about the film industry, a tour of i24 News studios, a writing workshop with journalist & leading columnist on Ynet Raanan Shaked, and many more.
One of the highlights of the semester was a mini hackathon conducted in collaboration with NoCamels, a leading news website covering Israeli innovation and technology. The mini hackathon asked students to pitch creative ideas in order to expand the reach and impact of NoCamels across the world, and gave them additional tools and practical experience in creating a strategy and presenting their idea. The winning group is already working with the NoCamels team on implementing their campaign, aiming to make a real impact.
The Media Innovation Lab (milab) of the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, is an academic research and prototyping lab that explores the future of media, technology, and human-computer interaction (HCI).
This year, milab challenged BA students to innovate and create digital and smart objects in the food tech domain. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated supply chain disruptions have sparked increased interest in food technology, leading to innovation in virtually every aspect of the food industry, including production, cooking, service, commerce, dining, and waste management.For this year’s project, they invited milab BA students to investigate the intersection of food, specifically eating, and technology. The students are working on developing innovative prototypes that address issues such as helping picky eaters to try new foods, helping a group of friends coordinate a dinner together, facilitating food preparation for parents and young children, and more.
The school’s BA interactive students participated in a fast-paced User Experience (UX) hackathon. This year, it was in collaboration with the Employment and Diversity Administration of the Ministry of Economy, and challenged students to create innovative products to promote inclusivity in the workplace. The students conducted research on the challenge and developed a variety of products within a short timeframe. The winning group created a smart chatbot that uses indirect questions to learn about an employee’s disability and serves as a tool for team leaders. The group that placed second developed an interface that connects to the National Insurance database, and offers job opportunities to employees based on their disabilities. The group that placed third designed a system for inclusive job interviews, in which an avatar reduces stereotypical thinking during the initial interview stage.
Third-year students participating in the User Experience (UX) hackathon
Social robots’ behaviors are often designed using AI algorithms trained on human behavioral data, which may result in robotic behaviors that reflect human biases and stereotypes. A recently accepted MA thesis led by Tom Hitron evaluates the effects of interacting with a biased robotic object on participants’ stereotypical thinking.
In the study, a robot with gender bias moderated debates between male and female participants. The results showed that participants who interacted with the robot that preferred men displayed more gender-related stereotypical thinking, while participants who interacted with a robot that did not hold a bias or preferred women, did not show this effect. These findings suggest that robot designers must be aware of AI algorithmic biases, as interactions with biased robots can reinforce implicit stereotypical thinking and perpetuate existing biases in society. On the other hand, counter-biased robotic behavior may be a useful tool in efforts to mitigate the impact of stereotypical thinking.
This thesis was conducted as part of the MA degree in HCI (Human Computer Interaction) of the School of Communications. A transformative degree, it provides students with the methodologies and skills required to lead user-centered products in technology companies, interactive experiences in design companies, and cutting-edge research in academic and industry innovation labs.
A mere month into the school year, the Sammy Ofer School of Communications lost one of its adjuncts, Mr. Yaron Aher, in a tragic motorcycle accident. Yaron was a lecturer loved by hundreds of students who studied with him over the years, and to honor him, the School held an academic panel in his honor on the topic of his professional expertise: Marketing & Digital Innovation.
The panel titled “Future Trends in Marketing” hosted several speakers who gave short TEDstyle talks followed by a panel discussion. Among the speakers was Dr. Tsahi Hayat, Head of the Marketing specialization at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications and current Vice Dean. Dr. Hayat’s research focuses on information diffusion in social networks, and he spoke on some of the key trends in the marketing field, and their potential effect on the future of the job market.
Another speaker, Mr. Yuval Hollander , is a leading digital marketer as well as lecturer and communications researcher. He spoke on the topic of neuromarketing and how emotions are the brain’s main operating system when it comes to decision making.
A gender-biased robot moderating a debate. Participants speak when the robot turns toward themMr. Hollander explained how one can easily influence and manipulate by understanding the brain’s structure and how it is essentially controlled by the various emotions from positive to negative. He further explained how ads can be tailor made and targeted for people with different personalities, thus maximizing their effect.
The third speaker, Mr. Nimrod Dweck, CEO at Beta (a Paramount-backed incubator), spoke about AI as the next big opportunity and the future of advertising and marketing. While discussing the various new artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, DALL·E 2, and Stable Diffusion, Mr. Dweck gave a compelling example of one of the benefits. To prepare a campaign, there was the need for an image of an Israeli female soldier. Normally, it is impossible to use a real Israeli soldier for legal reasons. The only option until now has been to have a model portray one, accompanied by a disclaimer. With Midjourney (an artificial intelligence program that creates images from textual descriptions, similar to OpenAI’s DALL·E and Stable Diffusion.), the agency created a fictional image of an Israeli female soldier – with no legal ramifications or need for disclaimers.
The fourth and final speaker was Ms. Liron TamirLevy, General Manager of Humanz, who introduced the company: a burgeoning influencer AI marketing platform designed for e-commerce and creators, providing them with next generation analytics.
In layman’s terms, it helps business analyze and identify the right and best influencer for their business, as well as to quantify the benefit of working with that influencer. At the same time, Humanz also assists the creators themselves to connect with brands, discover campaigns, and earn income as well as access insights about their own social media accounts to help make them more attractive to brands.
Image of an Israeli female soldier created by Midjourney
AudioVersity is an educational radio station that covers academic activity at Reichman University, allowing students to create audio content both in English and Hebrew, in a wide variety of fields like: current affairs, sports, culture, innovation, entrepreneurship and the climate crisis with a focus on sustainability.
They started the 2023 academic year with over 500 potential volunteers from the Israeli and international schools, all of whom were interested in creating audio content. Some of their recruits showed an interest in music, putting together a showcase of different musical styles, while others were more interested in podcasting, conveying a noticeable shift from online to offline, both of the students producing the content and the listeners who engage with it.
The world is experiencing a renaissance in audio technology thanks to its accessibility, availability and the short training time needed to create quality content. More and more academics recognize its potential and, in light of students’ preference to learn by listening, more academic content is being produced and used.
Just one example of the official podcasts of the various schools at Reichman University includes Talking Louder from the School of Government, which is presented by Ofek Tzah and Shaked Amosi
Another is a food tech podcast, aptly named FoodTech Nation hosted by Noy Bachar from the School of Communications and Nir Zut from the School of Sustainability and Government. A sustainability podcast that deals with the world of fast fashion and its impact on the climate crisis, along with the ethical issues of workers’ rights in the world of textiles, is hosted by Gili Levy, a student of Economics and Business Administration.
