Alumni Meetings

This year, the Faculty held four particularly moving class reunions, one of which received extensive media coverage. The reason: one of the alumni was President-Elect Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin, who attended the event just two days after his election. 

-Sapir Dayan-

As part of a project launched this year by Dean Professor Yuval Shany, the Faculty will be holding class reunions every year for alumni marking the round anniversary of their graduation (40 years, 50 years, and so forth). The goal of the project is to renew the connection between the alumni and the university. This year, reunions were held for the classes of 1964, 1974, 1984, and 2004.

The reunion of the class of 1964 was a “star-studded” occasion. In addition to President Reuven Rivlin, participants also included Professor Yaakov Neeman, Hagai Sitton, Matti Golan, Amiram Safran, Micah Yinon, and other prominent public figures and members of the Israeli business community. Although the timing seemed too good to be true, the organizers of the event confirmed that they were as surprised as anyone else to discover that one of the participants would be the tenth president of the State of Israel, and that he would come to the reunion just two days after his election to the position. As Rivlin and his former classmates celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their graduation, he shared some of his experiences from his student days: “Every year I was awarded a prize, and like a true Jerusalemite I felt a little ashamed about it. But what could I do? I was a bit of a nerd. I took my studies very seriously. But I was certainly involved in extracurricular activities, too.” When asked whether he would have believed that his class would produce a state president, Rivlin replied: “I had lots of friends who I thought could become president.”

Class of 1964
Credit: Bruno Charbit

Professor Yaakov Neeman was asked how he felt when he heard that his classmate had been elected president. Neeman explained that he “felt bad when Rivlin was not elected to the position last time, but I said that it would happen eventually, and thank God it did. We were good friends – not only during our studies, but afterwards too. And now he is president. I can’t declare that I am a friend of the president – it’s more than that. I am moved that a classmate of mine has reached the pinnacle of Israeli democracy.” Neeman recalled that Rivlin was “an excellent student, pleasant, and very friendly. We used to sit in the library together and enjoy the classes and exercises.”

Right: Prof. Neeman, President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin and Micha Yinon
Credit: Nery Pinkwasser

The reunion of the class of 1974 was also a very successful event, attended by an impressive collection of alumni, although not by the most famous graduate of that year, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The reunion of the class of 1984 was attended by some 40 alumni, including judges, legal experts, and prominent lawyers. Some of the alumni are now the proud parents of students at the Faculty of Law. No fewer than 50 alumni attended the reunion of the class of 2004.

The reunions were held in Beit Maiersdorf on the campus. Each event included a tour of the Mt. Scopus campus, keynote speeches by the Dean of the Faculty and other Faculty members, an informal supper, and plenty of free time to share reminiscences with former classmates. During the tour of the campus, the alumni visited familiar spots from their studies as well as the new campus buildings, which most of them had not seen before. They recalled that in their day the campus was “nothing but pillars and tents,” whereas today’s students enjoy luxurious conditions. The highpoint of each reunion was an open microphone session, when one alumnus after another recalled their student days, “The moment I entered the university gates just now with my wife, I told her that I suddenly feel 30 years older,” one alumnus confessed. “Everything looks different and new. But as we all started to chat about our experiences, I noticed that some of the people talking are in the 20s, and I felt 30 years younger.”

The alumni were very impressed by the various projects initiated by the Faculty, and particularly by the emphasis on social responsibility. Dr. Einat Albin and Dr. Yuval Albashan attended the various reunions and described the unique work of the Legal Clinic, the social power of law, and the desire of today’s Faculty students to be active on social issues, just as in the past. One alumna noted that most of her classmates had chosen the path of public service – not by way of a default, but thanks to the influence of the Faculty, the lecturers, and their friends. No other law faculty in Israel shows this level of public commitment, which is a justifiable source of pride.

