On October 18, the Azrieli Fellows Program gathered its new cohort and the wider Azrieli Fellows community at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to celebrate the opening of the 2026–2027 academic year.
The evening began with a tour of the museum, followed by a reception and dinner. During the reception, Dr. Naomi Azrieli, OC, Chair of the Azrieli Foundation, welcomed the new Fellows in the Patrons’ Lounge and raised a toast to the incoming cohort.
The evening program opened with remarks by Dr. Aviad Stollman, Global Director of the Azrieli Fellows Program, who spoke about the diversity of the Fellows community. Bringing together Israeli and international scholars across a wide range of disciplines, the program is unusually international and diverse, and that diversity matters more than ever at a time when artificial intelligence risks flattening the way we think.
Two Azrieli Fellows then took the stage. Tom Shaked, Assistant Professor at Ariel University, presented “Reconstructing Construction: Building with Robots,” and Yonit Hochberg, Associate Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, followed with “Look on the Dark Side: Unveiling the Unseen Matter of the Universe.”
Dr. Azrieli closed the program with reflections on the Fellows Program as it approaches its 20th anniversary, recalling how it has grown from 10 Fellows in each cohort to 50 today. She then surprised the audience with a talk of her own on the neuroscience of generosity. Drawing on recent brain research, including the work of Azrieli Fellow Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal, she showed that our brains are wired not only for self-preservation but for care, and that giving strengthens our sense of connection, meaning and joy. Understanding generosity, she concluded, requires insights from many disciplines, and from every member of the Azrieli Fellows community.
The evening, emceed by Rochelle Avitan and accompanied by music from Tal Ganor and Eran Zehavi, ended with coffee and dessert. We wish our new Fellows a year of discovery and look forward to all they will contribute to our community.
