News in Brief

A TAU Search Committee has unanimously recommended the appointment of Dafna MeitarNechmad as the next Chair of the TAU Board of Governors.

After serving for three years as Co-Chair of the TAU Global Campaign, Meitar-Nechmad will replace current chairman Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel, who will complete two four-year terms this year.

Meitar-Nechmad is a triple alumna and long-time benefactor of TAU and will be first woman to hold this important role. She previously worked as a lawyer but now focuses on philanthropy. Among her many public roles, she serves on the Boards of JFN–Jewish Funders Network and the Metropolitan Opera of New York, and heads the Zvi and Ofra Meitar Family Fund, with TAU as its major beneficiary. Meitar-Nechmad and her family founded the Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies at TAU’s Buchmann Faculty of Law. She is also a founding member of TAU’s Institute for Law and Philanthropy.

Michal Bat Adam Wins Israel Prize for Film

The 2021 Israel Prize for Film Art was awarded to Michal Bat Adam, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University’s Tisch School of Film and Television, and a prolific director, screenwriter and actor. Bat Adam has written and directed 13 full-length movies. She has also starred in numerous films, plays and TV shows, including Madame Rosa (1977), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

“At a time when there were no government funds to support filmmaking as there are today, over the years Bat Adam produced …full-length films that constitute unique and original creations in the cinematic realm,” the Israel Prize Committee wrote.

Bat Adam is known for forging a unique female language in cinema—uncompromising and groundbreaking.

Dan David Prize Responds to Global Health Crisis

The 2021 Dan David Prize laureates are Dr. Anthony Fauci (pictured), Director of the US’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); history of health and medicine scholars Prof. Alison Bashford, Prof. Katharine Park and Prof. Keith Wailoo; and the pioneers of an anti-cancer immunotherapy Prof. Zelig Eshhar, Dr. Carl June and Dr. Steven Rosenberg. The awards were bestowed in an online event on May 9.

The internationally renowned Dan David Prize, headquartered at TAU, annually awards three prizes of $1 million each to inspiring individuals and organizations.

“In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seemed natural to focus all three prizes on the achievements of the sciences and the humanities in health and medicine,” said Ariel David, director of the Dan David Foundation and son of the late founder, at the ceremony. “The laureates we are celebrating today perfectly embody the spirit of resilience, and their achievements are evidence that reason and scientific inquiry are our only true weapons in the fight against disease.”