SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1997

IN ISRAEL

The Junior Faculty strike at three universities, including TAU, is now entering its 16th week. Negotiations are continuing.

Three archeological expeditions were held this summer by TAU’s Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archeology at Tel Beth-Shemesh, near the modern town of Beth-Shemesh, under the supervision of Drs. Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman, and with the participation of students from Princeton University, Indiana University and Emory University; at Tel Hadar in the Golan Heights under the guidance of Prof. Moshe Cochavi; and pre-historic archaeological excavations at Nahal Hadera V, the Qumran Cave and Tel Leviah, led by Prof. Avi Gopher.

23 artists and students participated in the third phase of the Broadway Musical Project which was held at TAU's Department of Theater Arts during August for three weeks. The Project was led by top Broadway musical directors/artists Jane Summerhays, Wally Harper and Jack Lee, under the artistic directorship of Dr. David Zinder of the Department of Theater Arts, and culminated in a special masterclass performance by participants featuring material covered at the workshop. The third phase of the Project will take place at the Julliard School of Music in New York in October, 1997.

The third anniversary of the terrorist attack against the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was marked at TAU by a special solidarity meeting with the victims, jointly organized by TAU, the Israel-Argentina Friendship Association, and the Latin American Organization in Israel (OLEI). Attending were Ambassador of Argentina to Israel, Dr. Jos? Maria V. Otegui; former Ambassador of Israel to Argentina, Mr. Dov Shmorak; Prof. Natan Lerner; President of the Israel-Argentine Friendship Association, Mr. Jose Koren; Secretary of OLEI, Mr. Bernardino Goldemberg; and Dr. Ilana Ben Ami, Regional Vice Chairperson for Latin America and Spain, who moderated the meeting.

26 physicians from around the world completed the International Post-Graduate Training Program in Medicine of the Sackler Medical Faculty's School of Continuing Medical Education, coordinated by Dr. Roni Maimon and directed by Prof. Menachem Fainaru, Associate Dean of the Faculty. The Program is sponsored by the Department for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among this year's graduates were physicians from Ecuador, Gambia, India, Ethiopia, and a Palestinian physician from Ramallah.

APPOINTMENTS AND AWARDS

Prof. Nili Cohen assumed office as Rector of Tel Aviv University on August 15th, 1997, and at the same time Prof. Judah Eisenberg assumed office as Vice Rector.

Mr. Bernard Rapoport, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the American Income Life Insurance Company, of Waco, Texas, was elected Chairman of the Board of AFTAU. Mr. Rapoport, past Chairman of the Texas Board of Regents, is also a member of the TAU Board of Governors. Mr. and Mrs. Rapoport established the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Chair in the Sociology of Labor at TAU.

Prof. Emanuel Peled of the School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, has been appointed Director of the Wolfson Center for Applied Materials Research. He replaces Prof. Yoram Shapira who has been appointed Scientific Attach? to the Israeli Embassy in the US.

Prof. Shulamit Volkov of the Department of History, incumbent of the Konrad Adenauer Chair for Comparative European History, has been appointed Head of the Graduate School of History, Entin Faculty of Humanities. She replaces Prof. Benjamin Isaac who has completed his term in office.

Prof. Zohar Shavit of the Unit for Culture Research, Entin Faculty of Humanities, is the first professor nationwide in the field of humanities to have been awarded the GIF (Germany-Israel Foundation) Research Grant for the third time. The Grant was awarded jointly to Prof. Shavit, Prof. Hans-Heino Ewers of Frankfurt University, and Prof. R?diger Steinlein of Humboldt University, Berlin, for their research on "In the Face of Catastrophe: Jewish Childhood and Literature for Jewish Children under the Third Reich 1933-1941."

Dr. Noah Brosch of the School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, has been elected a member of the National Committee for Radio Science.

Prof. Ruben Orda of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Head of the Department Surgery "A" at the TAU-affiliated Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, was elected President of the Israel Chapter of the American College of Surgeons at the Chapter's annual meeting.

Prof. Gregory Polytrev of TAU's Department of Electrical Engineering-Systems, Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, has been awarded a special prize for his contributions to information theory research, by the Israeli Chapter of the IEEE Information Theory Society.

Prof. Eliezer Ben-Rafael of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences, has been elected Vice President of the International Institute of Sociology.

Prof. Dan Laor Chairperson of the Department of Hebrew Literature, Entin Faculty of Humanities, was elected a member of the executive committee of the World Union of Jewish Studies, a position which was previously held by TAU's Prof. Anita Shapira.

Prof. Zahava Solomon of TAU's Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences, and Prof. Uzi Kaldor of the School of Chemistry, Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, have been appointed members of the Council for Higher Education by Israeli President Ezer Weizman.

Prof. Ernesto Lubin, of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, was made Ad-Honorem Professor of the University of Uruguay, at a ceremony held at the medical faculty of that institution in recognition of his contributions to the field of nuclear medicine and his strong relations with Uruguayan medicine. During his stay, Prof. Lubin was hosted by Mr. Isaac Soloducho, President of TAU's Friends in Uruguay.