On the social front, in 2022 the University commemorated the International Day for the Rights of People with Disabilities with a special podcast presented by Yuval Gal, a communications student, in which she interviewed activists in the youth movement “Krembo Wings” and presented technological ventures that aid in accessibility for people with autism, and visual and hearing impairments.
The same year, students took part in annual World College Radio Day, a 24-hour college radio marathon with international radio stations creating programs around a theme, this time: Voice for Peace. Yvonne Saba and Ohad Merlin interviewed DUGRI - a nonprofit organization with the goal of creating content to unite young Jews and Arabs. Even in trying times, it is important to build bridges through culture and language as Ohad - a Masters student - has done in his Arabic language podcast 3rabrani. It it, he talks about his own language journey and issues relating to the Arab sector, from identity and social activism to music and art.
Students also expressed a big interest in mental health and mindfulness. In light of this they created a mental health podcast Thinking Out Loud hosted by Meg Shinagawa, a Computer Science Student who talks about the challenges and difficulties of being an international student living in Israel.
NoCamels is the leading news website covering Israeli innovation for a global audience, with a focus on technology, science and climate.
Sponsored by the Asper Foundation and part of the Asper Institute for New Media Diplomacy, NoCamels was co-founded in 2011 by Prof. Noam Lemelshtrich Latar, founding Dean of the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, and journalist and author Anouk Lorie.
Managed by executive director Rona Zahavi and editor-in-chief John Jeffay, NoCamels brings together talented students from Reichman University with peers from partner universities around the world for an immersive journalism experience.
Over the past year, the NoCamels.com website has had more than 1.4 million unique visitors, over three million page views, as well as millions more on social media, partner websites and newsletters.
One viral story was an article titled ‘No Wires, No Electricity: World’s First Nitrogen-Powered Air Con’, which covered a company that invented an environmentally friendly outdoor air-conditioning unit. Within its first week on the NoCamels website, the story amassed 528,000 page views and has garnered more than 1.2 million page views to this day.
Other interesting articles over the past year include the miracle deprinter that literally wipes ink off a page, allowing paper to be used again and again. Among the hundreds of articles published by NoCamels in that time period was one about a social entrepreneur from Israel who helps women in Africa beat poverty by teaching them the skills to grow mushrooms. In other viral coverage, NoCamels published stories about Israeli “tech on a truck”, the mobile water treatment plants that could help India’s waste water crisis, and a feature showcasing the world’s first all-electric airplane
NoCamels’ mini-hackathon held in January in collaboration with the Digital Influence Perceptions (DIP) specialization at the School of Communications, including the public diplomacy program, was created with the goal of getting students to come up with realistic campaigns to expand the reach and impact of NoCamels’ website. The winning team will get to execute their campaign alongside the NoCamels team, and see it put into action.
Combining deep theoretical studies with up-to-date knowledge.
Prof. Yacov Hel-Or, Dean
A new course offered by Dr. Jeremy Fogel at the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science presents fresh perspectives on issues that Computer Science students at Reichman University will deal with in their careers. According to Dr. Fogel, a lecturer in Jewish philosophy, “The role of an educational institution is not only to transmit information, but also to cultivate and encourage the development of ethical thinking amongst its students and give them the space and tools to do so.”
Students are being asked to discuss moral issues that have arisen as a result of the Digital Revolution, using the viewpoints of great philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, etc. Dr. Fogel believes that analyzing current digital developments through the eyes of these philosophers might give students some insights about these developments. Since reality constantly changes with new initiatives and inventions, it has become very hard to explore their ethical outcomes.
So, what does ethics in the digital era mean? What moral issues arise from all the developments of the digital era?
Plato’s allegory of the cave, for example, is a great way to explore certain ethical aspects of the current processes of digitization. According to Plato, the prisoners in the cave face a shadowy world of illusions. Philosophy leads outside of the cave, to a world of truth. It is important to note that for Plato, it was obviously worthwhile to attempt to escape the dark cave for the sunlit outdoors. In other words, it was obvious that truth is valuable. Contrary to this, we are currently creating a parallel world, a virtual reality, and are increasingly choosing to live in that cave. Do we still share Plato’s assumption that it is better to leave the cave? Is truth still inherently valuable in the digital age? What are the intellectual or spiritual forces – if any – that could withstand a plunge into a virtual world? Would such a plunge necessarily be a bad thing?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thought on “amourpropre” is also a great example of how insights from philosophy can enable us to better reflect on how the Digital Revolution has influenced the way we think or behave. Rousseau characterizes amourpropre as a form of self-esteem that can only be achieved by gaining the approval of others. Rousseau thought that this form of self-appraisal, as opposed to “amour de soi”, which is a healthy form of selflove, is corrupting and dangerous. Returning to the digital era, it seems we are continually encouraged towards amour-propre: we upload photos and write posts on social media expecting to receive some kind of response from our friends, whether it is likes, loves, cares, etc. What effect will this extreme drive towards amour-propre have on future generations? How can we still encourage healthy forms of self-love?
And how does this affect our students?
Dr. Fogel explains that there’s an ethical component in every action we take in our lives, such as what we eat, where we work, etc. When our students develop their new application or software, they will have to ask themselves, “What are the moral and ethical issues that could arise by using this?” Dr. Fogel also says that, “The students I have met want to make the world a better place. I am not teaching them anything new; they already have these ethical questions in their minds. I am just giving them the tools and inspiration to try and answer them.”
In his view, our generation is the one that will shape the Digital Revolution, and the way we shape it will have a profound impact on the future of human development. Computer Science students, who will develop technologies that carry weight in our daily lives, have many ethical challenges to deal with. “My wish,” says Dr. Fogel, “Is that when they arrive at the crossroad of ethical decisions, they will have the awareness of the moral implications and possibilities that philosophy offers them.”
A part of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning is where humans teach a computer or machine to perform an action by feeding it as much data as possible, and the machine learns from that “experience”. Examples of this include DALL·E 2, the system that enables us to create realistic images and art from text, and ChatGPT, the model that interacts in a conversational/dialog format, allowing follow-up questions and answers, amongst other features.
At the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science, Dr. Ohad Fried and his students are trying to solve reallife issues with Machine Learning, like making sign language more accessible in TV and movies, looking for solutions to prevent child abuse in daycares, and dealing with deep fake videos and photos.
“The latter brings up an important point,” says Dr. Fried. “While Machine Learning has many advantages, it also has its limitations, and it can be negatively used by bad players to create deep fake media. Since Machine Learning outputs can make a reliable impression of pictures that look accurate, these bad players can use them to hurt, incite and publish lies disguised as truth.” According to Dr. Fried, while the solution to deep fakes cannot be exclusively technological, we can use Machine Learning to identify and flag the “signatures” of the algorithm that created the fake media in the photos and videos.
