The Hebrew University provides extensive assistance in multiple areas to students, staff, and faculty members serving in the reserves including financial assistance, emotional assistance and, once the academic year begins, academic assistance:
1. Support for reservists – reservists who were called up will not be charged rent for dormitory housing for the month of October. In addition, as per a decision made by all research universities in Israel, tuition payment deadlines will be postponed until after November. Further, extensive scholarships will be awarded to reservists once they resume their studies.
2. The University is in contact with, and provides assistance as needed to, families of employees who have been drafted into the reserves.
3. Supporting students and faculty who reside in the Gaza border area – the Dean of Students is in contact with each of the approximately 200 Hebrew University students who are residents of the Gaza border area – to hear their stories, to offer support, and to help them access their rights and relief efforts. Intervention and assistance will be provided as per students' requests. The Human Resources Division of the University is in similar contact with academic and administrative staff who are residents of the Gaza border area.
4. The Psychological Counseling Services of the Dean of Students office is operating a hotline for students and staff and expanding the activities of their emergency intervention team.
5. The Director of the Psychological Counseling Services is holding meetings with students in various academic units to discuss coping mechanisms in crisis situations.
7. The University is offering crisis intervention workshops for staff as needed.
Additional activities:
1. The Dean of Students Office is supporting students and their immediate family members who were injured, killed, or captured by Hamas. This includes attending funerals, shiva, and mourning tents. The Human Resources Department similarly acts in cases affecting academic and administrative faculty members.
2. The Human Resources Department sends care packages and provides support and referrals for needed services to bereaved employees and/or their families, as well as families of those injured or missing.
3. The Hebrew University publicizes a newsletter twice a week to the University community containing webinars, podcasts, relevant HR notices, and activities for children.
5. The Hebrew University is assisting employees who have had to evacuate their residences in the South and assessing how best to help.
Coping with mental stress
1. The University is offering webinars on stress management.
2. The aCHORD Center provides free counseling to academic and administrative staff regarding all issues related to the fragile interface between Jews and Arabs in Israel as well as at the University.
Initiatives for mutual assistance
Initiatives for mutual support are taking place within various academic units, including the Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering, the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Humanities, and the Faculty of Law. These initiatives bring together faculty, administrators, and students to support one another.
Support on the Ground
Support for the Military: The University provided diverse logistics equipment to several military units.
Assistance in identifying those killed: Faculty of Dental Medicine volunteers are helping to identify the bodies of those killed.
Support for the Ministry of Health is being offered by the Department of Psychology.
Donation of essential equipment: the Faculty of Dental Medicine has made donations of vital equipment.
Faculty members and students volunteer and assist. Such activity includes donating blood and volunteering in civilian distribution centers set up to organize volunteer efforts such as collecting, packaging, and distributing donations of food, clothing, and other needed supplies to the military and to those who were evacuated from the South. Our community members are also volunteering to create and translate information about the situation and to send to contacts abroad for informative and advocacy purposes, and to provide lessons on Zoom for all levels and ages on a variety of school subjects and enrichment topics. Specific examples include Faculty of Humanities researchers volunteering at the "Brothers in Arms" distribution center in the South, and a faculty member emeritus in the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment coordinating a volunteer unit in a small town. The Unit for Community Involvement at the Dean of Students office is identifying civil society organizations and initiatives requiring assistance and sharing these needs with the University community at large.
Students Getting Involved
The Student Union is also working to connect students with civil society organizations in need of volunteers. Thousands of students are volunteering in various organizations, including Magen David Adom (ambulance services), HMO's, Iron Hearts, the Jerusalem distribution center, Tel Aviv Compassion, Gedera distribution center, providing editing and translation services for families of missing persons, children’s activities for evacuees from the South, and more. A group of students has taken it upon itself to attend funerals and visit the families of the bereaved. Even some students who were themselves evacuated from the South have joined volunteer efforts, including in hospitals.
Support on the Ground
Support for the Military: The University provided diverse logistics equipment to several military units.
Assistance in identifying those killed: Faculty of Dental Medicine volunteers are helping to identify the bodies of those killed.
Support for the Ministry of Health is being offered by the Department of Psychology.
Donation of essential equipment: the Faculty of Dental Medicine has made donations of vital equipment.
Faculty members and students volunteer and assist. Such activity includes donating blood and volunteering in civilian distribution centers set up to organize volunteer efforts such as collecting, packaging, and distributing donations of food, clothing, and other needed supplies to the military and to those who were evacuated from the South. Our community members are also volunteering to create and translate information about the situation and to send to contacts abroad for informative and advocacy purposes, and to provide lessons on Zoom for all levels and ages on a variety of school subjects and enrichment topics. Specific examples include Faculty of Humanities researchers volunteering at the "Brothers in Arms" distribution center in the South, and a faculty member emeritus in the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment coordinating a volunteer unit in a small town. The Unit for Community Involvement at the Dean of Students office is identifying civil society organizations and initiatives requiring assistance and sharing these needs with the University community at large.