December 1st, 1998

IN ISRAEL

The National Student Association ended their hunger strike at the request of President of the State of Israel Ezer Weizman but rejected, as of now, the framework for an agreement that was reached with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The students are continuing their strike, which includes closing the gates of the universities, sit-down strikes in front of the Prime Minister's residence, demonstrations and gatherings, and are demanding reduced tuition in exchange for performing a wider range of community service. At TAU there is a continual vigil at Entin Square.

The senior academic staff of all Israeli universities declared a strike in the form of suspension of instruction for undergraduate classes in a dispute over their wage agreement.

The TAU Senate approved a new graduate program for Educational Counseling for Early Childhood at the School of Education.

The Council for Higher Education has authorized the Azrieli School of Architecture to grant Bachelor of Architecture degrees in the years 1998-2001. Following that period, the Council will consider permanent authorization for the Azrieli School.

TAU's Steering Committee approved cooperation agreements with the following academic institutions: Wirtschaftsuniversitat Wien, Austria; University of Milan, Italy; and Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, Germany.

CONFERENCES

TAU held an assembly marking the 3rd anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, chaired by Rector Prof. Nili Cohen. The Student Union was represented by council member Amos Messika. Candles were lit at Entin Square during that day.

"Economic Issues in the Middle East" was the title of the first symposium held by the Peres Institute for Diplomacy and Regional Cooperation, in cooperation with the Palestinian Center for Regional Studies and the Armand Hammer Fund for Economic Cooperation in the Middle East at TAU. Keynote speakers on "Peace and Economic Growth" were Shimon Peres, MK, and Dr. Mohammed Shtayyeh, President of the Palestinian Center for Regional Studies and Director-General of the Palestinian Council for Development and Reconstruction. The session was chaired by Prof. Haim-Ben Shahar of the Armand Hammer Fund. Opening remarks were given by Prof. Arie Nadler, Head of the Peres Institute, and Prof. Munther S. Dajani of the Palestinian Center.

The first meeting of the academic year of the Information Technology Executive Forum of the Marcel and Annie Adams Institute for Business Management Information Systems was hosted by Zvi Harpac, Director of the IT Division at the Israel Electric Company. Mr. Harpac spoke on the "Adjustment of a Large Organization to the 2000 Bug."

"Modern Turkey at 75 - Regional and International Relations" was the title of a symposium held at TAU by the Embassy of Turkey in Israel and TAU's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, organized by Dr. Martin Kramer, Director of the Dayan Center. Greetings were delivered by Rector Prof. Nili Cohen and Ambassador of Turkey to Israel Barlas ?zener. Among the speakers were former Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Sukru Elkdag; Ambassador Dr. Alon Liel; and former Israel Ambassadors to Turkey; TAU's Zvi Elpeleg and Uri Gordon.

"The Arab Community in Israel: A Basis for Autonomy or a Model of Integration?" was the subject of a conference held by TAU's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies' Program on Arab Politics in Israel, in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, International Cooperation, organized by Dr. Eli Rekhess, Head of the Program. Greetings at the opening ceremony were given by Dr. Johannes Gerster, the Israeli representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and Dr. Martin Kramer, Director of the Dayan Center. The keynote address was delivered by Prof. Claude Klein of the Hebrew University, entitled "The Comparative Dimension: Autonomy vs. Integration in Majority-Minority States."

The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies' Program on Arab Politics in Israel, in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, hosted Rabbi Yitzhak Levy, Minister of Education, Culture and Sports, who delivered a lecture entitled "The Educational System of Israeli Arabs toward the Year 2000: Challenges and Constraints" within the framework of "The Israeli Arabs Forum." Greetings were delivered by Dr. Eli Rekhess, Head of the Program. "Between Autonomy and Statehood: The Situation of the Palestinians Five Years after Oslo" was the title of the Avishai Ben-Zvi and Yehoshafat Netzer annual Memorial Lecture, delivered by Dr. Avraham Sela of the Hebrew University. The conference was organized by the Moshe Dayan Center and the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, and chaired by Dr. Martin Kramer, Director of the Dayan Center. Prof. Asher Susser gave opening remarks.

