President Reuven Rivlin met today with ten high-school students who have been awarded the Van Leer Prize for Excellence in the Humanities. Director of the Van Leer Institute Professor Shai Lavi and deputy director Dr. Yochi Fisher also participated in the event.
“At Beit HaNasi, in recent years we have encouraged the return to studying humanities," Rivlin said. "You join a long chain going back for thousands of years, the greats of humanity, who wondered and wonder about the human spirit and try to accurately identify the elusive qualities that make us work as humans.”
The president thanked the Van Leer Institute for its commitment to encouraging humanities, saying “This prize is one of many examples of your contributions to the research discourse in the field of humanities in Israel. Thank you for your important work. I wish for us all that there will be many more of you, and that next time the Van Leer Institute receives 200 entries for the prize.”