The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

05/10/2026

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is pleased to announce that it has signed two new agreements with UCLA to expand our international academic and scientific cooperation.

The first agreement is a Memorandum of Understanding with the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. This partnership sets the foundation for joint research programs, formal faculty and student exchanges, shared academic conferences, and cooperative post-graduate training.

The second agreement launches a joint biomedical research framework. Developed alongside the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, this initiative prioritizes interdisciplinary projects and scientific exchange to accelerate medical discoveries that will directly advance patient care.

The agreements were officially signed in Los Angeles by Hebrew University President Prof. Tamir Sheafer and UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk. We thank UCLA, the Nazarian family, and the American Friends of the Hebrew University for their partnership in advancing global scholarship.

📷 Photo: Oliver Chien / UCLA

04/10/2026

The Hebrew University congratulates Prof. David Kazhdan on being awarded the prestigious 2026 Wolf Prize in Mathematics, together with Prof. Joseph Bernstein of Tel Aviv University, for their foundational work on representation theory, automorphic forms and algebraic geometry, and their role in creating geometric representation theory.

Their groundbreaking research creates new bridges between algebra, geometry, and analysis and helped lay the foundations of geometric representation theory. The concepts and tools they developed have become cornerstones of mathematical research and continue to play a central role in addressing deep problems across many areas of mathematics.

Congratulations, Prof. Kazhdan!

ANNOUNCING THE 2026 WOLF PRIZE LAUREATES IN MATHEMATICS

The 2026 Wolf Prize in Mathematics is awarded to David Kazhdan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Joseph Bernstein of Tel Aviv University, “for foundational work on representation theory, automorphic forms and algebraic geometry, and their role in creating geometric representation theory.”
Their work helped build a new mathematical language connecting algebra, geometry and representation theory, ideas that now reach across some of the deepest areas of modern mathematics.
Kazhdan introduced Kazhdan’s property (T), a concept that became fundamental in the study of groups and found applications ranging from geometry to logic. Together with George Lusztig, he also developed the Kazhdan–Lusztig basis and polynomials, work that became foundational to geometric representation theory and influential in the Langlands program.
Bernstein reshaped representation theory through the development of D-modules, now a crucial tool in algebraic geometry, representation theory and logic. His work on perverse sheaves, p-adic groups and automorphic forms helped establish major parts of the framework we now call geometric representation theory.
Together, their ideas have created connections between fields that once seemed separate, and changed the way mathematicians understand symmetry, geometry and structure.
Congratulations to David Kazhdan and Joseph Bernstein, the 2026 Wolf Prize Laureates in Mathematics.

Tel Aviv University USA - AFTAU The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

02/10/2026

Shabbat Shalom!

02/10/2026

On Simchat Torah, Jews around the world finish reading the Torah and begin it anew. We’re looking forward to a new beginning at Hebrew University, too: welcoming our new and returning students from Israel and abroad to campus as they open their books for another academic year.

Wishing our entire community a joyful and peaceful holiday.

01/10/2026

Congratulations to the Hebrew University’s newest International Master of Public Health (IMPH) graduates! 🎓

The class brings together 21 students from 11 countries, most of them medical doctors. Through the IMPH program, they have gained knowledge and skills to strengthen public health in their home countries, reflecting the University’s commitment to making an impact beyond campus.

Their graduation ceremony was streamed live to a record-breaking global audience. Speakers included Prof. Dina Ben Yehuda and Dr. Jordan Kyongo, a 2009 IMPH alumnus from Kenya who now serves as Senior Program Officer for Global Partnerships & Grand Challenges at the Gates Foundation.

We wish our graduates every success as they take their next steps!

Watch the ceremony broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/live/-p9gvS-lBeQ?si=0ikZHCW5Gdb6nuuX

Explore the IMPH program: https://international.huji.ac.il/international-master-public-health-imph-0

Photos by Anton Ziv

ביה"ס לבריאות הציבור ורפואה קהילתית של האוניברסיטה העברית והדסה ע"ש בראון

29/09/2026

Congratulations to the 24 newest graduates of the International School of Agricultural Sciences at the Hebrew University’s Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Rehovot!🎓

With MSc degrees in Nutritional Sciences and Animal Sciences now in hand, they’re ready for what comes next. This international cohort brought together students from Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Botswana, Myanmar, Mexico and Honduras.

