BGU | PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2024

This conflict is unlike anything we've ever faced. However, as we've demonstrated in past crises, including the pandemic, the indomitable BGU Spirit shows us that anything is possible. Fueled by our shared belief in the Power of Together, it is guiding us through this challenging period. OCTOBER 21, 2023 It has been two torturous weeks since we all woke up to the unthinkable devastation wrought by the Hamas-led terror attack, resulting in 1,400 lives lost, over 200 people kidnapped, and tens of thousands turned into refugees. Our BGU community did not escape unscathed. While statistics can never capture the magnitude of human suffering, it is essential that you know the impact on our community: 16 students and staff, both academic and administrative, were taken from us. Additionally, 33 family members of our staff were killed, and four remain missing or kidnapped. Families of over 200 of our employees have been displaced, now residing in repurposed hotels serving as refugee camps. A significant, yet undisclosed, number of our students have been called up for reserve duty. Nearly every family in the BGU community, including my own, has loved ones who have been called up for reserve duty, or if not, knows families whose children have been. As we contend with these immense challenges, our hearts and prayers are with our soldiers and reservists, for their safe and speedy return. NOVEMBER 22, 2023 Now, six weeks into the Gaza War, the soundscape has shifted. The sirens sound less frequently, only once every few days. Remarkably, I've become so accustomed to them that my pulse barely quickens when I hear them. But from my office in Beer-Sheva, a new and more foreboding sound instills a sense of dread: the rhythmic thumping of helicopter blades. Just 400 meters from my office lies the helicopter landing pad of BGU's affiliated Soroka University Medical Center. The flight path of military medevac helicopters from Gaza, a mere 40 km away, passes directly overhead. So, when we hear the helicopters, we know they carry Israeli soldiers who have been seriously wounded. Each approaching and departing helicopter is a reminder, a marker of time and lives impacted. Whenever these helicopters approach, I momentarily pause any meeting I'm in. It's a brief moment for us all

Sahar Gavish of the Field Family Foundation Medical Simulation Center helped train IDF medical teams???? The BGU community marked the delayed launch of the academic school year with a solemn ceremony rather than a party

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Ben-Gurion University of the Negev