Class of 1974
Credit: Mel Brickman

Over the past two years, the Faculty has taken a number of steps to renew its connection with alumni, in response to requests from the former students themselves. Issues of “The Faculty” are sent to alumni, contact lists have been updated, and the new Alumni Club has been established, with the goal of reviving connections with the thousands of members of the legal profession who attended the Faculty. During the preparations for the reunions, one of the hardest tasks was to locate the addresses and the new names of some of the graduates, since the database was seriously outdated. The students who performed this task commented that some of their telephone calls lasted half an hour due to the alumni’s desire to hear what was happening at the Faculty and how today’s students are enjoying their experience. The large majority of the alumni were delighted to renew their connection with the Faculty, and as noted the reunions were a great success.

Class of 1984
Credit: Yonatan Zindel

Dean Professor Yuval Shany, who initiated the project, emphasizes that the connections are important both to the Faculty and to the alumni themselves. “Many alumni are looking for this connection. They understand how important it is that the Faculty continue to serve as an institution of excellence and they are happy to get involved. They follow what we are doing, come to teach at the Faculty, take on students as interns, and offer financial support. The Faculty gave its alumni a strong foundation for their entry into legal activity, and we hope that they will now help us to provide today’s students with a foundation that is at least as strong. Legal education today is a more complex, expensive, and multidisciplinary task. It demands more diverse skills, and we will be delighted for alumni to accompany and support us as we train new generations of students.”

In his speech, the Dean pointed out that the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University is a brand. “Like any other brand, maintaining its reputation is a valuable goal. The alumni of the university have individual and collective strength. Ten thousand alumni of the Faculty form the backbone of the Israeli legal world and can be found in senior positions throughout Israeli society. They are an asset, and in today’s academic reality the Faculty cannot afford to ignore them. We are very proud that the Faculty has trained outstanding alumni who are making a real contribution to the nation.”

It’s All Hebrew to Me

Every student faces some difficulties adapting to academic life during their first year at the Faculty of Law. But the difficulties are amplified for students whose first language is not Hebrew. Difficulties writing papers and reading and understanding legal language are sometimes accompanied by challenges in the area of social and cultural adaption. The mentoring project for students whose first language is not Hebrew offers a broad-based response to these difficulties. The results on the ground speak for themselves.

-Renana Herman-

Atalia Markowitz

“When I started my first year, I didn’t have laptop,” recalls Atalia Markowitz, a student at the Faculty who immigrated to Israel from the Netherlands after finishing high school. “I used to stay late at the university every day writing papers. After all the libraries closed, I would to the computers in the corridor until 10 p.m. One day I called Tom, my mentor, in tears because I wasn’t even close to finishing my paper. It was the middle of winter, but he came over at 11 p.m. to encourage me with a cup of hot tea. It was really charming.”

The mentoring project for students whose first language is not Hebrew was established nine years ago on the initiative of Professor Eyal Zamir. It was initially run by Dr. Adam Hofri-Winogradow, and now Professor Guy Harpaz with the assistance of Keren Ben-Zvi  are responsible for the academic management of the program. The project receives funding from the Gilbert Foundation and provides support for about 25 students a year.

Atalia Markowitz

The goal is to help students with language difficulties, and in some cases cultural and social difficulties, to make it through their first year at the Faculty of Law. “We try to identify in advance first-year students whose level of Hebrew is limiting their ability to realize their potential,” Professor Harpaz explains. “In most cases, these students are new immigrants or come from the Arab sector. Before the beginning of the academic year, we identify about 15 outstanding mentors who offer a combination of academic ability and strong emotional intelligence. During the orientation days we gather the new students who are suited to the project and match them up with mentors. After that it all depends on the chemistry between the mentor and the mentee. The mentees have their mentor’s telephone number and can meet with them or even send papers for them to look over before submitting them. The project offers a meaningful support system at no cost. I would be glad if more first-year students took advantage of the opportunity.”