One method they’ve used to identify deep fake videos combines Machine Learning and classical algorithms, and identifies specific parts of speech in videos as fake. Dr. Fried and his collaborators analyzed speech and letter pronunciation and concluded that while certain letters cannot be pronounced with the mouth open, deep fake algorithms often miss this behavior. They used this insight to create an algorithm that can identify and flag each part of the video where the speaker’s mouth is open when it should be closed. These videos are then labeled as fake.
Another problem Dr. Fried and his students are trying to solve is the lack of accessible media content for people with hearing disabilities. They aim to replace human sign-language translators with a video of a sign-language translator created by a machine. Toward this goal, they produced a “Stick Figure” that translates to human sign language. This method makes translations of media content more accessible. Responses from people with hearing disabilities were that the translator should look human, and this will fall within the scope of their follow-up project.
Another important project that Dr. Fried and his students have worked on is finding a solution to prevent child abuse at daycares. Since Israeli law prevents everyone, including the police, from watching recordings taped in daycares without a formal complaint being filed, the team suggested that a machine watch the videos and flag any child abuse by adults. However, they are facing several challenges and hope to upgrade and improve the machine’s human identification capabilities in future.
About the fast-growing field of Machine Learning, Dr. Fried says, “When I entered the field, there were already proven examples that Computer Science, and Machine Learning specifically, can solve real-life problems. I have witnessed a dramatic improvement in the performance of Machine Learning tools, which were theoretical and didn’t always work properly, and now solve many important problems at a very high level. One specific tool, called deep neural networks, has existed for dozens of years, yet only in 2012, when I began my doctorate studies, did it start working. And today, in 2023, full departments in universities and companies deal with this tool alone. The technology has massively developed in the last 10 years, and this is very exciting to see.”
Dr. Fried has collaborated with a number of people on his projects, including his MSc students Rotem Shalev and Bar Cohen, as well as PhD student Amit Moryossef from Bar-Ilan University, Daniel Arkushin, MSc and Prof. Shmuel Peleg, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Given an input text, the system generates stick figures that mimic the motion of a human sign language interpreter
Led by Prof. Zohar Yakhini, the Yakhini Research Group, an active bioinformatics and data science research collective, consists of scientists from the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science at Reichman University and the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion. Together, the group uses data science, machine learning, statistics and algorithmics to develop data analysis methods and tools, and apply them to molecular biology, medical science and other domains.
One of the studies the group is currently working on is led by PhD student Inbal Preuss. The study, which is the follow up to a study conducted by Prof. Yakhini and his group at the Technion, led by Dr. Leon Anavy, aims to improve and further optimize the compression mechanism that allows data to be stored in synthetic DNA molecules. The goal: allowing more data to be stored using a less expensive synthesis process. According to Preuss, “Storing data in DNA is a promising new research field that holds the potential to resolve the data storage challenge for several specific use scenarios, making it more space-efficient by about ten orders of magnitude.” Prof. Yakhini adds that while there are a number of advantages to storing data in DNA, the most important is that DNA is timeless.
A DNA sample sequenced on a nanopore device. Sequencing is an important component of modern molecular biology. Much of the group’s activity involves analysis of sequencing data
“DNA is central to all things life sciences and medical sciences, and therefore, will never go obsolete. Its biggest disadvantage, however,” he explains, “Is that the materials and the process itself are currently very expensive, and the data is not as accessible as, for example, flash memory.” Prof. Yakhini further notes that, “Specific applications can still be attractive in the short term, despite the cost.” Work on storing data on DNA is done in collaboration with other academic and industry groups, including the groups of Prof. Roee Amit and Prof. Eitan Yaakobi at the Technion.
Another study that Preuss is leading uses genome editing technology (CRISPR or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) to promote the efficient production of lab-grown meat. According to Preuss, “Lab-grown meat will greatly contribute to resolving environmental and social challenges stemming from escalating food prices and the depletion of crucial resources during food production.” In cooperation with the Rak Lab in the Volcani Center, this study aims to make synthetic meat production more effective and cost-efficient.
Yet another study to note was led by MSc student Ido Amit, who used Machine Learning and statistics to identify and measure the side effects of genome editing. During the editing process, genomic areas that are not targeted may be affected, in addition to the desired target regions.
Prof. Yakhini and PhD student Inbal Preuss with a screen showing the progress of the processData storage using synthetic DNA. Text or image is converted into a binary file which is then encoded in synthetic DNA. The original content can be reconstructed by sequencing the DNA
recognize morphology markers that are not currently known, and use these discoveries to improve cancer treatment. This line of research is led by PhD students Alona Levy-Jurgenssen, Ben Galili, and Roy Shafir; MSc students Chloe Benmoussa, Ilan Gefen, and Shuli Finley; and in collaboration with Prof. Ariel Shamir at Reichman University. The group also collaborates with international research groups in Oslo, Stockholm, Erlangen and Barcelona amongst others.
Amit’s work, done in collaboration with the Hendel Lab at Bar Ilan University, aimed to measure and quantify the side effects and to minimize them, in order to make the editing process safe for use in clinical practice. The group continues this investigation, with method development work led by Guy Gozlan, Guy Assa and others.
Bioinformatics and computational biology are also being used to develop tools for medical research and practice. For example, using Machine Learning, the group is working on improving the use of pathology in cancer treatment. Today, a pathologist sits in front of the microscope and examines every sample, looking for the relevant signature markers of each type of cancer. However, with Machine Learning, data and significant labels can be used by a computer, which will learn predictive features from scanned biopsy samples.
This process, an aspect of digital pathology, is aimed at making pathology testing more timeand cost-efficient. More importantly, the group has already shown that the computer will be able to
Prof. Yakhini concludes, “Modern life science has undergone a revolution in recent decades, driven by the development of data-intensive technologies that allow for deeper scrutiny and greater understanding of samples and processes.For this greater resolution of information to materialize into useful knowledge and into improved clinical practice, scientists use efficient and effective computational tools and methodologies. In our group, we are excited to be part of this revolution and to work together in this dynamic field, pursuing algorithmic and statistical innovation and enabling important life science discoveries and technologies.”
Standard biopsy slides (left) are Machine Learning analyzed to produce maps of over and under expression of important biological markers (right)
Preparing the global financial leaders of tomorrow.
