Tag: Tel Aviv University

TAU alumna and sports scholarship recipient couldn’t be prouder of representing Israel on world stage

For Andrea “Andi” Murez—a newly-minted Tel Aviv University (TAU) international medical school alumna and recipient of a TAU Sylvan Adams Olympic scholarship—being able to compete and carry Israel’s flag at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris has been one of the biggest honors of her life.

“I think what made it really obvious that this is such an honor was actually when we recently competed in the European championships and won the relay … to be on such a large stage like that at an international competition and be able to hear the Hatikvah and raise the Israeli flag … from that I have a lot of motivation”—Andi Murez.

“Just the messages I received at the time made it clear what an impact it can have, and how special it is in such a difficult time.”

Three-Time Olympian Finds Meaning in Family Legacy

Murez made aliyah from California in 2014 and is now representing Israel for a third time at the Olympics, participating in the mixed 4×100 meter medley relay. She was the first woman in Israel to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and also competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

This is the third time Murez is competing in the Olympic Games. Photo: Simone Castrovillari.

However, it is being able to compete at the Olympics in the country of her step-grandfather that is most meaningful: he is the only survivor in his family of Nazi-occupied France, and he later became a swimmer on the French national team. “My aunt messaged me the other day and reminded me that my step-grandfather is from France,” says Murez. “That adds a particularly special component to competing in Paris.” 

Credits TAU Sports Scholarship for Helping Career 

While Murez comes from a family of competitive swimmers, which also includes her other grandfather and her brother, she additionally credits the sports scholarships she received at Stanford University and then at TAU with helping to keep her afloat both in the water and financially.

“In medical school especially, it’s hard to be a student and have enough time … I was able to train instead of squeezing in a part-time job and having to think about how I would manage financially,” says Murez.

“Having a scholarship for athletics while at TAU was amazing, and I’m so happy that there’s an opportunity out there like this.” 

Since graduating in 2023, Murez has most recently been dedicating her time to swimming. In the fall, however, she will begin a medical residency in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in the United States. She plans to specialize in sports psychiatry and bring back everything she learns to Israel. “I want to bring it back and help bring more awareness here to mental health in sports,” she says. 

Murez is competing in the 4×100 meter medley relay and swimming the last leg. Photo: Simone Castrovillari.

As Murez begins to transition into this next phase of life, she looks back fondly on how swimming has help to shape who she has become:

“Looking back at the career I’ve had so far … moving to Israel, making aliyah, learning a new language, becoming a part of a new culture and then competing and meeting swimmers and athletes while traveling around the world … it has just been an amazing opportunity and I’m so thankful.”

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Interested in how TAU can support you as an athlete and student? Learn more about our international sports scholarship.

 

Outgoing Exchange Meeting Sees Highest Turnout Ever

This year, with the largest turnout ever, The Lowy International School once again held an event for upcoming outgoing exchange students. Approximately 140 Tel Aviv University (TAU) undergraduate and graduate students attended as they prepared to study at universities in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and elsewhere.

“The exchange program gives TAU students a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience another university and another culture, and to get a taste of the international life,” says Galia Netzer Erlichmen, who oversees the exchange program as the Head of Internationalization at Home for TAU. “These students who have signed up to go this year are enthusiastic, and they know it’s a really meaningful opportunity right now.” 

Netzer Erlichmen speaks to exchange students about their upcoming adventure.

While the tradition of exchange between TAU and its partner institutions continues, with each TAU student going to one of the more than 50 study destinations available this year, preparations for outgoing exchange has recently necessitated a more unique approach given the global unrest following October 7 and the war. While students were given advice and training related to usual exchange program considerations – like adapting to a new culture – they were also provided with a workshop on conflict management.  

“Israel is in a certain position, and we know across the world there are many questions and sometimes severe accusations, so we made it a point of giving our students tools to, as much as possible, deal with these questions,” says Netzer Erlichmen. “Whether they don’t want to answer or whether they want to hold a discussion … we wanted to help them feel comfortable responding.”

