Eight Israeli Professors to Teach at Local Universities

(Top Row, L to R): Ambassador Ido Aharoni, Honorable Judge Rachel Barkai, Professor Giora Goodman, Professor Nehama Lewis. (Bottom Row, L to R): Professor Asa Maron, Professor Maya Negev, Professor Dan Rabinowitz, Filmmaker Tom Shoval (Photos via Impact Cubed)

ENCINITAS, California (Press Release) – The Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative (MGSDII) has announced eight renowned Israeli professors who will participate in one-year teaching appointments at San Diego universities during the 2024-25 school year. They each bring deep expertise and will teach in diverse disciplines, including foreign policy, law, history, communications, economics, environmental health, and film.

The visiting faculty and their placements are:

Ambassador Ido Aharoni (The Jean and Gary Shekhter Visiting Professorship) will teach in the SDSU School of Business and UCSD School of Global Policy. Ambassador Ido Aharoni is Senior Faculty at the Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University, member of the university’s Board of Governors and a Global Distinguished Professor of Business at Touro University.

Judge Rachel Barkai (The Karen and Jeff Silberman Visiting Professorship) will teach at Cal Western School of Law and the School of Law – University of San Diego. Judge Rachel Barkai is the vice president of the Tel Aviv District Court of Appeal.

Giora Goodman (The Gloria and Rod Stone Visiting Professorship) will teach in the SDSU Department of History from Kinneret College. He specializes in the history of government-media relations in British-ruled Palestine and the state of Israel.

Nehama Lewis will teach at the SDSU Department of Communication from the University of Haifa. Her research focuses on health-enhancing behaviors and reducing the prevalence of risky behaviors.

Asa Maron (The Elaine and Peter Chortek z”l Visiting Professorship) will teach in the UCSD Departments of Sociology and Economics from the University of Haifa. He is a political and economic sociologist interested in the transformation of the state in the context of neoliberal capitalism.

Maya Negev (The Joseph “Chickie” Glickman, z”l Visiting Professorship) will teach in the SDSU School of Public Health and Department of Geography from the School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Israel. Her research interests are in the science-policy interface of environmental health.

Dan Rabinowitz will return to teach in the UCSD Department of Anthropology from the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Tel Aviv University. His fields of interest include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the environment.

Tom Shoval (The Robin and Leo Eisenberg Visiting Professorship) will teach in the SDSU Department of English and Comparative Literature. Renowned filmmaker, Tom Shoval, teaches cinema at Sam Spiegel, Minshar, Open University, and Sapir College, among others. Notably, two-time Academy Award-winning director. Alejandro Inarritu (Birdman) executive produced Shoval’s 2021 JFF award-winning feature Shake Your Cares Away.

The visiting faculty will host lectures and film screenings for community members throughout the year. Learn more and join the mailing list at www.mgsdii.org.

The MGSDII has partnered with campuses across San Diego to bring 48 visiting professors from Israel to teach 150 classes on modern Israel, reaching over 4,000 students over the last eight years. Through this exchange and other programs, MGSDII expands the marketplace of ideas on campus with a firm commitment to academic freedom and integrity. MGSDII is an initiative of Impact Cubed.

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Preceding provided by Impact Cubed, an outgrowth of the Leichtag Foundation.