2015 Honorary Doctorate Recipients
Bareket Buchmann
Bareket Buchmann is a member of the Israel Bar Association, a double alumna of Tel Aviv University and a member of the University’s Board of Governors. Mrs. Buchmann has been deeply involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors both in Israel and Germany, together with her husband, Josef. The couple founded the Buchmann Faculty of Law and the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at TAU, where they continue to support numerous initiatives, including flying the School’s Symphony Orchestra to New York to perform a concert marking the UN International Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Holocaust. They have also supported a range of other causes, among them the Buchmann Children’s Hospital in Frankfurt, the Buchmann Gynecology and Maternity Center at the Sheba Medical Center and the Buchmann Wing at the Tel Aviv-Sourasky Medical Center, as well as the welfare of Israeli soldiers and underprivileged communities, aliyah from the former Soviet Union, and a major renewal and renovation of the former Lodz Ghetto in Poland.
Dr. David Korenfeld Federman
David Korenfeld Federman is a prominent expert in the international water sphere. He has held numerous senior public roles in his native Mexico, including Head of the National Water Authority of Mexico, Minister of Water and Public Works of Mexico State, and Mayor of the Huixquilucan Municipality. Dr. Korenfeld Federman has received numerous accolades for his contributions to improving Mexico’s water sector, among them the George Warren Fuller Award from the American Water Works Association. He was elected as President of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Council for the International Hydrological Program in 2014, and appointed as a Water Ambassador by the International Water Association. He has published five books in the field, among them The Mexican Penalty System: Theory of Administrative Sanction (2005) and Water, Harmony, Balance and Development (2011), and edited Water: Cycle of Destiny (2007). He holds an undergraduate degree in law, and masters and doctoral degrees in public administration from Anahuac University, Mexico.
Lorry I. Lokey
Lorry Lokey is the founder and CEO/Chairman Emeritus of Business Wire, the international media relations wire service that he founded in 1961 with just 7 clients and sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 2006 with 30 offices around the world. A veteran of World War II, Lokey completed his BA in journalism at Stanford University and worked as a reporter and public relations executive before serving as a wire editor for United Press in his home town of Portland, Oregon. Lokey was one of the early signatories of The Giving Pledge, the campaign launched by Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage US billionaires to give at least half of their fortunes to charity. Through the Lorry I. Lokey Supporting Foundation, he has made major donations to higher education institutions in the US and Israel. He has received numerous awards and serves on several boards, among them the Tel Aviv University Board of Governors, the San Francisco Opera Association and Santa Clara University.
Millie Phillips
Millie Phillips is one of Australia’s most prominent businesswomen and philanthropists of Jewish causes. Ms. Phillips was born in Poland in 1929 and immigrated with her family in 1938 to Sydney, where she joined the newly-formed Jewish Zionist youth movement, Habonim, and later married. By 1960, she was a single mother with three small children to support. Undaunted, she established a boarding house before going on to build up a conglomerate of motels, nursing homes and retirement facilities. In 1969 she diversified into mineral exploration and floated several public companies. Today she continues to build and develop land, and to own and operate assisted living facilities and retirement villages. Ms. Phillips is a Life Governor of Masada College in Sydney.
Thomas Römer
Born in Germany, Thomas Römer is a scholar of Biblical studies with several academic appointments: He is Professor of Milieux Bibliques at the College de France in Paris and a professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, where he formerly served as Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Sciences of Religions. In addition, since 2012, Prof. Römer has been Extraordinary Professor of the University of Pretoria. Among his current research interests are the formation of the Torah and the traditions of Moses both within and outside of the Bible. He is Chief Editor of Ancient Israel and Its Literature and Le Monde de la Bible, and a member of several editorial committees. Among his recent publications are The Invention of God (Paris 2014; English version scheduled for 2015 Harvard University Press) and The So-Called Deuteronomistic History: A Sociological, History and Literary Introduction (London-New York 2005).
Yakov Sinai
Yakov Sinai is a professor of mathematics at Princeton University, the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is considered one of the most influential mathematicians of our time, having made numerous discoveries in the theory of dynamical systems, in mathematical physics and in probability theory. Prof. Sinai is a four-time invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians, and has garnered many accolades for his research, most recently the Abel Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematicians. He has published over 250 scientific papers and several books, among them the classical Ergodic Theory, together with I. Cornfeld and S. Fomin. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy and European Academy of Sciences.
Vladimir Spivakov
Violinist and conductor Maestro Vladimir Spivakov has performed with some of the world’s leading conductors including Leonard Bernstein, and his extensive discography as both soloist and conductor comprises over 40 CDs. Maestro Spivakov has appeared with major orchestras around the world. In 1979, he founded the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and, in 2003, at the initiative of Vladimir Putin, he was appointed Artistic Director of the National Philharmonic of Russia, a post that he still holds today. In 1994, he founded the Spivakov International Charity Foundation, which seeks out and nurtures talented young musicians. Since 2011, he has been a member of the Council for Culture and Arts under the President of the Russian Federation. He has received numerous honors and accolades, among them the French Legion d’Honneur and the State Prize of Russia for humanitarian achievements.
Miriam Milberg de Smolarz
Miriam Milberg de Smolarz was born in Poland and has lived in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, since she was twelve years old. Ever since her youth and due to her Zionist calling, she has been actively involved in many organizations of the Argentinean Jewish Community, such as “Hospital Israelita” and “Comunidad Bet-El,” and has stood out for her support for people in need. The Smolarz family’s important philanthropic contribution in both Israel and Argentina has been driven by their Zionist spirit. In 1981, together with her husband, Adolfo, Mrs. Smolarz donated the new building of the “Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano,” a Jewish seminary responsible for teaching, training and preparing conservative rabbis who now hold positions around the world. Since 1979, the Smolarz family has been part of the Association of Friends of Tel Aviv University in Argentina, where they have played an active role in the organization of events as well as in countless activities run by the association. Mrs. Smolarz is Governor of Tel Aviv University and was awarded the President’s Award in 2011 in recognition of her longstanding support to higher education in Israel.