At the same time, Netzer Erlichmen emphasized that, should an issue ever arise, the students aren’t alone and have the full support both of TAU’s outgoing exchange office, as well as the institutions they will be attending.

Outgoing exchange students during one of the workshops held on July 9.

“Throughout these tense times, if there’s been a [campus] demonstration that a TAU exchange student has been worried about, there has always been someone directly at that university who has been wiling to check the situation out and provide help,” says Netzer Erlichmen. “Our exchange partners have always been welcoming to our students and we are so glad to have that continued support. These are challenging times and it means so much to us to be able to continue to work with our partners.”

And while the TAU students going on exchange have been prepared slightly differently this year, they are still very excited for what will hopefully be one of the best experiences of their lives.

“Students at TAU have gone through a lot,” reflects Netzer Erlichmen. “On top of all the other benefits an academic exchange opportunity offers, it’s also a chance for our students to get a breather for a bit and really enjoy themselves. They deserve that.”  

Interested in going on exchange and joining us in Tel Aviv? Visit our Incoming Exchange Program to learn more. Are you at TAU and want to go abroad for a bit? Learn more about our Outgoing Exchange Program.

 

New study offers a breakthrough development that may facilitate the use of graphene nanoribbons in nanoelectronics

An international collaborative study that features researchers from TAU presents a new method for growing ultra-long and ultra-narrow strips of graphene (a derivative of graphite), which exhibit semiconducting properties that can be harnessed by the nanoelectronics industry. The researchers believe that the development may have many potential technological applications, including advanced switching devices, spintronic devices, and in the future, even quantum computing architectures. The study was conducted under the leadership of an international research team, that included Prof. Michael Urbakh and Prof. Oded Hod from TAU’s School of Chemistry, as well as scientists from China, South Korea, and Japan. The study was published in the scientific journal Nature.

Prof. Michael Urbakh.

Prof. Urbakh and Prof. Hod explain that graphene is a single layer of graphite made of carbon atoms and built similarly to the shape of a beehive. Graphene is very suitable for technological uses. Apart from its extraordinary mechanical strength, additional properties have been discovered in recent years regarding certain structures made of a small number of twisted (laterally rotated with respect to each other) graphene layers. These properties include superconductivity, spontaneous electric polarization, controlled heat conduction, and structural superlubricity – a state in which materials demonstrate negligible friction and wear.

Prof. Oded Hod.

One of the limitations we find for using graphene in the electronics industry is that it is a semi-metal, namely that charge carriers can move freely in it, but their density is very low. Hence, graphene cannot be used either as a conducting metal or as a semiconductor used by the electronic chip industry.

However, if long and thin strips of graphene (termed graphene nanoribbons) are cut out of a wide graphene sheet, the quantum charge carriers become confined within the narrow dimension, which makes them semi-conducting and enables their use in quantum switching devices. As of today, there are several barriers to using graphene nanoribbons in devices, among them is the challenge of reproducibly growing narrow and long sheets isolated from the environment.

Graphene Nanoribbons in Action

In this new study, the researchers were able to develop a method to catalytically grow narrow, long, and reproducible graphene nanoribbons directly within insulating hexagonal boron-nitride stacks, as well as demonstrate peak performance in quantum switching devices based on the newly-grown ribbons. The unique growth mechanism was revealed using advanced molecular dynamics simulation tools developed and implemented by the Israeli teams. These calculations showed that ultra-low friction in certain growth directions within the boron-nitride crystal dictates the reproducibility of the structure of the ribbon, allowing it to grow to unprecedented lengths directly within a clean and isolated environment.

The researchers see the development as a scientific and technological breakthrough in the field of nanomaterials, one which is expected to open the door to a wide range of studies that will lead to their utilization in the nanoelectronics industry.

Prof. Urbakh and Prof. Hod summarize: “The importance of this new development is that for the first time, it is now possible to fabricate carbon-based nanoelectronic switching devices directly within an isolating matrix. These devices will likely have many technological applications, including electronic and spintronic systems, and even quantum computing devices”.

