“Your profession is not just a job – it is a mission”

The ceremony was attended by Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan, Dean of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine Prof. Ami Aronheim, and Rappaport family representative Irith Rappaport, who has generously supported the faculty’s activities since its establishment. The ceremony included 81 female graduates and 55 male graduates, totaling 136 graduates. Twenty-six of them graduated with honors, five with special distinction, and 14 completed the prestigious MD/PhD program, which combines medicine and research and awards its graduates a dual degree: MD and PhD. The Senior Vice President of the Technion Prof. Oded Rabinovitch conferred the degrees on behalf of the Technion Senate. Prof. Moshe Fligelman was honored with reading the Hippocratic Oath.

Technion President Prof. Sivan told the new doctors and their families that “especially today, nine months after October 7 and the outbreak of the Swords of Iron War, amid the pain and chaos and uncertainty, I chose to talk about values. In our conduct over the past nine months, we did not lose our composure, and while many systems around us collapsed, we continued to function with inspiring adherence to the values of the Technion. We embraced those whose lives were halted on October 7 and during the war, hosted hundreds of evacuated families in the dormitories and the guesthouse on campus, and supported our 3,500 reservists, the community around us, and IDF units.” President Sivan also imparted some words of wisdom: “Remember not only the professional knowledge you have acquired, but also the values we have instilled in you, the compassion. Always remember them, especially when the sea is stormy, the mast is about to break, and it is tempting to choose easier paths.”

The 51st class of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine

The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine is named after generous donors Ruth and Bruce Rappaport, who supported the faculty since its establishment. On behalf of the family, their daughter Irith Rappaport addressed the degree recipients, saying, “You are entering a world where your profession is not just a job but a mission, and it is important for me to highlight the importance of this mission, especially in light of the past year and the current Israeli reality. Talking about hope these days is not simple, but as someone who believes in the power of science and medicine to change society, I see in you the hope for a better future. Despite the difficulties, medicine has the ability to connect people, reduce gaps, and bridge disagreements. You, more than anyone, know that medicine is not just a science; it is also the art of compassion and listening. We live in a time when polarization and fear threaten to tear our society apart, and therefore your role is more important than ever, because only through compassion and acceptance of the other can we create healing here.”

Faculty Dean Prof. Aronheim told the graduates, “As medicine becomes more sophisticated and technological, your patients will always seek compassion, a smile, a word of encouragement, and a warm touch. They will want to see the truth in your eyes and will ask you to always leave room for hope, even if it comes after another 26-hour shift. The degree awarded to you today is a certificate of honor and appreciation for your completion of all the many tasks we set before you. You definitely deserve to pause for a moment, pat yourselves on the back, and say with satisfaction and pride – we did it!”

Dr. Noam Kedar with his father, Prof. Zohar Kedar

A Realistic Doctor

One of the graduates of the prestigious MD/PhD program is Dr. Noam Keidar, who graduated with special distinction. His father, Prof. Zohar Keidar, also a graduate of the faculty, is the deputy dean for clinical appointments in the faculty and the director of the Nuclear Medicine Institute at Rambam Medical Center. Prof. Keidar presented his son with the academic hood. Noam grew up in Haifa and studied in the gifted program at the Leo Baeck Education Center. During his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, he won first place in the final project competition when he developed a mobile application for predicting and diagnosing ventricular fibrillation. Later, Noam chose to enter the MD/PhD program, saying, “I wanted to be a doctor, but I didn’t want to give up the realistic side.” For his doctorate, supervised by Prof. Yael Yaniv, he expanded his research to other medical issues, including epilepsy attacks and childbirth complications, with the common denominator being prediction based on data analysis using AI. After October 7, like many other young people, Noam was called up for reserve duty, and after several months of service, he began his post-doctoral fellowship in Prof. Assaf Shuster’s research group at the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science. There, he works on predicting medical phenomena based on data analysis using AI. He said, “Over the years, I have gained extensive knowledge in medicine and no less in engineering. In my post-doctoral work, I continue to work on the interface between medicine and engineering, and I would like to continue working at this interface in the future, outside of academia.”

Dr. Maya Schiller and her parents, Professors Isaac and Jackie Schiller

Bridging Neuroscience and Immunology

Another graduate of the prestigious MD/PhD program is Dr. Maya Schiller, daughter of Professors Jackie and Yitzhak Schiller, faculty members at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. Maya was born in Jerusalem, studied at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, and is now married and a mother to a daughter. She did her doctorate under the supervision of Prof. Asya Rolls from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, and her research focused on the influence of the dopaminergic reward system in the brain on the immune system. The reward system is activated in positive emotional states and in anticipation of positive events, and Maya and her colleagues’ research showed that such states affect the immune system. Moreover, these studies, published in Nature Communications, Nature Medicine, and Nature Reviews Immunology, showed that intentional intervention in the reward system might lead to the inhibition of bacterial infections and even the reduction of tumor sizes. During her studies, Maya won numerous prestigious awards, including the Clore Prize, the Jacobs Prize, and the Rappaport Prize. She is now specializing in neurology at Sheba Medical Center and plans to combine immunology research and clinical work with patients in the future.

Dr. Omer Kerner at the ceremony

Fourth Generation in Medicine

Omer Kerner, a graduate of the 51st class, is a fourth-generation doctor. His father, Dr. Arthur Kerner, is a graduate of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion and the director of the Invasive Cardiology Unit at Rambam Medical Center. His uncle, Arthur’s identical twin brother, is Dr. Ram Kerner, an obstetrician-gynecologist. They are not just identical twins – they completed their medical studies a year apart and are both married to physiotherapists. Omer’s grandmother is Prof. Vicky Kerner, who was the head of the Pathology Institute at Rambam and a founder of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, and their father was a dentist. Omer’s great-grandfather was the first generation of the family in medicine and served as a hospital director and surgeon in the city of Storozhynets in Ukraine; his wife was a dermatologist.