The TAU School of History, Department of Political Science, and Department of Middle Eastern and African History held a conference entitled "African Homeland, African Diaspora and African Identity" followed by a poetry recital by TAU's Dr. Karen Alkalay Gut, who read poems accompanied by music.

The Cymbalista Synagogue and Jewish Heritage Center in cooperation with Midrash Tair held the first symposium of the series "On the Agenda," entitled "Who Is Authorized to Decide on Medical Ethics Issues?" The symposium was chaired by Rector Prof. Nili Cohen.

The Rector's Lecture Series for the first semester of the 1998-99 academic year is being delivered by Prof. Hagai Netzer of the School of Physics and Astronomy, entitled "Cosmic Intelligence - Astronomy at the End of the 20th Century and Life in the Universe after Fifteen Billion Years."

The Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences' Unit for Extra-Mural Studies, in cooperation with the Tel Aviv Cinemateque, launched a lecture series entitled "Society as Reflected in the Cinema," organized by Prof. Zeev Segal of the Public Policy Program and Prof. Amiram Raviv of the Psychology Department.

The Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation held a conference entitled "Israeli Society Between Sectionalism and Pluralism." Opening remarks were delivered by Prof. Ephraim Yaar, Director of the Center, and Dr. Johannes Gerster, Representative of the Foundation in Israel. The keynote address was delivered by MK Prof. Shlomo Ben Ami, incumbent of TAU's Elias Sourasky Chair for Ibero-American and Spanish Studies.

"The State of Israel and Jewish Property in Europe and the Arab States" was the title of a conference of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at TAU's Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences. Greetings were given by Prof. Itamar Rabinovich of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, and Dean of the Faculty Prof. Moshe Semyonov.

"Volk, Class, Burger: The Imaginaries of German Social History" was the title of a lecture given by Prof. Charles S. Maier of Harvard University for the Fritz Thyssen Lecture Series on the subject of "The Impact of the German Tradition on the Humanities and Sciences."

"Virtual Reality Technology - A Modern Design, Engineering and Marketing Tool" was the title of a presentation at the Shiluvim alumni club of the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, delivered by Alon Barnea, Director of Developing Markets in Europe at Silicon Graphics; Ervin Leibovich, Director-General of Silicon Graphics-Cray Israel; and Zeev Kroizman, Director-General of M.D. McKit. The gathering was moderated by Menachem Shmul, Deputy Director-General of the Israeli Aircraft Industry.

TAU's Prof. Shmuel Einav was the chairman of the organizing committee and Prof. Ofer Barnea was chairman of the scientific committee of the Israel-China binational conference entitled "Cardiovascular Engineering and Assisted Circulation," of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Israel and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, held under the auspices of the Elizabeth and Nicholas Slezak Super-Center for Cardiac Research and Medical Engineering. Professors Einav and Barnea are members the Department of Biomedical Engineering at TAU's Fleischman Faculty of Engineering.

Prof. Wieland Kiess, Director of the University Children's Clinic, Leipzig, Germany, delivered the seventh Zvi Laron Lecture on Pediatric Endocrinology, entitled "Leptin - the New Hormone."

The Alumni Association of the TAU School of Education held its first meeting for this year, hosting MK Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, former Minister of Education, who delivered a lecture entitled "The Expansion of the Higher Education System and the Status of Foreign Universities in Israel." Opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Shimshon Shoshani, the Association's Chairman.

TAU's Cymbalista Synagogue and Jewish Heritage Center, AVI CHAI, and Bar Ilan University held a joint seminar entitled "Civilian Society in the Jewish Mirror" chaired by TAU's Prof. Anita Shapira. The seminar was held within the framework of the conference, "Civilian Society: The Private and the Public - A Global Look and a Jewish Look."

A Colloquium entitled "New Ideas about Therapeutic Mechanisms in Anxiety and Repressive Disorders" and a workshop on treatment of anxiety and compulsivity were given by Dr. Isaac Marks of the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, guest lecturer of the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies.