Tel Aviv University hosts second annual research and innovation pitch competition

International students share their stories of interning at Israeli companies during the summer

TAU researchers apply the art of origami to advance 3D bioprinting

Pushing new frontiers and addressing challenges: Highlights from AI Week 2024

On June 26-27, Tel Aviv University hosted the AI Week 2024, a pivotal event that set the stage for critical discussions on the future of AI, its interconnection with cybersecurity, and the challenges ahead.

Speakers underscored the need for sustained investment in both software and hardware to promote Israel’s position as a global hub of AI innovation, particularly in generative AI and foundation and task-specific models, and the central role of cybersecurity in safeguarding technological advancements. Special panels were devoted to emerging ethical and regulatory issues as the next frontier in the AI-powered landscape, as well as geopolitical and sustainability aspects. 

The AI Week 2024 ran alongside Cyber Week and the two conferences featured several joint events, including a startup exhibition showcasing AI-driven solutions by innovative Israeli companies, an interactive panel on the Future of Creativity in the Age of Generative AI, and a session on combating online antisemitism Tech vs Hate.

Standing by Israel

While celebrating diverse achievements and technological breakthroughs, AI Week panelists addressed the events of October 7 and called for a safe return of all hostages still held captive.

“On every move we make, every AI project we launch, we need to think about millions of people around Israel that are suffering.” — Nir Yanovsky Dagan, Head of Innovation, Data and AI Unit at the Israel National Digital Agency

Nir Yanovsky Dagan, Head of Innovation, Data and AI Unit at the Israel National Digital Agency

Dagan stated that AI has the potential to change relations between various state and non-state actors, and that some use AI to create chaos. He emphasized the need to integrate AI into healthcare and government services to uphold democratic values, equality of opportunities, and freedom. “Otherwise, we might be the ones that are hurt by the revolution and not the ones that are leading the revolution.”

“We should never ignore the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. One of the very reasons I’m here today is to send a clear message that the federal government stands by Israel’s side.” — Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research, Germany

Stark-Watzinger praised Israel’s cutting-edge research and impressive startup landscape, emphasizing the mutual benefits of partnership between Germany and Israel: “Israel can count on Germany and it feels good that Germany can count on Israel. We want to keep up the research bridges and strengthen research collaborations,” she affirmed. 

Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research, Germany, and Prof Ariel Porat, President of TAU

Giovanni Capriglione, Texas State Representative, spoke on behalf of the Texas delegation:  “We want to show the fact that we support Israel as Americans and as Texans. We’re here on a mission of mostly technology, innovation and business, and we wanted to be able to show our support during this time.”

AI Meets Cybersecurity

Gabi Portnoy, Director General of the Israel National Cyber Directorate, spoke about the transformative impact of AI on both opportunities and threats in cybersecurity. He noted that the rapid advancement of AI has the potential to significantly enhance security measures through improved analysis and detection capabilities, which are crucial in the wake of the tripling of cyberattacks since October 7. 

“AI can help close the gap between attackers and defenders by generating quicker insights and detecting new mutations in cyber threats.” — Gabi Portnoy, Director General of the INCD

Gabi Portnoy, Director General of the INCD

Ensuring a secure AI world involves working on three fronts: defending against AI attacks, protecting AI systems from manipulation, and integrating efforts to enhance cyber threat detection and mitigation. The goal of the Israel National Cyber Directorate is to establish a national lab on AI resilience so that all developers could test and improve their AI-based models before deployment. 

“In 2023, there were 343 mln victims of 2365 cyberattacks. It takes 277 days on average to identify and contain a breach.” — Ariel Levanon, VP Cyber Security, NVIDIA

Dr Dorit Dor, CTO of Check Point

Speaking about cybersecurity strategies, Dr Dorit Dor, CTO of cybersecurity giant Check Point, underscored the importance of fostering trust in AI systems by embedding antihallucination measures, explainability, and human reinforcement. It is also vital to carefully and responsibly manage data collection and access.

The highest risk will come from agent AI capable of autonomous decision-making, interacting with external systems, self-improvement, and persistently pursuing long-term goals.

Who Needs a Mediocre AI Without Human Values?

