WINTER 2011/12

www.bgu.ac.il

synergy between lab and life (page 18) from the president

Dear Friends,

One of the privileges of being a university president is that I often have the opportunity to meet people who I might otherwise never come across. Such was the case with Arina Shestopolov Censor, a 17-year-old high school student in Beer-Sheva, who displayed ingenuity and maturity well beyond her years during a period of Grad missile attacks on the city this August. Both the Rector Prof. Zvi HaCohen and I saw an evening news report about how she and her family reacted when a Grad missile fell adjacent to their home, leaving their safe room to tend to the wounded. We immediately decided to offer her a scholarship for her undergraduate education in recognition of her exceptional bravery and selfless commitment to helping others. I am proud to report that the BGU Student Association and our committed students were at the forefront of organizing the local response to the social justice movement that galvanized Israel this summer. Without a doubt, these kinds of actions exemplify the values that BGU stands for: a willingness to help others, an ability to think quickly and creatively, and a heartfelt desire to pursue excellence. The University is now in the midst of a building boom which we hope will position it Powered by people with a passion for learning to grow. The foundations are being laid for the new building for the Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering, as well as for the National Inspiring students to connect with Israel’s pioneering spirit Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev. Work will begin soon on a research laboratory building to enhance our ability to hire new researchers, and for the Ruth and Heinz- Empowering our imagination Horst Deichmann Classroom and Computer Lab Building to significantly increase the available teaching space. In Sede Boqer work is about to begin on a new building for the Driving technological and commercial development in fields innovation Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center and the American Associates Village at Sede Boqer. ranging from alternative energy sources to new methods of drug delivery This is all part of the University’s strategic plan in preparing for the Israel Defense Advancing social justice through community outreach Forces’ move to the Negev and to allow for the anticipated growth as part of the Council of Higher Education’s plan to absorb returning Israeli academics at research universities. Leading development in the Negev region that will fuel the future of Israel Tractors are also at work on the first building in the Advanced Technologies Park, fulfilling our dream to bring a critical mass of employment opportunities to the region. BGU continues to grow, attracting promising young scientists and scholars while developing the core research fields where we already have strong research groups. This reflects our passionate commitment to realize David Ben-Gurion’s dream to create an “Oxford in the desert” and ensure a strong Israel that is a “Light Unto the Nations.”

For more information about how to join the efforts to advance our research and educational opportunities Prof. Rivka Carmi, M.D. visit our website at www.bgu.ac.il or write to us at [email protected] President CONTENTS

bodies in motion - Dr. Raziel Riemer 4 | culturally competent medicine - Dr. Paula Feder-Bubis 6 cleaning solutions - Dr. Moshe Hertzberg 8 | for the love of ladino - Dr. Eliezer Papo 10

that elusive link - Dr. Hadas Hawlena 12 | emergency response - Dr. Lior Nesher 14 writing the world - Talya Gilat 16 | synergy between lab and life - Prof. Ofer Yifrach 18

the strength of empowerment - Dr. Sarab Abu Rabia-Queder 20 implicit in our attitudes - Dr. Yoav Bar Anan 22 | from academia to administration - Dr. Fany Yuval 24

in the gallery - I am a Romanian: The Tel Aviv – Bucharest Route 26 | deep sea secrets - Dr. Nadav Shashar 28 searching for solutions: from kabbalah to art - Prof. Boaz Huss and Dr. Ephrat Huss 30 | on the bookshelf 34

overcoming obstacles - Tamar Miller 38 | a negev fan - Amit Puterkovski 39 pursuing her dream - Safa Abu Hani 40 | citizens aware - Tal Kanias 41

a bundle of energy - Maayan Arbiv 42 | enriching the children - Omri Afgin 43 protein potential - Prof. Ashraf Brik 44 | researching our roots - Dr. Avi Bareli 46

a sticky subject - Dr. Ronit Bitton 48 working together separately - Dr. Victor Novack and Dr. Lena Novack 50

BGU Now is published by the Department of Publications and Media Relations | Vol. 5, No. 2 Winter 2011/12 ISSN 0793-7393 Director: Faye Bittker | Editor: Angie Zamir | Contributors: Sandy Bloom, Larry Derfner, Patricia Golan, Roberta Neiger, Alana Sobelman Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel | Fax: 972-8-647-2906 | E-mail: [email protected] | Website: www.bgu.ac.il Photos: Dani Machlis | Additional photos: Keren Levy, Wolfgang Motzafi-Haller | Assistant photographer: Eugene Nestorovsky | Design: Shai Zauderer

Connect on There is also the matter of his older brother, Nach- shon, who has polio. “When I was young I never thought of him as being handicapped,” explains Riemer. “But over the years I saw the diminishing of his physical capa- bilities, and now he’s in a wheelchair, so I presume this is also part of what led to my career path. Maybe I can bodies in motion help somebody with a disability by building a device to aid his movement, or by better understanding how our bodies work and using this knowledge to advance the field of biomechanics.” Dr. Raziel Riemer Riemer, 46, whose wife, Hila, teaches marketing in Harvesting energy from user motion could the Department of Business Administration in the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, reduce the need for battery recharge and has been working to develop devices that fit on the body allow the user to be more mobile and “harvest” the energy the wearer uses in motion without disturbing the natural motion. Future applica- a system can be designed for optimal performance. tion of this technology could aid humans with motions In addition to biomechanics, Riemer also studies they cannot, or find difficult, to perform. robotics systems, mainly in agriculture, and in build- “For instance,” says Riemer, “when you walk, you ing walking robots while looking at the algorithms of compress your shoe, and part of the energy used to the motion. “I’m also trying to see how we can make compress your shoe is lost as heat. It’s wasted energy; you them work better. For example, we are working to create don’t need it to perform the motion of walking. So let’s a robot that can walk with stability, but even more say we build a device that fits into the shoe and converts important is that it walks efficiently at a relatively fast this energy into electricity that can be used to power pace. To do so you have to analyze your system and find mobile electronics like cell phones, laptops and more.” the parameters that limit the system performance or This technology is especially important in developing improve them.” countries or in remote areas where the power grid may The field of harvesting energy from human motion not be well developed. is still in its infancy. At present, Riemer says, there are Another area where generating energy from human devices that harvest energy, all of which attach to a motion could be advantageous is for battery-operated moving joint. “The focus now is on the motion of the prosthetic devices that help the handicapped with leg,” he says, noting that knee braces that harvest energy motion. But, Riemer points out: “The problem with have already been devised, and potentially there could batteries is that they run out. For example, a battery- be shoulder braces and elbow braces as well. “None are operated prosthetic leg device that aids motion can on the market yet, though,” he adds. But a related prod- last six to 48 hours, depending on the model and joint. uct, though not necessarily for the handicapped, is now Harvesting energy from user motion could reduce the available to all consumers: an energy converter that can need for battery recharge and allow the user to be more be placed in a backpack and will harvest energy from mobile.” the wearer’s walking. This energy will recharge his cell Riemer is working with professors from the Univer- phone or other electronic device. sity’s Departments of Mechanical Engineering and The robotic devices for the handicapped in the future, Electrical Engineering to develop these innovations. however, will be much more sophisticated, according to “We have rough prototypes now and we’re testing Riemer. “Maybe 10 or 20 years down the road, we’ll be them,” he says. He describes himself as the team’s “jack able to harvest energy through the clothes that a person of all trades,” having gotten his bachelor’s and doctoral wears, clothes that would work like a knee brace,” he t was no coincidence that Dr. Raziel Riemer, a fascinated by robots – how they work, how to build degrees in mechanical engineering and his master’s in says. “We could create clothing out of some material that lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering them,” he says. industrial engineering. He also worked as an industrial when you bend it, enough energy could be harvested to I and Management, took up the design of robotic A national champion swimmer in the 50-meter and and mechanical engineer at Intel in Jerusalem. activate sensors embedded in the clothing that could devices for humans. He traces his choice of profession 100-meter freestyle, he was “always attentive to how my “My specialty is in how human beings are built,” he transmit data on the person’s medical condition, loca- to his youthful days as a national champion swimmer, body was working, thinking of ways to improve it and says. “As a biomechanist, I know how to look at human tion and more. Moreover, the person wearing the clothes who was an avid science fiction buff and the brother of a how to use it most efficiently. And when I was injured in motion and understand, or try to understand, the under- would be able to perform motions that are now impos- polio sufferer. training in 1989, tearing an abdominal muscle, it caused lying mechanics at work – the action of the muscles, the sible. This could be especially important to people with “When I was growing up on Kibbutz Urim in the a shift in the body alignment. I developed back problems dynamics of the forces involved. That’s sort of my thing.” disabilities, older people, people in remote areas, or Negev, I’d read all the science fiction books in the and learned about how the body adjusts to challenges, He notes that his experience as an industrial engineer soldiers who cannot use the local power sources. We’re kibbutz library by the time I was 12. I was always and I guess that led me in this direction, too.” allows him to analyze systems, to try to understand how not there yet, but we could get there. That’s my dream.” 4 | 5 Dr. Paula Feder-Bubis culturally competent medicine

r. Paula Feder-Bubis opted for a career in Faculty of Health Sciences affiliated with the Soroka sociology but has found herself rubbing University Medical Center have amassed considerable medicine, which refers to the performance of largely unnec- D shoulders with medical as well as non- expertise in dealing with these heterogeneous commu- essary tests and medical procedures by physicians in order medical practitioners as a member of the University’s nities, an expertise that Feder-Bubis feels should be to reduce liability – that is, to avoid being sued. “Let’s say Department of Health Systems Management, which is converted into policy and shared with the rest of the that a physician is 95 percent certain that a patient’s condi- a joint department of the Guilford Glazer Faculty of country. tion is benign. Given the odds, he would prefer to avoid Business and Management and the Faculty of Health “Israel has undergone a sea change with regard to treatment and adopt a wait-and-see approach, but if he is Sciences. Faculty members include – in addition to cultural issues,” she notes. “While 30-40 years ago Israel afraid of a medical malpractice lawsuit, he may send the medical clinicians – economists, psychologists, policy- viewed itself as a melting-pot society where new immi- patient for a series of expensive and bothersome tests. The makers and even engineers. Their goal: to integrate grants were expected to acquire fluent Hebrew in a patient has to take time off from work or household duties, research from diverse disciplines with the aim of short time, today we realize that many groups prefer to undergo inconvenience or pain and even possible harmful optimizing patient care. preserve their cultural heritage. We must find a way to side effects, not to mention worry and distress while waiting But what does that mean in practice? Feder-Bubis provide these groups with good medical care despite the for the results.” gives an example related to the practice of medicine in a language barrier.” Defensive medicine has become a serious problem in heterogeneous community. “Today we know that it’s not Even non-verbal components of doctor-patient other countries such as the United States, and although it enough for health caregivers to feel they have done their encounters have important cultural overtones. “One has not yet reached crisis proportions in Israel, it is increas- duty by dispensing the proper medication and instruc- example is eye contact between the medical practitio- ing sharply. It could be one of the reasons that medical costs tions. If a person is not fluent in the language used, ner and the patient,” Feder-Bubis continues. “In Western are spiraling in Israel without contributing to the overall he or she may not understand the instructions. And culture, we are taught to maintain eye contact when health level. “It also erodes the patient-doctor relation- even if health system users understand the words, they giving out important information, but in other cultures ship,” explains Feder-Bubis. “Patients prefer to feel that their may not understand the implications due to cultural that is not acceptable. Sometimes a well-intentioned doctors have their best interests at heart. When they are sent differences, or may struggle to follow directions due to physician may tap a patient on the shoulder or shake to time consuming, unpleasant and unnecessary procedures, cultural constraints. A woman who is busy taking care someone’s hand, which is also unacceptable in certain they feel cheated. Mistrustfulness taints the patient-doctor of ten children at home may be hard pressed to follow a societies.” relationship: the doctor mistrusts the patient, and the complicated regimen of taking several medications four Cultural competence, explains Feder-Bubis, is a reverse.” times a day, for example,” she explains. necessary part of the accreditation process. This means Feder-Bubis is presently conducting a qualitative study Feder-Bubis emphasizes that the goal is to improve that many hospitals have already started implementing in which two groups of physicians (key role, opinion leader medical outcomes for all population groups. In order cultural competence projects and are planning manda- physicians and rank-and-file physicians) and one group of to do that, health services must be culturally compe- tory continuing-education seminars on the subject for patient representatives are interviewed using semi-struc- tent. That means that hospitals and clinics, as well as current hospital staff. But, she warns, basic cultural tured, in-depth questionnaires. Hopefully, the study results every individual provider, must cope with the diversity information about ethnic groups must not lead to stereo- will be used to establish guidelines to reduce the practice of and cultural contexts of the communities they serve typing. “Although you should always keep in mind basic defensive medicine. by incorporating cultural knowledge into all aspects of information about a group, you address the person in Feder-Bubis enjoys the Department of Health Systems health policy making. front of you, not the stereotype,” she stresses. Management and the community-oriented Faculty of Health “That might involve hanging explanatory posters Feder-Bubis emphasizes that cultural competence is Sciences as an ideal setting for her work. She lives in Jeru- in several languages in hospitals and clinics; it might a broad concept that relates not only to ethnicity and salem with her husband Yaakov and their three children. mean that health-related pamphlets be translated into socio-economic strata, but also to other needs of the Her second child is a special-needs child, and has recently different languages, then checked to make sure that the public. “Cultural competence means that clinic hours celebrated her bat mitzvah. “She was born after I had already target populations actually understand the material,” she should be adapted to the hours of working person, chosen sociology as my field, but it is true that she has made continues. perhaps by opening at 7:00 a.m., and to late night hours Hospitals and clinics must cope with diversity me even more aware of the importance of cultural sensitivi- Thanks to its strategic location in the heart of the for employees who do not finish work at four.” and the cultural contexts of the communities ties,” she says. ethnically diverse Negev region, researchers from the Another research interest of Feder-Bubis is defensive they serve by incorporating cultural knowledge 6 | 7 into all aspects of health policy making Dr. Moshe Herzberg cleaning solutions

