$$News and Reports$$

May. 25, 2017
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Above: Prof. Hanna Yablonka with Rector Prof. Zvi Hacohen
 

 

 

The Aron Bernstein Chair in Jewish History, which was dedicated last week, has an interesting history behind it. 

 

Toni Young, President of AABGU, told those gathered a little bit about the late Aron Bernstein, his story and his connection to BGU. 

 

“Aron Bernstein was a Holocaust survivor who was the sole survivor from his family. He visited BGU once many years ago and fell in love with the University – that visit and his determination to leave a legacy that would provide for future generations in Israel, led him to make AABGU the beneficiary of a large bequest, intended to establish a scholarship endowment,” she said at the ceremony dedicating the Chair in his name. The dedication ceremony was part of the 47th Board of Governors Meeting. 

 

Everyone involved was determined to find an appropriate way to honor him. 

 

“This special responsibility – this special honor – is particularly important in cases of Holocaust survivors, as it falls to us to stand in not only for them, but for the murdered members of their families lost in the savagery of the Shoah. Though not a specific component of Aron Bernstein's bequest, AABGU and BGU were determined to find an appropriate way to further honor his special legacy. Today's ceremony is the result,” Toni Young said.

 

“As President of AABGU, I am privileged to stand before you as we inaugurate the Aron Bernstein Chair in Jewish History; a Chair whose first incumbent will be our world-renowned scholar, Prof. Hanna Yablonka. Through her continuing research and that of those who will follow her as incumbents of this Chair, the life and legacy of Aron Bernstein and his family will continue to impact both Israel and the Jewish people for untold years to come. Aron Bernstein's legacy here at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is the ultimate repudiation of the murderous wishes of the Nazis. May his memory be a blessing. Am Yisrael Chai,” she said. 

 

Prof. Hanna Yablonka is the daughter of Holocaust survivors, a world-renowned scholar of the Holocaust and a second generation BGU academic. 

 

“I am grateful and honored to have been granted the Aron Bernstein Chair in Jewish History. I take great pride in being the second generation to be part of BGU, which I have called my second family and home for almost 30 years now. My parents were among the establishers of the medical school in the early 1960s. I am affiliated with the Jewish History Department since the 1980s and, together with my friend [Prof.] Tuvia Friling, we created the first ever Israel Studies Program in Israel.” 

 

Yablonka explained the origins of her groundbreaking research. 

 

“Also in the 1980s, in one of our weekly coffee sessions together – my father cautiously suggested I write my Ph.D. thesis on the issue of Holocaust survivors and their integration into Israeli society and the State. I thought it was an intriguing idea. However, I was quite convinced that such research had already been done. I was proven wrong – big time. Surprisingly enough, my Ph.D. dissertation, which also appeared as a book published by NYU Press, was the pioneering research into this amazing inspiring story of empowerment and success – a social history at its best and a moral teaching for life.

 

“The bottom line of my long research corpus on Holocaust survivors is that it’s an unprecedented tale of immigration, in which newcomers became the backbone of society in the new country they had just founded,” she declared. 

 

Yablonka also wrote a seminal book on the Adolf Eichmann trial. 

 

“I was lucky enough to be the first after 35 years of closed archives, to be able to see all the materials regarding one of the most media-covered events in Israel’s history – the Eichmann trial,” she said. 

 

She is currently wrapping up her new book, which is a “collective biography of 290,000 who were the first Israelis – the first natives to be born in the State of Israel between 1948 and 1955. It’s something like the history of the Israeli baby boomers, and it will be published around Israel’s 70th anniversary” next year. 

 

Yablonka also said she very proud of her students. 

 

“Above all, I have always considered myself first and foremost a teacher and the highlight of my career are my Ph.D. students, whom I have the privilege of supervising. Their intelligence, curiosity, new views, really validate the old Jewish saying: ‘I’ve learnt from all my teachers but above all from my students,’” she said. 

 

Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Prof. Chaim Hames provided some background about the Faculty and why it is such an inspiring place in which to work. 

 

“Our Faculty is one of the largest in the University, comprising 21 departments and another eight teaching programs covering disciplines from psychology to philosophy, economics and literature, sociology and anthropology to archaeology, Bible and the study of the ancient Near East, politics and government and history. We have over 5,000 students studying for a B.A. and advanced degrees and we are proud that many of our graduates go on to contribute in significant ways in their chosen professions. 

 

“Our vision and mission is to provide our students with the skills and tools necessary to make them good, productive and socially engaged citizens of Israel. We also aim to identify and train those with the potential to become the leading lights of the next generation of academics. We hope that those we train will become even more accomplished than we are and that their research will contribute to making this University, country and, dare I say, the world a better place for all of us. 

 

“The research carried out in the Faculty is a reflection of the abilities of our researchers, but also a result of the special atmosphere and collegiality that exists in the Faculty. Over the past year, since being elected Dean, I have met with many of my colleagues both formally and informally. One of the great pleasures of my week are the Wednesday lunches where eight or so faculty members from different departments and disciplines, both senior and junior, join me to eat, talk and inspire each other in an informal atmosphere. I come away from these lunches on a high, in awe of the fascinating research being carried out by my colleagues and inspired by how so much gets done with so few resources. These lunches are a constant reminder to me of just how significant our research is for our community and for the greater good,” he said.

 

 

 

The ceremony also featured presentations by three BGU alumni: 

 

Dr. Amir Peleg, historian and adviser for the Claims Conference; Assistant Editor of the Zeev Jabotinsky Ideological Writings 

 

Mrs. Dalit Danenberg, history teacher in a leading Jerusalem high school

 

Mrs. Tehila Malka, pedagogical advisor at Herzog College and a teacher at the secular Binah Yeshiva.