The day after the brutal Hamas attack on October 7^th, Bar-Ilan sprang into action to support not only our own students, faculty, and staff, but also members of wider Israeli society. These efforts demonstrate the impact of our academic excellence and our commitment to do great things for the benefit of our people.

Here are a few examples of the vital role we played in responding to the difficult challenges we are living through:

• Our School of Optometry and Vision Science used its Mobile Optometry Clinic to assist victims and evacuees from across the country in the first few difficult weeks, providing them with new glasses—free of charge—to replace ones that were broken or lost.
• Our Department of Psychology, Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, and Azrieli Faculty of Medicine joined forces to bring their successful “Teddy Bear Hospital” model of therapeutic intervention to hundreds of traumatized children and their families.
• A researcher from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine directed the IDF’s efforts to identify missing soldiers, and a member of the Faculty of Law led Israel’s fight to achieve international recognition and condemnation of Hamas’ sex crimes committed on October 7^th.
• Our Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE, which now operates in partnership with national healthcare providers and municipalities in 17 northern communities, rolled out a municipal emergency health-management platform within days of October 7^th. This platform empowered municipal leaders to continue the delivery of critical health services to Israel’s most vulnerable populations.
• Our Faculty of Education, together with Maccabi World Union and the Ministry of Education, created a K-12 school for evacuees from the South. The school applied its research-based, social-emotional learning approach to help young students heal.
• We created a campaign called “We Have Your Back” to ensure that all Bar-Ilan reservists (more than 4,000 men and women) had the financial, academic, and psychological assistance required to continue with and succeed in their studies, free of worry.

On the academic side, extraordinary work has taken place by our executive leadership and senior management under the dedicated and inspiring direction of President Arie Zaban. Together, they have built a foundation for the exciting accomplishments of the past year, including:

• The founding of the country’s National Institute for Sustainable Energy, in cooperation with the Technion. Concurrently, we are also constructing on our campus the country’s first sustainable-energy prototype Lab. These developments will make Bar-Ilan the leading player in Israel’s energy ecosystem.
• The awarding of more than €5 million in ERC (European Research Council) grants to Bar-Ilan researchers for their groundbreaking work in Chemistry, Bioengineering, and Neuropsychology.
• The expansion of Bar-Ilan’s venture studio and accelerator, “UnBox,” and the culture of entrepreneurship among our researchers and their doctoral students. UnBox is already responsible for numerous disruptive companies, specifically in the field of healthcare.
• The construction of new research buildings for Engineering, Nanoscience, and Medicine, which support our priorities and main initiatives.
• The establishment of a new Commission for Diversity and also Gender Equity, which will emphasize helping first-generation college students to complete the full course of their degrees.

There is an exciting sense on campus of new growth and initiatives that one can’t put into words!

These accomplishments are a source of great pride for us all, and give us strength and hope for our country and for am Yisrael at large.  We will surely emerge from these trying times even stronger and continue to advance our nation and our people through our superb research, education, and leadership.

Am Yisrael Chai!