Academia is beyond politics. Our contribution as academics in the Middle East must be to help our neighbors

esalination provides drinking water to the “We are dealing with this problem in various ways: “With the aid of the Quartz Crystal Microbalance the supply of clean water in the Middle East, especially residents of arid regions throughout the world, we can prevent it from the very beginning by either (QCM) in our lab, we can perform fast ‘high through- in the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Purified second- D but it is not without its drawbacks. At the cleaning the water from nutrients on which the micro- put’ screening of new cleaning agents to check their ary wastewater is an immediate resource for irrigation. Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at the Jacob organisms feed or by developing surfaces that are inert effectiveness,” says Herzberg. “Where it previously took After reverse osmosis filtration, it may be used indirectly Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, scientists are to this sessile mode of growth. We are also developing a month to check each agent, we can now run tests in for drinking. addressing these problems and seeking to make the novel methods for removal of the microbiological biofilm just a few hours and can easily check a few cleaning “Academia is beyond politics. Our contribution as process as safe, efficient and cost-effective as possible. once it has developed,” he explains. Herzberg works agents a day. Many companies have shown interest in academics in the Middle East must be to help our Dr. Moshe Herzberg recently received the 2010 Award together with chemical engineer Dr. Slava Freger, and this type of service.” neighbors,” concludes Herzberg. of the France-Israel Foundation for Academic Excellence with chemists Dr. Roni Kasher and Dr. Sophia Belfer, Some novel biological cleaning materials stem from For this, and other research projects, the Zuckerberg in the Field of Water for his cutting-edge work in the who are developing modified surfaces that prevent bacte- peptides of different sea organisms. “Millions of years of Institute for Water Research provides all the necessary field of “biological fouling,” one of the major problems in ria and extracellular biopolymers from attaching to the evolution are much smarter than us, enabling animals equipment, according to Herzberg. In addition, he desalination and water purification. Biofilms, or commu- membrane surface. Their work was recently published in such as sea anemones to prevent microorganisms from continues, the cooperation between researchers at the nities of microbes like bacteria, fungi and algae, adhere the prestigious journal Biomacromolecules. attaching to them. We can benefit from this behavior Institute is excellent. “I receive, from so many people, to the membrane surface during reverse osmosis – the Herzberg outlines the different processes, noting that took sea organisms millions of years to evolve,” the kind of support I wouldn’t get anywhere else. Every- most widely used method of desalination – and inter- that the chemical cleaning agents used in the clean- declares Herzberg. one is generous with their equipment and knowledge,” fere with these processes, explains Herzberg. Addressing ing process fall into six categories: alkalis, acids, metal His work is not characterized solely by collaboration he says. “This type of atmosphere starts at the top and biofilm problems demands the interdisciplinary input of chelating agents, surfactants, oxidizing agents and among disciplines, but between peoples. In a shining works its way down.” microbiologists, chemists and physicists, as well as mate- enzymes. Commercial cleaning products are usually a example of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, Herzberg Herzberg lives with his family in Sede Boqer, which rial and colloid (nano-particles dispersed in a medium) mixture of these agents, when the actual composition is teamed up with Prof. Mohammed Saleem Ali-Shtayeh creates a particularly open atmosphere for collaboration scientists. It is a relatively new area within microbiology, often not specified. Usually old-fashioned rinsing with of the Biodiversity and Environmental Research Center and cooperation. “At BGU there is also a special connec- appropriately called “biofilmology.” surfactants and chelating agents is the best answer. in Nablus to increase the clean water supply in that area. tion between young researchers and the administration, Herzberg’s interdisciplinary training allows him to While oxidizing agents such as bleach can sanitize Last year the team received a highly competitive five- even at the highest level. They try to nurture the new integrate the different fields. With a B.Sc. in chemical the membrane, he says, they can also damage it, so year research grant from USAID’s MERC (Middle East generation: their doors are always open and they talk to engineering, a Ph.D. in agricultural engineering and bleach can be used only for a short cleaning duration for Regional Cooperation) Program. us as equals. I always know who I can turn to. post-doctoral training in microbiology and environ- removal of organic compounds. Another method is to The researchers are focusing on how biofouling “Since I have been at BGU,” continues Herzberg, “it mental engineering, he is now waging his battle against apply bleach in the presence of ammonium cations or impedes membrane performance and on ways to miti- has never happened that I wanted to research something biofilms on two major fronts. enzymes that can aid in breaking down the extracellular gate this formation and clean biofouled membranes. and didn’t get the support I needed.” biopolymers and cell walls of the bacteria. Ultimately, these techniques may be applied to increase 8 | 9 for the love In the last ten years, everything has of ladino changed. Ladino speakers’ “kids,” now in their fifties and sixties, have Dr. Eliezer Papo “returned” in great numbers

r. Eliezer Papo is reviving what was a dying language and the rich culture from which it emerged. It language. Vice-Director of BGU’s Moshe David offers courses, conferences and cultural events. D Gaon Center for Ladino Culture, the dynamic “When I came to Israel in 1991, the average age of scholar, rabbi, lawyer and novelist seems to emit sparks those speaking or interested in Ladino was 65,” recalls when talking about his first love, the Ladino tongue. Papo. “In the last ten years, everything has changed. Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, says Papo, a member of the Ladino speakers’ ‘kids,’ now in their fifties and sixties, Department of Hebrew Literature, refers to a language have ‘returned’ in great numbers.” developed by the Ottoman Jews based on the languages Throughout Israel, there are growing circles who that those expelled from Spain brought with them, meet for Ladino movies, musical events, lectures and while adding a “local touch” to them. “Like everyone in poetry. At BGU, the Gaon Center-sponsored Salon Spain at that time, the Jews spoke Spanish,” he explains. Gaon, a group of about 120 people who have Bulgarian, “When cast out, they settled in the Ottoman Empire and Greek, ex-Yugoslavian and Turkish roots, regularly enjoy North Africa, where their Spanish continued to develop, Ladino events. assuming aspects of languages like Turkish, Greek, Before focusing on Ladino, Papo graduated from law Serbian, Bulgarian and Arabic.” school in his native Sarajevo, Bosnia. Filled with ques- Today, Ladino is in danger of extinction. With the tions that no one in the former Yugoslavia could answer, Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel, the Papo came to Israel to study in a yeshiva. Yeshiva learn- Sephardic Diaspora has virtually ceased to exist, accord- ing, though, lacked the systematic approach he desired. ing to Papo. As an example, he points to the Greek port Seeking a more academic angle, Papo began to study of Thessaloniki, which once housed so many Jews that Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. There, Yugoslavia, religion made a huge comeback,” says Papo. less important – quality: it is funny. Humor has always it would close down on the Sabbath. In 1917 an acciden- however, he felt that style was stressed at the expense of “Jews had to update their concept of religion, and most had an important role for Jews in the Diaspora. No tal fire ravaged the city, killing many Jews and causing content. “I was frustrated and began taking courses in wanted to celebrate the holidays in a traditional manner. exception, Ladino is rich in colorful phrases, curses and others to leave or emigrate. During the Holocaust, some Ladino,” says Papo, who is “at home” in all Slavic and Today in Sarajevo the shul is full.” nicknames. 56,000 of Thessaloniki’s Jews, 95 percent of the Jewish Romance languages, as well as in English and Hebrew. The bulk of Papo’s time is spent not in the syna- Papo continues this tradition in his classroom. In population, were deported to concentration camps and Papo fell in love with the subject immediately and has gogue, but in the BGU classroom, where he instructs courses titled: “And Thou Shall Jest with Your Son: murdered. Today, around 1,000 Jews live there. taught, written and even appeared in a film on the topic. students from a wealth of different backgrounds. “Some Parody, Grotesque and Burlesque in Modern Judeo- “This is not enough for a language to survive,” says In addition to heading the Gaon Center and teaching a have Sephardi backgrounds; some are young Israeli Spanish Literature,” and “Humor in Judeo-Spanish Papo, explaining that whether a language is living is not full course load, he returns twice a year to Sarajevo in males who returned from post-army trips to Latin Literature,” he addresses the serious business of laughter. determined by the number of speakers alone, but by how the Hebrew months of Tishrei and Nisan to oversee holi- America with a few words of Spanish. Others are what In one course assignment, for example, he had many people speak it as their only tongue. A language day services as the community’s rabbi. I call ‘alumni of Spanish soap operas,’ and yet others students write personal parodies of the traditional texts, depends on a critical mass of people whose cultural and The Sarajevo Jewish community has made a remark- are Bedouins who like the sound of the language. What and was delighted to receive prayers that featured celeb- spiritual life depends on the language altogether. Ladino able comeback. “In 1945, it seemed like the end,” says unites them is the fact that, for whatever reason they rity court cases and mortgage payments. “I bring them has lost this critical mass. Papo. “Of the 12,000 Jews that had lived there, only come, most do fall in love with the language and culture this genre and they make new creations according to the Though threatened, Ladino, like Yiddish, is under- 2,000 returned from the camps. Three years later, in and continue taking courses in the Ladino track of the model,” says Papo. “Most importantly, after this exercise, going a Renaissance, and the Gaon Center is playing 1948, another thousand Jews left for Israel.” Department of Hebrew Literature,” he says. they knew the real texts inside and out. I feel I am help- a leading role in this effort. The Center, established in Today this community, though small, is thriving. In addition to its musical beauty, rich history and reli- ing to restore a part of the Jewish heritage.” 2004, is devoted to preserving and developing the Ladino “When communism fell apart and civil war engulfed gious significance, Ladino has another – unsung, but no 10 | 11 hat is the most dangerous creature in the world? After pondering this question, most W people are likely to answer sharks, which kill an estimated 25 people per year globally, or croco- Dr. Hadas Hawlena diles, which are responsible for the deaths of several hundred persons, but almost no one would instinctively of bacterial species living in a single arthropod vector, at say mosquitos which, as carriers of malaria, yearly claim great savings of time and money. the lives of one to three million people globally, making Significantly, recent research has shown that while them the world’s greatest killers. some of these bacteria are not connected to each other, Like malaria, other vector-borne afflictions such as they often compete for resources on the same host. plague, dengue fever, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis “There is evidence that a few species of bacteria can are, in spite of medicines and pesticides, still extremely exclude others,” she says, referring to a finding that virulent. In addition, new diseases like West Nile fever could, one day, lead to an agent for countering deadly and Lyme disease, as well as six different new Rickettsial diseases. diseases have appeared – and are rapidly spreading. Likewise, in Indiana, where Hawlena did post- While many researchers have focused on a few doctoral work, she has experimentally shown that even specific diseases or microbial pathogens at a time, Dr. closely related bacteria can kill each other, and this Hadas Hawlena of the Department of Life Sciences looks warfare affects their degree of virulence to the host. “If at the big picture. we could understand why and how bacteria compete, we “There is no chance that pesticides or medicines alone could turn this competition to our own benefit,” she says. will solve this problem: the parasites quickly become Do we have a chance against parasites? “Yes,” replies immune to the agents used,” she says. And as everyone Hawlena, “but to turn research into tools we need to who has waged war against a dog’s ticks or fleas knows, understand what’s happening. Many outbreaks of disease treatments that were effective a year, or even six months occur when nobody even knows about the presence of ago, may now be powerless. the parasites that cause them.” According to Hawlena, “We must look at broader communities, not just we need to be armed with this information ahead of single species,” explains Hawlena, who has a firm time. “The problem is that the parasites are running background in ecology. “Many organisms that seem ahead of us, and so we need at least to solve some of their unconnected are actually linked. One of my major goals mysteries in order to cope with them.” is to understand the different factors that affect these Hawlena is well-versed in ecology, evolutionary biol- relationships and identify which of these factors are most ogy and behavioral ecology, having completed her important.” While there are other Israeli researchers undergraduate and graduate studies at BGU. She now focusing on vector-borne disease, she is the first in the lives with her family at the University’s Sede Boqer country to work on the ecology of this type of ailment. campus and feels completely at home at both the Univer- Using rodents as her model, Hawlena examines the sity and in its surroundings. Despite her upbringing in interaction between the hosts, arthropod vectors and the green Haifa hills, 37-year-old Hawlena describes that elusive link the bacteria that live in them, focusing on behavioral herself and her husband as “desert people. We love response, physical responses and population dynamics everything about it here: the animals, the tranquility, the in the field. views and the nature.” We must look at broader communities, not just single species. Checking ecological factors that have changed as Hawlena has two daughters, both of whom were born a result of human presence, Hawlena and her team during her post-graduate studies at the University of Many organisms that seem unconnected are actually linked perform metagenomic studies on ticks and fleas to exam- Indiana. The girls, it appears, are enjoying a rather idyl- ine genetic material recovered directly from samples in lic childhood at Sede Boqer, which Hawlena says is a very their natural environment. This field facilitates studies tight community, not unlike a kibbutz. “We have lots of organisms not easily cultured in the laboratory. With of friends here. This place attracts special people, with recent developments in molecular techniques enabling whom we connected immediately.” millions of sequences to be performed in a matter of hours, metagenomic studies can reveal about 95 percent

12 | 13 emergency response Dr. Lior Nesher The approach to medical training has shifted from being top-down to allowing students to practice, hands-on, the wealth of information they receive

iven the maxim that practice makes perfect, medicine, which grew into an academic track. In 1998, Israel has unfortunately had ample it opened its Department of Emergency Medicine. G opportunity to become a world leader in the “Emergency personnel have to be able to think fast field of emergency medicine. The University’s Depart- under pressure and make decisions quickly, without ment of Emergency Medicine is leading the way to having much information. They must discern between advancement and innovation in this crucial branch of the significant and the unimportant, to see what is life medicine. and limb-threatening, and provide timely treatment,” The Faculty of Health Sciences at BGU offers the only explains Nesher. academic program for emergency medicine in Israel, and Central to this program is the state-of-the-art one of the few worldwide. In this three-year undergradu- Simulation Center, which uses simulation based on ate degree, students can earn a Bachelor of Emergency sophisticated computerized mannequins to train Medical Services (B. EMS.) degree. More importantly, students,” says Nesher. “We can program them to ‘have’ they learn to become top-notch paramedics. a heart attack, respiratory emergency, head injury, “In Israel, graduates of our academic programs are asthma attack, pulmonary problem – and even a baby. recognized as better paramedics than those trained in Students administer medical treatment to mannequins made possible through the generous support of the in addition to not speaking Hebrew, Arabic or English. professional programs,” says Dr. Lior Nesher, head of as if they were live patients. If a mannequin doesn’t Goldman Family Foundation. It will include classrooms “We must find a way to communicate and provide the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Leon receive proper treatment, it will ‘die’,” Nesher explains. to train not only future doctors and nurses, but those medical care to all these groups,” says Nesher. “As the and Mathilde Recanati School for Community Health The lifelike mannequins “speak” in pre-programmed studying physical therapy and pharmacology. Interdisci- only hospital in the northern Negev, which contains a Professions. To corroborate his contention, one need sentences that relate to specific situations. While the plinary medical training makes sense, as it mimics real population of about a million people, we at Soroka can’t only look at Magen David Adom (MADA), Israel’s emer- students “treat” their inanimate patients, instructors hospital interactions. say we’re swamped and close the doors to anyone.” gency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank watch them and answer their questions from behind a “This is a move from didactic learning to application Nesher’s personal door has always been wide open. service. There, all senior paramedics – including the one-sided window. “The Simulation Center creates a safe and diagnosis,” says Nesher. “The approach to medical Born in Canada, he spent his early childhood in the U.S. head paramedic, supervisors and key personnel – are training environment and presents emergency situations training has shifted from being paternalistic and top- and made aliya with his family when he was eight years BGU graduates. on demand. With the latest technological advances of down to allowing students to practice, hands-on, the old. Joining MADA as a volunteer in high school, he Emergency medicine refers to the branch of medicine the last four or five years, we can reenact just about wealth of information they receive.” continued volunteering and working for the organiza- in which doctors treat patients who have acute illnesses anything,” continues Nesher. Doctors at the Soroka University Medical Center, tion during and after his military service as a medical or injuries that demand immediate attention. Accord- The facility also addresses the ethical issue of allowing BGU’s teaching hospital, need to be particularly rich instructor and ambulance staff member. After the army, ing to Nesher, the concept of emergency medicine, in its students to learn at the expense of live patients in criti- in know-how. Beer-Sheva is home to many different he studied medicine at BGU and continued to work, current form, began in the 1960s-‘70s. “After the Viet- cal situations. The Simulation Center enables medical population groups, such as Bedouins and Russian immi- teach and train for MADA. In 2001, he joined the medi- nam War, battle medics returned to the U.S. and shifted students to train and practice real medical procedures. grants, many of whom are elderly, as well as African cal staff of the Soroka University Medical Center. to civilian treatment, where they incorporated what they By the time they care for their first patients, they are refugees from Sudan and Eritrea. Each group comes with Nesher now lives in Beer-Sheva with his wife, a nurse had learned from the field,” says Nesher. “That’s how already far more experienced than students in other its own language, culture and diseases. For example, in Soroka’s Intensive Care Unit, and their two young contemporary paramedicine was born.” EMS programs. many Bedouin women suffer from “Bedouin lung,” a daughters. It took a little longer for this field to gain acceptance The Simulation Center also serves experienced serious pulmonary ailment caused by cooking in closed “I enjoy treating patients, and being able to make in Israel, where MADA introduced the first professional doctors, who can review and refresh skills that may have tents with no ventilation. Immigrants from Ethiopia a difference,” says Nesher. “With correct triage and paramedical course in the 1980s. About ten years later, become rusty. A new, larger simulation center is beeing pose a language challenge, while African refugees may treatment, you can see life-changing differences in 1995, BGU began building a program for emergency built at the Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School, be ailing from diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis immediately – even in the most extreme situations.” 14 | 15 writing the world