Prof. Zvi Eckstein, Dean
In early January, the Master’s Program in Financial Economics – a joint initiative of the Tiomkin School of Economics and the Arison School of Business at Reichman University – held its annual financial forum. This year’s event, “Navigating High Inflation”, focused on the four-decade inflation high experienced this past year, the response of central banks, and its impact on markets. Speakers included: Prof. Rafi Melnick, President of Reichman University; Prof. Nouriel Roubini of the NYU Stern School of Business; Prof. Leo Leiderman, Chief Economic Advisor at Bank Hapoalim; and Dr. David Woo, Former Head of Global Rates, Foreign Exchange, and Emerging Markets Fixed Income and Economics Research at Bank of America.
Speakers were skeptical about the ability of central banks to tame inflation without dragging the economy into a recession, given the delayed response to rapidly rising prices and swift return to full employment. They discussed a future of persistently higher inflation than that we have grown accustomed to, of geo-political fragmentation replacing globalization, and the need for improved interaction between fiscal and monetary policy. Rates are likely to rise further for “normalization” of a prolonged period of suppressed rates and inflated asset prices. Prof. Roubini, known as “Dr. Doom” for his projection of the 2008 global crisis, foresees, “A recession for most of 2023 in the US, the Euro bloc, Britain, and most of the advanced economies.” In his outlook, the economic environment that has prevailed for decades of low inflation, stable growth and moderate crises, will soon be replaced by a period of stagflation and instability – financial, political, and environmental.
The event also hosted a heated panel discussion between Mr. Avi Tiomkin, advisor to global hedge funds, Ms. Anath Levin, Head of BlackRock Israel, Mr. Doron Breen, Co-founder of Sphera Funds and Mr. Ori Greenfeld, Chief Strategist at Psagot. The panelists exchanged views on future trends in energy prices and implications on inflation, analyzing the delicate situation in Europe, in particular, given the projected gas shortage and potential asymmetric effect of rate hikes across Euro bloc countries. The panel also discussed investment strategy given rising correlations across asset classes and the prevailing uncertainty around the pace and level of continued monetary tightening in the upcoming year.
The Master’s Program in Financial Economics at Reichman University is headed by Prof. Zvi Eckstein, Prof. Yaniv Grinstein and Dr. Yael Eisenthal-Berkovitz, who also led the evening’s panel and events.
Dr. David Woo
From left: Prof. Nouriel Roubini, Prof. Rafi Melnick, and Mr. Avi Tiomkin
From left: Dr. Yael Eisenthal-Berkovitz, Mr. Doron Breen, Ms. Anath Levin, Mr. Avi Tiomkin, and Mr. Ori Greenfeld
The Aaron Institute held its annual conference and as always, attracted numerous distinguished participants.
Nobel laureate Prof. Ben Bernanke stated that he isn’t expecting high levels of inflation and explained the differences between the current economic and political situation in comparison to the ‘70s. He also explained the importance of regulating cryptocurrency.
Prof. Amir Yaron, Governor of the Bank of Israel, mentioned that while inflation in the short run could cross the 4% bar, he anticipates a gradual decline toward the target by mid-2023. Former Minister of the Economy, MK Orna Barbivai, explained her plans to reduce the cost of living.
MK Mansour Abbas was also present to discuss the collapse of the coalition, explaining why it was both well-functioning and successful, with various parties that had learned to collaborate, despite the difficulties. Former Minister of Finance, MK Avigdor Liberman, addressed the insufficient investment in infrastructure and its economic cost, along with his plans to increase investment.
Shlomo Dovrat, Chairman of the Aaron Institute Board, and Founder and General Partner at Viola Ventures, said that the high-tech sector will reduce wages and increase redundancies, which will be good for the industry and the Israeli economy, while Prof. Zvi Eckstein, Dean of the Tiomkin School of Economics and Head of the Aaron Institute, discussed the reforms needed to support economic growth and reduction of poverty.
Another activity that took place was a round table on the wages, employment quality and skills training for ultra-Orthodox women, as a part of The Center for Economic Policy for the Ultra-Orthodox at the Aaron Institute. The discussion was led by Dr. Hila Axelrad, and recommended ways to increase employment quality and wages of ultra-Orthodox women. An example of this includes introducing training courses in additional fields, tailored to the needs of ultra-Orthodox women, and removing cultural and financial barriers.
Women from a variety of ultra-Orthodox streams participated in the discussion and shared from their personal as well as professional experience, the difficulty of ultra-Orthodox women dealing with non-Orthodox employers, the challenge of the seminars vs. the higher education system and more.
MK Avigdor Liberman at the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy Annual Conference 2022Standing: Dr. Yael Hadass
From left (seated): Yan Gaitsgory, Omer Bini, Yael Rebish, Yehuda Stone, Sara Saban, and Zach Okun
Not pictured: Eitan Dooreck Aloni
The students of the Business Administration and Economics program at the Raphael Recanati International School enjoyed two unique events this semester. The first was the yearly career event in which the program’s alums working in banking, consulting and high-tech came to share their experiences in job hunting and being on the job in various industries. The event was organized by Dr. Yael Hadass, the Academic Head of Economics with Karin Kaufman and Rachel Kadec from the RUNI Career Center. The panelists included: Zach Okun (JP Morgan), Sara Saban (EY), Yehuda Stone (Entrio), Yael Rebish (Cymotive Technologies), Omer Bini (Silicon Valley Bank), Yan Gaitsgory (consultant at McKinsey) and Eitan Dooreck Aloni (Tatio).
From left (standing): Adam Rawraway, Rebecca Nathan, Micol Ottolenghi, Natasha Lotkin, Martin Winiar, Benjamin Kamp, Namir Don, Leora Bornstein, Raphael Strerath, Dr. Yael Hadass, Janos Daniel Simon, Eyal Cumartesi, Darren Mandelstam, Evan Harry Friedman
From left (seated): Emanuelle DooreckAloni, Yael Shaul Cherniavs, Nechama Alexander, Yair Sternman, Nathan Birmaher, Benjamin Sass, Sebastian Feurig, Jeremy Borenstein
This event proved to be an important one for international students who got an inside view of potential jobs, as well as an informal connection to the speakers who will help them later to reach employers and contacts. The students look forward to this event every year, as it has proven in the past to give them a wide scope of opportunities.
In January, the third-year Business Administration and Economics students visited the Visitors’ Center of the Bank of Israel, as part of their economic policy seminar, led by Dr. Yael Hadass. In this seminar, they meet senior economic policy makers and advisors every week, who teach them about economic policy. During their visit, the students heard a lecture given by Dr. Yigal Menashe, a senior economist at the Bank of Israel who spoke about credit rating policy and explained how it aims to lower the price of credit. The students enjoyed a guided tour of the exhibition of coins and banknotes, where Dr. Zadok Alon, former Manager of the Visitors’ Center, shared the history of the design of notes and coins.
At the forefront of legal education, academic research and service to society.
