/// BA IN GOVERNMENT OFFERS LESSONS IN PERSONAL FINANCE

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.”

/// ABBA EBAN INSTITUTE FOR DIPLOMACY & FOREIGN RELATIONS

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.

One 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.