Talya Gilat

uring her 12 years as an applied mathematician the highest. I just find it a compelling challenge.” any one correct model for a particular system, there are It doesn’t pay teachers enough so that talented, highly in the hi-tech industry, where she developed Gilat herself was gifted in math, as are her three many, many possibilities. And this, believes Gilat, is motivated people will enter the field. If you want to attract D algorithms for electro-optics and image daughters, which gives an unusual personal dimen- where the creativity comes in. teachers who want to teach, you have to give them more processing, Talya Gilat was very successful, initiating sion to the focus of her studies – teaching math to gifted “It’s said that you can’t teach a child to be creative, than platitudes. And there’s no question that the neglect several patents in the field, which led to important mile- pupils. “I was always coming up with new ways to teach but you can stimulate and develop his creative thinking. of teachers and teaching shows up eventually in the low stones. But recently, she left the world of industry to the subject,” she says, and that’s the ultimate goal of her In my research, I assert that math models will allow the achievement of pupils.” study for her doctorate in mathematical education under research – to develop methods for students to apply their development of creativity in children.” Which leaves open the question: If Israeli pupils do so the supervision of Prof. Miriam Amit at Ben-Gurion creativity to the study of math. She quotes one of the leaders in the field, Prof. Baha- poorly in math, how do they do so well in the hi-tech field, University of the Negev. Why? Mathematics is not widely seen as a subject that rath Srierman, who defines creativity as “a process which depends on math? “Success in hi-tech doesn’t derive “I wanted to give back something to society,” says invites creativity, and this, notes Gilat, is part of the resulting in unusual and insightful solutions to a non- only from high test scores in math,” sais Gilat, “it also Gilat, 46, recipient of a Negev Zin Scholarship to pursue problem. “People think of math as something that’s routine problem.” In her work with gifted students Gilat depends on a certain openness to new ideas, a readiness to her studies in the Graduate Program for Science and completely divorced from real life, an abstract subject gives her charges tasks from real life situations to enable take risks, to be unconventional, to go against the grain – Technology Education. “When I was growing up, teach- that takes place on the chalkboard with a bunch of nerds the students to invent and develop powerful math- and all these features are there in Israeli society. When I ing was always in the background.” scratching away in their notebooks. But that’s not what ematical conceptual tools. The research is carried out worked in industry we did a lot of projects with Japanese That background comes from her father, Ohaliav math’s about, certainly not today. at Kidumatica: The Youth Mathematics Forum initi- engineers, and they’re not less intelligent or educated than Hamami, a high school principal and leading education “Math is a language,” she states unequivocally. “It’s ated by Prof. Amit. Kidumatica provides a framework Israelis, but they’re very conservative, very rigid, unwill- official who introduced the ORT Technological High the language of logic and structural patterns. It’s the for cultivation and promotion of youth with exceptional ing to break with consensus, so Israelis have an advantage School to Israel’s Arab sector, as well as Arab literature to language of computers, of engineering and science. So mathematical abilities from varied socio-economic and there. Another reason for our success in hi-tech is that the the curriculum of Jewish public schools. much of the world simply cannot be understood without ethnic backgrounds. people who go into the field come from the highest level; “Teaching always interested me,” says Gilat. “For expressing it in the form of mathematical models. Fore- “Mathematics has become probably one of the most some have participated in enrichment programs such as six months before I entered the army, I taught math casts of the weather are made by means of math models, important subjects for young people to learn,” she adds, Kidumatica. Yet another reason is the training Israelis get to pupils at my high school. During my studies for my as is public opinion polling, or the characters in video “you really can’t advance academically without being in the Israel Defense Forces’ technical units. There’s noth- master’s degree in applied mathematics at the Technion - games.” strong in math. And it’s not enough anymore to be ing like it in the world for preparation to enter the hi-tech Israel Institute of Technology, I taught first year students In that light, math is not about learning principles by ‘fluent’ – you also have to be inspired, you have to be able sector.” algebra and calculus. And when I was working in indus- rote and using them to arrive at the one right answer – it to creatively adapt what you know to different practical But to get into those army technical units, to be among try, I volunteered to teach math to young people who had means being able to translate literally endless processes challenges.” the top level of technology-trained young people in Israeli learning disabilities. I’ve taught at the lowest levels and and systems into a mathematical language. There isn’t Gilat has some sharp criticisms of the way math is industry, students first have to know their way around taught in Israeli public schools, noting the notoriously math. It has to be something like their mother tongue, low test scores Israeli teenagers deliver on standard inter- which is where Gilat’s research comes in. “Math,” she says, Math is a language. It’s the language of logic and structural patterns. national tests. “The state doesn’t invest enough money “is the language we use to write the world.” It’s the language of computers, of engineering and science in education, in the standard of teachers and teaching.

16 | 17 here may be no hotter topic in the entire intellectual world today than neuroscience – T understanding the way we perceive, act, learn, think, all the way to the most exalted morality. It all can be traced to the way our brains are wired, says biophysicist and neuroscientist Prof. Ofer Yifrach. Prof. Ofer Yifrach “Potentially, the results of my research can help understand the nature of mental illnesses and other Academically as geographically, he started out far from neurological disorders and be of use in developing medi- where he is now. “I received my bachelor’s degree at the cines relevant to these illnesses,” says Yifrach, who Hebrew University of Jerusalem in geology and planetary teaches and researches molecular neurobiology in the sciences, then I went to the Weizmann Institute of Science Department of Life Sciences. “But what I do is basic and began studying oceanography, but then I met a very research,” he continues. “I’m trying to understand the unique professor, Amnon Horovitz, who, by his personal- basic principles of bio-electricity underlying how the ity, his character, his mind, attracted me to the biological brain works.” sciences. He was my mentor, and I switched to biology. He Not everything in the brain, of course, but one piece influenced my thinking about synergism in biology, and I of the endless puzzle – how electrical signals – known did my doctorate with him.” as “action potentials” and underlying information Afterward, Yifrach carried out post-doctoral research on processing in the nervous system – are generated within ion channels at New York’s Rockefeller University with Prof. neuron cells. Roderick MacKinnon, who won the Nobel Prize in Chem- This is how it goes: For a sensation to register in the istry in 2003. “Rod is an extremely brilliant scientist and I brain, encoding by means of electrical activity mediated learned a lot during my stay at his lab” he says. by action potential propagation has to take place. Action Asked why he chose BGU, Yifrach says it was a combi- potential is generated when ions, or electrically charged nation of geography, academics and person-to-person atoms, have to pass along “ion channel” proteins from considerations. BGU emphasizes the values of being one side of the neuronal cell to the other, then go on involved with the student community and the wider social from cell to cell. At each end of the ion channel protein environment of the Negev. “I like the people here and the is a kind of a gate, and for the ions to pass through, both informal relations between faculty and students.” gates have to be open. And Yifrach contributes to the student-faculty rela- Working with departmental colleague Dr. Noam tionship in his capacity as chairman of the Department of Zilberberg, Yifrach says: “Our hypothesis was that the Life Sciences’ Teaching Committee for Students Affairs. two gates were ‘communicating’ with each other, that “I’m sort of the ombudsman for the 500 bachelor’s degree the opening or closing of one gate was dependent on students in the department,” he says. “The University has the opening or closing of the other. In other words, that a set of regulations addressing different aspects of the there was a synergy or coupling between them.” students’ studies. But naturally it cannot cover all possible The proof that the hypothesis was correct – that there scenarios, and flexibility is needed to accommodate the is a synergy, a communication, between these two gates specific needs of specific students. If a student has a bureau- of the ion channel protein in the neuronal brain cell – cratic problem, if he or she has a complaint, I listen and see came in 2009. “I was sitting in my office, talking with if something can be done. I also serve as an academic advi- Noam and our student Yuval Ben-Abu about the results sor for the students. For instance, if a student experiences of the experiments we’d conducted, and we saw that the difficulties in his or her studies, I’ll give advice regarding results were positive, that everything fell into place,” the possible sources of such difficulties and the tools the he says. “It’s deeply satisfying to see your expectations University has to help in overcoming them. It’s one of the synergy fulfilled, but more importantly, it shows you where your cardinal principles at BGU – that the University is supposed next step is – it poses new questions and sometimes to impart knowledge and advance research, but it’s also opens new horizons.” supposed to encourage a humane, enriching social atmo- between lab and life Yifrach, 44, has been living in Midreshet Ben-Gurion sphere on campus and beyond.” for nine years. Tracing his path to the Negev, he says: Listening to a student’s worries about balancing studies It’s deeply satisfying to see your expectations fulfilled, “I grew up in the center of the country, in Bat Yam and with a job, family or military responsibilities is a long way Kfar Saba. As an adult I wanted to combine my academic from testing the communication between gates on the ion but more importantly, it shows you where your next step is – work with the kind of life I wanted to live, which is not channel protein of a neuronal brain cell. For Yifrach, the it poses new questions and sometimes opens new horizons in the center, but in the periphery. I wanted to live in the two poles of his work at BGU complement each other. south. It’s a different way of life in many dimensions; one Call it synergy. that fits our family.” 18 | 19 the strength of empowerment

Dr. Sarab Abu Rabia-Queder Many women run “informal” markets inside their homes. They take advantage of their “female space” to earn money

t was during visits to her husband’s family in tiny In some communities, women pool a percentage of The study focuses on four unrecognized Bedouin Motzafi-Haller a special issue of the journal HAGAR rural Bedouin encampments in the Negev that their monthly National Insurance allowances (which are villages in the Negev. She hopes the research will result 2009: The Politics of Gendered Development. I Dr. Sarab Abu Rabia-Queder first became intrigued paid to all mothers in the state.) “Each woman in turn is in a model that can be used to influence policy makers Abu Rabia-Queder describes herself as having grown by a unique economic phenomenon. How do women given the total sum collected at the end of the year, for and help Bedouin women. up as an “insider/outsider” in three cultures: Bedouin, in these poorest of Israel’s communities, the so-called example, if someone is about to give birth or has special As recently as 20 years ago, none of the Bedouin Jewish and northern Arab. “I went to a Bedouin elemen- “unrecognized villages,” who are often only semi- needs. They portion out these government grants to each women in the Negev went to university and very few tary school, then a Jewish high school. My mother is an literate and unable to open bank accounts, manage to other according to their needs,” she explains. completed high school. Abu Rabia-Queder, now 35, Arab from the north, and this was another part of my find ways to earn money by means that are acceptable “Suddenly they are providing an additional source gained early fame as the first Bedouin woman in Israel culture,” she says. “It is a wonderful advantage. You can both to themselves and to the male villagers on whom of money for the household, and I wondered in what to earn a doctoral degree. When she started her stud- view many cultures and be open to other ideas and see they depend? ways these informal ways of making a bit of money ies at BGU, she was one of just eight Bedouin women. the advantages and disadvantages of all of them.” Throughout the Negev, some 75,000 Bedouin live in might empower these women,” adds Abu Rabia-Queder, Now there are hundreds, partly because of the support In a sense, Abu Rabia-Queder’s lab is at her own unauthorized settlements with little or no infrastructure. an authority on gender and development in Bedouin of the Robert H. Arnow Center for Bedouin Studies and doorstep. Another of her research projects involves the These small villages or encampments do not appear on society in Israel, who was awarded a grant from the Development, which aims to promote education within challenges of coping with unfamiliar cultures. Having any maps and suffer from very high unemployment. The Israel Ministry of Science and Technology to study this the Bedouin society of the Negev. She later did her post- already published a comparison of Palestinians studying men often work with contractors in the Jewish sectors, phenomenon. The three-year research project, “Avenues doctoral studies at the Gender Studies Center at the in Israeli universities and those studying in Jordanian but are not paid regular salaries, and there is no work of Economic Participation for Rural Bedouin Women,” Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the International institutions, her latest research project relates to Jorda- outside the home for women. is being carried out together with Dr. Avigail Morris of Department of Development Studies at Oxford Univer- nian and Palestinian students studying at BGU. Yet, observes Abu Rabia-Queder, a lecturer in the the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, and is sity in the UK. Abu Rabia-Queder and her husband Hassan, a CPA Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy examining patterns of informal economic participation Hers is a family of outstanding achievers. Abu Rabia- who runs his own accountancy firm, live with their three Research at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert by rural Bedouin women with the aim of finding ways of Queder’s father, Dr. Yunis Abu Rabia, was the first young sons in Beer-Sheva. The boys attend a local bilin- Research, and incumbent of the D.E. Koshland Jr. strengthening their economic empowerment. Bedouin physician in Israel and opened the first Bedouin gual school run by the Hagar Association, where Jewish Family Career Development Chair in Desert Studies, In the pilot survey Abu Rabia-Queder asked Bedouin medical clinic in Rahat, near Beer-Sheva. He encouraged and Arab children learn side by side. many of these women manage to earn small but women engaged in the modest home businesses if they all his children to pursue higher education: Sarab’s four She admits to a personal motivation in her involve- significant incomes. “I observed that many women experienced a feeling of personal independence when sisters already possess or are planning to acquire Ph.D.s; ment with her research subjects. “Because I am involved, run ‘informal’ markets inside their homes, like small they earned money that contributed to the household. her brother has just earned his bachelor’s degree. because I am also part of this society, I think of what grocery stores, selling non-perishable items such as The replies, she relates, were somewhat surprising. “They In addition to many academic awards and published I can do to contribute to it,” she states. “I do the research pasta, diapers, hygienic products and cleaning mate- told me there was no such thing as ‘mine and yours,’ but studies, Abu Rabia-Queder has written two books: because I love the academic aspect of my work, but rials,” she says. “They take advantage of their ‘female rather a great deal of collaboration between the women Excluded and Loved: Educated Bedouin Women’s Life when it is about my own society, it gives me even more space’ to earn money.” and their husbands, the women and the rest of the family Stories, and Palestinian Women in Israel: Identity, motivation.” members and among the women themselves. These Power Relations and Coping, co-edited with Naomi reciprocal relations are the source of their feeling of Weiner, both in Hebrew. She also co-edited with Pnina power.” 20 | 21 implicit in our the automatic emotional reaction that we all produce far we have made some interesting findings,” he says. when we see or hear any object (e.g., a face with distinct “For example, contrary to some past research, we found attitudes ethnic features). that gay individuals display overall positive self-images, The most popular implicit measure of attitudes is and that left and right-wingers are equally pro-Jewish. the Implicit Association Test (IAT). During the test, the The ultra-Orthodox Jews show a better correlation participant is required to categorize words and pictures between explicit (self-reported) attitudes and implicit r. Yoav Bar Anan has an attitude problem using two computer keys. The researchers measure (automatic) attitudes than the other groups, perhaps That is, he works to shed light on the issues the time that it takes the participant to respond to the suggesting that their feelings and thoughts are more D that shape our attitudes, and their effects on different objects presented on the screen and use that similar than those of secular Jews.” our behavior. A social psychologist, Bar Anan defines measurement in order to compute the participant’s his job as finding the “connection between what we automatic evaluation of the objects. want and like and what we believe that we want and Bar Anan joined his colleagues in developing a Social psychology asks the most like.” For Bar Anan, a member of the Department of website that offers the test so people could check them- interesting questions about how Psychology, this primarily means looking at how we selves. Hundreds of thousands of people did, examining perceive ourselves and other people. their own preferences regarding such groups as whites people create their own self-image “Social psychology asks the most interesting and blacks, homosexuals and heterosexuals and fat and and knowledge questions about how people create their own self- thin people. For its visitors, the website provides mainly image and knowledge,” says the 34-year-old faculty an entertaining opportunity to learn about this method Dr. Yoav Bar Anan member. “I am fascinated by how we come to like or and think about the concept of automatic evaluation dislike ourselves, other people and groups.” To this and how it may influence their judgment in day-to-day On another line of research, Bar Anan also looks at end, he looks both at how people perceive themselves life. For Bar Anan, this provides thousands of data how the means to goals turn into the goals themselves. and other individuals, and their attitudes on differ- points to increase the knowledge about these measures “Money might be a classic example. It seems that people ent social groups. One example of this is the study of and about automatic evaluation. often want to pursue the act of making money, rather stereotypes and how they are formed. These tools represent no less than a revolution, he than focusing on what money can buy. The means “I want to know what drives people and human believes. “We no longer have to depend on what people become the goal. Helping behavior might also be inter- interaction,” continues Bar Anan. “I think we all seek say. While people do know their own attitudes, stereo- esting in that context. My lab tests the hypothesis that the rules that govern the behavior of human beings, types and associations regarding certain groups, they people often want to help in order to feel superior. but I could not suffice with theories. I wanted to find aren’t necessarily aware of the psychological processes “They might think that their ultimate goal is to help, out the answers.” that are at work. They don’t know when those attitudes but their actual motivation is to feel stronger. Likewise, In this pursuit, Bar Anan earned his bachelor’s are actively influencing them.” people may view good grades as being significant in and master’s degrees in social psychology from Tel Currently, Bar Anan is doing basic research on how gaining acceptance to a college program or they may Aviv University, and completed his Ph.D. at the events in life shape people’s attitudes and how these assume value unto themselves. We try to isolate the University of Virginia under Dr. Timothy Wilson, attitudes influence people’s behavior and judgment. causes of what make the means become independent one of the world’s leading experts on self-knowledge. Ultimately, he plans to apply this question to the subject goals.” “When studying attitudes regarding other people, of Jewish-Arab relations: how attitudes are formed and One thing is certain: the young researcher’s atti- you can’t ask subjects outright what they think about how to change them. In the same way, he will exam- tude towards BGU, where he has worked for two years. blacks, homosexuals, Jews or any other group. You ine how men and women are influenced by stereotypes “BGU is a very good psychology research university, need to utilize other methods,” explains Bar Anan, of, for instance, men as leaders and women as support- and our department is one of the best in Israel,” he who has become a self-proclaimed expert in measur- givers. Here, he is planning to look at people’s initial declares. “Being here is a lot like living in a college ing people’s attitudes without asking them a direct attitudes and check for changes after the subjects town in the U.S.,” continues Bar Anan, who lives in question. To assess people’s attitudes indirectly, engage in collaboration programs. Beer-Sheva. “The students’ social lives here are excel- social psychologists use a number of measures collec- Bar Anan is also examining issues of self-image lent. Since this is not a metropolis, people are brought tively called “implicit measures.” These are simple among populations such as homosexuals and lesbians, together, and the spirit of the University further tasks administered on a computer, and are based on left and right-wing Jews and the ultra-Orthodox. “So encourages this togetherness.”

