Shabbat Shalom from (again) India
Dear Friends,
I am writing to you from New Delhi, where I had the privilege, as President of BGU, of being the academic convener the 16th India-Israel Forum. the Forum has met over the past 20 years (with time off for pandemics and wars) bringing together public sphere, private enterprise, and academic oversite.
Among this year's foci was quantum technologies, a topic that would have seemed almost unimaginable when I first became involved with the Forum more than a decade ago.
At that time, I chaired the Food Security Working Group. Our discussions centered on agriculture, water, nutrition, and the livelihoods of farmers. This week, we spent our time discussing quantum communications and applications, and this session was co-chaired by BGU's Prof. Shomi Arnon.
The fact that both conversations belong naturally within the same Forum says something important about how both our countries, and indeed the world, have changed.
It also prompted me to reflect on a broader evolution that may have implications for Ben-Gurion University and for Israeli higher education more generally.
For many years, the relationship between India and Israel was often described as a combination of Israeli innovation and Indian scale. There was considerable truth in that characterization. Israel contributed technologies, ideas, and entrepreneurial culture; India offered markets, talent, and extraordinary capacity for implementation.
Yet after spending 36 hours with academic leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers from across India, I was struck by how outdated that description has become.
Today's relationship is increasingly one of co-creation rather than technology transfer. Researchers are working together. Entrepreneurs are building companies together. Investors are investing together. Universities are creating partnerships that extend well beyond traditional exchange programs. In many areas, particularly in advanced technologies, the conversation is no longer about one side teaching and the other adopting. It is about two innovation ecosystems learning from and building alongside one another.
This evolution comes at a particularly interesting moment.
As geopolitical and economic influence continues to shift eastward, Israel's engagement with Asia becomes increasingly important. For universities, this shift is especially significant. Academic partnerships are among the most durable forms of international engagement. They outlast political cycles, economic fluctuations, and often even diplomatic tensions. They create relationships that endure for decades through students, researchers, alumni, and shared discovery.
For Ben-Gurion University, these developments are especially encouraging. We already host the largest community of Indian students in Israel, and our collaborations with Indian institutions continue to expand across a range of fields, including entrepreneurship, engineering, cyber security, desert agriculture, water technologies, and increasingly artificial intelligence.
More broadly, the Forum reinforced something I have written about before. Despite the challenges Israeli academia has faced over the past several years, including calls for academic boycotts and attempts to isolate our institutions, many parts of the world are moving in precisely the opposite direction. They are seeking deeper engagement with Israeli universities, recognizing the strength of our research ecosystem and the value of partnership.
This does not diminish the challenges we face. Nor should it encourage complacency. But it does remind us that the future of Israeli academia will not be determined solely by those who choose disengagement. It will also be shaped by those who see value in collaboration, innovation, and shared intellectual endeavor.
One of the great strengths of universities is their ability to build bridges across borders and across generations. Sitting in New Delhi this week, listening to conversations that ranged from quantum technologies to entrepreneurship and regional development, I was reminded that these bridges remain both necessary and possible.
I look forward to welcoming many of our Indian colleagues to Israel, and especially to the Negev, when the Forum convenes next year.
Shabbat Shalom,
Danny