The Miriam and Georg Faktor Enterpreneurial Center of the Faculty of Management-Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration held its annual conference and the Entrepreneurship Prize ceremony in cooperation with CLAL (Israel). Greetings were given by Prof. Eitan Muller, Director of the Faktor Center; Dean of the Faculty Prof. Israel Zang; and Yitzhak Kaul, Director-General of CLAL. Yossi Vardi, Chairman of ICQ, the winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year award, delivered a lecture entitled "Viral Marketing and Symbiotic Marketing, or, Make the Users Walk for You." Prof. Niv Ahituv, Director of the Perlman Center for Global Business Research, spoke on "The Last Stop in the Internet Path: "1984" or a Free Society?" The Young Entrepreneurs Prize was awarded by Rector Prof. Nili Cohen and Leon Recanati, Chairman of the Board of Governors of CLAL, to the founders of MIRABILIS. The CLAL Innovation and Entrepreneurship Prizes were awarded to PULSAR Forming, Joining and Welding and to Idanit Technologies, a member of the Scitex Group.

TAU's English Speaking Friends and the Department of Political Science hosted Ambassador of the Russian Federation Mikhail Bogdanov within the framework of the International Forum, chaired by Prof. Aharon Kleiman.

The Morris E. Curiel Center for International Studies held a conference at TAU entitled "A Counter-Terrorism Strategy for the 21st Century: The Role of Intelligence," cosponsored by the Prof. Dr. Raphael Taubenschlag Institute of Criminal Law and the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, George Washington University, and the Center for Special Studies. Keynote speaker was Prof. Moshe Arens, former Minister of Defense. Greetings were delivered by Maj. Gen. (res.) Meir Amit, of the CSS; TAU's Prof. Yuval Ne'eman; and Prof. Yonah Alexander of TAU and GWU.

The Dror Sadeh Seminar Room was inaugurated in memory of the late Prof. Dror Sadeh of TAU's School of Physics and Astronomy. The Seminar Room, which contains a work by artist Louis Ben Kalifa, was donated by Prof. Sadeh's close friend Albert Abramson of Virginia, USA. Prof. Yuval Ne'eman spoke at the ceremony, which was chaired by Prof. Hagai Netzer, Head of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Institute of Astronomy.

Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute of Science delivered a lecture entitled "The Dialogue Between the Immune System and the Nerve System and Its Meaning in the Neural Rehabilitation Process" at the awarding ceremony of the Dror Sadeh Outstanding Achievements Prize, which went to PhD student Yair Zimmer of the Abramson Center of Medical Physics at TAU.

The Motar Fund in memory of Rosa Lempheltz-Pickholz was inaugurated with a lecture by Prof. Nurith Kenaan-Kedar of the Department of Art History, editor-in-chief of the Katz Faculty of Arts' periodical Motar. She spoke on "The Rose in Art: Images and Meaning." Addresses were delivered by Dean of Arts Prof. Eli Rozik-Rosen and Ephraim Pickholz.

A tribute to TAU's Prof. Emanuel Marx, recipient of the Israel Prize for 1998, was held by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Herczeg Institute on Aging, entitled "The Management of Non-Boundaries."

MK Shimon Peres delivered an address at the memorial lecture for advocate Yoseph Sahar. Opening remarks were delivered by Prof. Amos Shapira of the Buchmann Faculty of Law. A lecture entitled "Freedom of the Press - Between Myth and Reality" was delivered by Prof. Zeev Segal of the Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences.

The Gadi Tarnorozky Leisure Room was inaugurated with the participation of TAU's Director-General David Lanir; Director of the Engineering and Maintenance Division, Ofer Lugassi; and members of the Malka and Hadassa Tarnorozky families. Prof. Yosef Gorny, Head of the Chaim Weizmann Zionist Research Institute at TAU delivered a lecture entitled "The Historic Meaning of the Establishment of the State of Israel."

