Kalaniyot featured by Columbia News
The program will bring Israeli researchers to the University and promote further understanding and inclusion of the Jewish and Israeli academic community.
Columbia has partnered with the nationwide Kalaniyot program to bring Israeli researchers to the University and promote further understanding and inclusion of the Jewish and Israeli academic community at Columbia. The program, which originated at MIT, was created in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. It is a faculty-led initiative focused on restoring universities to their core mission of advancing knowledge through the contributions of scholars and students—without regard to national, religious, or ethnic origin. Columbia joins Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard Medical School, which also have Kalaniyot chapters; more schools across the country are currently forming chapters.
At Columbia, the effort to establish a Kalaniyot chapter began in November 2024. “Our strategy was to build the program from the ground up,” said Jacob Fish, Robert A.W. and Christine S. Carleton Professor of Civil Engineering, and Kalaniyot at Columbia founder and faculty board member. “We started with a series of meetings to gather feedback from the deans of five participating schools/divisions: Engineering, Medicine, Business, Law, and the Natural Sciences Division of Arts and Sciences. We also consulted with Columbia’s executive vice president for research, the general counsel, and several potential donors who expressed interest in supporting the initiative.”
On June 9, 2025, in welcoming Kalaniyot to Columbia, Provost Angela Olinto said: “We are excited at the potential this program has to attract exceptional talent to our academic community, and grateful for your efforts to bring them to our campus. We look forward to welcoming the first cohort of Kalaniyot postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars to Columbia!”
Engaging in Scholarly Inquiry and Civil Dialogue
Kalaniyot at Columbia is a nonsectarian, nonpartisan effort to bring a diverse population of postdoctoral research fellows and visiting faculty from Israeli academic institutions to Columbia to engage in scholarly inquiry and civil dialogue on a wide variety of topics in STEM, medicine, law, and business.
“Thanks to externally funded fellowships from the program’s sponsors, our objective is to build a community of global scholars with advanced domain expertise at Columbia. These scholars will include alums of Israeli universities of various religions and nationalities,” Fish said.
Kalaniyot at Columbia aims to bring 10 new postdoctoral fellows every year, each staying for one to three years. An additional goal is to host one or two visiting faculty scholars annually, typically for the duration of their sabbatical, which may be six months to a year. Ultimately, the number of fellows and faculty who can come to Columbia will depend on the level of funding that can be secured.
The program is designed specifically for postdoctoral fellows, rather than undergraduates or graduate students. At the outset, the focus will be on five schools and divisions: Engineering, Medicine, Business, Law, and the Natural Sciences Division of Arts and Sciences. Over time, Kalaniyot at Columbia plans to expand the initiative to include additional schools across the University.
Columbia's Kalaniyot Board is composed of distinguished faculty—both Jewish and non-Jewish—from the schools of Engineering, Medicine, Business, and Law, as well as the Natural Sciences Division of Arts and Sciences. Members include Professors Keren Bergman, Jacob Fish, Oliver Hobert, Andrew Marks, Joshua Mitts, Clifford Stein, Melissa Stockwell, Assaf Zeevi, Tian Zheng, Haim Waisman, Gil Zussman, and former Columbia Engineering Dean and Tel Aviv University President Zvi Galil.