Congratulations to Yael Sherer and Dr. Simcha Gathon of Bar-Ilan University, who were chosen to light torches at this year’s Israel Independence Day ceremonies. Social activist Yael Sherer, currently a graduate student in Health Systems Management at BIU’s Faculty of Social Sciences, is the founder of the Lobby to Combat Sexual Violence. Sherer is a journalist, filmmaker, and writer, who has been involved in human rights for many years and is known chiefly for her work on behalf of victims of sexual abuse.

The scattering of light is among the most common and widely employed phenomena in optics. Many technological applications rely on identifying the exact location of a scattering event in space. For example, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) in autonomous vehicles is based on the collection of light that is scattered off objects in the scene. The origin of an optical scattering event in the backward direction is readily identified: One can launch a short pulse of light towards a target, and measure the time required for a reflected echo to arrive.

Ancient papyri found on the Elephantine Island in Egypt document the life, customs and character of the Jewish community that once existed there. In honor of Passover, Prof. Yigal Levin, head of Bar-Ilan University’s Multidisciplinary Department of Jewish Studies, discusses the Jewish community in “Yeb”, and talks about the ancient "Passover Letters" found there.

The Sir Naim Dangoor Centre for Universal Monotheism in the Faculty of Humanities hosted a festive conference marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Israel.

Bar-Ilan University welcomed dozens of Russian-speaking youth who recently graduated from high school and immigrated to Israel. The group, ranging in age from 17-20, is currently participating in the Jewish Agency's SELA program, which facilitates the study of Hebrew, history and culture of Israel in addition to assisting them with all matters related to the psychometric exams needed to enroll in Israeli academic educational settings.

Rabbi Chaim Navon of the Midrasha, at BIU’s Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies, writes about Passover’s uniqueness.

A digital vision test designed by Bar-Ilan University researchers Prof. Uri Polat and Prof. Yossi Mandel, together with Dr. Eran Schenker, Chief Medical Innovation Officer at the Israel Aerospace Medicine Institute, will be one of the scientific experiments to be conducted at the International Space Station as part of the "Rakia" mission with Israel’s second astronaut, Eytan Stibbe. The technology is based on a unique application and will be used to test astronauts' vision in space after exposure to microgravity conditions.

A new anthology, entitled Gender, Creation, Myths and their Reception in Western Civilization and edited by Prof. Lisa Maurice, of the Department of Classical Studies, and Prof. Tovi Bibring, of the Department of French Culture, has just been published by Bloomsbury Publishing.