Bar-Ilan University’s International School hosted its second annual Attachés’ Conference in March. The event focused on Israel’s experience with, and response to, COVID-19, an unwavering vaccination strategy and its implementation, and a look at what lies ahead.
Prof. Moshe Lewenstein, BIU’s Deputy President, was MC of the conference and moderator of the panel discussion. He first welcomed all delegates, gave a summary of the program, and then introduced Prof. Arie Zaban, BIU’s President, who provided an overview of the university and its main activities during these challenging times. You can listen to Prof. Zaban’s interesting 20-minute presentation here.
After Prof. Zaban’s presentation, all participants were given a chance to introduce themselves, mention the countries they represented, and share information about their roles and their departments.
L-R: Prof. Moshe Lewenstein and Prof. Arie Zaban
Diplomats from about 20 different countries attended including Columbia (her Excellency Ambassador Margarita Manjarrez Herrera), Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Honduras, India, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Russia, the UK, and the US. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also represented.
Prof. Lewenstein then spoke about the main event of the conference – the panel discussion. He introduced the distinguished panel of experts from Bar-Ilan University and the Meuchedet Health Fund.
“The Coronavirus pandemic has stretched the international health-care community to its limits,” Prof. Lewenstein said. “While Israel is way ahead of the rest of the world in its vaccination campaign and has rolled back its latest round of restrictions, with the promise of a Green Pass scheme for everyone who has been vaccinated, the future is still uncertain.
“Our distinguished speakers will each give an overview of their experiences, their views and opinions of the situation and how Israel has fared over the past year, and their predictions for the future.”
The panelists included Prof. Cyrille Cohen, Vice Dean of the Life Sciences Faculty, Director of the Immunotherapy Lab at BIU, and a member of Israel’s advisory council on vaccines; Prof. Michael Edelstein, Associate Professor of Public Health, BIU’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, an epidemiologist, and public health expert; Prof. Yuval Feldman, the Mori Lazarof Professor of Legal Research, BIU’s Faculty of Law; and Ms. Sigal Regev Rosenberg, CEO of Meuhedet Health Services, one of the largest health maintenance organizations in Israel.
You can find out a little about each panelist below, read a summary of the discussion here and watch the full panel discussion here.
Above L-R: Prof. Cyrille Cohen and Prof. Michael Edelstein
Below L-R: Ms. Sigal Regev Rosenberg and Prof. Yuval Feldman
At the end of the discussion, Prof. Lewenstein thanked all the panelists for their interesting comments and insight and opened it up for questions from the participants, after which he closed the second annual Attachés’ Conference by thanking everyone for attending.
“We hope you have all enjoyed participating in our second annual Attachés’ Conference,” he said. “Let’s hope that next year’s event will be face-to-face once again so we can meet and socialize while listening to our experts discuss the relevant topic of the time.
He went on to remind delegates that Bar-Ilan University believes in action. “Our aim is to innovate and share, collaborate and communicate. If any of you have ideas for future collaborations with Bar-Ilan University, please get in touch with Yael Toledano and we will reach out to you,” he concluded.
Panelists’ Biographies
Prof. Cyrille Cohen
Prof. Cyrille Cohen is the head of the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy and vice-dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University. He has been active in the field of Cancer immunotherapy for the past 20 years, is a member of the Israel regulatory agencies for approval of clinical trials based on gene and cell therapy, and of the advisory board for clinical trials on coronavirus vaccines at the Israel Ministry of Health.
Prof. Cohen was recently appointed president of the Israel Society for Cancer Research (ISCR), an important position in his field. His works have been quoted close to 7,000 times and he has authored more than 70 publications in many peer-reviewed journals. He also has various patents in the field of T-cell immunotherapy.
Prof. Michael Edelstein
Prof. Michael Edelstein is a medical doctor specializing in public health and the epidemiology of infectious diseases. He joined Bar-Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in October 2020 as an associate professor of Population Health. Here, he heads a research program that focuses on health inequalities in the north of Israel, specifically regarding different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the vaccination campaign and the long-term impact of COVID-19.
As a Population Health doctor with international experience, Prof. Edelstein has deep expertise in the areas of infectious disease, vaccine epidemiology and policy, outbreak management, and the role of digital tools in improving population health. He is the president of the Infectious Disease Control Section of the European Public Health Association and deputy editor of the journal, Epidemiology and Infection. He has published more than 55 scientific papers.
Prof. Yuval Feldman
Prof. Yuval Feldman is the Mori Lazarof Professor of Legal Research in Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Law. He obtained his PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from UC Berkeley in 2004 after receiving his BA (Psychology) and LLB from Bar-Ilan University. Prof. Feldman’s areas of research include Behavioral Analysis of Law, Experimental Law and Economics, Ethical Decision-Making, Regulatory Impact and Social Norms, Compliance, and Formal and Non-Formal Enforcement Strategies. From 2011 to 2013, he was a fellow in the Edmond J. Safra Institutional Corruption Lab at Harvard Law School and the Implicit Social Cognition Lab in Harvard Psychology.
Since 2014, he has been a Senior Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Prof. Feldman has been advising various governmental bodies on behavioral- and experimental-informed policies in areas related to corruption, regulatory design and enforcement, and, most recently, in areas related to behavioral approaches to encourage compliance to COVID-19 regulations.
Ms. Sigal Regev-Rosenberg
Ms. Sigal Regev-Rosenberg is the CEO of Meuhedet Health Services, one of the largest health maintenance organizations (HMO) in Israel. She is the first woman to serve as the CEO of an HMO in the country. Ms. Regev-Rosenberg has been leading large healthcare systems for more than 20 years, heading organizational strategy, digital strategy, and driving digital transformation in healthcare organizations, including innovation integration in traditional service lines.
In her previous position as the CFO of Meuhedet, Ms. Regev-Rosenberg stabilized the organization and managed its $1.9-billion budget. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Mathematics, and Computer Science, and a Master’s degree in Economics both from Ben Gurion University.