The mentors’ perspective
Atalia Perry, a student at the Faculty who is working as a mentor in the project for the second year, offers some more insights into the work: “The goal is to help the student understand court rulings, read them, and write papers. We try to provide the basic skills that are much easier for students with strong capabilities in Hebrew to develop. The mentoring includes face-to-face meetings as well as help in proofreading and drafting before the submission of papers. At the beginning of the year I meet with the mentee to provide some tips and suggestions and to coordinate our expectations. After that, I work according to the mentee’s interests and the papers he or she needs to submit. Some mentees ask for a regular weekly meeting, while others prefer to contact me on as-needed basis.”

Although the project focuses mainly on academic support, students with social difficulties have a particularly strong need for the mentor’s support, and the mentoring relationship extends into other areas. Atalia explains: “I always emphasize that they should feel free to talk to me about any matter, not only academic problems. The idea is to facilitate their adaptation in general. I also encourage them to find study partners when they need to write papers, which I believe helps them both socially and academically.” She notes that the level of Hebrew varies considerably. “I speak to all of them in Hebrew, but some mentees have a poor command of the language, while others face problems mainly when it comes to style and grammar. I can see the gaps particularly clearly when I proofread their papers. The linguistic level can seriously impair the quality of the paper. Usually the mentoring relationship is more intensive at the beginning of the year, after which the students learn to get by without our support. Sometimes I even experience empty nest syndrome.”

Atalia Perry

The mentees’ perspective 
“From my standpoint it was amazing,” Markowitz recalls. “It helped me so much. When I began my studies I found legal language very difficult. On top of that we had long reading lists and lots of papers to write. I am not used to reading Hebrew and my vocabulary isn’t particularly large, so it took me a long time. I also found it hard to plan my time. I knew things weren’t going to be easy before I began, but I didn’t understand just how hard it would get.” Markowitz claims that “the two mentors they matched me up with saved me. For the first six months my mentor was Tom, a student at the Faculty. He coped with my crying and provided emotional support during crises. Later in the year, after I had begun to get used to things, Na’ama mentored me and provided intensive support proofreading my papers. As the year progressed I began to understand how things work and I didn’t get so stressed. Naturally the mentoring relationship became less intensive and we mainly communicated by phone. I sent papers to Na’ama for her to check the spelling and style. In my second year Na’ama officially continued to work as my mentor, but I felt less need to send her drafts of my papers. Thanks to the support I received, I felt that I’d reached the point where I had the tools to do it by myself.”

Atalia Perry

The first steps were the hardest. Markowitz is convinced that “without the mentors’ corrections, my grades would have been significantly lower. Apart from that, not everyone can check a paper in law. The language differs from other fields and it takes a long time to proofread material, so I didn’t feel comfortable asking for help from people outside the Faculty. In this respect the project was very useful for me and helped me make real progress.”

Impressive achievements and success stories
“The project was developed in response to statistics showing a relatively high dropout rate among immigrant students, and even more so among Arab students,” Professor Harpaz explains. “The impression was that they faced not only academic difficulties, but also additional difficulties relating to their age, level of maturity, and distinct social identity. In the past the project received considerable financial backing and we were also able to fund social activities, a scholarship for outstanding students, and a scholarship based on economic criteria. Today the assistance is more modest and we concentrate mainly on academic assistance. We are aware of the additional problems, however, and we do our best to provide a holistic response.

Professor Harpaz adds that the project has scored some impressive achievements. “In many respects we are a university-wide leader in this field. Any time the Dean of Students, other faculties, or the student union want to introduce a similar project they come to learn from our experience.

Professor Guy Harpaz
Credit: D Guthrie
 

Unfortunately, some mentees don’t take full advantage of the project. This is a pity, because they have access to a high-quality, committed, ideological, and value-based service that provides tailor-made assistance free of charge. Personally I would like them to make more use of our outstanding mentors.” Harpaz notes that they have been some exceptional success stories. “Several women students from the Former Soviet Union came to the Faculty one year. During their first week of studies they could hardly string a sentence together in Hebrew. Eventually they graduated with averages that I’m not sure I would be able to get today. Unfortunately, this is the exception rather than the rule. I can’t claim that our mentees form the majority of the names of the Dean’s list of outstanding students. Even so, we have our success stories and some students receive very meaningful help. The bottom line is that we are satisfied with the project’s outcomes.”