Prof. Lior Zemer, Dean
A significant milestone has been achieved: the first doctoral graduate from the Harry Radzyner Law School at Reichman University was announced!
Recently, Attorney Eyal Brook was given the opportunity to defend his dissertation on Musical Authorship in the Digital and Algorithmic Age, written under the supervision of Prof. Lior Zemer, Dean of the Harry Radzyner Law School. The event took place in front of dignitaries including members of the examining committee, law school faculty and leading researchers in the field.
Eyal is a gifted musician and well-known lawyer in Israel in the field of intellectual property. He has released two CDs locally and played hundreds of gigs including prestigious ones in the UK, like supporting The Cranberries at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Ronnie Scott’s Songwriters Festival (alongside Coldplay), Birmingham Symphony Hall and many London venues.
His thesis presents the radical disjuncture between the law, and the social musical practices it supposedly governs. New musical practices based on novel technologies, afford entirely new modes of creative musical authorship, process and products, thus undermining basic notions of copyright law and authorship.
Some of the highlights of the event included “live” musical demonstrations of the thesis, played by Eyal, of traditional works from JS Bach to Louis Vierne. He collaborated with leading digital sound artist and DJ Omer Luz (aka Peter Spacey), playing the mythological song “The last summer”, by the band Shfiyut Zmanit (of which Eyal is a former member). The event culminated with a cuttingedge demonstration of a song created by artificial intelligence and presented by avatars.
Members of the International Examining Committee From left: Prof. Dov Greenbaum, Prof. Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid, Prof. Miriam Marcowitz-Bitton, Prof. Andreas Rahmatian, and Prof. Lior ZemerMembers of the international examining committee, who presented related questions requiring Eyal to defend his research thesis amidst the academic professionals, were: Prof. Andreas Rahmatian, School of Law at Glasgow University; Prof. Shlomit YaniskyRavid, School of Law, Ono Academic College and Fordham University School of Law (recently identified as “the foremost thinker on AI and copyright” at the American Copyright Society Annual Event); Prof. Miriam Markowitz-Biton, Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University; Prof. Dov Greenbaum JD PhD, Head of the Zvi Meitar Institute for Legal Implications of Emerging Technologies, Harry Radzyner Law School, Reichman University; and Prof. Lior Zemer.
At the end of the presentation, members of the committee praised Eyal’s research work, declared that it merits the award of PhD degree, and recommended giving it an “excellent” grade. He thanked Prof. Zemer for the excellent supervision, the distinguished supervising committee members, and the examining committee, as well as Reichman University, Founding President and Chairman of the Board Prof. Uriel Reichman and President Prof. Rafi Melnick, proclaiming it a great honor to be the first University doctor. Eyal’s degree will be officially awarded in the upcoming graduation ceremony in June 2023.
Reichman University is excited to present the RCCCRubinstein Center for Constitutional Challenges. The global constitutional order is on the verge of a full-scale crisis. The erosion of social bonds, global inequality, demographic shifts, technological developments, and the decline of public trust in democratic institutions, are challenging some of the most fundamental values and institutions shaped by thinkers.
Israel’s constitutional structure, in particular, is in constant crisis: it’s a country with no formal constitution, composed of one house of parliament with no clear separation of powers, which has been in a continuous state of emergency since May 1948, without a long liberal-democratic tradition, and governed by a coalition where the demographic majority is often a political minority.
/// INTRODUCING THE RCCC: THE WORLD’S FIRST INTELLECTUAL HUB TO SYSTEMATICALLY ADDRESS GLOBAL CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES
To address the challenges, Reichman University has established a first-of-its-kind Center for Constitutional Challenges, following a donation from Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, one of the founding fathers of Israeli constitutional law. The RCCC is the world’s first intellectual hub to systematically address global constitutional challenges. What is a constitutional challenge? When does a “political” challenge become “constitutional”? What are the current challenges? What historical lessons can be gained? And how is a constitutional challenge dealt with?
In addition to academic research and policy work, the center has a unique program of professional training for the next generation of constitutional leaders.
The RCCC is led by three leading scholars: Dr. Avigdor (Dori) Klagsbald, Prof. Liav Orgad, and Prof. Yaniv Roznai, and located at two of Reichman University’s most influential schools—the Harry Radzyner Law School and the Lauder School of Government Diplomacy and Strategy.
The RCCC plans to have fascinating events, conferences, round tables, seminars, debate groups, and law forums during 2023.
Back
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From left (seated): Prof. Rafi Melnick, Dr. Avidgor Klagsbald, Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, Prof. Liav Orgad, and Prof. Uriel Reichman Front row, from left (standing): Hila Kanias, Aviv Ezra, Mia Har-Noy, Noam Shani, Emanuel Broza, Gal Mechtinger, Idan Siboni, Yuval Dagan, Adi Tal, Prof. Yaniv Roznai, Dr. Hillel Sommer row, from left (standing): Adv. Tal Shulzinger Beck, Manager of the Rubinstein Center, Amit On, Yuli Shirazi, Itamar Ron, Omer Hermoni, Aviv Basirtman, Yochai Rosner pictured: Maayan Assiskovich and Benaya CherlowFor the first time in Israel, senior representatives from industry, academia, and government gathered at Reichman University for an open discussion regarding the emerging metaverse technologies and Web 3.0. The event was initiated by Meta, the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship, and the Zvi Meitar Institute for Legal Implications of Emerging Technologies, part of the Harry Radzyner Law School, at Reichman University.
This gathering is intended to be the first of many such events with Meta and its partners to pursue the examination of the ethical, legal, political and economic implications of the metaverse.
Participants took part in numerous roundtable discussions regarding the many opportunities that the emerging metaverse could provide for Israeli society, as well as the many possible ways in which Israel can take advantage of this nascent technology to become a global leader in metaverse technologies.
The roundtables looked particularly at numerous broad relevant areas, including: the role of the metaverse in education and academia; the ability for metaverse technologies to support citizens in the periphery; the future nature of the metaverse as a diplomatic tool; the potential capabilities of the metaverse to promote sustainability in Israel and abroad; the usefulness of the metaverse to provide health and mental health services; and the myriad issues related to property rights and ownership in the metaverse.
The Zvi Meitar Institute students professionally hosted each of the roundtables, directing the dialogue and documenting discussions amongst the many stakeholders. With the accumulated trove of information, the students drafted white papers coalescing and explicating the various positions of the varied stakeholders. These papers were then merged into a comprehensive report that was submitted to Meta and the Peres Center for further consultation, and ultimately for distribution amongst relevant government officials.
Changing the world through science.
