8 ways Bar-Ilan University is spreading light |
On Hanukkah, we’re reminded that Jewish light isn’t a metaphor meant for easy times. It’s a mandate for challenging ones.
This year, that truth feels painfully immediate. The Jewish community in Sydney is reeling after targeted violence—an attack not only on lives, but on the sense of safety and belonging Jews should never have to justify.
For the two years following October 7th, 2023, Israel and world Jewry had lived with a darkness that felt both historic and intensely personal: war, grief, displacement, and the daily strain of uncertainty. And yet, the story of our people has never been only about surviving the night. It’s about insisting on hope until it becomes durable enough to share.
At a pivotal moment as Israel rebuilds and redefines itself, Bar-Ilan University stands uniquely positioned to shape the nation’s future—advancing knowledge, healing trauma, strengthening society, and educating the leaders who will carry Israel forward. This Hanukkah, Bar-Ilan is spreading light in profound and tangible ways. The following eight initiatives illustrate how the University is rising to meet this historic moment and helping secure Israel’s future for generations to come.
1) Becoming Israel’s second-largest research university
Bar-Ilan’s rapid rise to become Israel’s second-largest research university, through a 30% surge in enrollment over an eight-year period, isn’t just a story about rankings. It’s about national strength. Growth at this scale means more researchers are tackling urgent problems and more graduate students are driving innovation, and that the university has more capacity to serve a society........