Students

-Sapir Dayan-

Name: Michal Goren

Age: 31

Year: 4

The facts: Michal, a native Jerusalemite, has been at the university for a decade, although she can already see the light at the end of the tunnel. She began in the humanities, studying for a combined degree in philosophy and general literature. She continued on to a master’s course, spent a considerable amount of time in Berlin thanks to generous scholarships, but realized that this is where she belongs. Michal was active on various issues and showed a remarkable sense of rhythm when she played the drum at demonstrations. She has now decided to put her energy into law studies – not to gain fame or riches, but in order to achieve social and political change. she hopes to finish her degree this year, thereby ending her long romance with Mt. Scopus. On the other hand, a master’s degree could be a tempting option… Let’s see how she survives her internship first.

Why law? “In my studies in the Faculty of Humanities, I learned a lot about Feminism and post-colonialism. We discussed political theories that are very important to me. I felt that I had a strong theoretical foundation, but that the most I could do would be to take part in internal debates within my academic discipline. I had never imagined that I might study law, but a good friend of mine considered switching to law after completing his doctorate in literature. I decided not to wait that long. At first I saw law as no more than a technical instrument, but soon I realized what an interesting Faculty this is, including many practical courses and areas of contact between the university and the community, such as the clinics and the Minerva Center. I think that’s wonderful.”

A second hearing: Michal is the mother of Racheli, an adorable baby whose cheeks are familiar to all Michal’s classmates. Michal works and also volunteers (last year in the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and this year in Ir Amim). Superwoman is putting it mildly. ‘It’s not easy being a mother and a student,” she confesses. “The university isn’t really set up to deal with mothers, and unfortunately it doesn’t provide an adequate support system. But the Faculty of Law itself has been very helpful and has provided support and encouragement. I had my baby at the end of my second year, just after the exams. The other students were really helpful – they sent lesson summaries and helped me prepare for the examinations. The lecturers were also as flexible as possible and the secretariat gave me special concessions. Thanks to everyone’s support, I was surprised by how well I did in the exams. I couldn’t have done it without all this help.”

Name: Rama Raveh

Age: 47

Year: 4

The facts: Rama is married and has three children. One fine day, she left her attractive job as a CFO in an international company, set goodbye to suits and meetings with the wealthy, and decided to pursue her dream of going back to university to study law. It may all be a matter of genetics: Rama’s eldest daughter, who is 22, followed in her footsteps and embarked on a law degree this year. Maybe Rama will end up offering her daughter an internship.

Why law? “For me, it’s about completing a circle. As a young student I really wanted to study law but it didn’t work out. I chose economics instead, which means that I’ve spent most of my life dealing with numbers. I always knew that if I ever decided to make a change, it would be to study law. I’m glad that I had a chance to change direction and do something I always longed to do.”

A second hearing: “I came to the Faculty with a sense of dread that had accompanied me since I studied economics. University always seemed to me to be frightening and threatening place, vast and complex. I didn’t know how to find my way around and it was difficult to get the study materials I needed. People would tear the pages out of books to prevent others photocopying them. For me, studying at the Faculty of Law has been a corrective experience.

“The atmosphere at the Faculty is great. People are really serious. I enjoy the students’ knowledge and the questions they ask, the lecturers, and the way everyone cooperates. People are happy to put in a good word and to help, whether on Facebook or Dropbox. The secretaries are very helpful and give you the feeling that there’s someone there for you to talk to. Today’s students don’t understand how hard it was to study in the past and how easy things are now. They should be grateful – it isn’t something to take for granted.”

