2023 Honorary Doctorate Recipients
Prof. Antoine Compagnon, France
Born in Belgium, Antoine Compagnon divides his time between the United States and France. He is the Blanche W. Knopf Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and Professor and former Chair (2006-2021) of French Literature at the Collège de France. Compagnon originally studied engineering but later shifted his focus to French literature, completing both his BA and MA degrees at the Sorbonne. A fiercely independent thinker, Compagnon integrates historical and cultural materials with textual analysis in his scholarship. He has successfully introduced the wonders of French literary classics to the public through his highly popular French radio show. Among his numerous accolades, Compagnon has received honorary degrees from King’s College London, HEC Paris and the University of Liège, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Academy of Europe and was recently elected as a member of the Académie Française. He has been a visiting lecturer at Oxford University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Prof. Barbara Engelking, Poland
A sociologist and psychologist, Barbara Engelking specializes in Holocaust-era Polish Jewish history. She is the founder and director of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw; the former Chair of the International Auschwitz Council; and former curator of the Holocaust Gallery at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Prof. Engelking and the center she heads have faced harassment by the Polish government for exposing the culpability of Polish society in the death of Jews and plundering of Jewish property in wartime Poland. In an international demonstration of solidarity and academic recognition, Engelking and her colleague Prof. Jan Grabowski were recently appointed co-incumbents of the prestigious Cleveringa Chair at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Engelking holds a PhD in sociology from the Polish Academy of Science and an MA in psychology from Warsaw University.
Tamir Gilat, Israel
Tamir Gilat is a former lawyer, entrepreneur, and professional soccer player who serves in a voluntary capacity as Chairman of the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF). In 2011, Gilat was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic and kidney cancer, and given a life expectancy of 3 to 6 months – but he refused to give in. Following two major operations, two experimental clinical trials, and various breakthrough medications, he has now lived with cancer for over 12 years. Soon after his diagnosis, Gilat decided to devote his life to supporting cancer patients and their families and to promoting Israeli cancer research. The ICRF has allocated $95 million to 2,750 breakthrough Israeli cancer researchers over the past 45 years, among them Nobel laureates Profs. Ciechanover and Hershko, and supported research that has generated several lifesaving drugs. Gilat has been a board member of TAU’s Israeli Friends Association since the mid-1990s and a TAU Governor since 2014 and, during his student days, he was captain and goalkeeper of the TAU soccer team. He holds a TAU law degree and a Kellogg-Recanati EMBA from TAU and Northwestern University.
Morris Kahn, Israel