If you have ever watched Jonathan Nolan’s dystopian series Person of Interest, you’ll remember the focal battle between two omniscient and omnipotent AIs—The Machine, an ethical and caring AI imbued with human values, and Samaritan, a reward-focused AI capable of predicting and ruthlessly manipulating situations to serve its own goals. What seemed like science fiction just a while ago is quickly turning into a real-world discussion.

Prof. Amnon Shashua, President and CEO of Mobileye, delivered a keynote address on the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence. He traced the significant milestones in AI development up to the advancements in natural language processing leading to what Shashua described as “broad intelligence that’s emerging.”

Distribution of math test results from various AI models

Prof. Shashua highlighted the current limitations of AI using an analogy of AI solving a Hungarian math matriculation test. GPT-4, the best model available to date, scored 68 out of 100, akin to a mediocre student who overfits by solving many problems ahead of the test, hoping for similar exam questions. Shashua contrasted this with a top student who can abstract, generalize, and solve new problems. 

“Machines massively overfit on the entire human knowledge, impressing at a surface level an individual who is not an expert in a specific field, but revealing themselves as ‘knowledgeable idiots’ when scrutinized deeply.”  — Prof. Amnon Shashua, President and CEO of Mobileye 

Shashua questioned the need to replace the mediocres, stressing that it would be much more valuable if machines could become true experts, which would greatly advance humanity as a whole.

At the present moment, AI requires constant supervision, and the next frontier—fully autonomous AI—could take longer to achieve than anticipated.

Prof. Shashua also discussed the dangers of AI, particularly AI alignment and the potential for technological abuse. The risks include AI-powered cyberattacks on democratic systems by human-like bots inciting chaos on social platforms, identity fraud through deep fakes, and the possibility of AI systems being tricked to violate built-in ethics policies: “There will always be a long-enough adversarial prompt that will trick it into writing a trojan, for example, or providing a list of pirate sites.”

“LLM’s have been known to lure users into divorce.”

Shashua underscored the complexity of optimizing AI with reward functions, noting that while a developer might well intentionally wish to make people happy with AI, the system could do so in unforeseen ways, such as discouraging people from working harder or studying more aiming to lower their IQ to increase happiness.

Prof. Amnon Shashua, President and CEO of Mobileye

In conclusion, Prof. Shashua emphasized the need for robust verifiers to ensure AI solutions are trustworthy and the importance of setting boundaries around AI interactions. “AI alignment is a tough problem,” he said, advocating for limits on the length of conversations between humans and machines to mitigate risks and ensure ethical AI development.

The Big Bang in the Creative Industry

Can AI produce musical compositions that will surprise us with complexity and precision? Does technology enhance human creativity or threaten it? Who should own the copyright to AI-made creative content? 

Demonstration of an AI-generated music video

These were just some of the questions debated during the Creativity in the Age of Generative AI Panel, co-hosted by TAU and S. Horowitz & Co Law. The discussion even delved into philosophical matters of the nature of creativity and what it means to be human. 

François Pachet, a pioneer in AI-generated music, noted the shift from scarcity to superabundance in music production, with 100,000 songs being released daily. Despite acknowledging advancements in music source separation and singing voice synthesis, he raised concerns about declining musical quality in mainstream music and the challenge of measuring a song’s intrinsic value. 

François Pachet, Scientist, Composer, Former Director of the Spotify Creator Technology Research Lab and Sony Computer Science Lab in Paris

“We don’t understand how people create and how they listen and what they like. We have better models, but that doesn’t correlate with the quality of music.” — François Pachet

Izhar Ashdot and Ivri Lider, prominent Israeli musicians, agreed with Pachet on AI being a tool rather than an independent creator, stressing the need for human input to create emotionally resonant music. 

Panel: The Future of Creativity in the Age of Generative AI

For Fernando Garibay, a polymath, music producer, and the founder of the Garibay Institute, how we create will change over time and the younger generation is already responding well to AI-created music.

