The Organizers
Evan D. Morris
Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and of Biomedical Engineering at Yale School of Medicine
Ed Kaplan
William N. and Marie A. Beach Professor of Operations Research; Professor of Engineering; & Professor of Public Health at Yale School of Management
“Israel is dear to me. Many family members and friends live there, and as an observant Jew, Israel is at the heart of our people’s life story. Israeli academics are also dear to me, having been part of the Israeli academic community for 30+ years — as a member and former chair of the Academic Committee of Technion’s Board of Governors, having had two Lady Davis sabbaticals at the Hebrew University, and as a loyal member of the Operations Research Society of Israel.
“The October 7 massacre coupled with the surge in antisemitism and Israel bashing on campus forced me and many of my colleagues to ask what we could do to stand up for Israel as Jews and as academics. The answer came blindingly fast: we had to go to Israel, bear witness and show support at the worst sites of October 7, confer with our colleagues at as many Israeli universities as we could visit, and celebrate Israeli culture, democracy and in particular Israeli academia.
“We returned invigorated and determined not only to counter the boycott of Israeli universities and academics (and the associated vicious myth of Israeli apartheid), but to vigorously promote Israeli scholarship wherever possible. Two years later, these activities remain my most important work.”
— Ed Kaplan
“In early January 2024, I learned of a mission of UPenn professors to Israel to investigate the trauma of the war. In early 2024 the war was raging and no one was going to Israel. I was inspired by this mission. Luckily, at Yale we already had an organized (AEN-supported) group of pro-Israel faculty. The same day that I read about the UPenn group, I proposed an Israel mission to our group. Within minutes, I received ten responses: ‘I’m in.’ Another 15 agreed soon thereafter. But, we knew we had to be more than a ‘me too’ mission. We needed to craft a ‘raison d’aller’ that was unique and consistent with our range of knowledge and expertise as academics in multiple fields (science, medicine, law, economics, engineering.) That is how we arrived at our goal: To investigate the claims and consequences of anti-Israel boycotts on our fellow academics. Luckily, we had an experienced journalist and film maker among us. She filmed at every stop of our mission. The resulting short documentary, “Indivisible” is our attempt to inform people about the reality of the Israeli academy, the dangers posed by various forms of boycotts directed against it, and to expose the hypocrisies of those boycotts.”
— Evan D. Morris
Our Organizers
in the News
What We Learned on Our Academic Visit to Israel
Mission organizers Evan D. Morris and Ed Kaplan published a piece in Newsweek about their experiences in Israel, writing: “Imagine operating a university where a quarter to a third of students, staff, and faculty have been murdered, injured, taken hostage, or are on active military reserve service.”