Prof. Anat Brunstein Klomek, Dean
This year, the University launched its life sciences division for the first time, as part of its undergraduate degree in psychology. The division, headed by Prof. Arnon Afek, Deputy Director of Sheba Medical Center and Founding Dean of the new Dina Recanati School of Medicine at Reichman University, aims to expand students’ scientific outlook to build a strong framework capable of developing future generations of scientists and health specialists. The diverse curriculum includes courses of 26 academic credits and provides students with the necessary knowledge and skills needed when facing the challenges of science and medicine. The division offers various courses intended to promote scientific thinking in the realm of physiological processes, such as the development of diseases, the human genome, and chemical processes affecting the biological space in which we live.
Brainstorm IL, a community for Israeli neurotechnology, was established in 2018 with the purpose of connecting neuroscience students with the neurotech industry and specifically, preparing them for what happens after graduation. With activities on campuses all over Israel, Brainstorm RU at Reichman University operates under the auspices of the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology. With the School of Psychology’s Dean, Prof. Anat BrunsteinKlomek and world-renowned neuroscientists Prof. Ruth Feldman and Prof. Amir Amedi, Brainstorm RU has been providing members with various activities, lectures, and networking opportunities since 2019.
One of the activities that Brainstorm RU organized for its members on campus was an HCI (Human Computer Interface) workshop, where they brought software and code, and a simple EEG machine to which they connected a few participants. The participants saw their brainwaves, with the screen showing two colors to represent the level of stress and relaxation they were feeling at the time. In this workshop, Brainstorm RU team showed the participants how humans can learn to control their brainwaves with basic neurofeedback.
Back row, from left: Itay Grinberg, Chen Bar, Maya Kahn Kanner, Dana Ben Dov, Noam Speier, Tal Anane, Ofek Balisha
Front row, from left: Hodaya Zadok, Katarina Marikutsa, Marina Blumin, Lior Mirzaee, Yarden Hasson, Lee Dahan, Reei Ilan
Not pictured: Shiraz Orlev and Eden Pagirsky
For another activity, they invited a representative of NBT, the company that imported recoveriX, which is a technology that supports the rehabilitation process of patients recovering from strokes who have some motor paralysis. This system trains parts of the brain affected by a stroke to work again, by sending electrical stimulations that create involuntary responses. The purpose is for the training to eventually turn involuntary responses into voluntary ones, and for the body to regain full function.
According to Dr. Adi Ulmer-Yaniv, a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience at Reichman University and cofounder of Brainstorm RU (with doctoral student Maya Mentzel and MSc students Ofek Salama and Adi Gotliber), “Brainstorm RU opens a lot of possibilities for professional development and connections between the industry and academy in neurosciences. The fact that neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field that combines several research fields such as medicine, biology, psychology, and computer science, epitomizes the spirit of Reichman University.”
This year, for the first time, current students of the “Brain & Mind” Honors Research Program met graduates who spoke about their life experiences after the program and graduation in general. Throughout the evening, the graduates talked about how the knowledge they acquired during the program, and throughout their degrees, helped them get where they are today - both within academia or outside of it.
This event was the beginning of a wonderful tradition in which graduates will meet current students every year to share their knowledge, experiences, and expertise and help them pursue their goals. Dr. Limor Shtoots, Head of the “Brain & Mind” Program, led this initiative and the attendees were grateful both to her, and to the alumni who returned home to help and guide current students.
From left: Matan Sheskin, Psychology and Computer Science graduate; Yael Rosi Chen, HR at tech startup; Baillie Shuster, PhD student at Reichman University; Dr. Limor Shtoots; Emily Boxer, MSc student at Tel Aviv University; and Nathalie Talmasky, medical psychology intern MSc student Gil Geva moves his hands using his brain waves with the recoveriX rehabilitation system for stroke patients
Preparing students to tackle global climate challenges.
Prof. Yoav Yair completed an analysis of results obtained during the ILAN-ES (Imaging of Lightning And Nocturnal Emissions from Space) experiment, which was conducted in April 2022 as part of the Axiom company AX-1 private mission to the International Space Station, in the framework of Rakia, an Israeli set of experiments selected for flight by the Ramon Foundation and the Israeli Space Agency.
The ISS orbits the Earth at an average height of 420km every 93 minutes. The mission objective was to record transient luminous events – such as sprites, elves and blue-jets - from the Cupola window in the ISS, based on preliminary thunderstorm forecasts uploaded to the crew 24 to 36 hours in advance. During the 12-day mission, 82 different targets were uploaded to the TCO (Timeline Change Officer), of which 20 were imaged by the astronauts, yielding a total harvest of ~40 TLEs: sprites, elves and blues (blue corona discharges). The unparalleled quality of the new images proves the value of spacebased observations of atmospheric phenomena and was shared with the scientific community during international conferences held in Vienna and Chicago.
In conjunction with the space-based experiment, ground-based observations were attempted from schools in Israel, Hong Kong, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Ghana. Hundreds of schoolchildren and their science teachers were introduced to the physics of lightning and TLEs through Zoom lectures by Prof. Yair. The schools’ project was supervised by 12 Reichman University students from the School of Sustainability, who monitored daily weather forecasts in their respective countries and instructed teachers on where and when the ISS would pass above their school. This educational part was a major component of the project, even though no science data was obtained.
A bright red elf appears 95km above the blue-white lightning, almost 2,000km away from the International Space Station.
Israel announced that by 2030, all new vehicles will be electric which means hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads. While EVs will contribute to reducing air pollution in the urban environment, and if charged by renewable energy, to reducing carbon emissions from the transport sector, the incorporation of so many EVs into the electricity grid presents several challenges.
One is the potential strain on the grid caused by the increased demand. Furthermore, the demand for charging stations will also increase, putting a strain on the existing infrastructure, and a need to develop thousands of charging stations. Another challenge is the need for more renewable energy sources to power EVs.
Charging management, charging EVs with locallygenerated electricity, and using the cars’ batteries as storage facilities to return electricity to the grid in times of need (aka vehicle-to-grid) are a few of the strategies to tackle some of these challenges. Prof. Yael Parag is investigating these and other strategies to support EVs in Israel and abroad.
Prof. Parag, in collaboration with Dr. Ghassan Zubi and Dr. Shlomo Wald, recently published a report that proposes how a blockchain-enabled platform could improve the grid management and the economic efficiency of EV charging by local PV generated electricity (“Blockchain-Enabled PV2EV Platform in Israel”).
In other research, “Grid Aware Mobility and Energy Sharing (GAMES)”, funded by ERA-Net, Prof. Parag with researchers from Switzerland and Austria, is investigating public perceptions of shared EV fleets and the various business models that could couple the benefits of shared EV fleets and PV generation.
