Georgetown University is partnering with Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel’s second-oldest and top-rated university, to establish a joint initiative to research, treat and prevent cancer worldwide, according to a June 30 press release.
“Cancer is a global health challenge, and it is why Georgetown launched the Global Cancer Collaborative this year to identify collaborating universities that share the goal of improving cancer outcomes as a top priority,” Executive Vice President Norman J. Beauchamp, Jr., of Health Sciences at Georgetown University Medical Center said in a press release.
The initiative comes roughly two months after Georgetown University administrators rejected a student referendum to divest from companies and academic institutions associated with Israel.
“Science and medicine and improvement of the human condition should not be influenced by geopolitical concerns,” Dr. Louis Weiner, director of Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, told Washington Jewish Week. “Cancer’s our common enemy.”
The goal of the initiative, according to Weiner, is to develop opportunities for students, research fellows and clinicians to collaborate with others across the world. Weiner added that they hope that those collaborations will eventually lead to filling gaps in research and health care inequality.
“There are social inequalities both in Israel and in the United States that have created challenges for appropriate health care delivery,” Weiner noted. “In underserved minority sections of Washington, for example, and certainly in the West Bank.”
Weiner supported bringing the initiative to fruition, but Dr. Gary Kupfer, a professor at the Lombardi Cancer Center, spearheaded the collaboration with Hebrew University.
“We have plenty of social connections in Israel, but I always wanted to include Israel in my professional life, as well,” Kupfer told Washington Jewish Week.
Kupfer continued to say that with the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza, it is important to be sensitive to what is going on but to not let it stop innovation for life-saving research. He adds that academia circumvents politics and “builds bridges in order to make life better for everybody.”
The initiative hopes to create programs such as a trainee exchange program, where graduate students from both universities will have the opportunity to learn from one another and work together in their research.
For Hebrew University, not only will this further scientific advancements for treating cancer around the world, but Dr. Eli Pikarsky, the dean of the faculty of medicine at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, believes it will help combat antisemitism.
Pikarsky told Washington Jewish Week that he believes the best way to counteract antisemitism, or any type of racism, is through direct interaction.
“[It’s valuable] to see that the people that you think are different from you are not so different,” Pikarsky said. “Our best ambassadors are our students.
“Knowing that Georgetown University is eager, not only willing, to collaborate with Hebrew University, which is the oldest university and the most respected university in Israel and has a very Israeli name, ‘the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,’ what more could you ask for?” Pikarsky added. “Georgetown boasting this collaboration I think is important for Georgetown, for Hebrew University and for the Jewish community around Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.”
While the partnership marks a promising start, those involved acknowledge that its long-term success will depend on sustained support. Turning this vision into a lasting and impactful program will require not only commitment from the academic community but also significant financial investment.
Weiner, Kupfer and Pikarsky all agreed that signing the memorandum of understanding was only the beginning for the initiative and that they need an endowment from a donor to bring their vision to life.
Pikarsky, specifically, described the program as a “living creature that sustains itself” and the biggest challenge will be the start of it, receiving the funding and establishing each individual program.
“This is about linking together two institutions which have a tradition and a reputation for transcending politics,” Kupfer said. “It’s about two institutions who are very much thinking beyond their borders.”
