BGU & YOU

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Ben-Gurion University of the Negev opened the country’s first dedicated medical simulation building last year, and soon thereafter longtime supporters Rachel and the late Max Javit gave a generous gift that ensures that this cutting-edge facility advances healthcare training across multiple disciplines. The Rachel and Max Javit Medical Simulation and Classroom Building dramatically expands and upgrades BGU’s healthcare training and education capabilities. It will also be a magnet for attracting Israel’s best and brightest medical students and healthcare professionals to receive their training at BGU.

Rachel and Max Javit believed that the future of Judaism depends on Israel, and the future of Israel depends on the Negev. Shortly before Max’s passing in 2019, he said in an interview that “the country is tiny, and what they’re doing is phenomenal. It’s recognized worldwide for its amazing technology, but Israel needs help – particularly in the south – to do more research, bring more people there, and do whatever it takes.” The 55,972-square-foot facility is the only facility in Israel built explicitly for medical simulation education. It includes a range of simulation rooms and stations, including an operating room,

an internal medicine ward, an ambulance simulator, rooms dedicated to emergency medicine and a treatment room for multi-casualty events. In each, manikins, actors, and virtual reality allow students to experience life-like situations and practice procedures to develop their clinical skills. The facility also has eight 78-seat classrooms, four 148-seat auditoriums, and two debriefing rooms. Max was born and raised in Brooklyn and met his Israeli wife Rachel at an Israel Independence Day celebration in Michigan, where Max completed his PhD