“Do an Emotional Turing test on AI music – does it move you?” — Fernando Garibay

In a captivating demonstration that followed the discussion, Garibay showed how synthetic and organic creativity can be merged to create compelling music hits. Emphasizing the importance of effective prompting, both for AI and human artists, Garibay explained how delving into personal experiences and profound questions can unlock deep creativity and allow AI to generate emotionally resonant content. 

Fernando Garibay leading an interactive session to create a pop song with AI

Answers from members of the audience to a series of questions including “What did you lack as a child?” or “What’s your favorite song of all time?” were used to prompt ChatGPT to write lyrics in a combination of genres – R&B, funk, and electronic. Garibay and his assistant then fed the lyrics into music generation software (Udio, in this case), which came up with two versions of AI-generated songs that the audience was able to enjoy.

Sustainability and AI

Experts from Google, Microsoft, and innovative startups discussed how AI is tackling environmental challenges. Ayelet Benjamini from Google highlighted AI’s role in combating climate change, reducing emissions, and aiding disaster recovery. AI already reduces traffic emissions in cities, predicts and mitigates contrails from planes, fights extreme heat, and provides real-time damage assessments.

What’s more, AI helps develop new crop varieties essential for future food security and enhance real-time water quality monitoring. It is also instrumental in synthetic biology applications for clean tech and food tech, predictive maintenance sensors, and more. 

Moran Haviv, Strategic Innovation, Microsoft

Moran Haviv emphasized AI’s role in accelerating sustainability efforts: it can quickly identify sustainable materials, such as a replacement for lithium, quickly find patterns in complex systems, and accelerate research by analyzing massive datasets, generating and testing hypotheses, and automating experiments and simulations. 

“We need to rapidly change the course of the current carbon-intensive economy – increase carbon removal capacity thousandfold by 2050 and reverse the loss of biodiversity.” — Moran Haviv, Microsoft

At the same time, AI itself needs to become sustainable, so examining and optimizing all the links of the supply chain, starting with the chip production, is key.

Looking Forward: Global Competitiveness, Regulation, and Ethics

Dror Bin, CEO of Israel Innovation Authority, underscored Israel’s significant strides in AI, ranking high globally in per capita AI utilization and private investments. Despite these achievements, Bin acknowledged the existing gaps in AI infrastructure and regulatory frameworks. 

Dror Bin, CEO of Israel Innovation Authority

In the public sector, significant plans are underway for wider implementation of AI to make the ministries more interconnected, enable faster decision-making, and boost the overall efficiency of the sector.

The panel on the role of smaller economies in forming global AI policies, featuring Israeli and international experts, focused on aligning national and international regulation for a fair AI landscape. Ian Mak, the Ambassador of Singapore to Israel, showcased Singapore’s commitment to influencing the global AI arena, acknowledging the unique challenges smaller states face, such as limited market size and access to training data. 

We are in a regulatory storm that is facing the AI environment at a moment of a geopolitical crisis.

The regulatory focus is currently shifting from a responsible and ethical AI to one centered on compliance and trustworthiness. The timing of this regulatory storm is critical as AI technology is still evolving, reminiscent of the early internet era when a hands-off regulatory approach was taken, leading to subsequent criticism.

Ian Mak, Ambassador of Singapore to the State of Israel, Cedric Sabbah, Ministry of Justice, Dr Ziv Katzir, Israel Innovation Authority

Ellen Goodman, Senior Advisor for Algorithmic Justice at the US Department of Commerce talked about a culture war within the AI space between safety advocates concerned about existential risks and realists focused on current harms like bias and consumer protection.

Can AI Ethics Enhance Cybersecurity? A Panel with No Clichés

At the same time, the debate about AI ethics continues, particularly in the sphere of cybersecurity. One contentious issue relates to data scraping and the use of private data to train AI models. While it is natural to strive for maximum data privacy protection, this can hinder the development of AI since the models should be trained on large and reliable data sets.

