PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2020 | OUR FIRST 50

BGU PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2020

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Ilan  Look at this! What a place! What a view! Paula  I guess it was a source of inspiration for Ben-Gurion and it’s definitely a source of inspiration for us.

Prof. Paula Kabalo and Prof. Ilan Troen Prof. Emeritus S. Ilan Troen is originally from Boston and immigrated to Israel in 1975. He has a PhD in history from the University of Chicago. He was director of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism from 1983 to 1987 and is the founding editor of its journal, "Israel Studies". He was also the director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. Prof. Paula Kabalo is the director of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism and also heads the Woodman-Scheller Israel Studies International MA program and the Azrieli Center for Israel Studies. Her research focus is the history of citizen associations and civil society in Israel. Photos: 1 - David Ben-Gurion in Kibbutz Sde Boker 2 - Professors Kabalo (L) and Troen (R) against the background of the Zin Valley 3 - Prof. Troen (L) and BGU President Yosef Tekoah with visitors, late 1970s 4 - Cornerstone laying ceremony for BGU’s Sde Boker campus, 1974. Photo: Sa’ar Ya’akov. Courtesy Government Press Office

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Ilan  You knowwhat this proves? That this is not just a place of desolation; it is a place full of possibilities. It is through here that the people of Israel walked in ancient times and it is where the people of Israel can come and build in the modern period. If you look around, you see possibilities, not an absence. You see what it can be: cultural, visual, spiritual, as well as green and scientific and all the rest. Paula  If we follow Ben-Gurion’s way of thinking – the understanding that mankind has to reach out to new horizons, and that science and technology and knowledge are what we need to seek – we must, at the same time, never forget the spirit of human beings: it all comes from that, from the soul of humankind and that’s

Watch the full video online at bit.ly/SBG-K-T

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