In response to climate change and the need to decarbonize our society, the electricity system is going through a transformation. Traditional electricity systems are highly regulated, characterized by large fossil fuel (or nuclear)-based power plants and managed by big utilities, while future systems will be renewable-rich, decentralized, more liberalized and less regulated energy systems, with multiple suppliers and stakeholders and new payment approaches.
Prof. Yael ParagA decarbonized and decentralized (DD) energy future will include companies with new and innovative payment approaches and business models, and new features such as prosumer markets, peer-to-peer electricity trading, gridconnected microgrids, virtual power plants (VPP), electric vehicles (EV) with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) connection, energy service companies (ESCOs), dynamic pricing, and real time demand response programs. Future DD energy systems are often perceived not only as cost-effective and efficient, but also “democratic”, “fair” and “just”, more resilient and secure, and environmentally sustainable.
However, trade-offs and contradictions between different clean and local energy generation goals are inherent to DD energy systems, such as conflicts between the use of land for renewable electricity generation vs. the provisioning of ecosystem services, or the trade-offs between low carbon electricity vs. high volume of PV waste and battery toxic waste. Furthermore, DD electricity systems and markets, allegedly, could be more equitable, fair and democratic in terms of the general publics’ ability to influence the markets, participate as generators and become prosumers. However, DD systems might also negatively impact equity and fairness if not goverend appropriately.
Prof. Yael Parag and Dr. Shiri Zemah Shamir, together with Dr. Naama Teschner from BenGurion University are investigating the various social, environmental, economic and security implications of DD systems. Their research is funded by the Israeli Science Foundation. In a paper recently published with their PhD student Elad Shaviv in the journal Energy Research and Social Science, they investigated the new actors likely to enter the DD electricity market, what drives them, and what business models would enable these actors to participate. In the paper, they also point at the potential threats to energy security posed by DD markets with numerous new actors.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on the cusp of driving an agricultural revolution, and helping confront the challenge of feeding our growing global population. But researchers warn that using new AI technologies at scale holds huge risks that are not being considered.
A comprehensive risk analysis, published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, warns that the future use of Artificial Intelligence in agriculture comes with substantial potential risks for farms, farmers and food security, that are poorly understood and under-appreciated.
“The idea of intelligent machines running farms is not science fiction. Large companies are already pioneering the next generation of autonomous ag-bots and decision support systems that will replace humans in the field,” says Dr. Asaf Tzachor, from Reichman University, lead author of the paper.
“But so far, insufficient attention has been given to the question ‘Are there any risks associated with a rapid deployment of agricultural AI?’” he adds.
Despite the huge promise of AI for improving crop management and agricultural productivity, potential risks must be addressed responsibly and new technologies properly tested in experimental settings to ensure they are safe, and secure against accidental failures, unintended consequences, and cyber-attacks, the authors say.
In their research, the authors have come up with a catalog of risks that must be considered in the responsible development of AI for agriculture – and ways to address them.
They also raise the alarm about cyber-attackers potentially causing disruption to commercial farms using AI, by poisoning datasets or shutting down sprayers, autonomous drones, and robotic harvesters. To guard against this, they suggest that “white hat hackers” help companies uncover any security failings during the development phase, so that systems can be safeguarded against real hackers.
In a scenario associated with accidental failure, the authors suggest that an AI system - programmed only to deliver the best crop yield in the short termmight ignore the environmental consequences of achieving this, leading to overuse of fertilizers and soil erosion in the long term. Over-application of pesticides in pursuit of high yields could poison ecosystems; over-application of nitrogen fertilizer would pollute the soil and surrounding waterways. The authors suggest involving applied ecologists in the technology design process to ensure these scenarios are avoided.
Autonomous machines could improve the working conditions of farmers, relieving them of manual labor. But without inclusive technology design, socioeconomic inequalities that are currently entrenched in global agriculture - including gender, class, and ethnic discriminations - will remain.
“AI is being hailed as the way to revolutionize agriculture. As we deploy this technology on a large scale, we should closely consider potential risks, and aim to mitigate those early on in the technology design,” says Dr. Tzachor.
For the first time in Israel, a new study in the School of Sustainability is evaluating the marine natural capitalfish provisioning using the System of EnvironmentalEconomic Accounting (SEEA) methodology of the Levantine Basin in the Mediterranean Sea. This is the first attempt to implement natural capital accounting to assess the economic trade-off between native and invasive species in Israel. In this study, led by Dr. Shiri Zemah-Shamir, senior lecturer and Head of the Economics-Sustainability track, authors will present new insights on green accounting and fishing quantification to be published in the journal Ecological Economics
One of the most common environmental criticisms on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) calculation, is that it ignores some of the natural capital. Moreover, it fails to account for environmental degradation and resource depletion, and does not promote economic regulations.
Monetization of natural capital needs to be approached carefully, so the authors have applied a novel multi-disciplinary approach by combining results from scenarios of the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) suite of models with SEEA, to construct physical and monetary accounts for marine fisheries in the Israeli Mediterranean. The authors analyzed changes in fish stock biomass and stock value over two time periods and two scenarios: BAU and the new Israeli fishing regulations.
The study is the first to construct fishery accounts by fishing method, including recreational fishery, to analyze the economic contribution of each fishing method, and commercial fishery and future values by considering historical (1994–2010) and projected (2011–2060) time series. In this study the authors also present the increasing role that invasive species are playing in marine ecosystems globally.
The Green Summit held in Bangkok in December 2022, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for four students from the School of Sustainability. The conference brought together experts and practitioners from around the world to discuss and share their knowledge and experiences on sustainable development. Mrs. and Mr. Sharon & Larry Finegold donated towards the participation of the students in the conference.
The students were able to attend various workshops and sessions that covered a wide range of topics, from environmental management to sustainable urban development. They also had the opportunity to network with professionals in the field, learning about the latest trends, technologies and best practices.
One of the highlights of the conference was a panel discussion featuring experts from different countries, who shared their perspectives on how to address the challenges of sustainable development in their respective regions. The students were inspired by the innovative and creative approaches presented by these experts, and were motivated to bring these ideas back to their own communities.
Students visited several sustainable development projects in Bangkok, including a rooftop garden that provides fresh produce for a local community, and a waste management facility that uses advanced technology to convert waste into energy. These visits gave them a deeper understanding of the practical applications of sustainable development and the positive impact it can have on communities.
The conference was a valuable learning experience, and students returned with a deeper understanding of sustainable development, new ideas and inspiration to apply in Israel, in their own projects, and a wealth of new contacts and professional relationships.
Students from the School of Sustainability at the Green Summit in Bangkok, from left: Barak Talmor, Michal Hella-Zur, Danna Avni and Yonatan Zinder
Every year, the University hosts numerous delegations on campus, including universities, think tanks, and governmental institutions. These provide a platform to share knowledge and develop joint projects for the benefit of students and faculty.
