23.6.25 MidWeek update
Dear Friends,
One of our lay leaders asked me this morning whether there would be another update today. When I replied that I had just sent one, he answered, “In difficult times, no one is going to complain about another update before Shabbat.”
So, at the risk of landing in your spam folder...
We have a phrase in Hebrew: זר לא יבין זאת — a stranger wouldn't understand. That’s more or less how to describe Israel right now.
I was interviewed on Saturday on Greek TV, and the anchor asked me why so many Israelis were lining up to return home—many of them stranded in Athens—despite the very real threat of missile attacks. How do you explain to someone who hasn't lived here why tens of thousands of people were fighting to get on planes back to a country being targeted by ballistic missiles multiple times a day? (And if I’m not mistaken, we may be the only country since WWII to be attacked with ballistic missiles on this scale.)
Even more baffling to the outsider: how do you explain the image of one of our professors, walking through the rubble of his destroyed apartment building with his four-year-old son on his shoulders, emerging unscathed from the bomb shelter—and a few hours later texting me, thanking the university for calling to check in, and even cracking jokes?
Or Thursday morning, when Prof. Reli Hershkovitz, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, and I were walking through the damage in the Medical School building, exchanging dark humor about what we found in the anatomy lab (I’ll spare you the photograph). That spirit — resilience, absurdity, courage — is impossible to describe. A stranger wouldn’t understand.
But you do. That’s why you are part of the BGU family. Because you’ve been infected by that same spirit.
Today I was again on campus, which remains closed, and joined by Rector Chaim Hames and Director General Tal Ben-Chaim, I toured the destruction with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Here's what we showed him:
Soroka Campus:
BGU operates several independent facilities on Soroka’s grounds.
- One of them took a direct hit. It housed six research labs—all are a total loss. We’re now identifying temporary facilities and beginning long-term rebuilding planning.
- The Pathology Building, decades years old, suffered shockwave damage throughout. Every window was blown out. We lost critical teaching spaces for the Goldman Medical School, including the anatomy labs.
Main Campus:
- The shockwaves shattered hundreds of windows and doors. Thirty out of sixty buildings sustained some level of damage.
- In less than 48 working hours, panels had already been placed over many of the broken openings. The pace and determination of our recovery effort has been remarkable.
Sports Center:
- On Friday afternoon, another missile fragment pierced the gymnasium roof. Fortunately, the space was empty, but the floor is ruined and the hall unusable. It didn’t make the news—no injuries means no headlines.
Community Support:
- We’re currently supporting 42 families of BGU employees whose homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. One faculty member and their three children are staying in my apartment near campus.
Our goal is to reopen the university as soon as possible, pending national security clearance and a relative calm in hostilities. Until then, we continue to work and teach remotely, and care for one another.
Finally, like after October 7, I’ve once again been thrust into the role of national English-language spokesperson. If you haven’t yet seen it, here is a link to my recent interview on the BBC.
Wishing us a quiet night,
Danny
