Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

2 Israelis Awarded Rhodes Scholarships In First

For the first time, two Israelis have been awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, Haaretz reported.

Nadav Lidor and Maayan Roichman, both 26-year-old Tel Avivians, are inaugural Israeli recipients of the scholarship, which in the past was closed to Israelis.

This year, the program has expanded to include several countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa in an effort to be “more and more global,” Charles Conn, warden of the Rhodes Trust, which runs the scholarship, told Haaretz.

One hundred Israelis applied for the two open slots. Eventually, six Israelis will study under Rhodes Scholarships at any time.

Lidor, from Kibbutz Ein Zivan in the Golan Heights, served in the army’s elite 8200 intelligence unit and attended Hebrew University before transferring to and graduating from Harvard.

Roichman, a semiprofessional windsurfer, enrolled in Tel Aviv University at age 15. She served in the army as a guide at the Palmach Museum.

In addition to the Israelis, two Palestinians will also be arriving at Oxford as part of the Rhodes scholarship: Hashem Abushama from the Arroub refugee camp and Nur Arafeh from East Jerusalem.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.