Dartmouth Kalaniyot Newsletter

Message from the Directors

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the third issue of the Dartmouth Kalaniyot newsletter. This one is a brief end-of-summer update rather than a full issue.

Five Israeli scholars spent part of the summer on campus, giving talks and beginning new projects, and several brought their families with them. Our first cohort of Kalaniyot Postdoctoral Fellows has now arrived, and we will welcome them formally at a dinner on September 10. The Collaborative Ventures projects funded over the past year are underway, with the first awards now spending. Our Lunch and Learn series ran throughout the summer, adding five more sessions to a program that has now hosted ten talks since it began last November.

We have a full fall ahead. Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal of Ben-Gurion University visits on September 17, and in October a Dartmouth faculty delegation travels to Tel Aviv University for the second Dartmouth–TAU Climate and Computing School.

Dartmouth Kalaniyot remains a faculty-led, strictly apolitical initiative dedicated to advancing research partnerships, fostering scholarly exchange, and building enduring academic connections between Dartmouth and Israeli institutions. Thank you, as always, for making this work possible.

And to all those who celebrate: shanah tovah — wishing you a good and sweet new year.

Best wishes,

Dan Rockmore, Director
Jeremy Manning, Associate Director

Donors' Corner

We would like to recognize with gratitude those who have given to Dartmouth Kalaniyot. We can't sustain this level of activity without your help — thank you! In particular, we would like to thank the Harvey Grable '58 Trust for their founding and continuing support, and the Robert Lemelson Foundation for a generous grant providing matching funds for two Collaborative Ventures proposals in anthropology. We are also grateful to Amanda ('93) and Michael ('84) Salzhauer (P'24, '27), Nancy and Josh ('90) Korff (P'27, '29), and Julie Low ('92) for their support, along with a number of donors who wish to remain anonymous.

Giving online is easy and can be done at this link. We know there are many deserving targets for philanthropy, and we appreciate being considered among them.

Announcements

Where We Stand

Dartmouth Kalaniyot began as a three-year pilot, and we are now heading into its final stretch.

In under two years, the Collaborative Ventures program has drawn 43 proposals requesting roughly $3 million, from 18 Dartmouth units and 9 Israeli universities, and has funded 13 research partnerships. Notably, most of the Dartmouth faculty who applied had no prior working relationship with any Israeli researcher before Kalaniyot. We have hosted five visiting scholars on campus, welcomed our first cohort of three postdoctoral fellows, launched the Kesher Grants program, run ten Lunch and Learn sessions since last November, and co-hosted two Dartmouth-TAU Climate and Computing Schools with a third in planning. The first papers acknowledging Kalaniyot support have begun to appear.

We are grateful to the faculty, students, and supporters who helped build these programs.

Our First Postdoctoral Fellows Have Arrived

The inaugural cohort of Kalaniyot Postdoctoral Fellows is now on campus. We will celebrate their arrival, together with their Dartmouth hosts, at a welcome dinner on September 10.

The 2026 Cohort

Elhanan HarelEarth & Planetary Sciences

Gabriel BraunPsychological & Brain Sciences

Tamar Simhon KravtzovPhysics & Astronomy

Dr. Elhanan Harel arrived over the summer and joins Dr. Marisa Palucis in Earth and Planetary Sciences, where he works on drainage networks and sediment transport, from mountain headwaters to the deep sea, and on the fluvial systems that shaped the surface of Mars.

Dr. Gabriel Braun arrived in Hanover in September and joins Dr. Emily Finn in Psychological and Brain Sciences, where he studies how people process and represent truth, trust, and commitment in communication.

Dr. Tamar Simhon Kravtzov joins Dr. Robert Caldwell in Physics and Astronomy, where she is testing the "frozen star" model, a singularity-free alternative to black holes, against gravitational-wave observations.

Click to learn more about the Postdoctoral Fellows program

Collaborative Ventures: From Award to Underway

The projects funded in our first two Collaborative Ventures cycles are now active, and the first awards have begun spending.

Across both cycles, the program has drawn 43 unique proposals requesting roughly $3 million, from 18 Dartmouth units and 9 Israeli universities, and has funded 13 projects — a funding rate of about 30%.

We are also grateful to our partner institutions, whose co-funding extends the reach of every dollar. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has committed an additional $10,000 to each of its two funded projects, on top of the Dartmouth award, and Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University have each supplemented projects from the Fall 2025 cycle.

Click to learn more about Collaborative Ventures

A New Visitors' Guide to Hanover and the Upper Valley

Our visiting scholars often arrive with their families, and settling into a new place takes time. We are pleased to announce a new Visitors' Guide to Hanover and the Upper Valley, covering getting around without a car, groceries and restaurants, hikes and family activities, and practical services like banking, phones, and medical care.

