Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We have successfully concluded our teaching responsibilities for the 2025–2026 academic year, navigating a series of significant disruptions that included a delayed commencement of the Spring Semester (“Second Semester”), a partial transition to instruction via Zoom, and the administration of examinations concurrently with ongoing semester coursework. This serves as an opportune moment to provide an update on several key challenges and developmental initiatives that will guide our institution over the coming months and years.

University Budget

The Renewal Agreement between the Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC) and the University is slated to conclude in the summer of 2027. This agreement has enabled the University to establish robust research support mechanisms totaling over NIS 100 million, while concurrently developing and optimizing institutional real estate assets, such as the High-Tech Park on the Edmond J. Safra Campus at Givat Ram. Future revenues generated from asset appreciation, coupled with a projected reduction in budgetary pension liabilities, will position the University on exceptionally solid financial footing within a few years. Until then, however, we anticipate a challenging transitional period during which we must eliminate a substantial deficit in our baseline budget. The factors prolonging this demanding fiscal climate include the rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which heavily impacts budgetary pension obligations—state budget cuts, and the international academic boycott, which directly targets our research funding.

Our strategic choice is to avoid any reductions in the research support mechanisms introduced in recent years—such as doctoral fellowships and funding for newly recruited faculty—and instead achieve fiscal equilibrium through alternative avenues. These include liquidating select real estate assets, increasing returns from University endowment funds in Israel and the United States, expanding philanthropic support, altering trends in new faculty recruitment (detailed in a separate section below), and enhancing research outputs. Nonetheless, we cannot continue to expand our baseline budget until we reach a break-even point in a few years, after which projected revenues will enable further substantial academic development. This reality requires all of us to operate and plan with the clear understanding and responsibility that our budgetary framework will remain fixed for the foreseeable future.

The Security and Political Context

The past few years have been among the most challenging in the history of the State of Israel, both in terms of national security and internal political strife. Navigating these challenges is a daily, complex endeavor, yet the principles guiding our actions remain unequivocal: we will continue to make every effort to maintain research and teaching routines; we will persist in providing extensive economic and academic support to students serving in the military reserves through the 2026–2027 academic year and we will steadfastly champion and advance the core values of global academia—the right to freedom of expression and thought, the advancement of vulnerable populations, the separation of powers and institutional checks and balances, and equality under the law. We reiterate here our absolute opposition to the Gender Segregation Law (officially designated as the "Rights of the Student Law [Amendment No. 12]"), which was recently enacted by the Knesset. While we remain deeply committed to integrating more students from the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, we firmly oppose measures that lead to the exclusion of women and undermine gender equality on campus. The Hebrew University will not institute segregated instruction, even if this stance carries future budgetary ramifications.

In this context, we highlight the University Committee for Freedom of Expression and Respectful Discourse, established in May 2025 following the recommendations of the Schiff Committee. Its mandate is to advise the University leadership on broad policy regarding these matters and to address complaints or publications concerning discourse within the university space. Over the past year, the committee has been instrumental in assisting the administration to navigate various incidents and draft communications to our community and the media concerning the boundaries of free speech. The committee is co-chaired by the Vice President for Strategy and Diversity, Prof. Mona Khoury, and the Dean of Students, Prof. Zohar Kampf. They are joined by members of the academic and administrative staff: Sharon Ben-Arie, Jonathan Mandelbaum, Dr. Michal Marmorstein, Dr. Maayan Salton, Dr. Samira Alayan, and Prof. Yuval Shany, alongside doctoral student Adv. Adan Ershied.

Boycott Challenges

Alongside security and political hurdles, we have increasingly confronted boycotts from overseas institutions and researchers, posing a tangible threat to the international standing of Israeli academia. While the first two years of the conflict saw attempts at institutional boycotts by universities and professional associations, the challenges over the past year have shifted slightly, manifesting across two primary fronts. The first involves efforts by some European Union members to exclude Israel from EU research funding programs. The second is a "silent boycott" by individual researchers worldwide targeting the Israeli scientific community. A stark reflection of these trends over the past year is the dramatic decline in European Research Council (ERC) grants awarded to Israeli researchers compared to previous years (see Figure 1). We will address this trend comprehensively in a subsequent communication.

We would like to remind you that the University's Task Force for the Promotion of Dialogue and Academic Freedom, headed by Prof. Yuval Shany, actively counters these boycott phenomena on an ongoing basis. Relevant information can be accessed here: https://international.huji.ac.il/academic_freedom, and inquiries or incidents can be reported directly to the task force coordinator, Alma Lessing, at almal@savion.huji.ac.il.