Rama is one of the outstanding students at the Faculty. She has never retaken an examination yet has an average that most of us could only dream of. She puts it all down to her age: “Studying at my age is a completely different experience. You aren’t studying because you have to, but because you want to. The result is that I find myself in the role of the class nerd. I read all the optional study material and articles and I come to every class – simply because I find it interesting.”

Name: Uri Gabbai

Age: 26

Year: 4

The facts: Uri is studying for his bachelor’s degree in law alongside a master’s in business management, with a specialization in financing. But the pressure of two degree courses evidently wasn’t enough, because he is also working in a student position in the Ministry of Justice. In his spare time, he serves as a teaching assistant. “I decided to study business management in the second year of my law degree. I didn’t choose it so that I could work in the field in the future, but rather to enrich my general knowledge on the academic level. I guess I’m less scared of numbers than the average law student.”

Why law? “Before I began to study I thought a lot about what subject to choose, but I never even considered law. It may seem strange, but the truth is that I was looking for a good reason to move to Jerusalem. After looking into the matter, I realized that the Faculty of Law is the best at the university, but I didn’t meet the admission requirements. After setting myself the goal of “law at the Hebrew U,” I retook the psychometric test and fortunately I got a good enough score to get in.”

An additional hearing: “During my studies I’ve had a chance to get to know how the state works through my student position in the Ministry of Justice. More than once I’ve found myself sitting in important committees discussing issues on the national agenda, such as the Consultative Committee for Refugees, the Judicial Appointments Committee, the Committee to Select Public Representatives in Labor Courts, and so forth. I’ve had a chance to see for myself how the government works on these issues. I think that gaining practical legal experience before you begin your internship really helps you to understand the legal profession (not to mention that extra line on your resume). Since I’m considering working in the civil service in the future (although my internship will be in a private law firm), the position was also an important opportunity to get to know that environment.”

Name: Omri Tancman

Age: 26

Year: 4

The facts: In his first year Omri began to study a combined degree in law and international relations, but he quit international relations after just a week and a half due to a lack of interest. “Later in the year I began to feel that a single-track degree in law wasn’t enough for me, and I started to look for another subject to combine with law from my second year. I was accepted to the Amirim-Ruach program (for excellence in the humanities) and I have continued with this combination. The Amirim course combines many different disciplines and makes a serious investment in the students. It’s an excellent opportunity to broaden your horizons and to touch all kinds of interesting areas that you don’t encounter in law studies.” Omri is one of the busiest students at the Faculty, but last semester he took a break from us to participate in a student exchange program in Vancouver. We miss you, Omri!

Why law? “There aren’t any lawyers in my family and I didn’t sit glued to legal dramas on television as a child. It wasn’t obvious from the start that I would study law. It was an informed decision, and my goal was to choose a practical field of study that emphasizes the use of language and offers a real challenge. When I tried to imagine my future career, it was important to me that I could use my abilities to help people and to influence society. Law studies fitted in well with that profile. I’m interested in looking at how societies shape themselves, and I feel that law has an important role to play in this process. That’s why it’s an important and worthwhile subject to study.”

An additional hearing: “Last year I took part in the Women’s Rights in the Workplace Clinic, which is run by Attorney Tammy Katsabian and Professor Guy Davidov. During my work in the clinic, I was involved (together with two other students from my year, Dorit Hamberg and Sodia Cohen) in preparing the first model of its kind in Israel for a collective agreement to promote gender equality in the workplace. The work on the project was fascinating – we got to read dozens of collective agreements, articles, acts of legislation, and court rulings on the subject, and we got to meet workers’ organizations in the field. That helped us understand which clauses were more important and which mattered less, and what aspects could realistically be included in the model. The model is already starting to be developed independently in several places.” Omri participated in one of the clinics that could be particularly challenging for male students, but he survived to tell his story. “Being the only man in a legal clinic where all the other members are women might sound strange or even frightening to some people. But I never had the feeling that I had to represent men as a whole before a bunch of Feminists. The lessons were a very positive experience, and with a handful of exceptions there wasn’t any friction on the basis of gender.”