We’re proud to celebrate their achievement and wish them every success!

Learn more about the programs:

MSc in Nutritional Sciences: https://international.huji.ac.il/msc-nutritional-sciences

MSc in Animal Sciences: https://international.huji.ac.il/msc-animal-sciences

Photos by Elad Barami

28/09/2026

Hi, I’m Millie Efraim. I’m from the United States and currently pursuing my master’s in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to New York, where I originally attended Parsons School of Design to pursue a provocative jewelry line commenting on the policing of women’s bodies in post-revolutionary Iran. I eventually changed my major to literature and fashion history and began exploring many of those same themes through writing, and later, speaking. In 2019, I started a podcast exploring taboo topics within Persian communities in the diaspora.

That work led me to a deeper curiosity about my own heritage and a desire to help preserve one of the world’s oldest Jewish histories: the history of the Jews of Iran. One of the most eminent scholars of Iranian Jewry, Amnon Netzer, studied and taught here and established the Center for Iranian Jewish Studies at HUJI, which is why I only applied to Hebrew U, and once I received a scholarship, I knew I was going.

I still remember the feeling I had when I first stepped onto campus. I had this immediate sense that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

I really enjoy the variety of subjects I can study at HUJI. Some days I am working through painstaking fuṣḥā Arabic grammar, and the next I am studying pre-Zoharic Kabbalistic texts or the intersections between Islamic and Jewish mysticism in the medieval Iberian Peninsula. On top of that, having the opportunity to learn from professors who are among the foremost specialists in their subjects is priceless: being able to sit, listen, ask questions, and absorb knowledge accumulated through decades of scholarship and training.

Outside the classroom, I love going to museums, vintage shopping, discovering new music, writing down all my unhinged thoughts and reading them to people (I sometimes read my writing at open mics and I’m also working on a play), and of course, cooking Persian food.

For anyone studying at Hebrew University, really take advantage of where you are. You’re studying at one of Israel’s oldest and most historic universities, in Jerusalem, with access to incredible professors, scholars, libraries, archives, and collections. Talk to your professors, ask questions, explore beyond your coursework, and follow your curiosity wherever it takes you. Some of the most meaningful parts of my experience came from immersing myself in the subjects I was genuinely fascinated by, even when they were incredibly niche.

Learn more about the MA in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies: https://international.huji.ac.il/ma-islamic-and-middle-eastern-studies

Connect with Millie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mefraim/

Follow her work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judeo.persian/

27/09/2026

Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered a monumental 2,000-year-old public mikveh complex at the foot of the Temple Mount.

Built during the first century CE, the 280-square-meter facility was designed to serve the massive influx of Jewish pilgrims preparing to ascend to the Second Temple during major festivals like Sukkot.

The site features a sophisticated hydraulic drainage system and a ritual bath exceptionally preserved to its full height with its original vaulted stone roof intact.

The five-season excavation at the Ophel was directed by Prof. U*i Leibner and Prof. Orit Peleg-Barkat from the University's Institute of Archaeology.

Read more about the findings in The Times of Israel:

Three large ritual baths, built around 10 CE, offer a rare glimpse into the experience of the massive influx of Jewish pilgrims visiting the Second Temple some 2,000 years ago

25/09/2026

Wishing our students, staff, alumni and friends around the globe a Chag Sukkot Sameach!

May your time in the Sukkah be filled with good company and peaceful moments.

24/09/2026

A new comprehensive study maps out Israel's vast philanthropic food-aid network. The findings reveal a rapidly expanding sector supported primarily by donations rather than public funding, highlighting a critical need for standardized data and better national oversight.

The research was led by Moran Accos and Prof. Aron M. Troen from the Hebrew University, in collaboration with Dr. Orly Tamir from Sheba Medical Center, and published in the journal Food Policy.

Learn more: https://international.huji.ac.il/Who%20Drives%20Israel%27s%20Food-Aid%20System%3F