2025 Honorary Doctorate Recipients
Dr. Yael Admi, Israel
Yael Admi is a co-founder and leader of Israel’s largest grassroots peace movement with 50,000 members, “Women Wage Peace,” which advocates for the active participation of women throughout all stages of future peace negotiations. A peace activist for over 40 years, Dr. Admi was instrumental in forging cooperative ties with the Palestinian “Women of the Sun” movement, which led to a 2022 joint declaration stating the two movements’ desire for a peaceful resolution. She is also a former Chair of the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families Forum. Dr. Admi was selected as one of Time Magazine’s 12 Women of the Year for 2024 and was nominated, along with a Palestinian colleague, for the 2024 and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. By profession, she is a software engineer specializing in AI and was the Director of Development Procedures at a leading high-tech company.
Mr. Dan Holzmann, Switzerland
Born in Tel Aviv, Dan Holzmann moved with his family to Switzerland at age eight. He began his business career aged 19 when he co-founded Switzerland’s first pizza delivery service. In 1992, he joined The Juice Plus+, a nutraceutical company, as Country Manager for Switzerland and Germany. He later established its European headquarters and, in 2012, became President and CEO of the company that had expanded by then to 23 countries. In 2019, he left the company and established the Holzmann Group, a private investment firm. Mr. Holzmann is also co-owner and board member of the FC Basel football team, Chairman of Swiss Property, and Founder & President of Beyond Beauty. He is a Tel Aviv University benefactor and Governor. Mr. Holzmann studied economics at the Basel Business School.
Mr. Jonathan R. Goodman, Canada
Jonathan Ross Goodman co-founded and served as President and CEO of Paladin Labs Inc., a pharmaceutical company acquired in 2014 by Endo International Inc. He also founded Knight Therapeutics Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company that he leads as Executive Chair. Mr. Goodman has garnered numerous accolades for his business and philanthropic activities, among them the Globe and Mail’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, the Sam Steinberg Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, and Quebec Entrepreneur of the Year in the Life Sciences by the National Post and Ernst & Young. Among a broad range of civic roles, he serves as Campaign Chair of the Climate Solutions Prize and has spearheaded awareness-building and fundraising for the plight of Ethiopian Jewry. Mr. Goodman holds a BA in Economics, an LLB in Common Law and an MBA, all from McGill University in Montreal.
Prof. Stephen (Steve) Quake, USA
Steve Quake is the Lee Otterson Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University and Head of Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he is also Founding Co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Prof. Quake has invented many measurement tools for biology, including new DNA sequencing technologies that have enabled rapid analysis of the human genome and of microfluidic devices and the first non-invasive prenatal test for Down syndrome, which is benefiting millions of women worldwide. He is an elected member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine and Inventors, among other honors, and has garnered numerous awards, including the Max Delbruck Prize in Biological Physics presented by the American Physical Society. He holds a PhD in physics from Oxford University and a BSc and MSc in mathematics from Stanford.
Prof. Miranda A. Schreurs, Germany
Miranda Schreurs is a professor of political science at the Technical University of Munich, where she holds the Chair for Environmental and Climate Policy. Previously, she was the Director of the Environmental Policy Research Center at Berlin Free University and a researcher at the University of Maryland. Prof. Schreurs’s research focuses on climate change and environmental and energy policy in Germany, the EU, the US and East Asia. She fills a number of public roles, including as vice chair of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils. Prof. Schreurs has been a visiting researcher at numerous institutions, including Tel Aviv University, Nagoya University in Japan and the University of Oslo. She holds a PhD in comparative politics from the University of Michigan and an MA in Japan studies from the University of Washington.
Mr. Thomas L. Friedman, USA
Arguably the most famous political columnist in the world, Thomas Friedman is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist best known for his coverage of Middle Eastern affairs and commentary on globalization. Friedman has been associated with the New York Times since 1981, serving in roles including Beirut bureau chief in 1982 covering the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and Jerusalem bureau chief in 1984, and has been a foreign affairs opinion columnist since 1995. Friedman’s interest in the Middle East was first sparked on a 1968 trip to Israel to visit his sister, who was studying at Tel Aviv University. He has published seven best-selling, critically acclaimed books, including From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won the 1989 National Book Award. He holds a BA in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University and an MA in modern Middle Eastern studies from Oxford University.
Mr. Gideon Hamburger, Israel
Gideon Hamburger, a native of Tel Aviv, began his career at the family insurance agency immediately after his IDF service. Over the years, the agency evolved into the Harel Insurance and Finance Group, where he currently serves as President. Hamburger is a member of the Executive and International Boards of the Weizmann Institute of Science and former Chairman of its Israeli Friends Association. He is President of the Israel-Switzerland and Liechtenstein Chamber of Commerce, and Honorary Chairman of Variety Israel. He is on the boards of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and Bar-Ilan University. Hamburger is a graduate of the Insurance College in London and holds honorary doctorates from the Weizmann Institute and Netanya Academic College. He is married to Hanna and they have three children and six grandchildren.
Mr. Yair Hamburger, Israel
Yair Hamburger is the son of Ernst and Margot Hamburger, who made aliyah from Germany in 1935 and established an insurance agency that, over the years, laid the foundations for the Israeli corporate giant, Harel Insurance and Finance Group. Yair joined the family business in 1971 and, in 1975, founded the Harel Company, which he led since then as founding CEO and currently as Chairman of the Board. Until recently, Mr. Hamburger chaired the Israel Insurance Association, the Association of Life Insurance Companies and the Friends Association of the National Library. He serves on the board of several companies, is active in non-profit organizations in the fields of welfare and the arts, and is Honorary Lifetime Chairman of Maccabi World Union, the world’s largest Jewish sports organization. He holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is married to Ilana, and they have five children and 18 grandchildren.
Ms. Danna Azrieli, Israel/ Canada
Danna Azrieli is an Israeli businesswoman, real estate developer, and philanthropist. As Chairwoman of the Azrieli Group, Israel’s largest publicly traded real estate company, she leads its strategic operations in Israel and abroad. Focused on innovation and diversification, she has expanded the Azrieli Group beyond malls and offices into the senior housing and residential sectors in Israel, and into the data center sector in the international market. Danna is also chair of the Azrieli Foundation Israel, which supports a range of causes. She serves on the boards of Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Darca School Network, and Birthright Israel International. She also supports the Fourth Quarter, an organization committed to building a shared society across all sectors of Israel. Danna is the author of One Step Ahead, a memoir of her father’s survival during World War II.