Read the Visitors' Guide

Kalaniyot on Campus

Visiting Scholars, Summer 2026

Five Israeli scholars spent part of the summer at Dartmouth, several with their families.

Prof. Ofer Hadar

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Prof. Hadar worked with Prof. Peter Chin and Prof. Bryce Ferguson at the Thayer School of Engineering on vision-language models for robotic reasoning, using Dartmouth's Boston Dynamics Spot robot, and on defenses against adversarial visual attacks. On August 11 he spoke on The Evolution of Computer Vision: From Physics-Based Models to Deep Learning and Embodied AI.

Writing partway through his visit, he told us: "I'm doing great and really enjoying my time here at Dartmouth. I truly appreciate everything you have done to make my visit such a positive experience."

Prof. Shai Pilosof

Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Prof. Pilosof arrived with his family in July for a sabbatical visit hosted by Prof. Peter Mucha in the Department of Mathematics, and remains at Dartmouth into the fall. Their work develops predictive frameworks for ecological interaction networks, including host–parasite and plant–pollinator systems, by integrating species traits, evolutionary history, environmental context, and network structure. He spoke on July 23 on Predicting Species Interactions in Ecological Networks.

Dr. Alon Shepon

Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and Department of Public Policy, Tel Aviv University

Dr. Shepon spent the first half of August at Dartmouth with his wife and two children, meeting colleagues across environmental studies, geography, and earth sciences. On August 4 he spoke on The Environmental Implications of the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, drawing on his work at the intersection of food production, nutrition, environmental impact, and public policy.

Prof. Galit Yovel

School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University

Prof. Yovel visited in July, hosted by Prof. Brad Duchaine — the two are Collaborative Ventures partners on a project connecting vision and language. On July 24 she spoke on Are Deep Learning Algorithms Good Models of Human Face Recognition?

Prof. Shahar Arzy

Computational Neuropsychiatry Lab, Hebrew University; Neuropsychiatry Clinic, Hadassah Medical Center

Prof. Arzy has arrived in the United States for a visit that bridges clinical neurology and computational cognitive neuroscience, with an emphasis on ecologically valid behavioral paradigms and the neural basis of personal meaning. He spoke in our Lunch and Learn series last spring, and we look forward to more of his work at Dartmouth this year.

Lunch and Learn: A Summer of Talks

Our Lunch and Learn series ran through the summer. Including these five sessions, the series has now hosted ten talks since November 2025, with each session drawing around thirty faculty, students, and staff from across campus.

We are always glad to hear from Dartmouth faculty who would like to propose or host a speaker. Please write to us at kalaniyot.dartmouth@gmail.com.

Our Community Grows

Kalaniyot visiting scholars and their families at dinner in Plainfield, August 2026

In August, board member Dr. David Feller-Kopman and Michelle Feller-Kopman hosted our visiting scholars and their families for dinner at their home in Plainfield. As one guest put it afterward, it was good to hear fluent Hebrew in the Upper Valley.

Earlier in the summer, when it became clear that our visiting families could use bicycles, the Upper Valley Jewish Community put out the call on our behalf, and neighbors answered. We are grateful to everyone who helped.

Ha-k'hilah shel Kalaniyot g'delah — our Kalaniyot community grows.

Upcoming Events

Lunch and Learn: Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal

Thursday, September 17, 2026 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM | Reed Hall, Room 209

Dr. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Vice President for Global Engagement; Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School) will speak on It's Complicated! Jews and Christians in the First Centuries CE. The talk explores the relationship between Jews and Christians in the first centuries CE, drawing on rabbinic and early Christian sources to show how both traditions shaped each other through contact, rivalry, and dialogue.

Lunch will be provided. This event is co-sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program.

Dartmouth–TAU Climate and Computing School

October 4 – 8, 2026 | Tel Aviv University

A Dartmouth faculty delegation travels to Tel Aviv University in October for the second Dartmouth–TAU Climate and Computing School, following the inaugural session held at Dartmouth in 2025. The theme is computational techniques in geophysics, geomorphology, and climate data, with ten TAU faculty joining colleagues from Dartmouth's Thayer School, Mathematics, and Psychological and Brain Sciences. The week includes a field excursion to the Dead Sea region led by Prof. Shmulik Marco. A third school is in planning, back at Dartmouth, for summer 2027.

Lunch and Learn, 2026–2027

The fall schedule is filling in now, and we expect a mix of in-person talks from scholars visiting Dartmouth and remote talks from colleagues in Israel. To join our events mailing list, write to kalaniyot.dartmouth@gmail.com.

Leadership

The Kalaniyot Foundation serves as an umbrella organization for chapters focusing on local community building and strengthening ties with Israeli research institutions.

Contact: kalaniyot.dartmouth@gmail.com