“Researchers in the Field:” Dr. Guy Pessach

How will childhood experiences be documented in our collective memory, and why is this question related to copyright law? How is Google exploiting the free culture movement to enhance its own economic strength and market share? Dr. Guy Pessach offers some insight into the issues being examined by researchers in the fields of copyright, law and technology, and media law.

-Renana Herman-

Dr. Pessach, what projects are you working on these days?Dr. Pessach, what projects are you working on these days?
I’ll tell you about one project that I think is pretty interesting and that has attracted attention from beyond the milieu of scholars in the field of intellectual property. The project was developed in response to an academic stream that has become very powerful in recent years that argues that if we switch to an environment based on free information, without copyright law (or with a significantly reduced scope of protection), we will create a braver, more beautiful, and better world. The main argument presented by this stream is that moderating the scope and strength of copyright protection will free us from the shackles of the corporate media and from the control by commercial media corporations of the main channels used to disseminate content and information.

My project examines whether and to what extent this argument is correct. I am also researching the manipulative way that “new world” media corporations such as Google and Facebook inflate this argument – and its outcomes in the political, legislative, and judicial fields – in order to create new structures of political economics. These structures allow the corporations to secure power, market strength, and control that may even be greater than those enjoyed by the “old world” media barons, and to do so in a manner that can damage freedom of expression, cultural diversity, and creative profit. An examination of the activities of bodies such as YouTube, including an empirical study, reveals that the level of concentration, lack of diversity, and distributional gaps are actually liable to increase in a “free culture” environment. The project attempts to connect these findings with copyright law policy and to show that a moderate – but still significant – level of copyright protection (particularly one that concentrates on the creative layer) can be expected to yield a more competitive, decentralized, and diverse media environment. On a more general level, the project seeks to illustrate the way in which extreme conditions of “surplus” copyright protection or the “absence” of copyright protection can be expected to create similar failings. The project has attracted reactions. Predictably enough, the two extremes of the political arena (the extreme or the old media corporations and/or the extreme of the free culture ideology) have attacked and/or supported the findings on the basis of their own narrow interests. By the way, they have all ignored the nuances and fine distinctions identified by the project.

Another area you have been working on for some time is “digital cultural preservation.” Can you explain what that means?
Sure. An environment of digital, online information such as that which exists today differs in many ways from the situation in the past. This is true, for example, of the ways in which we manage cultural preservation processes and social memory and the ways we shape the picture of the past for the coming generations. We are no longer living in a world dominated by a handful of physical archives (such as the national library and state archives) that served as powerful gatekeepers of the “remnants of the past” and the “historical landscape” conveyed to the coming generations. The transition to a digital environment enables each of us as an individual, as well as diverse groups and communities in society, to play a meaningful role in shaping the way the past is presented to future generations. For example, think about the way that a content sharing website such as YouTube serves not only as an arena for contemporary discourse, but also as a source that future generations will rely on as they seek to study and be influenced by the landscape and history of the past. YouTube and similar platforms are full-fledged memory institutions.

My interest focuses on locating, studying, and profiling the new memory institutions of the digital age, and in attempting to study the ways these enhance and/or threaten society’s ability to realize values of freedom of expression, autonomy, and diversity within the framework of social memory processes. My conclusions are ambivalent. On the one hand, the environment of digital information permits the democratization of cultural preservation and processes of social memory. On the other, the processes of privatization found in the digital environment in this context also raise some concerns.

Naturally, this project also has a connection to the field of copyright law and intellectual property law. Unlike a physical environment, when we document material in digital media, the objects we document and use are usually the subjects of copyright protection. In other words, those who hold intellectual property rights to the documented material can potentially control the processes of cultural preservation. My interest focuses on an attempt to propose reforms and amendments to the current copyright laws, so that alongside respecting and protecting the intellectual property rights of creators, it will also be possible to maintain a diverse and democratic environment for digital social memory, rather than one that is controlled by the owners of the intellectual property.