ISRAEL FACULTY TRIP

VIDEO FOOTAGE OF UCLA FACULTY TRIP Feb 2024

A TRAVEL JOURNAL: Feb 16–22, 2024

by Vivien Burt, M.D., Ph.D.

PRE-MISSION WEEKEND IN JERUSALEM

Such an eventful day, and we haven’t even started the actual program. My daughter, Kira Stein, MD, Chair of the Jewish Faculty Resilience Group at UCLA, accompanied me on this faculty mission. We are in a lovely hotel in Jerusalem. On our way to breakfast, we met a lovely couple from Or Ha Ner, a Kibbutz two miles from the Gaza envelope. They and their twelve-year-old son were hiding in their safe room for 11 hours. Their Kibbutz was not actually penetrated because other Kibbutzim were rampaged first, and the residents of their Kibbutz were able to arm themselves and kill invading terrorists. Their son’s teachers were killed on October 7. We walked to the Kotel (Western Wall) after breakfast, and then to the apartment of my son-in-law’s family, where we spent a lovely Shabbat afternoon. En route, we passed several young men holding the hands of their little children. They had rifles on their shoulders. Apparently, they were on reserve duty but were given time to spend Shabbat with their families. However, they were instructed to always carry their rifles with them, even at the Western Wall or in shul. Very sobering.

The neighborhood where we spent Shabbat was the same neighborhood as the parents of Hersh, the boy who was taken hostage and had his arm severed by Hamas terrorists at the Nova Festival on October 7, 2023. They go to the same shul (synagogue) as Kira’s relatives. There were “Free Hersh” signs everywhere. Israel is such a small country; everyone knows everyone else. Sharing Shabbat with a warm, loving Israeli family was so special. Experiencing the prayers sung before and after Shabbat lunch and then Havdallah was a calming and beautiful experience.

There's lots more to tell. I will try to update you. Tomorrow, we are off to Tel Aviv. Our mission begins with a dinner for our group of 27. It was wonderful to share this experience with faculty members across the UCLA campus.

By the way, Kira sat next to an IDF tank commander on the plane to Tel Aviv who had spent two months in Gaza fighting as a reservist. He had been temporarily released and was permitted to go to LA to do some work with the Israeli-American company he works for. Once we landed, after a couple of days, he was expected to return to duty as a tank commander. I don’t know of any country in the world that allows its soldiers to leave for a while for business and then return to duty. He told Kira that before the war with Hamas, he believed that perhaps 10% of Gazans were pro-Hamas, but as he went from house to house searching for hostages and weapons, he was shocked to see that 90% at least had weapons, anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas posters, and paraphernalia. He was very disheartened.

Day 1 Photos: SOUTHERN ISRAEL -- Sderot, Kibbutz Be'eri, Graveyard of Hamas-incinerated Vehicles from Southern Israel, & Nova Festival

Day 1:

Today is the first full day of our UCLA faculty mission in Israel. The following is a description of the day’s events. I, of course, understand if you do not want to read what I have written; it really is overwhelming. But for those who wish to do so, here is what my day was like: I am not sure how to describe all that we saw, experienced, and internalized. It will take me a long time to process it all. We spent the morning bearing witness to the events of October 7, 2023.

First, we went to Sderot, a small village that is the actual hub of the kibbutzim that were rampaged. There we met with the person in charge of the control room, where one entire wall is covered with live action monitors to provide continuous surveillance of different areas of the town in order to protect the citizens. Sadly, they then played actual footage of the invasion of Sderot on October 7. I won’t go into details other than to say 50+ people in Sderot were killed by Hamas on that day. We then heard a first-hand, in-person account of a woman’s experience with her 4-year-old daughter and husband. They hid out in their safe room for ten hours and were finally saved. She has severe panic attacks and is not ready to return home. We then drove to Kibbutz Be'eri, where 130 people were killed and 26 abducted. About ten Kibbutz Be'eri members remain in Gaza as hostages. We toured the houses. You have seen the footage on TV, but in person it is so heartbreaking, especially because our guide was from Be’eri and was close friends with so many who were lost. We then saw an enormous site of piled-up burned-out cars, many of them from the Nova Festival. And there were only 1000 cars at this site. Two other sites hold many more burned cars.

