The University of Southern California recently concluded an educational visit to Israel that included an exploration of the country’s advanced science and technology sector, strengthened ties to the research and teaching community, and produced high-level discussions with leaders in government, industry and cultural organizations.

With a delegation comprising USC trustees, deans, faculty members and senior administrators, USC president C. L. Max Nikias, Niki C. Nikias, and USC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs Elizabeth Garrett attended meetings with leaders and scholars from four prominent Israeli institutions of higher education: Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, Weizmann Institute of Science and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Attending from the USC School of Social Work were Dean Marilyn Flynn; Cherry Short, assistant dean of global and community initiatives; and Michalle Mor Barak, the Lenore Stein-Wood and William S. Wood Professor of Social Work and Business in a Global Society and chair of the school’s doctoral program.

Technion president Peretz Lavie gave a private talk to the delegation on the historic partnership the organization is undertaking with Cornell University to build a “high-tech hub” in New York City at the invitation of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. The new campus will encompass 300,000 square feet on Roosevelt Island by 2017 and more than 2 million square feet by 2037.

At the Weizmann Institute of Science, delegation members were briefed by vice president Haim Garty on the structure of this organization that focuses solely on research and graduate programs. Together, they discussed the current governmental-funding shift in priority from basic science to technology transfer programs.

The USC delegation met with four Israeli faculty members who recently joined the Weizmann faculty after returning from the United States as postdoctoral researchers.

Meetings at Tel Aviv University and The Hebrew University gave the delegation members insight into the continuing importance of global education at these two institutions as each described efforts to diversify the student experience for Israeli students and to attract students from around the world for scholarly exchanges.

The visit also provided an opportunity to explore the relationship between government priorities, private industry and research as President Nikias and the delegation met with a diverse leadership group that included Shimon Peres, president of Israel; Joseph "Yossi" Vardi, chairman of International Laser Technologies and one of Israel's high-tech veterans; Manuel Trajtenberg, an economist who is chair of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel; Col. Eyal Fruchter, head of the mental health department of the Israeli Defense Force Medical Corps; Eran Lerman, deputy national security adviser of the National Security Council; and Isaac Ben-Israel, an Israeli military scientist and chairman of the Israeli Space Agency and the National Council for Research and Development.

The trip also included several visits to cultural institutions, including The Israel Museum, where one of the major exhibitions features a show by USC Roski School of Fine Arts faculty member Sharon Lockhart that captures the work of the Israeli movement and dance theorist Noa Eshkol. Later in the evening, the delegation explored the Charlotte Bergman House, home to an extensive collection of modern art originally curated by the legendary 20th century art patron.

The USC delegation concluded the visit with a special visit to Yad Vashem, the world's largest repository of information on the Holocaust. During a tour accompanied by USC Shoah Foundation Institute executive director Stephen Smith, the Nikiases met Holocaust survivor Asher Ud, who shared his testimony of his childhood experiences in the Lodz Ghetto of Poland.

The Nikiases participated in a memorial ceremony to honor those lost in the Holocaust, laying a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance.

Through its faculty members and research centers, the USC School of Social Work has long held ties with Israel.

The school hosts summer study abroad programs, including one in Israel, for its Master of Social Work students. This year’s “Social Conflict, Empowerment and Creative Practice,” co-hosted with Tel Aviv University, will help participants explore social work practice in the region’s urban and rural, Jewish and Arabic, and immigrant communities in different social settings, including schools, immigrant-absorption centers, prisons and community centers. The program offers a comparative perspective on similar social issues approached differently in the United States and Israel, and showcases expressive practice skills and techniques, including the use of community-based theatre and art therapy.

Dean Flynn and Anthony Hassan, director of the school’s Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families, have met with members of the Israel Defense Forces to share ideas on military reintegration, support, and mental health tools and techniques, all of which have been integrated into the school’s military social work curriculum. Flynn and Hassan have visited IDF boot camps and bases, and talked to its most senior mental health social workers. They have also visited Bar-Ilan and Tel Aviv universities to discuss and exchange best practices with social work scholars.

Professor Ron Avi Astor, along with Rami Benbenishty of Israel's Bar-Ilan University, conducted numerous studies on bullying and violence in schools among Arab and Israeli students in Israel. Taking a “whole-school” approach, they surveyed more than 100,000 students, teachers and administrators between 1998 and 2007, asking more than 100 questions about violence, including those about weapons in school, risky behaviors in school, school climate and feelings of safety, providing a new model for understanding school violence in context. The project led to the creation of national policy in Israel and fueled interest in research as a basis for the prevention and implementation of school violence programs. Laws concerning teacher education, school climate goals and special resources for vulnerable populations have emerged as a direct result of their research. Questions they originally developed are now used annually in all 3,000 Israel schools, affecting millions of teachers, administrators, students and parents. All 8,000 psychologists, counselors and social workers in Israeli schools use this information to create data-driven prevention programs that work specifically for each school. All 3,000 principals in Israel now annually use their schools' own data to match programs that fit their schools' profile and specific needs. Astor and Benbenishty wrote the book School Violence in Context: Neighborhood, Family, School and Gender using the data from these studies to challenge inaccurate beliefs about violence in schools and to suggest new theoretical cross-cultural perspectives on the subject.