Faculty Tenure-Track Positions

Over the past decade, the number of senior faculty members at the University grew from approximately 930 to nearly 1,090, at an average rate of 45 new recruitments annually. Following the conclusion of the Renewal Program and careful benchmarking against peer institutions of comparable size and caliber, we have decided to stabilize the University’s faculty size at its current level. Under this plan, the number of new hires in most departments will remain slightly below the number of retirements, while reinforcing outstanding units currently facing under-staffing. In total, we project approximately 25 new faculty appointments per year between the academic years 2027–2028 and 2030–2031.  This reduction in annual hires will free up approximately 30 NIS   million per year from recruitment budgets, enabling us to reallocate a portion of these savings toward other support mechanisms aimed at boosting research outputs.

Research Outputs

Despite the growth in our faculty ranks in recent years, including relative to peer institutions, we have observed a decline in the University's relative share within the PBC's research funding allocation model (see Figure 2). To reverse this trend, we are developing a comprehensive plan to augment research outputs, anchored in the research chapter of the University's Strategic Plan (formulated by a committee chaired by Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten). This multidimensional plan will be finalized in collaboration with the various academic units over the coming months. Several components have already been set in motion: a. Formulating a plan for the full operation of a Graduate School for Doctoral Students, which will eventually encompass Master’s students and postdoctoral fellows as well. b. Launching a multi-year program to support mid-career researchers, spearheaded by the Vice President for Research and Development, Prof. Aharon Palmon. c. Reforming the Rector’s funding model for research students in the experimental sciences to further incentivize high-impact research. d. Establishing research excellence and output metrics as a core parameter in departmental quality assessment reviews. e. Deepening academy-industry collaborations (detailed in a dedicated section below), among other measures.

Internationalization

A primary goal of the University is to bolster its global standing, primarily by forging strategic alliances with leading international institutions. These agreements are designed to facilitate collaborative research with world-class scholars. Within this framework, an inaugural joint call for proposals for breakthrough research was launched with Caltech in California; furthermore, scientific ties have been strengthened with universities in Singapore and Germany. We are actively working to establish strategic agreements with premier institutions in the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Our participation in leading international consortia—such as CREATE in Singapore and the TUM-Heilbronn Hub—is of paramount importance at this juncture. Substantial effort is also being directed toward recruiting outstanding doctoral and postdoctoral fellows globally, with a particular emphasis on India.

Academy-Industry Relations

At the beginning of the academic year, a new Academy-Industry Relations Directorate was established within the Authority for Research and Development, headed by Dr. Anat Iosub-Amir. The Directorate's role is to cultivate conditions that enable researchers to form more meaningful ties with industry. A steering committee comprising prominent researchers and senior industry leaders was formed to operate alongside it. Dr. Iosub-Amir has already held introductory meetings with researchers across various faculties, primarily within Faculty Councils. Ongoing initiatives include the approval of an "Industrial PhD" track—allowing joint supervision with researchers based in corporations that will also fund student fellowships—and updates to University regulations to ensure that a researcher's measurable impact in applied and social spheres is recognized in tenure and promotion processes.

Academic Growth Engines

Various teams across the University are developing academic initiatives that share several defining characteristics in their academic and financial contributions to the institution, as well as in addressing tangible national needs. Given their grand scale, all these projects require substantial philanthropic support, a front on which we are energetically working under the leadership of the incoming Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, Yishai Fraenkel. We are pleased that the outgoing Vice President, Yossi Gal, has agreed to continue contributing to the University in this capacity as a Senior Advisor to the President. We extend our deepest gratitude to Yossi for his past and future contributions and wish Yishai great success. Below, we highlight several key projects currently under development.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): The accelerating pace of AI development demands a proactive institutional strategy. A few months ago, Prof. Omri Abend (Computer Science and Cognitive and Brain Sciences) was appointed as the University's AI Envoy, supported by several committees helping drive new processes and initiatives. The project’s objectives are to propel and coordinate cross-cutting projects, establish institutional infrastructure, and formulate policy and usage recommendations for the administration and academic units. The project’s launch featured the publication of three calls for proposals aimed at the university community, offering approximately NIS 2.5 million in support for AI-integrated initiatives across research, teaching, and administration. We were delighted by the robust response to all calls for proposals. The teaching call received submissions for 61 courses. All proposals were approved for funding, with the exception of a few designated for the 2026–2027 academic year which were consequently redirected to the subsequent call published a few days ago. The administrative implementation call received 17 submissions, 4 of which were funded; the selected proposals advance operational efficiency, resource conservation, cultural shifts, and employee engagement. The call for embedding AI tools in research drew 53 proposals, with over 60% originating from three faculties: Science, Social Sciences, and Agriculture. In total, 16 diverse proposals received funding. Priority in this category was given to interdisciplinary research, projects with broad impact potential for the University’s research community, and laboratories that have not previously utilized AI tools extensively.  These internal activities complement our national engagements, notably through the University’s participation in the newly established National AI Research Computing Center. Five of our researchers secured allocations in the center's first round, and four more in the second. The first-round recipients are Dr. Alexey Khazanov, Prof. Yonatan Loewenstein, Prof. Michal Linial, Prof. Dani Lischinski, and Prof. Dina Schneidman. The second-round recipients include Dr. Sagi Ben-Naim, Prof. Adam Lampert, Prof. Gabriel Stanovsky, and Prof. Raanan Fattal.