In the afternoon, we met with a 2-star IDF general who flies F-35 bombers into Gaza. I thought I would be bored with his description of the F-35, but his description was filled with personal reflections, and he was so determined to explain how much he and all the pilots do all they can to avoid civilians, although it really is an impossible task due to how imbedded Hamas is with civilian Gazans. We then saw three F-35’s fly to Gaza on a mission. It was quite a sight that brought up lots of emotions in me: pride in the Israelis, sadness that these are bombers and there will be destruction and death, and sadness also that a horrific massacre by a terrorist government in Gaza precipitated this response.

Finally, in the evening, we had dinner with some hostage families. This was so heart rending. I exchanged contact information with Noam Idon Ben-Ezra, whose niece was killed on October 7 and whose brother Tsachi Idan (age 51) remains a hostage. She and I may remain in contact when I return home. At least I feel I can possibly be somewhat comforting. She is having such a hard time. Today was the hardest day, I am sure. Tomorrow, we go to Tel Aviv University, tour Tel Hashomer (Sheba) Hospital, and then pay our respects at Hostage Square, which is like the 911 memorial in NY. Everyone we met was so grateful that we were on this mission to Israel. It helps them feel less alone and forgotten.

Day 2 Photos: TEL AVIV -- Tel Aviv University & Sheba Medical Center

Day 2:

The day began with a trip to Tel Aviv University. The following represents my personal recollections and is meant to accurately reflect what I heard. If I misheard or am mistaken, I apologize for any possible inaccuracies.

We learned how the University has responded since October 7. The President of the University, Professor Ariel Porat (a member of the Faculty of Law), said that by 9.30 am, a hotline for all faculty and students had been created. As information became known, Prof. Porat personally contacted and visited the families of the 27 murdered university students. One of the faculty professors drove from Tel Aviv in his Tesla to the kibbutz where his brother was holed up in his safe room, rescued him, and drove furiously back to Tel Aviv with Hamas shooting at them in hot pursuit. They both survived.

Initially, the university canceled all classes. But after a number of weeks, the decision was made to reopen and resume classes in order to reestablish as normal an atmosphere as possible, despite the fact that 30% of the student body was immediately drafted. Dorms were opened to house evacuees from the devastated Kibbutzim. A nursery and school for higher grades were set up for evacuated children. Students and faculty joined forces to pick fruit from orchards since most international farm workers had left the country. Now that many student soldiers have come back from the front for a break, they have returned to classes, and efforts are being made to tutor them and otherwise help them catch up. Of course, the school year will be lost for many.

He described how disappointed he was at the lukewarm responses of American university presidents. A university president whom Professor Porat considered a friend was especially disappointing. Professor Porat contacted him about his immediate expressions of sympathy for “both sides” of the war. That president explained that there were both Jewish and Palestinian students on his campus. Prof. Porat asked if this was what he would have done during WW2 when Germany made clear their plans for a “final solution.” Would his official response have catered to all members of the campus? That Professor then sent out a second letter to his campus constituents, which was slightly less neutral but still a disappointing statement. Professor Porat stated that he felt “betrayed” by this.

Notably, of all public responses by university presidents worldwide, by far the most supportive came from German universities.

Next, Professor Porat discussed the responses of three university presidents at the Congressional hearing. He began by stating that some months before October 7, he had released a letter in response to a proposal by the far right-leaning Knesset government that all university students who displayed a Palestinian flag (not a Hamas flag but rather a Palestinian flag) should be expelled. Professor Porat noted in his letter that a sizable portion of university students are Arab and that such statements would not result in expulsion because they were expressions of free speech, which is a principle of Israel's "Basic Law." He circulated his letter to all other Israeli university presidents, who added their signatures to his letter. Prof. Porat (who is a law professor) stipulated that “campuses are not perfect” but that politics should not control what occurs on campuses.