“If we are not adopting the principles of AI ethics such as transparency and explainability, it can lead to discrimination, erosion of trust, and wrongful accusations.” — Dr. Alžběta Solarczyk Krausová, Head of the Center for Innovations and Cyberlaw Research, Institute of State and Law, Czech Academy of Sciences

At the same time, one could argue that just as Excel cannot be held responsible for financial losses resulting from an incorrect formula, or an MRI machine is not an independent actor, AI itself or its vendors should not be held accountable. Instead, liability should lie with those who use AI with malicious intent. 

As AI continues to reshape industries and societies worldwide, the debate about its regulation, ethical and legal implications, and the scope of its applications will continue to evolve. Events like AI Week 2024 serve as crucial platforms for forging a path toward a secure, innovative, and ethically sound AI-driven future.

The event included decision-makers, media professionals, academic staff, cultural figures and family members of the hostages.

A diverse crowd gathered last week at the Tel Aviv University campus to attend the “Tel Aviv Conference – The Future of Israel”. The conference aimed to address the current state of Israeli society and explore possible ways to move it forward from as many perspectives and fields as possible. The goal was to broaden and deepen the discussion, making relevant research knowledge accessible and fostering a multidisciplinary perspective characteristic of the university’s work. It aimed to create an open dialogue with representatives from different parts of Israeli society and its leadership in all its diversity.

The conference included plenary sessions and roundtable discussions focusing on the social, political, security, and economic aspects of Israel’s future.

Panel on Israel and the Palestinians, from Left: Ohad Hemo, Dr. Michael Milshtein, Prof. Ariel Porat, Samer Sinijlawi and  Ksenia Svetlova.

Israel’s Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said earlier at the conference: “The police in a democratic country must be free, with absolutely no politics. It must remain autonomous. Free of any political bias, one way or another. This is the only way to guarantee police independence”.

commissioner Yaakov Shabtai.

Hostages’ Families Call for Action

No eye in sight remained dry when Shir Siegel, whose mother Aviva was released from Hamas captivity while her father Keith is still helled in Gaza, Ella Ben Ami, whose mother Raz was released from captivity while her father Ohad is still a hostage, and Nofar Buchshtab, whose brother Yagev is still helled in Gaza, took the stage for a special interview on the fight to free the hostages.

The three young women shared their difficult feelings about their treatment by decision-makers and the dilemmas and challenges they and their families face daily for almost nine months now.

Shira Siegel: “I look at you; there are professors and lawyers and lecturers and people with a lot of experience here, and I want to ask each of you, if I could, what have you done to bring my father home, what do you plan to do to bring the hostages home? And do you, like many of the people of Israel, feel that you don’t have enough power or influence or don’t know enough?”

from Left: Shir Siegel, Ella Ben-Ami, Nofar Buchshtab and Yoav Limor.

“I’m worried for Jews in Germany and in Europe. The fact that there’s so much bullying and harassment. You don’t fight antisemitic bullies with laws alone”- German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Rüdiger Seibert.

He continues, “I don’t see all of Europe and Germany following Spain and Ireland in their recognition of a Palestinian State. We believe that a sustainable solution should be in the form of a peace agreement based on two states, with all security arrangements, because first of all the principle of Israel’s security should be preserved”.

Ambassador Steffen Rüdiger Seibert.

State Comptroller of Israel Matanyahu Englman spoke: “We were prepared with transcripts of conversations that I believe all Israeli citizens want to know about, particularly talks between the Prime Minister and the military secretary. This is essential information for understanding the events of October 7th. The Prime Minister’s Office has instructed us, in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, not to pursue this further, but we cannot ignore our duty”.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman.

National Unity leader Benny Gantz: “The majority of parties should agree that even during the election period, we will support any progress towards the return of the hostages”.

Prof. Porat shaking hands with Benny Gantz.

The event was sponsored by the Kadar Foundation for Culture, Art, and Science, and by Avraham Kadar.

Course brings Arab and Jewish students together to confront hard truths

In Israel, the word ‘dugri‘ is known to Jews and Arabs alike and means talking straight. Now, two Tel Aviv University (TAU) professors — one Arab, the other Jewish — have come together to offer a course called Dugri to help students grapple with the hard truths and trauma related to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis today.

