Following Hamas’s October 7 brutal attack on Israelis and the rise of antisemitism and anti-Israel activities around the world and at Yale, a group of 25 Yale faculty went to Israel March 17-21, 2024 as an act of solidarity and to bear witness.
We visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza, the site of the Nova festival and Hostage Square. However, we realized that we could best leverage our expertise as academics by supporting the faculties of Israel’s universities and colleges to counter academic boycotts by creating new collaborations and programs. We visited and met with our colleagues at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Sapir Academic College, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Hai Academic College, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Tel Aviv University. We also met with leading Israeli academics at events with the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Israel-US Binational Science Foundation, Israel’s Fulbright fellows, the Supreme Court of Israel, and Yale alumni in Israel.
You can see the entire itinerary of our mission, and review the lessons we learned. We invite you to explore and get involved with YJAF’s exciting initiatives resulting from our trip.