He too was appalled by the responses of the three American university presidents at Congress, but he believes that Congress was politically motivated to address antisemitism at these universities. He clearly believes that antisemitism has no place on campuses but that, in this case, the university presidents were used as political pawns. They were, in his opinion, ill-equipped to respond in ways that truly reflected their opinions about genocide against Jews. He stated that he does not believe that these three university presidents are antisemitic.

The Vice President of DEI at Tel Aviv University discussed how the university handles diverse views on campus. The student body consists of Jews (secular and ultra-orthodox), Arab Muslims (16%), Christians, Bedouins, Druze, etc. After Oct 7, many Arab students expressed fear of coming to school.

Members of the university are permitted to use personal (not university) media avenues to express their opinions. They can physically protest outside the campus grounds. Surprisingly, there have been only about 100 complaints about overt antisemitism at Tel Aviv University. After investigation, there have been three expulsions; the remaining investigations apparently concluded that the reported behaviors were expressions of free speech but not threatening.

Day 3 Photos: HAIFA - Rambam Medical Center & Technion

Day 3:

This morning was spent at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, 30 miles from Lebanon and 100 miles from Syria. The hospital has 1100 beds. The patient population is 50% Arab, from Israel proper and the West Bank. 30% of the health care workers at Ram Bam Hospital are Arabs (doctors, nurses, technicians, etc.) Rambam’s staff work very well together. On October 7, the doctors and other medical personnel rushed in to handle emergencies. Arabs and Israeli Jews worked together without any problems.

On a personal note, one of my cousins lives in Haifa. His wife is in a nursing home, where 95% of the health care personnel are Arabs. The care is excellent.

Rambam is remarkable in that it has outfitted the three basement-level floors as a full-service hospital equipped to provide care for 2000 patients—all patients in Rambam as well as neighboring hospitals in northern Israel—in case of an emergency. Usually, these floors are parking areas for staff. However, in case of emergency, these floors are cleared of cars and converted into a tertiary care hospital with ICU’s, procedure rooms, operating rooms, diagnostic rooms, routine wards, etc. Since Israel is now at war and there are constant rockets from the northern border, the bottom-most level is still open as a hospital in case there is a need to admit patients emergently or transfer patients from upper floors in case of the threat of a direct missile attack. The remaining two levels can be converted into a hospital within 12–72 hours. All personnel in the hospital have been trained to assist in an organized way to make this happen in case of an attack. We toured the bottom level—it was really amazing to see facilities for hospital beds, ICU’s, and operating rooms.

In the afternoon, we visited the Technion, which provides education in the fields of engineering, basic sciences, and medicine. This is a gorgeous, modern institution. Graduates are brilliant, including Nobel laureates and scientists who have made enormous innovations in neuroscience, spinal cord diseases, and genetic diseases.

What is also amazing is the attention given by the Vice President of DEI to do all possible to make the school a safe and warm environment for all the students. 30% are Arabs, and because they need help in Hebrew and require other academic assistance, each student is provided with a mentor and additional tutoring. There is about a 6% dropout rate in the first year for non-Arab students, and unfortunately, there is a 12% dropout rate for Arab students. However, Technion is really working to reverse this. Once graduated, Arab graduates have all employment opportunities except working for the Israeli Department of Defense. I was really impressed with both the open disclosure of issues regarding DEI and the genuine attempts to make all Technion students included and successful. It is clearly a work in progress.

October 7 spurred Technion into action. Out of a total of 14,000 students, 3,500 were immediately deployed. School opening was delayed by 3 months. Some Jewish students felt that certain Arab students posted anti-Israel posts. Technion has a board devoted to assessing such complaints. This disciplinary board found only two out of many such complaints to be unacceptable. One example was a posting by a student that said October 7 “was the most beautiful morning of my life.” She was expelled for one year but is appealing this decision. She remains a student pending an appeal. The second student was expelled for two years but was actually arrested for terrorist activities and is currently on the list for possible hostage/prisoner exchange.

Of the 580 faculty members at Technion, there are 30 Arab Christians, Muslims, and Druze. The Achord Institute in Israel trains faculty to help them work sensitively with all students in order to create a warm and inclusive learning environment.

If it sounds like I am impressed with the atmosphere at Technion, you are correct!