• Bay Area Council (Economic Institute), San Francisco, USA
• Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany
• Columbia University, New York, USA
• University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
• Embassy of Chile in Israel
• Embassy of Romania in Israel
• Embassy of Singapore in Israel
• Embassy of the Czech Republic in Israel
• Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Israel
From left: Prof. Abdelaziz Benjouad, Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Partnerships, Dean of the College of Health Sciences, International University of Rabat, Morocco; Prof. Uriel Reichman, Founding President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Reichman University; and Prof. Noureddine Mouaddib, Founding President, International University of Rabat, Morocco• Embassy of Ukraine in Israel
• George Washington University, Washington D.C., USA
• International University of Rabat, Morocco
• Johns Hopkins University (SAIS Europe), Bologna, Italy
• Lauder Business School, Vienna, Austria
• Leaders of Design Council, USA
• Ministry of Economy, El Salvador
• Ministry of Science, Czech Republic
• Nebrija University, Madrid, Spain
• Nova School of Business and Economics, Lisbon, Portugal
• Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy
• Pontifical University Comillas, Madrid, Spain
• Reutlingen University, Germany
• Senior delegation from the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Tec de Monterrey, Mexico
• Technical University Darmstadt, Germany
• University Camilo José Cela, Madrid, Spain
• University for Peace, Costa Rica
• University of Bonn, Germany
• University of Montevideo, Uruguay
• University of Reading, UK
• University of Seoul, South Korea
• University of Staten Island, New York, USA
• University of Toronto, Canada
Every year, the Office of Global Engagement attends a select number of events to promote the University and increase our level of academic engagement. In 2022, Christian Jowers, Director of Global Engagement, and Nina Singer, Head of Student Exchange & Erasmus+ Mobility, attended (respectively) two major internationalization conferences: NAFSA in Denver, Colorado and EAIE in Barcelona, Spain.
Thousands of delegates attend these conferences from universities all around the world, reinforcing a very simple post-Covid fact – face-to-face interactions are the foundation of meaningful relationships and strong partnerships. The in-person engagement allows peers to dedicate time and energy to brainstorming cooperation avenues and drawing concrete academic collaboration plans. It’s an opportunity for a creative, open, and informal dialogue aimed at improving and diversifying both student and faculty possibilities abroad.
The University’s extended cooperation with the University of Reading, UK and its new partnership with Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands, as well as the additional scholarships for Reichman University students, are a clear testament to the outcome benefits of these events.
NAFSA Conference 2022, held in Denver, Colorado EAIE Conference 2022, held in Barcelona, SpainReichman University recently signed several new agreements, including Student Exchange Agreements and General Memoranda of Understanding with:
• Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
• Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
• Franklin University, Switzerland
• Moravian Business College Olomouc, Czech Republic
• Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy
• University for Peace, Costa Rica
• Yeshiva University, New York
• Zagreb School of Economics and Management, Croatia
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Photo: Massimo Catarinella
Manhattan, New York
Photo: Fred Hsu
Chiang Mai, Thailand
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS
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(double major)
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Reichman University’s Executive Education Center offers programs for organizations ,executives and professionals ,enabling them to expand their knowledge and update their skills to respond to the changing demands of today’s business environment.
According to an estimate by the World Economic Forum, 65% of today’s elementary school children will ultimately work in professions that do not currently exist. Given the reality of our rapidly-changing world, professionals must constantly adapt by acquiring new knowledge and learning new skills.
“Today, completing a university degree doesn’t mean that you’re done learning. In fact, it’s only the beginning,” says Maya Lichtman-Gazit, VP Development, at FORE External and Executive Education center at Reichman University. “The main challenge every executive faces today is the need to learn constantly. This is far beyond the professional development that executives received at the start of their careers, which is not always relevant to the dynamic environment in which they operate.
“In Darwin’s ‘The Origin of Species,’ he maintains that only the fittest who are able to adapt to their environment will survive,” says Lichtman-Gazit. “In the current job market, only those who continuously acquire new knowledge and update their toolbox will survive. What will determine our success is not only the knowledge we have gained but our ability to learn new and relevant skills and fields. Learning is an integral process in life, and not a one-time event that takes place in a formal framework.”
Executive education programs are based on the understanding that the technological developments disrupting industries and the labor market require professionals to perfect the “super-skill” necessary to survive in an ever-changing environment: learnability. This ability ensures optimal adaptation to constantly changing conditions.
This year, the Executive Education Center marks its 20th anniversary and is launching a new umbrella framework for its programs. This framework, titled “FORE External Studies and Executive Education,” is designed to help professionals and executives address complex challenges with an interdisciplinary response, based on lessons imparted by top experts from both academia and industry.
FORE Executive offers open enrollment courses for executives and decision-makers in the private and public sectors, in a variety of areas such as management, real estate, and finance, alongside prestigious forums such as the CEO Forum and Financial Club. FORE Executive’s vision is to combine academia with applied tools, and to enrich executives’ knowledge while they share with each other insights from their rich experience.
The department also offers customized programs for organizations, aimed toward management, executives and employees, and specifically designed to meet its unique strategic challenges. Some of these tailor-made programs have a social aspect, such as the 3D Generation program in collaboration with the Takwin venture capital firm, designed to encourage entrepreneurship in Israeli-Arab society.
FORE Professional allows professionals to continue developing and specializing throughout their career through continuing education. Programs are offered in cooperation with the various schools at Reichman University, and include business administration entrepreneurship, public administration, psychotherapy, computer science, sustainability, economics, and more.
FORE Global has established a comprehensive network of relationships with academic institutions, organizations, and lecturers around the world. It provides a response to executives and international organizations coming to Israel from around the world, as well as to Israeli executives and companies interested in training abroad.
“Reichman University’s mission is to train the future generation of Israeli leaders. Our vision, in line with this, is to train the leaders who are already in key positions and equip them with new knowledge and an innovative toolbox,” says Lichtman-Gazit. “This is what will give them added value and a competitive edge, allowing them to make their mark on the dynamic and complex environment in which they work. We invite these professionals to join us on a continuous journey of lifelong learning.”
THE
RECANATI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL HAS OVER 2,500 STUDENTS FROM 90 COUNTRIES ON CAMPUS!
• Business Administration
• Business & Economics (double major)
• Communications
• Computer Science (BSc)
• Economics & Entrepreneurship with Data Science
(double major)
• Entrepreneurship & Business (double major)
• Entrepreneurship, BA & Computer Science, BSc
(double major)
• Government
• Sustainability & Government (double major)
• Psychology
ONE SEMESTER / ONE YEAR / FULL DEGREE
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