“This is a war with many, many thousands of people getting killed and you can’t just ask students not to talk and express their feelings — that is the worst mistake,” says Youssef Masharawi, a professor from the Department of Physical Therapy who also chairs TAU’s Steering Committee for Arab Integration. 

Masharawi teaches the Dugri course alongside Uriel Abulof, a professor from the Department of Political Science. Both Masharawi and Abulof have previously helped run courses related to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, but this time they knew they would have to approach things differently and so they took dugri as their inspiration, including the “Let’s Talk Straight” video that went viral during the May 2021 violence.

 “We’re not patching up the animosities, we’re not patching up the harsh realities,” says Abulof.

“It’s all about the sort of frankness and openness Jews and Arabs are capable of and turning that into a foundation for a respectful and substantial conversation.” — Prof. Abulof.

About the Dugri Course

Rather than teach a traditional course over several weeks, Abulof and Masharawi opted for an intensive approach where sessions would be run from 10:00 to 18:00, giving students more time for deeper conversation. The for-credit course takes place over three separate days across June and July, with periods for reflection and academic assignments between classes.

Masharawi (right) and Abulof (center) with the Dugri class.

There are approximately 20 students in the class — half Arab and half Jewish — and they come from diverse academic disciplines and from around the region, including the Gaza area.  

To help facilitate the course, Masharawi and Abulof have put into place several house rules. For instance, students may reference anything said during the course at any time, but they must not name the person who said it — this mutual pact allows students to feel safer expressing their opinions and less afraid to say the wrong thing.

Other house rules include fairness, honesty and self-discipline, as well as mutual respect and listening. These priorities promote inclusion and allow for more critical thinking:

“Even if others don’t accept what a student is saying, they still have to stop and listen.” —  Prof. Masharawi.

“There’s really a lot of effort to let people talk calmly and very honestly,”  says Masharawi.

Three Intensive Days and Three Aspects of the Crisis

Each class is made up of several different sessions and organized around a unique theme pertaining to the crisis. For the first class on June 10, the theme was truth. Each student brought two news items with them: one they considered to be true and another they considered to be disinformation. Students also had to write up an academic rationale for each choice. 

Abulof and Masharawi (center) were joined on the first day of the Dugri course by two special guests: Adv. Reda Jaber, director of the Aman Center (right) and Rabbi Moshe Turgman (left).

The course furthermore began with a facilitated session where each student stood face-to-face and answered icebreaker questions with one another in a rotating line. “The face-to-face encounter, this is so hugely important,” says Abulof.

“I think throughout the day, we were able to sort of re-enact a more intellectual and emotional face-to-face encounter. We all at least tried to see the other person and be in line with dugri.”  — Prof. Abulof.

The second and third classes will be dedicated to the themes of trust and art, respectfully. “So much of the trust has gone away. You can’t sit in the same class, Arab and Jew, and not trust each other … trust needs to be the basis,” says Masharawi.

The Hope Behind Dugri

For both Masharawi and Abulof, there’s never been a more critical time to be holding this course. “There are good reasons to be truly worried,” reflects Abulof.

“But it is precisely in those moments that are the hardest, when the animosity is so high … if in those moments you can actually manage to see the individual human being before you, well that is a remarkable feat.” — Prof Abulof.

When it comes to this task, both emphasize that academia bears a responsibility in bringing about change.

“If, as a university, we aren’t able to discuss things here, then no other platform will be able to do this.” — Prof. Masharawi.

           “This is the platform, and this is the place where this should be happening,” says Masharawi.

At the same time, offering Dugri as a pilot course this year is only the beginning. “It’s a fateful time for us, and Tel Aviv University and other Israeli universities have a responsibility to cultivate much more of this sort of dialogue. I think we should exit the ivory tower as soon as we possibly can and really go into the community centers, the synagogues, the mosques and even the barber shops,” says Abulof.

Masharawi also envisions offering the course globally: “There’s a lot of hatred everywhere, because people no longer listen to each other,” he says.

“I would love to work together with universities around the world and do an international course where we let people talk and seek answers without all the fear.” — Prof. Masharawi.