In the evening, a group of us met with the “Health Hostages Forum," dedicated to getting the hostages home. The main aim is to provide psychological help for the hostage families. We met with Yarden Gonen, the sister of Romi Gonen, who remains a hostage. Yarden spoke movingly and painstakingly with us in an intimate and powerful discussion. Romi is 23 years old and was captured at the Nova rave festival. She was shot in the arm. Some hostages who were released reported she was alive but does not have full function of her arm. The worry is that she has a wound infection that is worsening and that she might become septic. Of course, the fear is that she is being sexually abused. It has been 70+ days since there has been proof of life.

We came away determined to write op-eds, contact all powerful people and other people we know, etc. The bottom line is that the hostage families are desperate to do everything possible to get the word out. Whether or not this will help the hostages get released is, of course, questionable. But I do know that just telling her story over and over again is crucial in that it helps the hostage families feel less helpless.

Day 4: JERUSALEM PHOTOS, President Herzog Reception & Hebrew University

Day 4:

Today started with a visit to the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Basically, this is a list of 76 scientists and scholars who have demonstrated brilliance, original research, or creative scholarship. The group seems (at least to me) to be an old boys club of senior scholars who have earned their spot in this group on the basis of past accomplishments. I say old boys because only 12% of members are women, and the average age of the members is 76. They say they are trying to increase the number of women and encourage younger members, but that has so far not happened. It seems like this is more like a think tank of elders.

The war has had an effect on this body, as it has in every other arena. The annual lecture for this year has been canceled because the invited guest scholar has declined to come to Israel. There is concern that, because of the politicized response to the war, they will not be invited to speak internationally. There was discussion about the possibility that reviewers' bias against papers written by Israeli scholars will also have a negative impact on the acceptance of scientific papers. (The Lancet is one journal that is known to be anti-Israel.).

“Science speaks,” and the fear is that many potentially promising scholars and scientists from Israel will give up rather than pursue rigorous years of work because they cannot get the funding and support required to do their research and will not be able to publish in peer-reviewed journals. We will have to wait and see, but that is the concern at this point.

The President of the National Academy of Science in the U.S. sent out a lukewarm letter of support to the Israeli Academy, although individual members sent personal supportive and empathic letters. The Israel Academy has not publicly chastised the U.S. academy for its lack of support for fear of alienating them. Pretty sad state of affairs in the scientific world.

Next, we had the extraordinary privilege of meeting in our small group with President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal, in their private residence. President Herzog was incredibly approachable, wise, thoughtful, and reflective. A great listener! He eagerly encouraged us to talk about our fears of burgeoning antisemitism throughout the world and in the United States. Members of our group gave examples of antisemitism at UCLA, and at various points, he directed his assistant to take notes and get back to our group with ways his office could help formally address the problems raised. This seems a lot more than just polite listening; he really seems to care and has responded to our concerns about local antisemitism with action items he can launch from his own office.

There was much discussion about the rise of “wokeness” in the U.S. and how it has spawned antisemitism and anti-Zionism. President Herzog is very concerned about this. He stated that Biden is very supportive of Israel and also highlighted his belief that Kamala Harris is a strong supporter of Israel as well and that her husband is both Jewish and a Zionist.”.

Michal Herzog brought with her a copy of the recently released “Special Report of Deliberate Rape and Mutilation of Civilians by Hamas,” which details the evidence of specialized assaults by Hamas on October 7. Systemic sexual violence was incontrovertibly used by Hamas as a weapon of war, as detailed in the report, which has been made publicly available and officially submitted to the UN (which has been deplorably silent about these horrific crimes against humanity). Michal Herzog, like her husband, is incredibly bright, articulate, warm, and engaging.

The afternoon was devoted to academic discussions and presentations at the Hebrew University. The president of the University spoke of the shock reverberating throughout Israel and on his campus. He stated, “Sometimes we do things we wouldn’t dream of doing because we have to defend ourselves.” This statement says a lot, in my opinion, about how agrieved Israelis are about both October 7 and its aftermath.