Supported by a major gift from the Federmann family, we intend to further accelerate the AI project this coming summer. Focus areas will include expanding infrastructure for AI-driven projects; embedding support and training for researchers utilizing AI tools; fostering international AI collaborations; deepening industry partnerships (in tandem with the Academy-Industry Relations Directorate); and significantly expanding automated grading systems for assignments and exams.

We are also pleased to announce the launch of a new undergraduate program (B.Sc.) in Artificial Intelligence for the 2026–2027 academic year at the Rachel and Selim Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering, recently accredited by the Council for Higher Education. The program will be structured as a dual-major format, enabling structured interdisciplinary tracks.

• Medical Initiatives:
  • Expansion of the Faculty of Medicine: We plan to double the medical student enrollment at the Hebrew University, addressing the critical national need to increase the physician workforce in Israel. Starting this upcoming academic year (2026–2027) the incoming class will expand to approximately 280 students (up from roughly 210 today). This expansion coincides with a paradigm shift toward competency-based medical education, leveraging a newly established digital teaching center designed to maximize capacity for clinical rotations.
  • The Henrietta Szold Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Nursing: Alongside the medicine track expansion, the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Eli Pikarsky, is spearheading far-reaching transformations in the School of Nursing. The goal is to fortify nursing science research, thereby increasing Master’s and doctoral enrollment and training the next generation of academic faculty. This initiative is being led by Prof. Asher Ben-Arieh and is supported by a generous donation from Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America.
  • Expansion of the Faculty of Dental Medicine: Parallel to the medical school growth, we are working to expand dental student enrollment. Furthermore, the school is slated to receive American accreditation in the coming months, which will enable us to launch an internationally recognized dental program.
  • Healthy longevity: We plan to establish a multidisciplinary longevity research initiative to investigate how cognitive acuity, physical capacity, psychological well-being, social networks, and independence can be preserved over time. The center will integrate four key research domains: biological research to examine aging mechanisms; social and psychological research to identify conditions that foster vitality and independence; technology to enable early diagnostics and develop tools for rehabilitation, mobility, and autonomous living; and translational implementation to bridge research with hospitals, communities, older adults, caregivers, local authorities, healthcare systems, industry, and policymakers, transforming promising ideas into solutions with measurable impact.

Conclusion and Leadership Changes

In closing, we extend our deepest appreciation to our retiring faculty members (the list of retirees is attached). We congratulate Prof. Lilach Sagiv (Business Administration) on her appointment as Vice President for Impact and Community. As Lilach concludes her tenure as Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, Prof. Sharon Shiovitz-Ezra (Social Work) has been appointed to succeed her. Prof. Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan has been elected Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, succeeding the outgoing Dean, Prof. Gili Drori.

Prof. Yael Mishael has been elected Dean of the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, succeeding the outgoing Dean, Prof. Saul Burdman. Prof. Benjamin Porat has been elected Dean of the Faculty of Law, succeeding the outgoing Dean, Prof. Tomer Broude. Prof. Doron Aframian has been elected Dean of the Faculty of Dental Medicine, succeeding the outgoing Dean, Prof. Avraham Zini. Prof. Paul Frosh has been appointed Head of the Teaching and Learning Center (YAHEL), succeeding Prof. Ilan Benshalom. Within the administrative leadership, Ms. Milka Ziv Nessiel has been appointed Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO), succeeding Mr. Asher Rotkopf. Mr. Moti Botbein has been appointed Vice President for Construction and Infrastructure, succeeding Mr. Shalom Revach. We express our gratitude to all outgoing officeholders and wish every success to those assuming their new roles.

Sincerely,

Tamir Sheafer – President
Oron Shagrir – Rector
Naama Kaufman-Fass – Vice President and Director General