22 | 23 from academia to administration Dr. Fany Yuval

Municipal authorities must be encouraged to make empirical use of our knowledge, including information about how our studies can reveal what citizens really want

t is no secret that Israeli local governments have participate in the focus groups failed, as we were objects research can be a tool in solving dilemmas on the local of childcare centers with extended hours that would been experiencing an ongoing crisis since the 1980s, of suspicion due to our Jewishness. Instead, we recruited level,” Yuval adds. enable them to bring their children to the centers well I when the Ministry of Finance added additional the services of a professional Arab group facilitator who Another burning issue is the role of local authorities before the work day begins and pick them up after they social services to the municipality basket of services conducted these focus groups in the cities of Tira, Kafr in reducing gender inequality. These gaps have hardly finish. without budgeting for it. As a result, over 100 municipal- Kassem and Jat. Based on the results, we composed a changed since the 1970s, despite the improvements in “I was brought face-to-face with the problem when ities have been struggling to stay solvent ever since, while survey of a representative sample of over 1,000 adult women’s education and the experience they have gained a former student of mine became such a women’s advi- their pressing social issues go unaddressed. Dr. Fany Israeli Arabs and revealed several important and coun- on the job. As a response to gender inequality, a new, sor and turned to me. That’s when I realized how crucial Yuval from the Department of Public Policy and Admin- ter-intuitive findings. mandatory position was created for all the municipali- it was for us to offer our survey skills and the objective, istration at the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and “The first and foremost question was, ‘What kind of ties: an official woman advisor on the status of women. useful information at our fingertips to public administra- Management believes that this situation opens the way reforms do you believe are most necessary to be taken “The problem,” explains Yuval, “is that the intelligent, tion. Municipal authorities must be encouraged to make for academia to get involved, to help local governments by the police?’ Part of the question was, ‘What ethnic motivated women selected for the new positions did not empirical use of our knowledge, including information properly identify and solve the more pressing issues that background would you most prefer the police to come really know what they were supposed to do or how to about the way widespread problems are addressed in they face. from?’ Usually, our experience was that ethnic groups reduce gender inequality in their municipalities. I am other countries and how our studies can reveal what One example of the contribution of research to prob- prefer someone of their own group to police them, but aware of the sizeable research on this subject and real- citizens really want.” lem-solving revolves around the increasing tensions this was not the case with the Muslim groups we polled. ize that information in the academic world is not easily Yuval moved with her husband and their three chil- between the Israeli police and the Arab citizens of Israel. Instead, their list of whom they did NOT want to police retrieved by those in positions of power. Another prob- dren from the Galilee to the Negev three years ago and This problem affects not only Israel, but all multicultural them was as follows: the Druze were at the top of the lem arose when it was revealed that municipalities keep she has been a fan of the region ever since. “Ben-Gurion democracies, and is characterized by “over-policing,” an list, followed by Christian Arabs; the Jews were ‘only’ in no records or statistics of gender-related aspects, neither University is warmer and friendlier than other Israeli aggressive approach that singles out minorities through third place. Finally, they did not want a Muslim from of their employees nor of their residents. (The role of the universities. People are more open here, perhaps match- methods such as profiling, and “under-policing,” the their own village, but from a different village,” explains women advisors is to reduce gender inequality among ing the wide-open spaces in this part of the country. The neglect of minority neighborhoods where police avoid Yuval, noting that clearly people’s concerns relate to the female residents, as well as female employees, of the Negev inhabitants don’t realize what a gift we have of entering certain geographic areas. This problem was very possible situation that a policeman from one’s own municipality.) Hence, a supplement was added requiring open country. addressed in a study by Yuval and her colleague Dr. Guy village is likely to be influenced by family connections. the Central Bureau of Statistics to start collecting this “The bottom line for me is that the students are Ben-Porat from the same department. “Our final recommendation was to create two-person kind of data commencing January 2009. Remember: we wonderful, my colleagues are excellent, the atmosphere “We started by organizing focus groups in the Arab police teams composed of one Jew and one Arab (from can begin to solve a problem only after we have defined is pleasant, and that’s the kind of environment we municipalities and were fortunate that the Abraham another village) to work together. This police-team and delineated it.” researchers need in order to work at peak performance.” Fund paid for this study,” explains Yuval. “Tensions recommendation is already being applied successfully by Research has shown that the most crucial problem are so high in this population that their willingness to the Misgav Regional Council. This is an example of how faced by young mothers who want to work is the absence

24 | 25 in the gallery

The exhibition, curated by Prof. Haim Maor and students in the Curatorship Course of the Department Dov Heller, Retouching, 2006 of the Arts, examined Romanian identity as manifested I Am a Romanian: screen printing on cardboard, 38x50 artist’s collection in the works of 20 Romanian and 20 Israeli artists. The Romanians are contemporary artists who deal with The Tel Aviv - Bucharest Route their national identity in the face of the accelerated Tudor Prisåcariu, Entropy, 2010 color photograph, 40x60, artist’s collection changes taking place in their country. In the aftermath of the overthrow of Ceausescu’s regime, the massive infiltration of Western European, American and global elements into Romania grew significantly. The artists presented the new reality through various means, reactions and stances: referring to critical and painful memories from the old communist regime; yearning for traditional values; folk heritage and religious symbols; criticizing self-disparagement; and the appropriation of global consumer and cultural values. Together with these artists, the exhibition featured Israeli artists of different generations – Romanian born, or descendants of Romanian-born parents. In their works, the latter artists referred directly or indirectly to their country of origin as well as to its heritage, culture, landscape and spirit, by fascinatingly merging old feelings and memories that still accompany them in their current lives in Israel.

Florin Ciulache, Reality TV, 2003 oil on canvas, 84x110, artist’s collection

Dinu Mandrea, Immigrant’s Lens, 2001 Erica Weisz Schveiger, Split Memories, 2010 Lambda print, 40x60, artist’s collection collage-drawing, photographs, fibers on transparency paper, 42x30 artist’s collection

Marcel Janco, Self-Portrait, end of the 1920s beginning of the 1930s 15.7x13, private collection

26 | 27 explains Shashar, who has played a role in a project that creates artificial reefs. The five-year-old joint effort between Israeli and Jordanian scientists is supported by the USAID as well as by Marlene and Samuel Halperin, Peter Schechter and Rosa Puech, all of Washington, DC, One of the lab’s current projects probes the animals’ and aims to attract fish and divers, giving existing reefs search for useless information. In other words, it focuses a much-needed break from overuse. on curiosity, a component of intelligence. There are The rojectp has been a success on all counts. “The different levels of curiosity, explains Shashar. It may play artificial reef has attracted the community of fish, a part in survival, as when an animal looks for a hiding including rare species, that we hoped for,” says Shashar. place or food, or it may have no immediate benefit. Now more than 40 fish species swim through or live on Each dolphin is fed at a different spot and only from the reef, similar to the number found at natural reefs. his own bucket. Nevertheless, even when they are These fish range from the common anthias or sea goldie, completely sated and don’t clean their buckets, the chromis and butterfly fish, to the far rarer ghost pipe animals check what their friends got to eat. “This repre- fish, specific gobies and pegasus fish. sents a high form of curiosity: searching for knowledge The eefr has also succeeded in attracting divers. By for the sake of knowledge,” says Shashar. steering divers away from natural reefs, the man-made Another research project at the lab involves acous- construction eases congestion there, allowing for recov- tics, focusing on rhythm. “Much of our communication ery from damage inflicted in recent years. It is for this is connected to beat and tempo. We are looking to see if deep sea secrets reason that the Israeli Nature Protection Authority has rhythm has meaning to dolphins, as well.” decided to keep the new reef indefinitely. Though he was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Tel The rojectp has been a boon not only underwater, Aviv, Shashar is anything but a city boy. He fell in love but for on-land relations as well. Collaboration between with snorkeling at Sharm El Sheikh in Sinai at age 10, the Israeli and Jordanian scientists went smoothly, and the two teams are currently seeking funding for further research. Their artificial reef is built of specially designed concrete, then planted with nursery grown corals. The cement used is both strong and attractive to marine life. In fact, Shashar and his team intentionally roughened Dr. Nadav Shashar the structure’s surface texture so that small creatures would easily find places to hide. “Although there are Students are involved in projects ranging from ceans cover 70 percent of the earth’s surface, the undergraduate to the Ph.D. level, this young BGU other artificial reefs in the world, this level of design and developing hormones for fish to designing coral contain huge concentrations of life and provide campus hosts basic and applied science research. Affili- preparation for planting coral is unique,” notes Shashar. reefs. This is a good place to do a semester abroad O sources of food, energy, medicine and income ated with the Department of Life Sciences, the program, While hundreds of new corals in the nursery can be in marine biology to the world. Scientists and students of BGU’s unique founded by Prof. Amir Sagi and currently headed by planted to replace damaged corals on natural or artificial Marine Biology and Biotechnology program, who study Dr. Uri Abdu, both of whom are also members of the reefs, Shashar stresses that artificial reefs are one tool the ocean’s organisms and habitats, are working to National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, in reef conservation, not the tool. “They must be imple- and began to volunteer in the Sinai’s Naama Field School unravel its secrets, helping to ensure the future of our operates in conjunction with the National Center of mented in conjunction with regulations, and above all, two years later. At 13, he was already scuba diving and planet. Mariculture of the Israel Oceanographic and Limno- with the establishment of marine protected areas.” he went on to do his military service in the Navy. After BGU marine biologist Dr. Nadav Shashar is primar- logical Research Institute. It offers a variety of advanced Wearing his other hat, Shashar serves as head of the doing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Tel Aviv ily a visual scientist who has discovered a private mode courses and hands-on projects for Israeli and visiting campus’s Dolphin Laboratory, which operates through University in zoology, his Ph.D. in biology at the Univer- of communication between marine animals. But also, students from abroad. an agreement between BGU and the nearby commercial sity of Maryland and post-doctoral work at the Marine he says, “I am personally motivated by the desire to give “Students are involved in projects ranging from Dolphin Reef, where it is housed. The facility is home to Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, back to the environment. I make my living from the developing hormones for fish to designing coral reefs. eight dolphins, who are fully habituated to the location – Shashar made his way to Eilat, where he lives with his marine world and want to find a way to contribute to and This is a good place to do a semester abroad in marine even if the nets surrounding the area are torn, they will wife and two daughters. relieve the pressure on it.” biology,” says Shashar. “We have a solid infrastructure always return. Visitors can swim with the dolphins, and “BGU is very dynamic, there is close contact between Shashar answers his calling at BGU’s Eilat campus, and our faculty members are able and willing to teach in “dolphin assisted therapy” is available for children with researchers in different areas, and in Eilat, the intensity where he serves as a resident marine biologist and head English.” low self-esteem or communication problems. of interaction is no less than incredible,” says Shashar, of the Dolphin Behavior Research Laboratory. Offer- Reef conservation is an important focus at the Eilat Volunteers from around the world come to the lab who never ceases to be amazed by the University’s ing degrees in marine biology and biotechnology from campus. “There are too many visitors and too few reefs for stays of at least a month. They must have a scientific supportive atmosphere. in the region. Divers are the best advocates for reef approach, says Shashar, who will automatically reject any conservation, but also some of their worst enemies,” student who wants to come “just to hug the dolphins.” 28 | 29 searching for solutions: from kabbalah to art