Like other universities in Israel, Hebrew University has a disciplinary board to deal with subversive and anti-Israel behaviors and public comments, and, like other Israeli universities, there have been very few problems of this nature. For the most part, the students in Israel are focused more on learning than protesting.

In one case, a faculty member signed a petition claiming that Israel was to blame for October 7 and for colonizing Palestine. The president of Hebrew University published a harsh letter condemning this. The faculty member remains on the faculty. As the president of the university said, “I believe in free speech, but if students and faculty have the right to freedom of speech, so too does the president." (On a personal note, it is too bad that the presidents of universities in the U.S. do not seem to agree.)

The Dean of Students spoke of the determination of the university to help students and faculty deal with the trauma of October 7 and its aftermath. On October 8, the university lost its first student—an Arab whose home was destroyed by a missile from Hamas. The dean visited his family and described how deeply saddened he was by the devastation of the father. Another student‘s brother remains a hostage, and a second student’s grandfather is a hostage. Just a few days ago, he visited a student, the mother of a four-year-old, whose husband (a combat soldier) died in Gaza. As the dean said, his job is to provide support, empathy, and therapy for every student who needs it.

The Vice President of DEI at Hebrew University is an Arab Christian woman, Professor Mona Khoury, an impressive woman who is an example of how DEI can work for every student. All students are admitted by a blinded selection process, not by affirmative action. Nevertheless, the Arab student body has increased from 6 to 12% because the university has reached out to encourage Arabs to apply. Previously, most Arabs never thought to apply because Hebrew University is so highly competitive and prestigious. Arabs from East Jerusalem generally are not fluent in Hebrew and are provided special help in attaining fluency. Those Arabs who need additional preparation can do an extra first year to get up to speed and then apply for admissions; after completion of the extra year, their chance of admission is no different from any other student, and they are subject to blinded standardized tests.

Dr. Khoury also described how Hebrew University has developed workshops to train faculty on how to teach their students (Jews, Christian’s, Arabs, Druze, Haredi, modern Orthodox, secular, LGBTQ+, etc.) during a war situation. Furthermore, she designed creative and effective strategies and approaches for students to engage with one another. These approaches are too lengthy to describe in detail but are innovative and are working.

One last thing: three students at Hebrew University spoke of the way they were affected by October 7 and the months since. Two students spoke who were deployed to the army. Both have been incredibly grateful for the help they have received upon their return. One had just returned from deployment; he is in law school, and his professors have gone out of their way to help him catch up; some even tutored him in their homes. He spoke poignantly about his own experiences as a lieutenant overseeing his platoon. In the morning of October 7, he communicated through his WhatsApp platoon group to immediately meet up at the northern border. One apologized for being a bit late because his home was being shelled by Hamas. Three of his men rushed to join the platoon despite the fact that their wives were due to have babies; they each returned home for one month following the births of their babies, and two have since returned to the front. A third man has not yet returned due to birth complications. On a more humorous note, he described how he spent many hours in a tank. When he had free time, he tried to keep up with his studies, communicating with his instructors, who told him to rest up when he could and not to worry about catching up; they would help him when he returned! They just wanted him to return safely.

In the evening, at our final dinner, we had a special treat (thanks to Shimon Weiss, a member of our group who reunited with a friend after fifty years): a surprise speaker Amotz Asa-El is a prominent Israeli author and senior opinion writer for the Jerusalem Post. His latest book, The Jewish March of Folly, published in 2019, is incredibly prescient. It chronicles the history of Israeli wars from biblical times to the Holocaust. Each time there has been a foreign attack on Jewry, it has come during either a civil war or extreme civil discord among the Jewish people. The current invasion by Hamas, of course, has come after a year of explosive internal unrest within Israel. When the Israeli people are divided, they are rife for attack from within. In a final comment, Asa-El suggested there are concerning parallels within the U.S., which is split into opposing factions fed by extremists on multiple sides of the political spectrum. This comes at a time of widespread international threats from several countries. An ominous prediction. A hopeful final comment: the Israeli people have now come together as one—of course it is unfortunate that it took a devastating war to bring Israelis together.

To all who have chosen to follow me on this journey, I have come to the end of an amazing, impactful, and moving four-day visit to Israel.