News

Sapir Announces New College President: Professor Nir Kedar After a careful search process and unanimous approval by the Board of Governors, Sapir Academic College is proud to announce that Prof. Nir Kedar will serve as its next President. Kedar succeeds Prof. Shai Feldman, who asked to step down after having served in that capacity for three years. Prof.

Rarely is a partnership so unlikely. Sapir Academic College and the Ghetto Fighter’s (Lohamei HaGeta’ot) Kibbutz have joined forces with inmates from the Ayalon Prison to honor the lives of Righteous Gentiles who saved Jews during the Holocaust. It’s a project of Radio Focus, a groundbreaking, inmate rehabilitation initiative of the Israel Prison Service in cooperation with Sapir’s Communications Department. At Radio Focus, inmates serve as writers, editors, radio hosts and announcers.

Sapir Academic College is proud to host a chapter of Hillel, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, active at colleges and universities in 17 countries. At a time of religious polarization in Israel, Hillel enables students to deepen their Jewish identity - each in their own way - while connecting with other Jews around the world. A recent visit by the executive director of San Diego Hillel highlighted this global connection. Karen Parry serves over 2,000 Jewish students on four college campuses in southern California.

More than just schools, Israel’s regional colleges are part of an ambitious effort to change society itself. Located in the country’s geographic periphery, institutions like Sapir were deliberately set up to promote social mobility, making higher education accessible to people from underserved communities and excluded social groups. Is it working? A new book by three of Sapir’s leading educators paints a complex picture. Diversifying the Ivory Tower, edited by Drs. Motti Gigi, Sigal Nagar Ron and Tami Razi has started to address this issue.

They think out of the box, they’re creative and they’re making the world a better place. Participants of the Crown Family Social Entrepreneurship Program combine technology and social activism to devise fresh solutions to emerging challenges.  Now, two teams have been awarded grants to operationalize their projects. Out of Mind, a new RPG video game, helps gamers understand people who struggle with mental disorders.

Art can be transformative – if you take it to the streets. That’s what’s happening at the Medarom festival for arts and culture, a unique collaboration between the Negev town of Ofakim and the Department of Cultural Studies at Sapir Academic College. This multidisciplinary celebration of community is taking place in open spaces throughout city. The idea is radical in its very simplicity: break down the barriers that separate artist and audience by partnering with a wide variety of community organizations. When seen this way, art does more than just reflect social realities. It shapes them.

Student’s Personal Report from Sapir’s Delegation Supporting Ukrainian Refugees in Poland  "I am a third-year School of Social Work student. Together with my colleague’s we volunteered as part of a group of ten Israeli’s, made up from volunteers from Sapir and the Israeli nonprofit-Natan. Our delegation included nurses, doctors, and social workers. We worked in the former Tesco superstore in Przemysl, Poland. This site has become the city’s main Aid Center’s for Ukrainian refugees, and it offers beds, toilets and showers, as well as daycare for children.