Prof. Jacob Zehavi of the Faculty of Management--Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration, has been awarded first prize in the KDDM (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining) competition organized by the AAAI -- American Association for Artificial Intelligence. The theme of the competition was database marketing.

Prof. Zvi Nevo of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Shimeon Rochkind of the Department of Neurosurgery and Rehabilitation at the TAU-affiliated Sourasky Medical Center, and Prof. Avraham Shahar of the Department of Cell Research and Immunology were awarded 1st prize for the best research presentation at the 11th International Congress of Neurological Surgery, Amsterdam, for their research on the "Reconstruction of a Disconnected Spine Injury." The new approach was recently tried out in humans at Miami and Sweden.

The 1997 Nathan Shapell Prize for Outstanding Community Service was awarded jointly to social work students Sharon Yanushi and Bilha Segal by the Bob Shapell School of Social Work, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the voluntary organization, "ELEM - Youth in Distress."

VISITS

Dr. Gheorghe Popescu, Ambassador of Romania to Israel, accompanied by cultural attach? Mrs. Andrea Pastarnac, visited on campus and met with Vice President Yehiel Ben-Zvi; Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for the History of the Jews in Romania, Dr. Livio Rothman; and with Associate Dean of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Ina Fabian.

A delegation from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, within the framework of an exchange program between the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visited on campus and met with researchers at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and African Studies, and were hosted to a luncheon by Prof. Aron Shai, Chairperson of the East Asian Studies Department, with the participation of Dr. Ofra Goldstein-Gideony, and Mr. Zhang Ping, a doctoral student in the Department from China. The delegation toured the Sourasky Central Library and were shown the Chinese Book Collection.

A delegation of scientists from Egypt and Zimbabwe visited on campus and met with researchers at the Departments of Arabic Language and Literature, and Middle Eastern and African History, Entin Faculty of Humanities. Addresses were given by Dr. Mahmud Renaiyem of the Egyptian delegation, and by TAU expert on African affairs, Prof. Mordechai Tamarkin.

Mr. Mijail Bojelavov, Ambassador of Russia to Israel, visited on campus and was hosted by TAU President Professor Yoram Dinstein.

Mr. Shlomo and Mrs. Sylvia Winnikow of Australia, accompanied by family members, toured TAU's Meyerhoff Technical College, where they met with Director Mr. Elchanan Eilat and visited the Computer Manufacturing Design Laboratory, established in their name.

ABROAD

Dr. Yossi Shain, Chairperson of the Department of Political Science, Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences, visited Argentina, where he participated in several conferences commemorating the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel. His visit was coordinated by President of the TAU Friends in Argentina, Mrs. Polly Deutsch, with the assistance of Dr. Hugo Bliffeld. While in Buenos Aires, Dr. Shain was hosted by the Ambassador of Israel, Mr. Itzhak Aviran.

An international Symposium entitled "Argentina in a Globalized World," organized by TAU Friends of Argentina, and coordinated by Head of the Friends Mrs. Polly Deutsch, took place in Buenos Aires with the participation of prominent Argentinean academic and economic figures.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The Third Annual North American Conference will take place in Toronto, on September 18-21, 1997, at the Sheraton Hotel. For further information contact Lyn Ben-Dat, Director, Canadian Friends of Tel Aviv University, at Tel. (416) 787 9930, Fax (416) 787 1762.

The Howard Gilman International Colloquium Quo Vadis Zionism?: What Is the Meaning of Zionism 100 Years After the Basel Program and 80 Years After the Balfour Declaration? will take place in Basel, Switzerland, at the "Stadtcasino", the historical setting for the first Zionist Congress, on November 2-4, 1997. The Conference is jointly sponsored by TAU and Basel University, under the auspices of TAU President Professor Yoram Dinstein; Director of Basel University, Prof. Heiko Haumann; and Rector-elect of Basel University, Prof. Ekkehard Stegemann. The Conference, is directed by Head of TAU's Chaim Weizmann Zionist Research Institute, Prof. Yossef Gorny. For further information contact Yona Gabi, Public Affairs Division, Tel Aviv University, Tel. 03-6407200, Fax 03-6408601.

The 7th International Regional Conference of the Board of Governors will take place at the Carlton Hotel, St. Moritz, Switzerland, on 22-26 January, 1997. For more information contact Barbara Kandell, Secretary of the Board of Governors, at Tel: (972)-3-641-6464. Fax: (972)-3-640-6257.

The TAU International Board of Governors' Study Cruise - Jewish Roots of the New World, will take place aboard the Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas from March 11-21, 1998. For more information contact Jules Love, Executive Vice President, American Friends of Tel Aviv University, Tel: (212) 687-5651; (800) 989-1198. Fax: (212) 687-4085.

OBITUARIES

TAU mourns the passing of Lester Entin, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors, and Honorary Doctor of Tel Aviv University, described by President Dinstein as "a man of compassion for the less-privileged of society whose great generosity and enthusiasm inspired others to commit themselves to many worthy causes."