This highly competitive fellowship is a testament to the exceptional research and academic contributions of both scholars. The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is renowned for fostering transformative research and intellectual inquiry across various disciplines.

Dr. Orit Raz and Prof. Ari Shnidman will join a select group of scholars from around the world at the IAS. During their fellowship, they will have the opportunity to pursue their groundbreaking research in a collaborative and intellectually stimulating environment.

Dr. Orit Raz specializes in discrete geometry and combinatorics, focusing on nonlinear projections and the discretized polynomial partition theorem. Her research advances mathematical understanding in areas with applications in computer science, data analysis, and related disciplines.

Prof. Ari Shnidman specializes in number theory and arithmetic geometry, with a focus on automorphic forms, the arithmetic of curves, and Jacobians. His work aims to deepen our understanding of these complex mathematical concepts and has been recognized for his research in advancing both theoretical mathematics and its practical applications.

Prof. Asher Cohen, President of Hebrew University stated, "We are immensely proud of Dr. Raz and Prof. Shnidman for receiving this prestigious recognition. Their selection as IAS Members not only highlights their individual accomplishments but also underscores the world-class research being conducted at Hebrew University."

The IAS has a distinguished history, having hosted numerous Nobel laureates, Fields Medalists, and other eminent scholars, including Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer. The inclusion of Dr. Raz and Prof. Shnidman in this esteemed group further solidifies Hebrew University's position as a leading institution in global academia.

Hebrew University congratulates Dr. Orit Raz and Prof. Ari Shnidman on this remarkable achievement and looks forward to the innovative research that will undoubtedly emerge from their time at the Institute for Advanced Study.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel’s premier academic and research institution. With over 23,000 students from 90 countries, it is a hub for advancing scientific knowledge and holds a significant role in Israel’s civilian scientific research output, accounting for nearly 40% of it and has registered over 11,000 patents. The university’s faculty and alumni have earned eight Nobel Prizes, two Turing Awards a Fields Medal, underscoring their contributions to ground-breaking discoveries. In the global arena, the Hebrew University ranks 81^st according to the Shanghai Ranking. To learn more about the university’s academic programs, research initiatives, and achievements, visit the official website at http://new.huji.ac.il/en

credit for the photo : Yonit Schiller

The research shows that parents' emotional and cognitive processes can greatly influence their interactions with their children during homework time. By studying 101 Israeli parents and their elementary-aged children, the researchers identified factors that can either help or hinder the support parents provide at home.

Children usually spend about 1 to 2 hours a day on homework, but this varies with age and school demands. Many parents find it challenging to balance their own responsibilities while supporting their children academically, which can lead to stress and conflict. Improving this dynamic is crucial.

One key finding is the role of parental mentalization—the ability to perceive and interpret their children’s thoughts and feelings. Parents who are good at mentalization are more supportive and less controlling, creating a better homework environment that can boosts children’s independent learning and motivation. Conversely, parents who struggle with managing their emotions tend to express negative behaviors, like frustration or discouragement, which can make homework stressful and curtail their child’s engagement.

"Our research sheds light on how parents’ emotional and mental  processes impact their involvement in their children’s education," explained Dr. Gershy. "Understanding these factors can help develop strategies that improve parent-child interactions during homework, and hence increase parental ability to support and encourage their children’s learning ."

Practical applications of these findings could include parent training programs and educational strategies to improve parents’ awareness of their emotional states and mentalization skills, aiming to enhance parental support and foster better academic outcomes and relationship.

The research paper titled “Why Things Can Go Wrong When Parents Try to Help Children With Their Homework: The Role of Parental Emotion Regulation and Mentalization” is now available at Journal of Educational Psychology and can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000873.