rof. Boaz and Dr. Ephrat Huss specialize in Boaz has found himself in demand for interviews Berg, and the old, Orthodox, predominantly Sephardi two very different academic fields – Boaz is a from the media in recent years, ever since Madonna approach found in Israel. “When Rabbi [Yitzhak] P member of the Goldstein-Goren Department popularized Kabbalah among the trendy set in the Kaddourie was asked his opinion of Madonna,” says of Jewish Thought specializing in Kabbalah, while United States and pioneered the custom among Kabbal- Huss, referring to Israel’s senior Kabbalist who died Ephrat lectures in the Charlotte B. and Jack J. Spitzer istic celebs to visit Israel. He studies Kabbalah not five years ago at the age of 100-plus, “he replied, ‘Who’s Prof. Boaz Huss Department of Social Work with a focus on developing only as a thread in Jewish history, but as a sociological Madonna?’” The widespread interest in Kabbalah, especially creative tools in the field. Still, husband and wife work phenomenon among both Jews and gentiles today. Things have changed since then, and now the two well together at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. “The widespread interest in Kabbalah, especially poles of modern Kabbalah tradition have come to resem- among the young, is part of New Age Culture – the “We often read and edit each other’s academic among the young, is part of New Age Culture – the seek- ble one another in some ways. seeking after spirituality, the turning to the East papers,” says Ephrat. “It helps that we aren’t well-versed ing after spirituality, the turning to the East. But their “It’s mistaken to see a strict dichotomy here,” says in each other’s field – it allows us to read each other’s approach to Kabbalah isn’t traditional, it’s modernist, or Huss. “There is a tension between the two, but also a papers objectively.” And as different as Kabbalah is post-modernist,” Huss explains. competition for adherents, so each side has adopted from social work, she finds a common theme in their When Madonna became interested in Kabbalah in some of the other’s approach. For instance, traditional academic pursuits: “We’re both doing very innovative the 1990s, there was a complete dichotomy between Kabbalah used to be about secret knowledge, but now kinds of research.” the budding “Hollywood” version, led by Rabbi Philip it’s open to all. On both sides, the practice of Kabbalah 30 | 31 advances in communications technology – the greater ease in publishing books – just as the spread of Kabbalah today is aided by the Internet and Facebook.” Huss began researching traditional Kabbalah in 1982. “At the time, it was generally thought that Kabbalah was fading into oblivion,” he says. “But now I think it’s prob- ably accurate to say that we still have not seen the peak of its popularity.” About being married to a BGU colleague, even in such a different field as social work, he smiles, “It’s nice Dr. Ephrat Huss to be able to have a cup of coffee together and talk about work. We learn a lot from each other.” Creativity helps mobilize resistance Ephrat specializes in using art in creative ways to help marginalized populations such as poor Jews in Beer- and problem-solving ability not only in Sheva’s Dalet neighborhood and Bedouins throughout at-risk populations, but also in the the Negev. “The use of art in social work is a discipline people who serve them being taught in Israel only at Ben-Gurion University,” she says. “It’s a way to understand these populations and to give them a chance to explain how they under- neighborhood – thus, the arts initiated social change. stand their problems. Art by definition taps into peoples’ “In a project involving Bedouin children from recog- creativity and resourses, rather than defining them as nized and unrecognized settlements,” Ephrat continues, passive and problematic. Art gives voice to marginalized “one of my students had them draw pictures of their groups, enabling social advocacy that can help to adjust homes, and these showed very blatantly how the children government policy that affects them.” in unrecognized settlements experience a greater feeling The use of art in social work is very advanced in of risk, trauma and deprivation than those in the recog- Israel, and not by coincidence. “There is such a mix of nized villages. The pictures of home in the unrecognized cultures and languages here that spoken language is settlements were disconnected from the ground, some- not always the most effective way for people to express times torn down, and without doors or windows.” Again, their needs. Art, however, is a universal language; it’s this was important evidence for policy makers. something everyone can use for self-expression. It’s For all the benefit these creative tools offer the clients action-oriented, and the clients whom social work- of social workers, they also have a therapeutic effect on ers deal with will respond better to art than, say, to the social workers themselves, says Huss. “During Oper- psychotherapy,” she continues. “It’s also a very popular ation Cast Lead, social workers and hospital workers technique with social work students because it allows were exposed to so much trauma in clients and patients them to be creative and hopeful in a field where they that it was having a secondary traumatic effect on them are liable to get burned out by impossible caseloads and as well. We held art workshops with them and found it is less theoretical than what used to be the more countenanced teaching this knowledge to Jewish women, shrinking government budgets.” was an effective way of getting them to bring their feel- traditional approach, with less emphasis on texts and let alone gentiles, but that’s changed,” says Huss. “Even Huss encourages students to work on projects that go ings to the surface and to self-regulate, as a preliminary more on the search for solutions to problems, from find- Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and Chabad Rabbi beyond filling out forms. “For example, a student work- step to helping others. ing a spouse to improving world ecology.” Yitzhak Ginsburgh, two of the most insular-minded ing with young girls in the Dalet neighborhood had “My claim,” Huss concludes, “is that creativity helps Nearly every contemporary Jewish religious denomi- rabbis in Israel, do not object to Kabbalah being taught them photograph the things about their environment mobilize resistance and problem-solving ability not only nation has taken up some form of Kabbalah, he adds: to gentiles.” that they liked, and the things they didn’t. The photos in at-risk populations, but also in the people who serve the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform, as well as the The current upsurge in interest in Kabbalah is not showed that the girls were especially upset about all the them.” Jewish renewal movement. Furthermore, the exposure of unprecedented in Jewish history, he adds; a similar dirt and garbage in the neighborhood, and in the group Originating from Jerusalem, Ephrat came to BGU non-Jewish celebrities such as Madonna, Ashton Kutcher Kabbalistic wave swept through the Jewish world in the discussions it came out that they weren’t just upset about after Boaz was given a faculty position here. “At the and Demi Moore to Kabbalah has spread the tradition 18th century. “At that time interest in this knowledge the aesthetics, but that they felt the dirt and garbage beginning, I missed Jerusalem,” she acknowledges. “But among non-Jews at large – and old-style Kabbalah has likewise spread among the young, also among some reflected on them personally. It damaged their self- soon I realized that the Negev offers endless opportuni- made allowances for this trend. Christians. It was influenced by the messianism asso- esteem. The group sent a letter to the Beer-Sheva City ties for people in my field. As for BGU, it’s an innovative “In the past, Jewish Kabbalists would never have ciated with Shabtai Zvi, and was also helped along by Council containing this message, to dramatize what’s at university, it gravitates to new ideas. So it turns out we stake in the mundane issue of garbage collection in the both came to the right place.”

32 | 33 Urban Microclimate: Designing the The Contradictions of Judgment, Decision-Making Spaces Between Buildings Israeli Citizenship and Success in Sport Evyatar Erell, David Pearlmutter Guy Ben-Porat and Bryan S. Turner (eds.) Michael Bar-Eli, Henning Plessner and Terry Williamson Routledge, 2011 and Markus Raab Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2011 This book, edited by Dr. Guy Ben-Porat Wiley-Blackwell, 2010 The quality of life of millions of people living from the Department of Public Policy What determines “success” and “failure” in cities could be improved if the form of the and Administration in the Guilford Glazer in sports? Clearly, good judgment and city were to evolve in a manner appropriate Faculty of Business and Management decision-making play a crucial role in to its climatic context. Climatically together with Prof. Bryan Turner from influencing sporting outcomes. But what responsive urban design is vital to any the University of Western Sydney, do we really know about the implications of notion of sustainability: it enables individual Australia, provides an integrated analysis judgment and decision-making on sport? buildings to make use of renewable energy of the complex nature of citizenship Prof. Michael Bar-Eli from the Department sources for passive heating and cooling; in Israel. Contributions from leading of Business Administration in the Guilford it enhances pedestrian comfort and social and political theorists explore Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, activity in outdoor spaces; and it may even different aspects of citizenship through together with co-authors Prof. Henning encourage city dwellers to moderate their the demands and struggles of minority Plessner from the University of Heidelberg dependence on private vehicles. Profs. groups to provide a comprehensive and Prof. Markus Raab of Flensburg Evyatar Erell and David Pearlmutter from picture of the dynamics of Israeli University, introduce the fundamental the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert citizenship and the dilemmas that emerge approaches of Judgment and Decision- Research and Prof. Terence Williamson from at the collective and individual levels. The Making (JDM) research in psychology and the University of Adelaide, Australia, have book identifies and explores processes of apply them directly to a variety of JDM co-authored this volume that bridges the inclusion and exclusion that are general problems in sport. Specific judgment and gap between climatology research and issues in any modern polity with a highly decision-making problems encountered by applied urban design. The book provides diverse civil society. While the focus is athletes, coaches, managers and referees architects and urban design professionals unambiguously on modern Israel, the are considered, and recommendations with an understanding of how the structure interpretations of citizenship are relevant are made for their effective resolution. of the built environment at all scales to many other modern societies that Topics include evaluation of athletic affects microclimatic conditions in the face similar contradictory tendencies in performance, motivational and emotional space between buildings, and analyzes the membership. judgments, optimizing judgment processes, interaction between microclimate and each the decisions of coaches, managers and of the elements of the urban landscape. Anthropological Studies in referees, and the prediction of sports results. Post-Socialist Micro-Economies The Washington Haggadah in the Balkans: Creative Survival International Business: Joel ben Simeon Adaptations in Bulgaria and Theory and Practice Introduction by David Stern Yugoslavia Ehud Menipaz and Amit Menipaz and Katrin Kogman-Appel Gideon M. Kressel Sage Publications Ltd., 2011 Harvard University Press, 2011 Edwin Mellen Press, 2010 What are the fundamental challenges After the Bible, the Passover haggadah In this study in economic anthropology, and emerging trends of international is the most widely read classic text in Prof. Gideon Kressel from the Jacob business today? What are the impacts of On the corporate social responsibility and the the Jewish tradition. More than 4,000 Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research editions have been published since the late focuses on micro-changes in economic ever expanding use of digital technology fifteenth century, but few are as exquisite and social orders in Eastern Europe, mainly on corporate strategies and executive as the Washington Haggadah, which in Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia, in decisions? Prof. Ehud Menipaz from the resides in the Library of Congress. Now, the 1990s. The fall of the Soviet Union and Department of Industrial Engineering and a full color facsimile edition brings this the communist regimes of its European Management and Amit Menipaz from the beautiful illuminated manuscript to a new satellite states marked the onset of eBay SDC Development Center, address generation. Joel ben Simeon was among profound economic and political changes these questions by providing a broad the most gifted and prolific scribe-artists in among European populations that had overview of the subject. Current critical the history of the Jewish book. Prof. Katrin been battered almost continuously since issues in international business are analyzed Kogman-Appel from the Department of the 1940s. The emerging outcomes of and explored, including business ethics, the Arts has written an introduction with this collapse have been first and foremost corporate social responsibility in an era Prof. David Stern from the University of the shattering consequences for ordinary of unprecedented globalization and the Pennsylvania, showing how ben Simeon people struggling to live their daily lives. rise of the global entrepreneur and the was an active agent of cultural exchange. As The responses of societies to extreme democratization of competition worldwide, he traveled between Jewish communities, conditions are best learned through the as well as applications of technology in he brought elements of Ashkenazi mundane activities of people buffeted by a digital economy. The book covers key haggadah illustration to Italy and returned the circumstances and re-crafting their issues in international business, including with stylistic devices acquired during his lives in concert. These responses are not ways to leverage digital technologies and journeys. Realistic illustrations of day-to- learned best through the summations or supply chains in the global context. To day life provide a rare window into the quick takes that journalists and the mass help the reader understand these issues world of late fifteenth-century Europe. This media specialize in, but through the patient with relevance to business practitioners edition faithfully preserves the original text, collection of qualitative data over lengthy this textbook includes insights from global with the Hebrew facsimile appearing in the periods informed, substantively, reflectively, managers and entrepreneurs. 34 | 35 original right-to-left orientation. by the analytical senses of the social sciences. Illicit Drugs Natan Kopeika and Arkadi Zilberman from fore and discussed in several contexts. This (Health and Medical Issues Today) the Department of Electrical and Computer study likewise touches upon the complex Engineering – detail the role of atmospheric relationship of the individual, family, Richard E. Isralowitz and Peter L. Myers structures in propagation phenomena community and political context, as well as Greenwood, 2011 that influence the transmission of optical that between the narrator-performer and Some 20 million Americans aged 12 and signals through perturbed atmospheric the relative-researcher. communication channels. The book older use marijuana, cocaine, heroin, Self-Regulation: Brain, amphetamines, ecstasy or other illicit drugs. examines numerous situations in over- The cost to society is enormous – more than the-terrain atmospheric communication Cognition, and Development $300 billion annually for related expenses channels, including the effects of natural Andrea Berger phenomena and the corresponding such as health-care and treatment, social American Psychological Association, 2011 services, law enforcement and losses due features (turbulences and hydrometeors) on Prof. Andrea Berger from the Department to crime. Prof. Richard Isralowitz from the optical ray propagation and also addresses of Psychology explores the links between Jack J. and Charlotte B. Spitzer Department line-of-sight as well as obstructive non-line- self-regulation and genetic predisposition, of Social Work and Prof. Peter Meyers from of-sight propagation conditions. The text early experience and later adult functioning Grand Canyon University, Arizona, examine also provides time-saving suggestions for in society. Humans self-regulate whenever the nature and scope of this far-reaching determining which optical devices will work they adapt their emotions and actions problem. The book begins with an overview best for minimizing the deleterious effects to situational requirements according to of illicit drug use and abuse, including their of natural atmospheric phenomena. internalized social standards and norms. history and risk factors. The scope of illicit Book of Sins Self-regulation encompasses skills such as drug use in the United States is covered, paying attention, inhibiting reflexive actions including conditions that encourage Nidaa Khoury and delaying gratification. People need self- the practice, costs, related policies and House of Nehesi Publishers, 2010 regulation for navigating in the social world, programs, and prevention and treatment This book of poetry by Dr. Nidaa Khoury academic life and indeed, in every aspect of considerations. The authors look at from the Department of Hebrew Literature life. While both environmental and genetic populations at risk, as well as international is presented in three parts: English, Hebrew factors have direct, long-lasting influences aspects of illicit drugs, such as production, and Arabic. Its release represents the first on an individual’s ability to self-regulate, trafficking and consumption. time Khoury’s writing is available to English these factors also interact with each other Integrated Nanophotonic Devices audiences. Khoury is one of the few Arab in critical ways. While environmental factors women writers whose works are translated such as parental attachment can shape Zeev Zalevsky and Ibrahim Abdulhalim into English. The poems present centuries the epigenetics and the expression of William Andrew, 2010 of humanity, its hopes and fears, sweat and the individual genotype, gene variations tears, resolve and fragility. They question Nanophotonics is a field of science and may increase vulnerability to certain and defy boundaries – political, emotional environmental pathogens. technology based on the manipulation of and stylistic. Rays of light connecting light with miniscule structures, in the same readers in this hemisphere with the Middle Obesity in Pregnancy: way that computer chips are used to route East, the book is a “must read” for those and switch electrical signals. By enabling A Comprehensive Guide who believe that to build a better future, we Eyal Sheiner (ed.) new high bandwidth and high speed need to understand and respect the past optoelectronic components, nanophotonics and the present. Nova Science Publishers, 2010 has the potential to revolutionize the fields of telecommunications, computation Soul of Saul: The Life, Narrative and Obesity is an ever-growing epidemic and and sensing. Nano-integrated photonic a leading cause of morbidity and mortality Proverbs of a Transylvanian-Israeli in the Western world, with over two- modulation devices and sensors are the Grandfather components that will see nanophotonics thirds of the population above the age of moving out of the lab into a new generation Ilana Rosen 20 in the United States being considered of products and services. Prof. Ibrahim Vermont University Press, 2011 overweight. The worldwide increase Abdulhalim from the Unit of Electro-Optics in the prevalence of overweight and Present-day proverb research deals obesity has affected specifically women Engineering, together with Prof. Zeev with issues of identity, space, relations Zalevsky from Bar-Ilan University, explore of reproductive age. Maternal obesity and dialogue. Prof. Ilana Rosen of the represents a critical modifiable risk factor one of the key technologies emerging Department of Hebrew Literature examines within nanophotonics: that of nano- for adverse pregnancy outcomes with these issues with regard to the overall folk serious obstetric implications for both the integrated photonic modulation devices creation and performance of her father- and sensors. mother and the fetus. Prof. Eyal Sheiner in-law Saul Rosenzweig, an elderly Israeli from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Applied Aspects of Optical Jew of Austro-Hungarian (Transylvanian) professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology origin. Rosenzweig’s oeuvre is analyzed by Communication and LIDAR at the Soroka University Medical Center a four-fold model consisting of the thematic examines how obstetric morbidities are Nathan Blaunstein, Shlomi Arnon, domains of chronology, ethos, topology associated with obesity. Specific attention is Arkadi Zilberman and Natan Kopeika and style, which the author designed given to bariatric surgery and the outcome to account for the richness of material Auerbach Publications, 2010 of subsequent pregnancies. Also discussed and meaning in family and community is how scanning obese patients is one of Exploring the practical aspects of folklore. The result is a combined, close the major challenges of sonographers and atmospheric optical communication and reading of a few telling narratives and of how it limits their ability to fully evaluate Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR), the 60 proverbs and sayings told and recorded an individual’s condition and provide an authors – Prof. Nathan Blaunstein of the in Hungarian, Yiddish and Romanian. Thus accurate anatomic survey. 36 | 37 Department of Communication Systems the relations among narratives, proverbs, Engineering, and Professors Shlomi Arnon, genres and languages are brought to the overcoming obstacles a negev fan

