Where Behavior and Brain Intersect

Initiatives
CANADIAN FRIENDS
Ilan Ramon Classroom
Dedicated
From left:
Dr. Christer
Fuglesang,
ESA/NASA
astronaut;
Prof. Colin
Price; Stella
Joseph; Rona
Ramon; and
Dr. Diane
Evans of
NASA
Colonel Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut who died in the
Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003, and the late Prof.
Joachim Joseph, a leading TAU researcher of the MEIDEX
scientific project carried aboard the Columbia, were commemorated
together in the new computer classroom donated
by the Canadian Friends of TAU at the Department of
Geophysics and Planetary Sciences of TAU’s Raymond and
Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences. The dedication
ceremony, marking seven years since the Columbia mission,
was attended by the two widows, Rona Ramon and Stella
Joseph, as well as NASA representatives Dr. Diane Evans
and Dr. Christer Fuglesang. The honored guests were welcomed
by the Department’s chairperson, Prof. Colin Price.
The joint commemoration befits these two accomplished
men, who collaborated closely in their lifetime. Their
unique relationship was publicized when Prof. Joseph gave
Ilan Ramon the Torah scroll he had received for his Bar
Mitzvah in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp – to take
into space on the Columbia.
The Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences
together with the David Azrieli School of Architecture also
jointly initiated a competition for planning and erecting
a memorial installation for Col. Ramon and Prof. Joseph.
The participants in the competition were students from the
Azrieli School, and first prize went to Israel Biton and Nir
Levy, students in the final stages of their studies. Each of
them will receive a tuition scholarship for one semester and
a medallion in memory of Ilan Ramon. The selected memorial
is a three-dimensional structure attached to the ceiling,
with a curved bench at its base, intended for seating. It will
be set up in the entrance lobby of the Department.
Sarah Vered
(right), son
Gilad and
granddaughter
Dana
30
ZEEV VERED DESK
Promoting Tolerance in the
Middle East
The Zeev Vered Desk
for the Study of Tolerance
and Intolerance in the
Middle East, established
by Sara Vered of Ottawa,
Canada, in memory of
her late husband Zeev Vered, was inaugurated at TAU’s
Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary
Anti-Semitism and Racism.
Sara, who fought with the Palmach in Israel’s War of
Independence, later became a leading figure in the Canadian
Jewish community, contributing to numerous institutions in
Canada and Israel. She founded the desk to
commemorate her late husband, engineer,
real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist
Zeev Vered, who received the Order of
Canada and an honorary doctorate from
Ottawa University.
“We are one nation, contending with
intolerance at all times, and Israel’s relations
with its neighbors are of crucial importance
to all of us,” says Ms. Vered. “I
believe that research on contemporary tolerance issues in the
Middle East is of inestimable value to the State of Israel and
the Jewish nation.”
Head of the initiative, Dr. Esther Webman of the Roth
Institute and the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern
and African Studies, said at the inauguration ceremony,
“The Jewish faith is the universal source of many fundamental
values of modern democracy. One of these is tolerance
and the respect for others, their rights and their views.” The
Vered Desk will promote in-depth research on the multifaceted
tension between the Jewish and Arab worlds, aiming to
advance mutual acceptance.
TAU Rector Dany Leviatan,
Dayan Center Director Prof. Eyal
Zisser and Sara’s son, Gilad, delivered
greetings, and former TAU
President Itamar Rabinovich gave
the keynote lecture on “Reception
and Tolerance in the Middle East
Mosaic.” The event was chaired by
Prof. Dina Porat, Head of the Roth
Institute.