Updated July 28, 2025, at 5:32 p.m.
Harvard announced a new undergraduate study abroad program with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and launched a postdoctoral fellowship for Israeli scientists at Harvard Medical School on Monday in a dramatic expansion of the University’s academic and institutional ties to Israel.
The Office of International Education added BGU to its roster of approved-term time study abroad partners earlier this month. The program will begin in spring 2026 and offer Harvard College students credit-bearing opportunities for spring, full-year, or summer study in Israel.
The Medical School fellowship — funded by the Blavatanik Family Foundation and the Dorot Foundation and backed by the Kalaniyot Foundation, which has a chapter at HMS — will support Israeli researchers in conducting two to three years of basic biomedical research at HMS or one of its affiliated hospitals in Boston.
Harvard Vice Provost for International Affairs Mark C. Elliott said the BGU partnership was the first step in “increased academic collaboration across the region in the coming years.”
“The collaboration with BGU is the latest in Harvard’s long and rich history of engagement with institutions of higher education across Israel,” he said.
The Monday announcements arrived half a year after Harvard agreed in January to form a new partnership with an Israeli university as part of a settlement with two groups that had sued Harvard over allegations that it failed to address antisemitism on campus.
The announcements were also made just weeks after Harvard reopened negotiations with the Trump administration, which has withheld nearly $3 billion in federal funding since April amid ongoing concerns of campus antisemitism.
Late last month, the White House issued a formal finding that Harvard had violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and demonstrated a “deliberate indifference” toward combatting antisemitism and anti-Israeli discrimination.
But in a confidential memo sent to Harvard on April 3 — which was made public in early July — the White House signaled its approval of the University’s commitment in the earlier settlement to partner with Israeli institutions and end its ties to Birzeit.
It remains unclear whether the partnership with BGU and the Kalaniyot Fellowship were direct responses to administration demands.
As campus tensions spiked following Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s war in Gaza, Harvard has faced calls to build the study of Israel, Palestine, and the region’s culture and history into its research and curricular offerings. The University has agreed to expand programs for the study of Hebrew and Judaic languages, as well as of antisemitism. But it has not made any public commitments to expanding Palestinian studies, Arabic language programs, or Islamic studies.
Harvard suspended its research partnership with a Palestinian university — Birzeit University in the West Bank — in April, bowing to longstanding calls from its critics to terminate the relationship because of accusations that Birzeit had ties to Hamas.
Harvard’s internal task force on antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias, which released its final report in late April, recommended that the University condition any continued relationship with Birzeit on the establishment of a parallel partnership with an Israeli institution — a step seemingly fulfilled by the new agreement with BGU.
BGU, located in the Negev desert city of Be’er-Sheva, is a public research institution with strengths in climate science, desert agriculture, and applied biotechnology. All courses for visiting undergraduate students will be taught in English, with students joining BGU classes alongside Israeli peers.
Amanda Claybaugh, dean of undergraduate education, said that the collaboration with BGU was driven in part by a desire to offer students academic opportunities that Harvard cannot replicate in Cambridge.
“I’m delighted that we’re adding BGU to the list of Israeli universities where our students can study abroad, because BGU offers opportunities that aren’t available here at Harvard,” she said.
The rollout also follows tensions with one of Harvard’s largest donors. In late 2023, the Blavatnik Family Foundation — whose namesake, billionaire Leonard V. Blavatnik, has given hundreds of millions to Harvard — paused new donations in protest of the University’s response to campus antisemitism.
But in recent months, Blavatnik has returned. Earlier this month, he pledged nearly $19 million in donations to HMS in response to lost federal research support under the Trump administration. More than $5 million of Blavatnik’s gift was dedicated toward junior faculty conducting basic research. It was not immediately clear how much of that amount would go toward the Kalaniyot fellowships.
The new partnerships are not Harvard’s first with Israeli institutions. The OIE already offers undergraduate study abroad programs with Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Technion, and the University of Haifa.
And in 2021, HMS partnered with the Clalit Research Institute in Israel through the Berkowitz Family Living Laboratory to incubate research on precision medicine for both Israeli and global populations.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.