Dear Students, members of academic and administrative staff, the Hebrew University community,

 

Next Sunday, December 31, 2023, we will open the 2024 academic year.

This year there will be two semesters of 11 weeks each. The fourth week, which begins on January 21, 2024, will be an "absorption and completion week" for army reservists who joined late until this date. During this week, in addition to the support system in place, efforts will be concentrated in all courses to bring the reservists who joined late to an equal starting point as much as possible as the other students.

We are committed to not leaving any student behind—therefore, even for student reservists who return to studies at a later stage, the teaching staff and the university will do their best so that we all finish it together. In order to successfully meet this task, and as we updated you recently, we have established a very diverse academic, financial and emotional support system, amounting to many millions of NIS, for the benefit of reservists and members of the security forces, and their family members as well as those evacuated from their homes. This support system will be in place throughout the academic year.

Schedule for the academic year

• 31.12.2023: Opening of academic year.
• 21.1.2024: Absorption and completion week.
• March 17, 2024: End of first semester (this is the Sunday on which Tuesday's lessons will be taught).
• 18.3.2024—3.5.2024: Exam period, including Fridays. A total of 30 exam days, not including holidays (Purim, Eid al-Fitr, Passover).
• 5.5.2024: Opening of second semester.
• 25.7.2024: End of second semester.

Teaching and Learning

• The lessons will be held in a normal, face-to-face manner, in the classrooms.
• The scope of the study material, assignments and exams will be adapted to the shortened semester.
• As a rule, the lessons will be photographed and recorded.

Inclusion and Restraint

The Hebrew University is proud of its diversity. All members of the university community, regardless of religion, gender, or descent, are flesh and blood of the University. We strive to maintain respectful discourse that allows the expression of different opinions in a tolerant manner. We must show respect and tolerance to every member of our community, and in these difficult days even more so than ever.

Awaiting the return of the abductees

We mourn together with the families of our students, who were murdered or were killed in the battles, and with the members of our community, whose loved ones were murdered or were killed in the battles. We wish a full and speedy recovery to the injured.

We pray for the release of Carmel Gat, our master's student in the School of Occupational Therapy, who was kidnapped to Gaza. We hope that she returns to us before the start of the academic year. But if this is not the case, we will remember her through her picture, which will appear, among others, on chairs in the large lecture halls on all campuses. We also pray for the safe return of Sagi, the son of our colleague, Prof. Yonatan Dekel-Chen, who was also kidnapped to Gaza.

Yours,

Tamir