US Jewish students spend seven weeks in Bar-Ilan University program
Twenty-four Jewish-American undergraduate science majors from Yeshiva University, Cornell University, Rutgers University and Columbia University spent the summer being mentored by faculty at the laboratories Ramat Gan’s Bar-Ilan University and visiting such places as Israel Aerospace Industries, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, and the Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center.
The students supplemented their daily lab work with nightly chavruta study (paired Torah study) and Jewish studies classes at the Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute kollel in Jerusalem, to strike the proper Torah U’Madda (“Torah and Science”) balance.”
The seven-week Summer Research Internship Program is a joint initiative of Bar-Ilan University and Yeshiva University.
The program director, Prof. Ari Zivotofsky of Bar-Ilan’s Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Program, matched Americans with mentors based on the students’ academic backgrounds and interests.
“This summer, I was blessed with an opportunity to partake in the BIU-YU research program,” said Tehila Berger, 20, of Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women and Far Rockaway in New York City.
“In the lab, I was blessed to work with a devoted PhD student, Hila Sameach, who is selflessly habituating me to the world of research, as well as allowing me to partake in her personal project. Being as this is my first wet lab experience, the learning curve was tremendous, and as such, the independence, skills, and knowledge I have attained from the experience would have [otherwise] been entirely inconceivable,” Berger added.
Sameach said, “Tehilla has integrated into our lab really quickly. It is a pleasure to guide a student so intelligent and eager to learn – essential qualities for a research student. She is already independent in the lab and I am sure she is headed to a bright future.”