Dear academic and administrative staff and students,

The new academic year is set to begin this week, while our country is still engaged in a difficult war. Over 100 hostages have yet to return home to their families, tens of thousands of northern residents have not yet returned to their homes, more than a thousand of our students are still serving in the reserve duty, and many others have only recently finished their military service or are soon to be called up again.

In the past year, Israel has faced challenges unparalleled since the War of Independence. These challenges are compounded by deep political division and the accompanying discourse of incitement and division, which threaten our national resilience and the democratic values enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.

This week, we will enter our classrooms against the backdrop of these immense challenges. It is already clear that, much like the year that just ended, we will face extraordinary difficulties in the coming academic year as well. The national and international tensions outside our campuses will not stop at our gates this year either. And rightly so: we are not an ivory tower—we live among our people.

However, as we demonstrated last year, we can face these great challenges within our community, and I am confident that we will continue to do so.

Through a collective effort from the entire university community, last year we built an exceptional support system—academic, financial, and emotional—to help reservists and their spouses, as well as those displaced from their homes, to successfully complete the academic year. The difficulties faced by those students were immense, and the response to assist them was extraordinary. Indeed, most students managed to successfully finish the year. We know the challenges have not ended. We will continue to provide support to all students who need it in the coming year as well.

The outstanding mobilization of our community members—staff and students alike—to assist those students is inspiring and heartwarming. I thank each and every one of you for your help last year and for your continued help this year. We remain committed to doing everything possible to ensure that no student is left behind.

We live among our people, and I have neither the expectation nor the desire for our campus gates to be sealed off from what is happening around us, including the most painful divisions in Israeli society and on the international stage. But here, we must all be committed to values of moderation, inclusiveness, and acceptance of others. We must be committed to protecting academic freedom and rejecting any discourse of hatred or fear so that we can continue to achieve our supreme commitment to excellent teaching and groundbreaking research. In all of these, we will strive to continue serving as an example and model for the entire nation. See here a document on guidelines for expressing opinions and ideas within the university community.

I believe we can achieve all these goals. I believe in our ability because I believe in each and every member of our wonderful community at the Hebrew University. This year, our university will mark 100 years since its founding, during which it has upheld values of academic and research excellence while contributing to Israeli society and the world. Since its establishment in 1925, the university has been a source of knowledge and innovation, with an emphasis on groundbreaking research in various fields and nurturing generations of leaders, scholars, and intellectuals. I have no doubt that our university will continue to advance these achievements and many more in the next hundred years.

We will not forget our students and the family members of our community who were murdered and sacrificed their lives in the war. Carmel Gat was kidnapped on October 7 and executed by Hamas terrorists in the tunnels of Gaza about two and a half months ago. Majed Ibrahim was accepted to our university but was murdered in his home on 7.10 while preparing for the start of the academic year. Eitan Naeh, Israel Sokol, Eitan Koplowitz, and Eyal Meir Berkowitz were killed while serving their country. Sagie Dekel-Chen, the son of Professor Jonathan Dekel-Chen, was kidnapped to Gaza and has not yet returned home. We will not forget our alumni who fell this past year. The pain of loss is unbearable. We wish a speedy recovery to the wounded, both physically and mentally, and continue to hope for the safe return of all the hostages.

 

Sincerely,

Prof. Tamir Sheafer 

 

Rector