The Canadian Dinner is always a highlight at the Hebrew University Board of Governors!
Friends, students, faculty, and staff gathered on Monday, June 12, at the unique Modern Restaurant, located in Jerusalem’s, Israel Museum . The dinner offers us an opportunity to enjoy each others company, celebrating our many accomplishments, and recognizing the outstanding individuals who help the Canadian Friends and the Hebrew University remain the leading university in Israel.
We were thrilled to have with us devoted BOG attendees Bryant and Lillian Shiller. Lillian received the 2023 Honorary Fellowship, recognizing her achievements as the first female Canadian Montreal Chapter Chair from 1993-98, and in appreciation of her unwavering dedication and support for the Hebrew University for nearly forty years!
The celebrations continued as we toasted to the milestone 40th anniversary of The Asper Foundation, with CFHU President and CEO, Rami Kleinmann, raising a glass, reminiscing, and expressing our collective gratitude to the Asper Family, notably Gail, and her late parents Babs and Issie. The glass was held aloft for kudos and thanks to the Foundation’s recently retired president, Moe Levy. Rami talked about the incredible support and ongoing legacy of the Asper Foundation and The Gail Asper Family Foundation in laying the groundwork for so many incredible and transformative initiatives throughout Canada and Israel, highlighting their ongoing support at Hebrew U, for students through the I.H. Asper Hebrew University of Jerusalem Travel Scholarship Fund, and for research and discovery through the Asper Center for Entrepreneur and Innovation in HU’s Business School, and with the award winning Asper HUJI Innovate, the university’s multi-disciplinary center dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship.
The dinner also offered us an opportunity to publicly thank Shai Abramson who has served as the Asper Foundation’s Director of Israel Strategy and Programming for close to two decades, and to give a warm welcome to Anita Wortzman, who was named President of the Asper Foundation in December 2022. We look forward to continuing our work together and celebrating many more milestones and achievements!
Shaul Shenhav, the recently appointed Director of the Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies, along with board members and staff, thanked Nachman Ben-Yehuda, the immediate past Director of the Halbert Centre, for his many years of leadership and dedication to promoting all things Canadian at HU.
After a moving video, produced for outgoing Board Chair, Monette Malewski, in which her daughter Lianne and her close friends Dany Pollack, Stephen Lipper, Madeline Féquière, Ido Aharoni, CFHU President, Rami Kleinmann, HU President, Asher Cohen, and Chair of the BOG, Dan Schlessinger, paid tribute and extended heartfelt gratitude, describing her many qualities as a leader, colleague and friend, Monette took the stage, expressing her joy and personal appreciation to all the people involved during her unforgettable time as Chair.
Joining us at the dinner were incoming CFHU National Chair, Michael Kraft and Shawna Goodman Sone, Chair of the Morris and Rosalind Goodman Family Foundation, which recently made a $1.2M gift to support HUJI students of Ethiopian descent. The gift is part of a campaign initiative that was also generously supported by BOG attendees, former CFHU National Chair, Nathan Lindenberg, and his wife Glennie, who championed the campaign for the recently opened Toronto Holocaust Museum. Our gratitude also extends to their son Ira Lindenberg, Toronto’s Chapter Chair, who represents CFHU on the Walk in Their Shoes Campaign Cabinet.
Two outstanding students were awarded the CFHU Prize in Excellence. Omer Shoseyov, a brilliant PhD candidate in Applied Physics, who graduated summa cum laude with a master’s degree in Applied Physics and magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, received the Lillian & Bryant Shiller Research Fellowship at the Peter Brojde Centre for Innovative Engineering and Computer Science.
Yitzchak Mor, student of Karma Ben Johanan and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Comparative Religion at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a former Doctoral Fellow at the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, received the inaugural Dr. Norman Tobias Scholarship in Jewish-Christian Relations. The prize is sponsored by Judge Michel Shore to honour his friend Dr. Norman Tobias, Canadian jurist, historian and author. Judge Shore’s daughter, Betty Herman, joined us to present this most meaningful award.
These accomplishments and acknowledgments remind us of the extraordinary work being carried out at Hebrew University and the impactful contributions of our CFHU community. We are immensely proud to be part of such a dedicated and passionate group.