Professor Daniel Chamovitz is the first American-born president of an Israeli university. He’s also now the chairman of Israel’s Committee of University Heads, a national association of higher education leaders in the Jewish state.

Chamovitz leads Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the southern university named for Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, that is known for using its leading research in areas like water, desert life and technology to make practical impacts in the region. Ben-Gurion famously believed that “Israel’s future lies in the Negev,” due to its landmass (60% of Israel’s territory), its position as a gateway to Asian markets and its test of communal fortitude as a massive desert.

Chamovitz, who grew up in Aliquippa, near Pittsburgh, became BGU’s seventh president in 2019. On July 7, he visited Philadelphia to meet with the local chapter of Americans for Ben-Gurion University. Americans for Ben-Gurion University contributes between $40 million and $55 million annually to BGU.

The university president and plant scientist talked to Philadelphia Jewish Exponent on his trip to the city. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Why are you visiting Philadelphia?

I’m visiting Philadelphia to maintain the relationships and incredible supporters of Ben-Gurion University. We have a chapter here that goes back 40 years.

Of course, there’s philanthropic support involved in it, but it’s more than philanthropic support. It’s a way to connect to Israel and its future.

We always want to expand our base of support. Some people say we’re Israel’s best-kept secret. Fewer people know about Ben-Gurion University than Israel’s more established universities.

You’re the first American-born president of a university in Israel. What is the significance of that?

The first significance of it is not only being American-born, American-bred. It gives me more of an outsider’s view of Israel and of higher education. I can’t be part of the Israeli elite.

If you look at the history of university presidents in Israel, they fit a certain mold. They went to a certain type of high school. They went to a certain type of university. They served in a certain unit in the IDF.

I don’t take anything for granted. I don’t take Israel for granted. When we talk about the importance of the state of Israel, we talk about the importance of Israel for the Jewish people.

The other advantage it gives me is in terms of resource development. My mother was on the national board of Hadassah. My father was on the board of the United Synagogue [of Conservative Judaism]. I grew up in philanthropy with Jewish communal life around me.

When I meet with people, I know they have many options. I don’t take anything they do for us for granted.

The Committee of University Heads has campaigned against the increase in global academic boycotts of Israel. What’s the best way to fight that movement?

There are several approaches we’ve taken. One is a proactive approach. We’ve been using the law in Europe against discrimination. They’ve been targeting one nationality and making blanket statements about them.

We’ve won every legal fight so far in Europe.

From an academic point of view, for each university, in the end, they are the ones that lose. Countries that boycott Jews experience decline.

You see the pendulum swinging in places like Belgium. They are asking questions like, ‘How are we benefiting from not collaborating with the best scientists in the world? Why are we allowing our universities to be taken over by radical political ideologies?’

What has BGU done to rebuild the south of Israel post-Oct. 7?

On and after Oct. 7, when by all accounts the Israeli government went AWOL, the citizens of the Negev looked to Ben-Gurion University for leadership. We immediately opened our dormitories for the refugees from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Our students on Oct. 8 and 9 set up two distribution networks for clothes, toiletries, diapers, toys, for all of the refugees. 500 of our students came to volunteer at the local hospital for refugees.

Since then, I went from municipality to municipality to ask the mayors, what do they expect from Ben-Gurion University?

What has grown out of this is a Negev engagement program. We are using engagement with the Negev to increase our research output and our funnel for students. By interacting with the Negev, we’re also becoming a better university.

Today, we started the first AI course for the municipality workers of Ofakim, in order to make the municipal services work better.

In many ways, economic development, innovation and growth seem like the story about Israel that doesn’t get told enough. Is this true? And if so, how can you and the rest of the Jewish world bring more light to it?

Especially in North America, we like very simple black-and-white narratives.

If you look at our campus, where 17% of our student population is Arabs, we have religious and non-religious Jews, we have left- and right-leaning Jews, we have every possible tension in Israeli society on our campus, and our campus is quiet. It’s peaceful.

And the reason is that we put a lot of effort into building a shared society on campus.
For us, the stakes are so much higher that we have to know how to live together.

From that point of view, I think Israel could actually be a paradigm for the Western world on what a shared society is.

Why did you make aliyah?

In America, no matter how comfortable I was at a certain time, I would always be looked at a little bit as the other.

Right before I made aliyah in 1984, I wrote a short story for the literary magazine of my youth group. It predicted a dystopian future for American Jews where there was an Arab president who had made Zionism illegal, as a mainstream psychiatric condition.

What percentage of Jews have supported [New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani? What percentage of Jews think that if Israel didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be antisemitism?

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com