A doctoral graduation ceremony marks the culmination of a long and challenging period of study, original thinking, and research, and therefore, it is an especially important and exciting event for the graduates.
Bar-Ilan University celebrated the graduation of 291 doctoral students – a record 61% being women – on November 25. It was the first time the university had held its annual doctoral degree conferment ceremony online and it was a huge success.
The faculty with the highest number of new doctors is Social Sciences with 68 graduates, followed by Jewish Studies with 46 graduates, Interdisciplinary Studies with 43, Exact Sciences with 40, Life Sciences with 32, Humanities with 28, Medicine with 17, Law with nine, and Engineering with eight.
Many of these graduates are international students from countries all over the world including Serbia, India, Croatia, and many more.
A Three-Part Ceremony
According to Dr. Rachel Levy-Drummer, Secretary of Academic Affairs and Master of Ceremonies, the PhD ceremony is a notable event, one of the peaks of our academic work at Bar-Ilan University.
“Despite the exceptional circumstances that require us to hold an online event this year, different from all events held to date, this PhD ceremony is exciting and significant to us all,” she said.
The graduation, which was attended by Bar-Ilan University’s president, incoming and outgoing rectors, incoming and outgoing dean of the School for Advanced Studies, senior members of all the academic faculties, the Board of Trustees, graduates, and their families, was divided into three parts.
The first included special messages and speeches from the president, Prof. Arie Zaban; outgoing rector, Prof. Miriam Faust; outgoing dean, Prof. Ariel Bendor; and a representative of the graduates, Dr. Michal Natan-Warhaftig. This culminated in the significant moment of granting the PhD status to all new graduates.
During the second part, the names of the graduates and their fields of study were read out and, in the third part, the new graduates and their families met with their lecturers and tutors, who had accompanied them on their journey to their degrees, in departmental Zoom sessions.
In this last session, graduates were invited to drink a toast to their tutors, take photos with their friends, families, and tutors, and display their certificates and PhD collars and hats.
Four of the 17 graduates who received their PhDs in Medical Sciences from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in Safed, Galilee, were international students. They were (from L-R): Nikola Lukicz from Serbia, Natasa Ilic from Croatia, Dhanoop Manikoth from India, and Pooja Anil Shah from India (not pictured as he was unable to attend the event). The photos were taken off Zoom, hence the poor quality.
“We are living in an irregular, challenging, and totally unexpected period,” said Dr. Levy-Drummer. “Reality is changing right before our eyes and forcing us to adapt in all areas of life, and especially in academia.
“But this is also a period of opportunity to promote research and development in diverse fields, inviting us to search for new tools in place of the old and familiar, while focusing on coping with the challenges of tomorrow. Even in this complex situation that has forced itself upon us, academia has once again arisen to the challenge and continued to study, research, and develop new ideas and innovations, also in the most unique conditions of today,” she said.
Words of Encouragement
Prof. Arie Zaban, president of Bar-Ilan University, regretted the fact that the ceremony had to take place online.
“Corona has taken much from us, and one of these is the opportunity to see you from close up, to meet your families, and to shake your hands,” he said.
“Please know that the heads of Bar-Ilan University, and myself as their leader, are shaking your hands and congratulating you on the impressive goal you have achieved. Graduates of the various degrees, today you are officially signing off on the longest, and possibly most significant, journey in your academic life. This is a journey on which you have advanced from students to researchers, from receivers of information to producers of information.
“Many of you have spent your recent years studying the development of the trumpet from biblical times through the generations of the Mishna; or the considerations in choosing songs on the radio on days of commemoration. Others have focused on exciting communities or personalities from Rabbi Kook to Yehoshua Sobol, from the Turkish community in the USA to the Caucasian settlements in the Golan Heights. Some have gone deep into the depths of scientific worlds from cyber systems to the effects of high blood pressure on neurodegenerative processes in rats’ brains,” Prof. Zaban said.
“You had 291 journeys, each with its own internal set of rules, difficulties and challenges, unexpected crises, and moments of elation. But one thread connects all of these. And this is the thread of innovation. You did not only collect information, you also paved routes to new learnings. This is the basis of development in academia. This is the basis of the development of each and every one of you.”
Prof. Zaban continued by saying the Coronavirus pandemic that has invaded our lives over the last year has not only changed words and phrases, but also all social codes and global priorities.
“The world is more confused and chaotic than it was only a year ago. The future, even with a vaccine, is still unclear and vague. This challenging reality, the understanding that the world will not go back to be what it was before December 2019, underscores humanity’s need for scientists like yourselves; for people who accrue and distribute information, people who breathe in and provide renewal.
“Today, more than ever, we need your courage to undermine axioms. To look at our lives from a new perspective and imbue new meaning into our ever-changing tenets of life. After reading about you and all the studies you have undertaken, I feel that we are all entitled to, and must, be optimistic. Our future renewal as a university and a society is in good and stable hands,” he said.
“I would like to thank all the tutors who have supported the studies, and mainly the researchers. Each one of the 291 graduates here today is an academic parent of an idea, a thesis. But these parents also need ‘academic parents’ of their own to support, guide, and strengthen in times of crisis. This was provided by your tutors in the most professional and generous manner.
“A big thanks also to all your families. Behind every personal academic journey are many ‘teaching assistants’ – spouses, fathers and mothers, children, family members, and partners – on the way, who are just as happy as you are that your PhD journey is over.
“We thank you all and are proud to have you as part of the Bar-Ilan University community,” Prof. Zaban concluded.
Influencing Tomorrow
Bar-Ilan University has continued to develop the future generation, train those who will lead the State of Israel and the world into a better future and our new PhD graduates are at the forefront of this generation.
The American journalist, writer, and filmmaker, Nora Ephron, believes that “Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead”, a sentiment that Dr. Levy-Drummer shares.
“You have been trained to influence and impact in fields of science and research: medicine, social sciences, life sciences, law, humanities, Jewish studies, exact sciences, engineering, and multidisciplinary studies, all in order to create a better future for society in Israel and throughout the world,” she said. “At Bar-Ilan University, we are already today influencing tomorrow.”
Now that the ceremony is over, our new doctors will set out, equipped with the extensive scientific knowledge and human values that they acquired at Bar-Ilan University, in order to impact science and society in their own unique ways.
We leave our graduates with the words of Confucius, “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”
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Note: Unfortunately, due to space constraints, we weren’t able to include all speeches from the graduation ceremony. If you would like to read the other speeches, please click the relevant speaker.
Prof. Miriam Faust, outgoing rector; Prof. Ariel Bendor, outgoing dean; and Dr. Michal Natan-Warhaftig, a representative of the graduates and a new graduate herself.