Twenty-four-year-old Tamar Miller has not Negev at the age of sixteen. “It was love Amit Puterkovski is a master of contradictions. South Africa. It allows me to continue my students making a difference had an easy life. She credits much of her at first sight. I promised myself, ‘That’s the students making a difference Though he once considered becoming an volunteer work with less financial stress.” ability of surmounting obstacles to the university I’m going to go to!’ That was my engineer, he instead opted to study the two Today Puterkovski is a volunteer for example provided by her mother Yael, who goal.” After graduating high school with subjects he is most passionately interested the Paamonin organization, dedicated is only 42. “When she was only 22 years old, a computer science major, she rose to the in: psychology and Jewish thought – “For to helping Israeli families learn how to my mother was alone and had to provide level of a Human Resources Officer during my soul,” he explains. manage household finances and to budget for me and my younger sister,” she explains. her army service. Then she worked in order “During a long trip to South America themselves; in practice that means he While her mother was working, Miller often to save up for college. after my army service, I decided I had two mentors a family in financial difficulties looked after her younger sister, and while Getting accepted to BGU’s Department goals: to help others and to understand and meets with the parents weekly. He they often lacked basic necessities, there of Industrial Engineering and Management myself, my country and religion in depth. volunteers for Tzemach, an organization were decent schools in their neighborhood was a major achievement. But Miller So I decided to follow my heart’s desire in that sends university students to teach in Ashdod, and Miller became a good explains that she also had to work, and the my studies,” says Puterkovski. His ultimate classes in a local high school to strengthen student. load became unbearable. goal is to advance to a combined master’s their connection with, and commitment “Over the years, I continued taking care “I almost gave up my dream, and then degree in business administration and to, their country. In addition, he spends of my sister – taking her to kindergarten, I was privileged to receive a scholarship management of non-profit organizations. Wednesday nights with Jamilla, a project making sure she had something to eat – from the Moshal Scholarship Program. This Puterkovski’s involvement in community under the aegis of the Drug Enforcement while also taking care of myself and my support pays for my tuition and rent, and service is impressive and long-standing, Agency, helping at-risk youth who hang schoolwork. I grew up really quickly has made an enormous difference – now but he says that it was his work during out in a local park. He is also involved in and with a very strong sense of family I am able to focus on my schoolwork.” the 2005 disengagement from Gaza and the Simcha La’yeled NGO for children with responsibility. Meanwhile, my mother did The Moshal Scholarship is given to highly Northern Samaria that really solidified his relatively rare genetic diseases such as the impossible: in addition to working, motivated, low-income students with commitment. juvenile diabetes and dysautonomia, and is she studied for an undergraduate degree the hope that their university studies will “I helped found the organization Lev logistics director of a six-day summer camp in English and education, and completed help them find employment and improve Echad (One Heart) Community Crisis Aid. that hosts about 120 children who have her degree with a grade of 93!” she recalls. their financial situations, and ultimately We helped the families that were forced to widely different medical and nutritional “When I was a child of about eleven I contribute to Israeli society. leave their homes to cope with the trauma needs. remember watching my mother sitting over Miller was also one of a lucky few on a non-political, strictly personal level. If that wasn’t enough, Puterkovski has her papers during the small hours of the who were selected to take part in a new, Later on, Lev Echad assisted the Israeli recently begun working in the BGU Student night. I was so proud of her.” technological cutting-edge volunteer home-front populations who were targeted Association as a student involvement Miller explains that her mother, who program called the Nachshon Project. The during the Second Lebanon War and coordinator. “My job as coordinator went on to teach English in the local school, program offers low-cost, subsidized virtual Operation Cast Lead.” is to create a program to improve the never allowed herself or her children to feel tutoring in advanced mathematics and During his compulsory military service, atmosphere on campus even more, to sorry for themselves. “She always taught us physics to middle and high school students Puterkovski became company commander heighten social consciousness and stress to look at the half-full cup, to appreciate the living in the periphery. In Miller’s case, she and accompanied the same group of volunteerism.” things we had – like our health – and not tutors math online to two groups of three recruits for a full two years. “I call them ‘my He admits that he’s become a Negev those that we lacked – like proper food and eleventh graders via a special computer kids’ – I’m still in touch with them to this fan, a place he describes as “lacking the clothing. She taught us never to give up; to program that comes equipped with study day, and even with some of their parents.” estrangement you find in the crowded believe that we could succeed in life; and of materials. She explains the material using a He received the Outstanding Soldier Award center of the country.” The problem, he course – to acquire a higher education.” microphone and also answers questions. of his entire division in 2008. He spent two believes, is that the good salt-of-the-earth Tamar Miller Miller had many friends in the “I’ve never actually met my protégés Amit Puterkovski years working before he studied, but also people in the Negev lack a sense of their neighborhood, and admits that she face-to-face, but I am so proud of them – found time to volunteer with Elem, an NGO own potential. “My dream is to show sometimes felt a tug at her heart to see they did well on their matriculation exams dealing with youth-at-risk in Jerusalem. them what they are capable of, and work their “regular” homes and families with and I feel as if I really ‘know’ them,” she says. His volunteer activities take up so much together to make a difference. If you want “two parents and takeout pizza.” But she Miller gets much satisfaction from this time, he admits that it is difficult to hold to march forward you must create a path for avoided feeling sorry for herself. “Instead,” volunteer work and has even created new down a job in addition to studies and people to follow, to grow from the bottom- she says, “I became . . . driven: to overcome study charts and materials on mathematics community service. “I was very grateful up, grass-roots level. For anyone who wants obstacles, to succeed and to help others.” that she added to the Nachshon Project to be a recipient of the Lubner Prize for to influence and be influenced by others, Miller recalls that she had her first database. Community Service, made possible through anyone who wants to contribute to society glimpse of Ben-Gurion University of the the generosity of Vice-Chairman of the and receive in return – the Negev is the Board of Governors Bertram Lubner of ideal place to do it.” 38 | 39 pursuing her dream citizens aware

“Since I was a little girl, I’ve known that I much during my studies: I still have to study Tal Kanias, a 28-year-old student double mistake was not corrected. Kanias then students making a difference wanted to be a physician,” explains Safa longer and harder than others in order to students making a difference majoring in politics and government and took the struggle to Facebook. “We had no Abu Hani, 24, from the Bedouin city of master the material. That’s just the way it Israel studies, views his university education money to wage this battle, so I asked the Rahat, who is now a 6th year medical is.” The last obstacle of all – financial – is still and his social activism as two parts of one 2,000 Beer-Sheva citizens who had filled student at the Joyce and Irving Goldman the most intractable. whole. From the beginning, Ben-Gurion out our Mei Sheva complaint form to print Medical School. “There is a proverb in the “I received a number of scholarships over University of the Negev was the obvious out flyers I’d put on Facebook. I asked each Koran that ‘whoever saves a single life, it is the years, from the Robert H. Arnow Center choice. “I knew that I wanted to utilize person to print out and put 20 flyers in their as if he saves the entire world’.” That exact for Bedouin Studies and Development, my university studies for two purposes: neighbors’ mailboxes. This way we were able saying appears in the Jewish Talmud as well. as well as from the Office of the Dean of to expand my knowledge in the sphere to reach most of the city’s population on a It was not easy for Abu Hani to realize Students, and I am very grateful. Still, there of governance in general and in Israel in shoestring budget and connect with people her dream of studying in medical school. is a shortfall.” To close that gap in part, on particular; and to contribute to society, who don’t have Internet access.” The obstacles were numerous. First, she Fridays, Abu Hani teaches Rahat 9th graders especially in the neglected periphery of the Kanias contacted the city’s mayor, the had to supplement her standard education about the human body. country.” press and the office of the state comptroller to be able to qualify. “I studied in a local Abu Hani also volunteers in the “Perach” BGU’s location fit his plan perfectly, so (among others) with his grassroots struggle, school in Rahat from kindergarten through mentoring program with children aged Kanias left his home in Yahud in central thus leading to a public discourse of all the 12th grade. I was a good student and 2-18 who are hospitalized at the Soroka Israel for Beer-Sheva. water corporations in the country – and the enjoyed physics and electronics. Luckily University Medical Center. She helps run the During his first two years of university effects of unregulated privatization. I was able to attend a special pre-med children’s playrooms scattered throughout studies, Kanias volunteered in the Ayalim “We don’t say that privatization is bad. preparatory lecture program on Fridays the hospital wards (pediatric, pediatric Student Village in the underprivileged It’s lack of regulation that’s the problem,” in Rahat called Nitzanei Refuah (Health oncology, etc.) and supervises the children’s Daled neighborhood. He directed an explains Kanias. “I learned a great deal from Cadets) run by BGU’s Faculty of Health play groups. She frequently serves as Ayalim Association Youth Center counselor this one issue. Sciences aimed mainly at the Bedouin interpreter, providing both medical staff dealing with at-risk youth. “We had a “The lesson to be learned,” he believes, “is population. As a result, I was fortunate to be information and emotional support. group of about 15 high school drop-outs not only about water services, but about the accepted to medical school.” Abu Hani was one out of only three who basically hung around on the streets, nature of our civil servants, the functioning The next obstacle facing Abu Hani was BGU recipients of the Daughters for Life looking for trouble. We mentored them and of our democracy. So many Israelis have a familial: she needed her father’s permission. Award created by Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish in tried to give them tools for life.” Although fatalistic, apathetic view that nothing can “He tried to convince me to become a memory of his daughters who were killed Kanias gained satisfaction from this and be done, but I don’t agree. A community teacher – that’s a popular study-track for in January 2009 when their home in Gaza other forms of community work, he felt of aware citizens – a civil society – is crucial Bedouin girls. But I was adamant; I had was shelled in Operation Cast Lead. The instinctively that his inclinations tended to ensure the basic rights of citizens and talked about my dream for years. So once awards are given to outstanding students toward a more politically oriented sphere. the proper functioning of elected officials. I was actually accepted to medical school, for “demonstrated academic excellence, The turning point came with an inflated I have a message for everyone: that we all father yielded and gave his permission.” creativity, compassion, a developed sense water bill from the new municipal water deserve better and we can live better if we And why the Joyce and Irving Goldman of humanity, the overcoming of adversity, company. About three years ago, water work together. We are still a young country, Medical School? devotion to improving the circumstances of services in Israel that used to be provided and there’s a lot to do to create just laws “This medical school is community girls and women, and financial hardship.” by local municipalities were privatized. In and regulations. These issues cross political, oriented and that appealed to me. For Abu Hani is an articulate, modest Beer-Sheva they are now provided by the religious and ethnic boundaries to unite example, medical students talk to the young woman who admits to being Mei Sheva Corporation. Kanias discovered us all.” patients in the very first semester, not to uncomfortable at being the center of that his complaint was only one of many, Kanias, a recipient of the 2011 Lubner Safa Abu Hani treat them medically, but to discuss their attention. “It wasn’t easy for me to make the Tal Kanias and his detective work revealed many other Prize for Community Service, is poised to feelings with them.” transition from Rahat to medical school,” disgruntled consumers. establish a movement based on the civil However, there were additional she explains. She has not yet made up her “Many of us tried resolving our society concept in order to promote quality obstacles, both scholastic and financial. mind whether to specialize in gynecology complaints through the corporation, and of life in Israel. “We have created a practical, “I studied a full year in the academic or family medicine. we even tried approaching the municipality, multi-dimensional model for creating a civil preparatory program to catch up on the Through her actions, Abu Hani serves as but nothing was done.” Eventually the society or lobby group to change the face of biology and chemistry I had missed in high a mentor for girls and young women in the problem received attention after a disabled Israeli society,” he proclaims. school. The scholastic level of our school Bedouin community, whom she encourages senior citizen received an NIS 11,000 water Thus Kanias had found his mission. system is lower than in regular Israeli to pursue their dreams and reach their bill. Although it was an egregious error, schools, and I have to work hard to narrow highest potential. despite multiple attempts on his part, the the gaps. That’s also why I can’t work very 40 | 41 a bundle of energy enriching the children

