The Brookdale Program at Bar-Ilan University has bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2021 upon Israeli singer and entertainer Yardena Arazi, in recognition of her contributions over many years to Hebrew song and the performing arts.

Findings from two recently-published studies show that symptoms associated with autism can be identified as early as the first year of life, and that early detection allows for therapeutic intervention from as early as the beginning of the second year of life.

The story of the “birth” of the famed medieval Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet, Judah Halevi, is fascinating. Judah Halevi, or Abu al-Hassan al-Lawi, as he was known in Arabic, is the prolific author of religious and secular poetry and the man who penned the profound philosophical work, known as the “Sefer ha-Kuzari.” He was born some time before 1075 in Christian Spain, in a city whose name we do not know.

A consortium of ten universities – nine in Europe and Bar-Ilan University in Israel – has won the EU’s highly sought-after Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) grant, which is valued at more than €4.5m. Funded by the EU, the grant will be spread over a six-year period, providing scholarships to hundreds of students from all over Europe and Israel for the international program. This is the first time since 2018 that an Israeli university has been included as a full partner in an EMJMD grant.

Bar-Ilan University’s Outgoing Student Exchange Program offers BIU students a mind-broadening opportunity to study for 3-12 months at one of more than 40 distinguished academic institutions throughout Europe, the United States, India and China, to gain immeasurable academic, research and life experience, enhance their curriculum vitae, and make valuable connections in their field of specialization.

In November 2021, Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Law opened its fifth cycle of the High School Program for Leadership in Law. The program seeks to expose university law students, along with high school pupils, to different communities in Israeli society. All this, in an effort to bridge the widening gaps in Israeli society in matters of law, Judaism and democracy; and strengthen and deepen knowledge in order to address the dual “Jewish and Democratic” identity of the State of Israel.    

Mannitol, a natural sweetener, may help treat Parkinson's disease, yet was not being tested in clinical trials. The story of mannitol is one of many examples of "undone science":  research questions unfunded or ignored for economic, political, or other reasons. 

According to conventional wisdom, there is a link between obesity and the risk of developing and surviving myocardial infarction (a heart attack). But a study conducted at Bar-Ilan University shows a more complex relationship, expressed in a J-shaped curve – which indicates actually that patients who were admitted with an acute heart attack and had “moderate obesity” as expressed in their body mass index (BMI) survived significantly better even compared to patients with lower or normal BMI.