APPOINTMENTS AND AWARDS

Prof. Tuvia Miloh of the Department of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer was elected Associate Dean of the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering.

New Appointments at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine:

• Prof. Dov Lichtenberg of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology was elected Vice Dean for Preclinical Studies and Research and Development.
• Prof. Shimon Bar-Meir of the Department of Internal Medicine, Chairperson of the Department of Internal Medicine at the TAU-affiliated Chaim Sheba Medical Center, was elected Vice Dean for Clinical Studies.
• Prof. Arje Jehuda Wysenbeek of the Department of Internal Medicine was elected Vice Dean of the School of Continuing Medical Education.
• Prof. Itzhak Ofek of the Department of Human Microbiology was elected Head of the Faculty of Medicine's Graduate School.

Prof. Oded Maimon, Chairman of the Department of Industrial Engineering, the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, and Dr. Roni Horowitz of the same Department were awarded the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Best Paper Award in the Design Theory and Methodological Conference, for "Creative Design Methodology and the SIT Method."

Prof. Zvi Ben-Avraham of the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences was elected the incumbent of the Mikhael M. Nebenzahl and Dr. Amalia Grossberg Chair in Geodynamics. The Chair was established by the late Mr. Nebenzahl of Israel.

Prof. Gideon Toury of the Department of Poetics and Comparative Literature and the Culture Research Unit at the Shirley and Leslie Porter School of Cultural Studies was elected the incumbent of the Mordechai Bernstein Chair for Translation Theory.

Prof. Moshe Jarden of the School of Mathematical Sciences at the Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences was elected incumbent of the Cissy and Aaron Beare Chair of Algebra and the Theory of Numbers, replacing Prof. Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro, who retired.

Prof. Micha Chen of the School of Education was awarded the Tel Aviv Education Prize.

Dan Katzir, a graduate of TAU's Department of Film and Television, Katz Faculty of the Arts, is the winner of two awards at the Taiwan Documentary Festival, the NETPAC Award - Best Documentary, and the Merit Award - Film Competition for his graduation film Out for Love... Be Back Shortly. The film also won at the Shanghai International Film Festival in the category of Best Social Documentary and at the Kasseler International Documentary Film Festival as Best Young Documentary Film.

VISITS

The America-Israel Friendship League's American University Chancellors and Presidents Mission visited TAU and met with Prof. Nili Cohen, Rector; Prof. Benjamin Isaac, Director of Inter-Academic Affairs; and Prof. Itamar Rabinovich, former Israel Ambassador to the USA; and heard a presentation by Prof. Shai Feldman, Director of the Jaffee Center on Israel's security dilemma. The Mission was hosted by Yoram E. Shamir, Director of Public Affairs.

Mr. Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu, Deputy Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Romania, visited TAU accompanied by Ambassador of Romania to Israel Dr. Gheorghe Popescu. They met with Dean of the Entin Faculty of Humanities, Prof. Marcelo Dascal, and with the Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for the History of Jews in Romania, Dr. Liviu Rotman; and they visited the Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies guided by Dr. Raphael Vago.

Ambassador of Croatia to Israel Dr. Svjetlan Berkovic visited TAU accompanied by his wife and met with TAU President Prof. Yoram Dinstein and with Prof. Gabriel Gorodetsky, Director of the Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies.

A mission of Canadian university presidents from Quebec visited TAU. They met with Prof. Yoram Dinstein, TAU President; Prof. Yair Aharonowitz, Dean for Research; Prof. Benjamin Isaac, Director of Inter-Academic Affairs; and Prof. Gideon Langholz, Dean of the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering. The presidents also met with members of the Department of French Language and Literature, headed by Dr. Hava Bat-Zeev-Shyldkrot.

Members of the National Academy of Science of India visited TAU. They met with Prof. Emanuel Peled, Director of the Wolfson Applied Materials Research Center; with Prof. Benjamin Isaac, Director of Inter-Academic Affairs; and with members of the Faculties of Exact Sciences and Medicine.