Researchers:

Racheli Cohen¹, Naama Gershy¹, Maayan Davidov²

Institution:

1. The Seymour Fox School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2. The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel’s premier academic and research institution. With over 23,000 students from 90 countries, it is a hub for advancing scientific knowledge and holds a significant role in Israel’s civilian scientific research output, accounting for nearly 40% of it and has registered over 11,000 patents. The university’s faculty and alumni have earned eight Nobel Prizes, two Turing Awards a Fields Medal, underscoring their contributions to ground-breaking discoveries. In the global arena, the Hebrew University ranks 81st according to the Shanghai Ranking. To learn more about the university’s academic programs, research initiatives, and achievements, visit the official website at http://new.huji.ac.il/en

"At Hebrew University, we are immensely proud of the outstanding achievements of these five exceptional researchers. Their work embodies the spirit of innovation and rigorous inquiry that defines our academic community. The prestigious ERC Starting Grants they have received are a testament to their dedication and the groundbreaking nature of their research. We look forward to witnessing the profound impact their studies will have on their respective fields and beyond." — Prof. Tamir Sheafer, Rector of Hebrew University

The recipients from Hebrew University are:

Dr. Karma Ben Johanan, from the Department of Comparative Religion, for her research titled "Christosemitism: Christian Anti-antisemitism in Europe, 1945-2020." This study explores the Christian rejection of antisemitism in post-World War II Europe, as it is expressed in theological, institutional and liturgical changes. Dr. Ben Johanan's work examines the Christian struggle against antisemitism against the backdrop of Western Christianity’s re-crystallization, in light of processes of secularization, decolonization, and the shift of Christianity's center of gravity from the West to the Global South.

Dr. Moran Frankel Pinter, from the Institute of Chemistry, for her research on the chemical origins of life, which seeks to bridge the gap between contemporary biochemistry and the chemical principles that led to life on Earth. Her ERC project focuses on characterizing how simple sugars, which were present on ancient Earth, combined to form functional catalytic polymers capable of self-assembly. Additionally, she investigates the role of these sugars in the emergence of complex catalytic chemical networks.

Dr. Ilan Komargodski, from the School of Engineering and Computer Science, for his research on fast and secure communication protocols. His work centers on the fundamentals of cryptography, with a focus on developing distributed communication protocols that ensure safety and privacy, protecting users from information leakage. His research in large-scale communication networks represents an area with potentially groundbreaking applications.  Dr. Komargodski aims to deepen existing knowledge and uncover new approaches for secure computations involving vast numbers of participants and large volumes of information, a setting that is still relatively new and whose full applicability is not yet fully understood.

Dr. Noam Lifshitz, from the Einstein Institute of Mathematics, for his research in the analysis of Boolean functions, which take a string of zeros and ones as input and output either zero or one. Although Boolean functions are combinatorial objects, their study in this field utilizes tools from Fourier analysis, with "hypercontractivity" being one of the main techniques. His proposal aims to apply this tool in the context of group theory and representation theory, which focus on the study of symmetries.

Dr. Gideon Mamou, from the Faculty of Medicine, for his research on the structure of the bacterial envelope and its role in protecting against antibiotics. His work focuses on the multi-layered envelope that shields the bacterial cell, enabling it to withstand antibiotic treatments. While many components of this envelope have been identified, the understanding of their interrelationships remains limited. Dr. Mamou aims to deepen the understanding of how the cell coordinates the construction of all the envelope components and to uncover interactions within the envelope that contribute to its capability to protect against antibacterial substances.

Dr. Karma Ben Johanan | Credit: Assaf Feldman

Dr. Moran Frankel Pinter | Credit: Ariel Van Straten

Dr. Ilan Komargodski | Credit Ilan Komargodski

Dr. Noam Lifshitz | Credit: Martine Lanotte

Dr. Gideon Mamou | Credit Gideon Mamou

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel’s premier academic and research institution. With over 23,000 students from 90 countries, it is a hub for advancing scientific knowledge and holds a significant role in Israel’s civilian scientific research output, accounting for nearly 40% of it and has registered over 11,000 patents. The university’s faculty and alumni have earned eight Nobel Prizes, two Turing Awards a Fields Medal, underscoring their contributions to ground-breaking discoveries. In the global arena, the Hebrew University ranks 81^st according to the Shanghai Ranking. To learn more about the university’s academic programs, research initiatives, and achievements, visit the official website at http://new.huji.ac.il/en

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council.