![\"Mahmoud](\"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Mahmoud-Khier-al-Dien-141x200.jpg\" "\\"Mahmoud")
\nA new master\u2019s program for outstanding Druze citizens will ensure that one of Israel\u2019s most loyal communities has the leaders required to drive its youth\u2019s success\u2014not only in the army, but throughout society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inclusivity","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"
When two decorated Druze officers approached Bar-Ilan President Prof. Arie Zaban last year with the idea of creating an academic leadership program for their community, he knew just the right people with whom to put them in touch. \u201cWhen I became dean of the Faculty of Education three years ago, I told Pres. Zaban that I wanted us to turn the traditional academic pyramid upside down,\u201d explains Prof. Zehavit Gross, director of the Josef Burg Chair in Education for Human Values, Tolerance, and Peace. \u201cInstead of placing community engagement after research and teaching, the faculty would make contributing to society our top priority. In turn, this would make our teaching more responsive and our research more relevant.\u201d And the opportunity to contribute to Israel\u2019s Druze community\u2014a minority that itself makes an outsized contribution to the Israeli army, with nearly 100 percent of its male population serving, many in elite combat units\u2014was one the faculty didn\u2019t want to miss. \u201cWe said that if they brought us the candidates, the faculty would create a program that would enable them to learn at the highest level, in an environment that honors their identity and values their service and sacrifice,\u201d Gross says. When she added, half-jokingly, that the only condition was that most candidates seek to pursue doctoral degrees, \u201cso they can truly reshape the field of education in their communities,\u201d the officers were sure that Bar-Ilan would provide a home for their vision.<\/p>
And as of this year, Bar-Ilan is proud to be home to 16 outstanding Druze students, all of whom held key positions in the IDF and who are now studying for a master\u2019s in the Program for Leadership, Organizational Development, and Policy in Informal Education. Alongside courses designed to cultivate senior managers for Israel\u2019s \u201cidentity-shaping\u201d educational frameworks, including youth movements and pre-military preparatory academies, students participate in weekly enrichment courses designed to strengthen their connection to their culture and to wider Israeli society. They also participate in a weekly seminar on the legacy of Lt. Col. Mahmoud Kheir el-Din, the fallen Druze hero after whom the program is named. And to ensure that students have the tools and support required to succeed to their fullest ability, they also received a scholarship, one-on-one academic tutoring, assistance with English, and, perhaps most critical, ongoing mentorship by a fellow Druze academic. This support helps the students, all of whom have demonstrated vast potential, overcome barriers to advanced academic degrees. Such as the mandatory course in statistics: \u201cSince statistics involves mathematical concepts, it\u2019s traditionally a hard course for students who aren\u2019t mathematically inclined. It\u2019s therefore become a psychological obstacle for members of minorities,\u201d explains Gross. \u201cWhich makes the fact that in our first cohort, every student not only passed, but did well on his statistics exams, even more significant. Results like this underscore the tremendous potential in the Druze community, not only to become leaders in the army, but to make a positive impact in every sector of Israeli society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Above:<\/strong> Lt. Col. Mahmoud Kheir El-Din. Banner:<\/strong> The Lt. Col. Mahmoud Khir Al-Din Track \u2013 Academic Studies for Security Forces and IDF Personnel, with Dean of the Faculty of Education Prof. Zehavit Gross (second row, sixth from left) and Academic Head Dr. Aml Amer (second row, seventh from left).<\/p>\n Lt. Col. Mahmoud Kheir el-Din (1977 \u2013 2018), after whom the Bar-Ilan Master\u2019s Program for Outstanding Druze Leaders in Education is named, was an officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Military Intelligence Directorate\u2019s Special Operations Division. During his IDF service, Kheir el-Din completed a bachelor\u2019s degree in law and a master\u2019s degree in education and business administration. A husband and father to two sons, he was an advocate for Druze youth and established, in 2009, a nonprofit to advance the Druze community in Israel. The following year, he joined forces with Aharai! (\u201cAfter Me\u201d), a nonprofit that encourages youth leadership as a prelude to meaningful service, and opened a branch in his Druze hometown.<\/p> Kheir el-Din fell during a secret operation in Khan Yunis in 2018. For his role in that operation and his exceptional military service, he was posthumously awarded the Chief of Staff\u2019s Medal, which reads: \u201cOn November 11, 2018, Lt. Col. \u201cM.\u201d of blessed memory operated with his team in enemy territory. [Upon] encountering the enemy and finding itself in a dire straits, Lt. Col. M.... stood firm, remained cool-headed, and acted courageously to protect the members of his unit\u2026 Lt. Col. M.... demonstrated through his actions devotion to the mission, responsibility, personal example, and kindness.\u201d<\/p> Today, Kheir el-Din lives on in Bar-Ilan\u2019s classrooms: In Prof. Zehavit Gross\u2019s course \u201cSimulations in a Conflictual Israeli Multicultural Society,\u201d students are invited to apply distinct approaches to moral reasoning to real-life scenarios drawn from his legacy. One student, quoting from Kheir el-Din\u2019s writings, noted that his life\u2019s mission was to bridge the gap between the particularistic and the universalistic. \u201cThis,\u201d one student said, \u201cembodies our ideal commitment to Israeli society.\u201d<\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1810"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2820,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions\/2820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presidentreport.biu.ac.il\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Living Up to a Legacy<\/h6>