ABROAD

"Tel Aviv University at the Sorbonne - The Howard Gilman Colloquium on Diaspora and Transnationalism" was held in Paris, co-directed by Dr. Yossi Shain of the Department of Political Science at TAU's Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences and Prof. Dominique Schnapper, Centre de Recherches Historiques, Unit? Mixte de Recherches EHESS-CNRS. TAU President Professor Yoram Dinstein delivered greetings at the opening session and gave closing remarks following a round-table discussion entitled "New Challenges of Transnationalism and Globalization."

The third joint Karlsruhe-Tel Aviv Seminar on Biomedical Engineering was held in Karlsruhe, organized by TAU's Dean of Research Prof. Yair Aharonowitz and Prof. Shmuel Einav of the Department of Bioengineering at the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering. After introducing the Biomedical Research Program of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and of TAU, the following subjects were presented: New Developments in Telemedicine and Remote Sensing; Electromagnetic Fields in Medicine; Methods and Systems for Minimally Invasive Therapy; and Microsensors.

The annual gala event of the Friends of TAU in Switzerland took place at the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich, under the auspices of President of the Friends Association Dr. Boaz Barach. Guests of honor were Dr. Cornelio Sommaruga, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and TAU President Professor Yoram Dinstein. Dr. Sommaruga spoke on "Humanitarian Action on the Eve of the 21st Century: Lessons of the Past, Challenges for the Future."

The Frankfurt Committee of the German Friends and the Old Opera Frankfurt held an event marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, featuring the conductor and pianist Christoph Eschenbach and pianist Tzimon Barto, who played Brahms and Schumann, and actor and director Klaus Maria Brandauer who read from works by Goethe, Eichendorff, Heine, Nietzche and Rilke.

A festive soiree for joint scientific projects of TAU and the University of Vienna, under the auspices of the Mayor of Vienna Dr. Haupl and the TAU Friends Association, took place at the banquet hall of the Viennese City Hall. Guest of honor was TAU President Professor Yoram Dinstein. Among the participants were Israeli Ambassador to Austria Nathan Meron, US Ambassador to Austria Kathrin Hall, and Prof. Greisenegger and Prof. Ebenbauer, Rector and Pro-Rector of the University of Vienna.

TAU President Professor Yoram Dinstein delivered a lecture entitled "The Way of the Israeli Education System" in the Hall of the University of Vienna, attended by faculty members.

During Vice President Yehiel Ben-Zvi's visit to Canada, a brunch was held in his honor in Toronto at the home of Daniella and Muray Aston.

"Wither the Peace Process?" was the title of a symposium of AFTAU and Temple University School of Law at Washington Adas Israel Congregation featuring Prof. Ariel Merari, Senior Fellow of TAU's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies; Lenny Ben David, Charge d'Affaires, Israel Embassy; Hanan Ashrawi of the Palestinian Authority; Ahmed Maher El Sayed, Ambassador of Egypt to the US; Marwan Muasher, Ambassador of Jordan to the US; Dr. Aaron Miller, US State Department Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator; and Prof. Burton Caine, Director of the Israel Program at Temple University.

TAU Vice President Yehiel Ben-Zvi awarded Joseph Barda and George Fischer certificates for their long-standing friendship and support of TAU and their role in furthering understanding between Australian Jewry and Israeli society, at the annual dinner of the Sydney Friends of TAU. Dr. Robert A. Diamond was master of ceremonies.

The Melbourne Friends of TAU held their 22nd Annual Ball in the presence of Mr. Ted Lustig and Mrs. Heather Lustig, at the Camelot Reception Halls.

COMING EVENTS

The Eighth TAU European Conference will be held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, from January 28- February 1, 1999. For more information contact Barbara Kandell, Secretary of the Board of Governors, tel. 972-3-6464, fax 972-3-6406257, e-mail: Bkandell@post.tau.ac.il.

The TAU Study Cruise on the Aegean Sea will take place on June 7-16, 1999. Registration: Alexandra Talbot, AFTAU, 212-687-5651; 800-989-1198; Fax: 212-687-4085.