Maayan Arbiv is not deterred by the activities such as crafts projects, plays, even Twenty-six-year-old Omri Afgin from part in activities until the evening hours students making a difference fact that most people are surprised by cleaning up the neighborhood! These are students making a difference Rehovot knew he wanted to study industrial when they go home. her unusual decision to study nuclear difficult children but I’m crazy about them engineering and management at Ben- “We are supposed to tutor these engineering. “People tend to instinctively and they know it. They’ve become like Gurion University of the Negev, but did not children, many of whom have problems move away from me and exclaim, ‘Aren’t you real siblings – they come to tell me their know how he would finance his education. with reading easy texts and solving simple worried about radioactivity?’ and I say, ‘No, problems.” “Engineering studies are very intensive; arithmetic exercises. The problem is in radioactivity is everywhere.’ In our studies Arbiv’s relationship with the children is besides regular assignments and tests you convincing them to show up on a regular we are careful to wear protective suits and so strong that she makes special efforts to have to learn a lot of the material on your basis. So I first worked on developing take protective measures even though the travel from her home in Ashkelon to visit own because the lectures only scratch the a personal relationship with them, and radioactivity levels we are exposed to over them during her summer break. She has surface. In addition, I had to work part-time afterwards was able to focus on tutoring.” a long time period are still much lower than also become very close with her fellow during my first semester, and it was very In addition, Afgin and other volunteers a person might be exposed to on a routine Open Apartment student staffers in Beer- difficult to keep up with my studies.” organize various activities for the afternoon airplane flight.” Sheva’s Gimmel neighborhood. Because even as a child Afgin could not hours. “We emphasize social activities with Although Arbiv is only in her second In addition, she mentors an adoptive rely on financial help from his family, he discussions about current events and their year, she knows that she wants to continue family in financial distress – a young believes that “I matured more quickly, with upcoming army service and sports. During on to a master’s degree in the field of couple with six children – as part of the a more reasoned, prudent outlook on life their school vacations we take them on nuclear energy. “Despite the nuclear-power Open Apartments project. “I have many than other kids my own age. In high school trips and hikes to broaden their horizons. setbacks we’ve seen this past year in Japan’s conversations with the parents about I worked to earn pocket money. I learned I get tremendous satisfaction from my Fukoshima reactors,” she says, “I believe that prioritizing monetary expenditures and to think ahead and plan for a career in mentoring, and I continue to invest many alternative sources of energy are critical on budgeting. For example, they might buy which I could support myself.” He worked more hours in these kids beyond the a national as well as international level. Of expensive Purim costumes for each of for several years in the regular army after requirements. I’m just gratified to see how course, we do have to learn our lessons from their six children and are then left without his compulsory service, but admits that he much they have progressed.” Fukoshima to make nuclear energy even money for food. I was one of six children wasn’t able to save up much for university Afgin explains why he chose BGU. safer.” when my father passed away. I learned the studies because he had to help out at home. “There is no other university in Israel with Arbiv is very concerned about importance of budgeting and avoiding It was the Moshal Scholarship Program the kind of student body cohesiveness environmental pollution and believes in impulse purchases from my mother, who that came to Afgin’s rescue. The program and positive atmosphere that you find at the use of nuclear power plants to produce was forced to support the family on her supports low-income but highly motivated BGU,” he explains. “Here, we don’t just sit electricity. The study of nuclear energy on own.” students to complete their university in class together and then go home. Here, the master’s level also deals with alternative Arbiv is a recipient of an ISEF Foundation education with qualifications that will we’re together after school hours to study energy sources such as sun and wind- scholarship that is granted to students with enable them to fulfill their dreams of together, to meet one another. Those of us powered energy. Arbiv is intrigued by the real leadership potential. As part of the economic freedom. This scholarship enables who don’t live in the student dorms tend to hydrogen fuel cell automobile research field. program, she works with two 12th grade Afgin to pay tuition and rent while devoting rent apartments surrounding the University. Such a vehicle would convert the chemical girls. “I tutor them and help them prepare himself to his studies. In exchange, he does “It’s the Friday night scene on Rager energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy. A for the matriculation exams in all the community service, as mandated by the Boulevard that really typifies BGU,” he says. hydrogen automobile would not contribute subjects in which they need help. We also scholarship. “I thank the Moshal Program “Walk down there on any given Friday to carbon dioxide emissions, thus lowering have long conversations and they ask me a for enabling me to do volunteer work in the night and you’ll see that it’s full of smiling air pollution. lot of questions about army service; I served Be’er Sova program,” he says. students walking in both directions, But Arbiv is no reclusive ivory tower as a Budgets and Maintenance Officer in the This program runs two projects: a carrying steaming pots of food and chairs.” Maayan Arbiv scholar. She has been active for the last two Air Force. But mainly I try to instill in them Omri Afgin restaurant facility serving 250 people every Why pots and chairs? “It’s a BGU student years in the Open Apartments Program as the drive to acquire a higher education. day for the nominal price of one shekel, tradition to get together for the Friday night part of the Community Action Unit. “This I too had to overcome a lot of obstacles and an after-school enrichment center meal in our tiny apartments; you either year I operate an afternoon youth center to become a BGU student, and I am very with middle and high school children from host guests or are invited out. If you’re in a shelter for children in disadvantaged grateful for the ISEF scholarship that enables disadvantaged backgrounds. Afgin spends invited out, then you bring a pot of food neighborhoods, with about 10-15 children. me to study.” most of his volunteer time in the latter to contribute to the meal, and a chair so Together with another student-volunteer I program, Be’er Sova’s Enrichment Center, you’ll have somewhere to sit. If you’re the help them with their homework, organize where he mentors 14-16 year olds who host, you’ll find that some of your guests are come there straight from school. There they friends-of-friends you’ve never met before. eat a hot lunch, do their homework and take That’s BGU!” 42 | 43 o be honest, all I knew about the ubiquitin of chemists creating molecules for the study of disease, (regulatory protein) system three years ago which is a biological process, was still suspect – it was the “T was that two Israeli scientists had won the purview of biologists. The biologist either extracted the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in this area,” protein or expressed it in a bacterium or another organ- says organic chemist Prof. Ashraf Brik, referring to ism, or host, by various molecular biology techniques. Profs. Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, who won “That was the state of the art at the time,” says Brik. the 2004 prize with American Prof. Irwin Rose. Now “But since then, a new field has emerged where chem- Brik, a member of the Department of Chemistry, the ists are starting to chemically synthesize these molecules, National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev and one building block at a time, in the right order, and you the Edmond J. Safra Center for the Design and Engineer- end up with these molecular structures. The beauty of the ing of Functional Biopolymers in the Negev, is carrying chemical approach is that you can chemically introduce on the work, whose ultimate purpose is to better under- modifications on the real molecular structure that allows stand certain cancers, diseases of the immune system you to study these proteins in a different way than the and Parkinson’s disease, where ubiquitin could play an biologists are able to do.” important role. When proteins in the cell don’t function properly, or What Brik and his assistants did discover was a when they become degraded, disease develops. “So we new method of chemically synthesizing ubiquitinated need to study these proteins, study their function, their proteins, which is invaluable to the study of these structure, how they carry out their function, but to study diseases. The breakthrough came in 2009, he explains this you need to have the proteins in hand.” This is where modestly. Brik’s research comes in. “It’s something we actually saw happening in front “When you take a protein called ubiquitin and join of our eyes; we could follow the chemical reactions. We it to a certain other kind of protein, the resulting mole- mixed elements together and observed the reactions cule gives a signal for protein degradation, which is the using our analytical tools – a system known as HPLC – essence of disease. high performance liquid chromatography – coupled with “Ciechanover, Hershko and Rose won their Nobel mass spectrometry. These basically gave us the molecu- Prize for discovering the nature of one of the ubiqui- lar mass so we knew what the molecule being created tin molecules, but there are at least seven of them, and was composed of. It’s a picture you see – a straight line, scientists have been limited in their study of these mole- then a peak. That peak tells you that something new has cules because they could not create them in the lab, formed and the mass spectrometer tells you the molecu- even though they knew they existed in the cell and have lar weight of that peak. And the weight was the number important functions,” explains Brik. “So what we did in we were looking for. How did we react when we saw it? my lab was to show that we can make all seven ubiquitin We said, ‘Wow, it’s happening! The chemical reaction we molecules by introducing advanced chemical methods, were hoping to see is working’,” says Brik, noting that he which allows cancer, Parkinson’s and immune disease was aided in his work by Ajish Kumar, a talented post- researchers to study these molecules in all aspects. Ulti- doctoral student from India. mately, this research will advance the search for drugs to At that point, Brik and his colleague knew what they combat these diseases.” had found, but they still had to tell the scientific world. Brik, 37, lives in Beer-Sheva with his wife Sawsan and The next step was to publish the results. their son Jude. He received his bachelor’s degree at BGU “We published the first paper on our experiments and his master’s at the Technion - Israel Institute of Tech- in Angewandte Chemie, the leading international jour- nology, after which he pursued his doctoral studies at the nal of chemistry. Then we went on and published two Technion and San Diego’s Scripps Institute, where he also more papers in the same journal – one that was related did his post-doctoral work. Prof. Ashraf Brik to understanding the effect of ubiquitination in Parkin- Despite being aware of the acclaim that research in son’s disease, and this year another paper showing how ubiquitination has gained his colleagues Ciechanover and we synthesized all seven ubiquitin chains. We’ve just had Hershko, the Nobel Prize is not what keeps Brik at work. protein potential another paper accepted for publication, which also deals “My motivation is to push the ball forward, to advance with the synthesis of more complicated ubiquitin chains. knowledge and science for the sake of improving life.” It’s a picture you see – a straight line, then a peak. All four of these papers received a lot of attention from That breakthrough he and his colleagues saw in the lab That peak tells you that something new has formed the scientific community and were written up in Chemi- in 2009 wasn’t the end, but rather the beginning of Brik’s cal Engineering News and the bulletin of the American path. “We’ve got another 20 years of work ahead of us,” Chemical Society. he says. “The most exciting thing is that you never know As recently as 10-15 years ago, Brik explains, the idea where it’s going to end up.” 44 | 45 In 2008, Bareli received the Itzhak Ben-Zvi Prize for the History of the Land of Israel for his book, The Struggle Over Political Institutionalization in Mapai, 1948-1953. More recently, he and Dr. Nir Kedar researching our roots published Mamlakhtiyut Israelit (Israeli Republicanism) (2011), which analyzes Israel’s version of modern repub- licanism in the context of the nation’s political history and present-day political challenges. The book, which, “begins with the 1920s and ends with the problems of Israeli capitalism today,” serves as a bridge between Dr. Avi Bareli Bareli’s earlier scholarship on political controversy and My main conception in Israeli politics is that it his present work on socio-economic policies and the Israeli political process. moves between two poles – one defined by a Bareli’s academic interests stem from multiple striving for political power, the other characterized origins, including his early academic experience at Tel by a striving for active citizenship and a dynamic Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and vibrant society where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy respectively. Nowhere more evident are the roots of his interests, however, than in his family history. over 150 undergraduate students from BGU alone, the Bareli’s Lithuanian-born father immigrated at the age Institute is currently enrolling both Israeli and inter- of four with his family in 1926. His grandfather, later national graduate students from various countries to the director of Bank Hapoalim, and father, a journal- obtain their master’s and doctoral degrees in the new ist, were active members in the Labor Zionist movement Israel Studies International Program (ISIP). “We want their whole lives. His mother immigrated to Israel from to educate new scholars in Israel studies in the broad- Romania during World War II. est sense of Jewish awareness in the last century,” he During his years as a graduate student, Bareli explains. The program, directed by Dr. Paula Kabalo, researched Labor Party documents of 1947-1948, includ- has already started to grow. ing the memoirs of David Ben-Gurion. In 1995, along A current project coming out of the Institute is an with colleague Pinhas Ginossar, he established the first annual journal of scholarly articles related to all things periodical of Israel studies in Israel. At the same time, Israeli titled Iyunim Bitkumat Israel (Studies in Zionism, Bareli says, he and Ginossar were working on “one of the the Yishuv and the State of Israel). Founded and first most important publications that reflect the post-Zion- edited by Pinhas Ginossar in 1991, Bareli is currently ist debate.” The book, titled Zionism: A Contemporary co-editor of the multidisciplinary periodical along with Debate, was published in Hebrew and presented the most Dr. Gideon Katz and Dr. Ofer Shiff. The journal, Bareli prevalent topics related to Zionism from academic insti- says, serves several purposes: “We want it to express tutions throughout Israel. the achievements in Israel studies, as well as to initiate Knowledge of Israel’s past is key, Bareli says, to debates and foster fields of study that are perhaps not making decisions in the present: “You can’t begin to fostered enough. We also want to help young scholars address Israel’s misfortunes and achievements without publish their first articles.” understanding the roots of Israeli society. Israel is a very Such a comprehensive approach to the study of Israel young project, and like every project it has its context and modern Judaism works, he says, “because Israel is In the library at Ben-Gurion’s House in Tel Aviv and the reasons that have kept it going. If you don’t have itself a comprehensive phenomenon. If you want to make enlightened, historical information, you cannot under- a periodical of Israel studies, there’s not much of a choice r. Avi Bareli is not your typical historian. Boqer campus, Bareli is analyzing the development of stand the most basic parameters of the Israeli-Palestinian except to take the broadest approach.” A native of Israel with roots reaching back to the Zionist Labor Party, beginning with Israel’s indepen- conflict, for example, nor can you understand the diver- Bareli has brought a good deal of change to the D the Zionist movements of the 1920s, his dence, on through the 1950s. With relation to his current sity of Israel as an immigrant culture without looking conception of Israeli culture and history. Between the scholarship looks something like a multifaceted amal- research, he says, “My main conception in Israeli poli- into the phenomenon of immigration to this country increasing success of the Institute’s journals, the expand- gamation of nearly a dozen subjects, including Israel’s tics is that it moves between two poles – one defined by a from places all over the globe,” he explains. ing student body on the Sede Boqer campus and the political and cultural history, the history of the Zionist striving for political power, the other characterized by a Bareli’s work is primarily done in Sede Boqer, a growing number of educational opportunities offered by movement, the cultural, economic and political devel- striving for active citizenship and a dynamic and vibrant place, he says, that brings together the best of academic the Institute, Bareli can be found right in the middle of it opment of Israeli society, philosophy, and history of the society.” Central to his research is an examination of this research and cultural history in one beautiful atmo- all, teaching, researching and documenting the roots of Jewish people. A lecturer at the Ben-Gurion Research tension “from the perspective of the past and present sphere. “Sede Boqer is a wonderful place for research,” the nation. Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at the Sede political structure in Israel.” he continues. “It’s quiet and has great facilities.” Hosting 46 | 47 Dr. Ronit Bitton a sticky subject

r. Ronit Bitton from the Department of Chemical sutures as the primary means of bonding tissue, Bitton I don’t want to go straight Engineering enjoys being part of the scientific addressed the problem that “most of the adhesives used to the mechanical Dprocess. Whereas other researchers in the fields do not work when in contact with water. However, if we application of findings. of bio-, chemical or materials engineering and nano- consider certain creatures living in the sea, we see that technology are often motivated by the possibility of they stick to everything.” She is referring to the immense I’d rather look at the their work being put to further use beyond the labora- amount of time and money spent on cleaning the “goo” mixing process of these tory, Bitton spends her research hours honing in on the off of Navy ships. The knowledge the group gained from materials and examine smaller aspects of the scientific process. “I love correlat- examining natural adhesives led to the construction of their properties and ing structures on many levels to properties and functions a synthetic adhesive that works in the same manner. “By of materials,” she says. “I don’t want to go straight to the learning about the bio-oriented system of natural adhe- functions mechanical application of findings. I’d rather look at sives,” she says, “we could mimic the model.” the mixing process of these materials and examine their Motivated by her interest in biomaterials, Bitton properties and functions.” worked as a post-doctoral fellow with a biomaterials Conducting research with some of the world’s leading group at Northwestern University’s prestigious Stupp scientists, Bitton’s work has had an impact in the fields Laboratory. She travelled to Evanston, Illinois with the of bio- and nanotechnology, chemical engineering and goal of creating gels to be used in bioactivity and tissue regenerative medicine. “My research is in biomaterials,” engineering, as well as in tissue function restoration. As a she says, “but from the material, not the bio side.” result of the intensive research conducted there, she once A native of Herzliya who recently moved to again understood that her real passion was in the materi- Beer-Sheva, Bitton received her master’s degree in als, and not necessarily medical applications. “It’s always biochemistry at the Technion – Israel Institute of interesting to discover things along the way. I realized Technology. During her studies she collaborated with that I’m obsessed with nanostructure. Instead of focusing researchers at the University of California, Santa on applications, I like to characterize all levels of struc- Barbara, to examine peptides and extract individual tures, to see how they relate to one another.” molecules from basic shapes. She explains: “We arranged Bitton is very excited about her new position as peptides to mimic proteins in order to elicit a particular head of a unique laboratory at the Ilse Katz Institute behavior in the proteins, which would lead to the bind- for Nanoscale Science and Technology. The Institute ing of molecules to DNA.” With this critical research, will soon welcome the arrival of the cutting-edge small she and her fellow researchers “discovered why mole- angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) instrument that deci- cules are shaped in particular ways.” phers patterns in nanostructures unseen by regular x-ray Bitton’s doctoral research, also carried out at the machines. As head of the SAXS lab’s user committee, Technion, focused on a different subject: tissue adhe- Bitton says she will be able to help “anyone interested sive development. “A challenging aspect of developing in nanostructures.” The structure of the solutions that new tissue adhesive is to create a material that can glue will be tested using SAXS, she explains, “are already together wet surfaces,” she explains. “The success of suspected. But SAXS technology radiates the solution and synthetic glues in such an environment is so far very can even register shapes and sizes of molecules. Instead of limited. During my Ph.D. studies, my colleagues and trial and error, or a focus on scientific application, I want I studied adhesive materials formulated from natural to discover the general rules for designing materials.” materials extracted from the brown alga Fucus serratus. BGU’s newest nanotechnology expert has brought Adhesion tests have shown that the cross-linked pheno- with her an apt way of thinking that is crucial to all disci- lic polymers could become useful adhesives, capable of plines of scientific research and especially to nanoscience: adhering to a variety of surfaces.” it’s all in the details. Though the average person may consider staples and 48 | 49 18|19 working together separately

r. Victor Novack is a senior internist and head great aliya of the early 1990s. “We worked together at “Our staff helps researchers write the proposal for daunting. But that’s all changed now.” of the Clinical Research Center at the Soroka Harvard; we trained in a similar fashion. And it helps their clinical studies, prepare grant proposals and submit Not long after arriving in Israel, Victor studied at D University Medical Center, right across the street to be able to talk about our work now over the dinner the regulatory paperwork, and then helps them enroll BGU’s Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School before from BGU’s Marcus Family Campus. His wife, Dr. Lena table,” he says. the patients in the trial and gather the data,” Victor enlisting in the army, where he was able to finish his Novack, is an epidemiologist and biostatistician at the The aim of the Clinical Research Center, says Victor, explains. “The entire infrastructure for conducting clini- Ph.D. in Epidemiology. After the army, he began his resi- Faculty of Health Sciences’ Department of Epidemiology. is to establish “a one-stop shop for medical research- cal trials is accessible at the Center. We offer guidance dency at Soroka. “After my residency, I decided that my They not only share a home in Omer with their three ers and private industry to set up their clinical studies, and support to any researcher who needs it – and basi- career path lay in establishing a clinical research service children, but also, occasionally, they share the workload. which, of course, are the make-or-break phase for any cally all of them do.” We have initiated or supported at Soroka, so I left for Harvard on a six-month fellow- “When Victor needs somewhat complicated statistics medical advancement.” The Center has received NIS 4.5 more than 150 studies and have had 15 publications just ship, but it grew from there. I was the medical director of for his studies, he asks me to do it,” says Lena. million in Israeli, U.S. and European grants over the within the last 18 months, he adds. a trial design group at Harvard Clinical Research Insti- Each of them is working on their own “extraordi- last year-and-a-half – an indication of the importance Prior to the Center’s creation, Victor continues, “A tute that provides clinical research support to industry nary project.” Victor, 40, is setting up a Clinical Research attached to the project. physician would have a great idea for a new medicine or in the area. This facility developed into a huge multi- Center at Soroka modeled on the one at Harvard Univer- “We also offer services for basic sciences researchers procedure or clinical study, and he’d say, ‘Let’s conduct a national center for trials of new devices, especially in sity where he worked for three years and with which he is from BGU interested in conducting studies with clinical study to see how to develop it,’ but he didn’t know where cardiovascular research.” still affiliated. Lena, 36, is the statistician on a project to aspects. For example, we received a joint NIS 1.2 million to start, whom to approach, what sort of assistance he During the last years of Novack’s stint at the Harvard determine the correlation between the toxic waste stored grant with the Department of Geography and Environ- needed, how he could gather the data or how to write up Institute, he set up more than 40 trial designs. “My part at the Negev’s Ramat Hovav industrial zone and birth mental Development from the Israeli Environment and the results. At Soroka, the physicians were overwhelmed was to design the trials, which grew out of negotiations defects in Bedouin babies living in the vicinity. Health Fund to study the health outcomes following dust by their clinical duties; they rarely had the time, money with the Food and Drug Administration and industry, Victor and Lena both came from Russia during the exposure in the Negev population,” he says. or wherewithal to pursue academic endeavors. It was too the purpose being to ensure that the proposed studies 50 | 51 ASSOCIATES ORGANIZATIONS then we’re going to take pregnant women living within the exposure area and do blood tests from the umbili- ARGENTINA ISRAEL UNITED KINGDOM Ben-Gurion ASOCIACIÓN ARGENTINA DE AMIGOS ISRAELI FRIENDS OF BGU BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION cal cord, do cytogenetic testing on that, and finally see if University DE LA UNIVERSIDAD BEN GURIÓN Prof. Yitzhak Peterburg, Chairman Harold Paisner, President We are hoping to determine to what the exposure to toxic waste emissions from Ramat Hovav DEL NEGUEV Osnat Moskowitz, CEO Lord Weidenfeld of Chelsea, extent these illnesses are the result has had any effect on the newborns,” she says, noting of the Negev Nava Rubenzadeh, President [email protected] Vice-President of environmental exposure, beyond that in all the testing done on the effects of Ramat Hovav Edith Elhanany, Representative Sarit Dafni, Alumni Liaison Suzanne Zlotowski, Vice-President on the surrounding population, no one has ever tried to Roy J. Zuckerberg [email protected] [email protected] Natasha Shifrin, Executive Director www.bgu.ac.il/alumni [email protected] possible genetic factors Dr. Lena Novack measure its exposure on the individual level. Chairman, Board of Governors Scalabrini Ortiz 3278, 15° Piso Novack notes that a previous study carried out by C.P. 1425 Cuidad Autonoma Ben-Gurion University of the Negev NATIONAL AND LONDON REGION Robert H. Arnow de Buenos Aires P.O. Box 653 ORT House were scientifically sound. These are very intense, elab- BGU researchers found that birth defects occurred more Chairman Emeritus, Beer-Sheva 84105 126 Albert Street orate, time-consuming trials; most of them are still frequently in babies born to Bedouin women who lived Board of Governors AUSTRALIA London NW1 7NE AUSTRALIAN FRIENDS OF BGU JAPAN running,” he says. in very close proximity to the toxic waste site, and this Lord Weidenfeld of Chelsea Laurence A. Joseph, Representative FRIENDS OF BGU UNITED STATES But once he’d gotten that experience under his belt, could not be explained entirely by genetic predisposition. Honorary Chairman, [email protected] Koji Akatsuka, President AMERICAN ASSOCIATES OF BGU (AABGU) he “decided that the time had come to return to Israel “In all probability, living in the vicinity of Ramat Hovav Board of Governors Alexander M. Goren, President and put that experience to use in establishing the Clini- had something to do with it,” she says. P.O. Box 90, Chadstone Centre 75-1, Otobe, Tsu Doron Krakow, Executive Vice-President Vice-Chairpersons, The study should take between 18 months and two Victoria 3148 514-0016 MIE www.aabgu.org cal Research Center at Soroka.” Board of Governors The connection between the Novacks’ work is natural, years. Asked if the likely results would pressure the Zvi Alon BELGIUM MEXICO NATIONAL OFFICE and explains Lena. “When you start a clinical study, statis- government to force the Ramat Hovav toxic waste indus- Eric A. Benhamou FRIENDS OF BGU MEXICAN ASSOCIATES OF BGU GREATER NEW YORK and tics are critical to the whole design. You need statistics tries to reduce their emissions, Novack says they are Sir Ronald Cohen Elise Donat, Representative Boris Gerson NEW ENGLAND REGIONS [email protected] Alejandro Dumas 39 PB 1430 Broadway, 8th Floor already doing so. “But there is a slight chance our tests Dr. Heinz-Horst Deichmann to reach conclusions – you can run a three-year trial Col. Polanco New York, NY 10018 administering drugs to patients, but you have to measure will not have any practical effect on the conduct of busi- Dame Vivien Duffield 221, Avenue Louise, 4th floor B-1050 Brussels Del. Miguel Hidalgo [email protected] the results statistically to actually know whether the ness at Ramat Hovav. Bertram Lubner CP 11560 Michael W. Sonnenfeldt GREAT LAKES REGION drug works,” she adds. “We can’t move the facility anywhere, but if we can BRAZIL México D.F. Suzanne Zlotowski 250 Parkway Drive, Suite 150 When a clinical trial is being designed and conducted, show adverse effects of industrial park emissions, we FRIENDS OF BGU Edith Elhanany, Representative Lincolnshire, IL 60069 the role of the biostatistician is to determine how to can make the regulations on toxic waste emissions even Yair Green, Atty. Dr. Claudio Luiz Lottenberg, President [email protected] [email protected] stricter,” she says. The statistical results she compiles – Chairman, Av. Albert Einstein, 627 / 701, 3er andar measure the results, i.e., which statistics to gather. THE NETHERLANDS GREATER FLORIDA REGION Executive Committee 05651-901 Morumbi “All science is based on statistics now,” says Lena, which will include a control population of women who DUTCH ASSOCIATES OF BGU 20283 State Road 7, Suite 300 Sao Paulo SP Boca Raton, FL 33498 noting that epidemiology lends itself naturally to statis- gave birth to perfectly healthy babies – will strengthen Vice-Chairpersons, Karen Verstraete, Vice-President [email protected] tical research. “My master’s degree in biostatistics (from the credibility of the findings, she believes. Executive Committee CANADA Edith Elhanany, Representative the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is of great use to the Establishing the credibility of the findings in clini- Dvora Tomer CANADIAN ASSOCIATES OF BGU [email protected] GREATER TEXAS REGION cal testing – that’s the definition of what a biostatistician Aharon Yadlin (CABGU) de Schouwenburgh 24 Greenway Plaza, Suite 550 Department of Epidemiology,” she notes. Houston, TX 77046 does. Clinicians like Dr. Victor Novack need biostatis- Gary Fine, National President Stoeplaan 9, flat 34 And so it is of great use to the project she is just Mark Mendelson, Executive [email protected] ticians like Dr. Lena Novack to do their work, and vice 2243 CV Wassenaar beginning as principal investigator at Ramat Hovav, Prof. Rivka Carmi Vice-President MID-ATLANTIC REGION together with researchers from the delivery and neona- versa. “The two of us could run a study from start to President [email protected] SOUTH AFRICA 261 Old York Road, Suite 417A tal units and the cytogenetic laboratory at Soroka, the finish all by ourselves,” says Lena. “We complement www.bengurion.ca SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATES OF P.O. Box 1128 Prof. Zvi HaCohen Faculty of Health Sciences’ Department of Epidemi- each other.” NATIONAL OFFICE & TORONTO BGU (SAABGU) Jenkintown, PA 19046 Rector CHAPTER Bertram Lubner, President [email protected] ology, and the Unit of Environmental Engineering in Herby Rosenberg, Vice-President the Faculty of Engineering Sciences. “I am going to be Prof. Moti Herskowitz 1000 Finch Avenue West, Suite 506 NORTHWEST REGION North York, ON M3J 2V5 [email protected] responsible for measuring the results of the testing.” Vice-President and Dean for Brenda Stern, Executive Director 240 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Suite 260 [email protected] Corte Madera, CA 94925 Her team has begun to study the exposure of preg- Research and Development [email protected] MONTREAL CHAPTER [email protected] nant Bedouin women to the toxic waste emissions from David Bareket NATIONAL OFFICE and 4950 Queen Mary Road SOUTHWEST REGION Vice-President and JOHANNESBURG OFFICE Ramat Hovav. “We are looking at the major congeni- Suite 400 Montreal, QC H3W 1X3 9911 West Pico Boulevard, Suite 710 tal malformations at delivery,” she says, noting that the Dr. Victor Novack Director-General [email protected] P.O. Box 895 Saxonwold 2132 Los Angeles, CA 90035 study is being conducted with a grant from the Office of Prof. Amos Drory WINNIPEG CHAPTER [email protected] The entire infrastructure for conducting WESTERN CAPE CHAPTER the Chief Scientist in the Ministry of Health. Vice-President for C309-123 Doncaster Street 2611 Vista Way clinical trials is accessible at the Center. Winnipeg, R3N 2B2 P.O. Box 2350 “It’s going to be very interesting examining the External Affairs Cape Town 8000 Grand Junction, CO 81506 epidemiological reasons for incidences of birth defects. bguwinnipeg@@bengurion.ca [email protected] We offer guidance and support to any Prof. Yael Edan SWITZERLAND In the end we are hoping to determine to what extent researcher who needs it – and basically Deputy-Rector FRANCE WASHINGTON / BALTIMORE REGION these illnesses are the result of environmental exposure, LES AMIS FRANCAIS DE L’UNIVERSITÉ AMIS DE SUISSE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ 4800 Hampden Lane, Suite 200 BEN-GOURION DU NEGUEV beyond possible genetic factors. We are working with all of them do Prof. Lily Neumann BEN-GOURION Bethesda, MD 20814 Michel Halpérin, Président [email protected] specialists in biotechnology to measure the emissions, Vice-Rector Gérard Worms, President Elise Donat, Representative Elise Donat, Representative to map the extent of the exposure in the population, [email protected] [email protected] 20, rue de Madrid 5, avenue Léon-Gaud 75008 Paris CH-1206 Geneva