Reflections: Department of Psychology, University of Haifa
Barry D. Berger
Zionism and Judaism have been co-dependent throughout my life. Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, USA in the 1940’s, I attended Jewish Day School, continued my Jewish education at the Baltimore Hebrew College, and was active in the “modern orthodox” Beth Tfiloh synagogue. My social activities and many of my friends were from the Beth Tfiloh community and from the Labor Zionist youth organization, Habonim. I first joined Habonim to play basketball and for social activities, but gradually I became influenced by their more philosophical aspects – Jewish culture, Zionism, and interpersonal and communal social values.
My most formative experience during this period was spending a post-high school year in Israel through the Habonim Workshop project. “Workshop” was designed to actualize the theory through practice. A group of 38 North American “graduates” of Habonim, spent a year integrating ourselves in all respects as working members of Kibbutz Kfar Blum. The most salient part of this experience was the need for the 38 of us to organize ourselves as a cohesive group, make decisions about how we would live communally, and collectively solve any problems that might arise. Without a doubt, this year of “ed-venture” imprinted Israel, Zionism, and Judaism cognitively and emotionally, and was a pivotal step in my personal growth.
No less important during this year in Israel was that I met Beverly, a fellow “workshopper” from Montreal. We became a “couple” at 17-18 years old, and are currently celebrating 67 years together along with 3 children, their spouses, nine grandchildren, and recently a great grandchild!
Returning to the US, I resumed my undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland, with a double major in Psychology and Zoology, and then continued graduate studies at Bryn Mawr College (Pennsylvania), focusing on Physiological and Comparative Psychology (MA) mentored by Professor M.E. Bitterman and Psychopharmacology (PhD). While a PhD student, I worked -in the Research and Development Department at nearby Wyeth Laboratories and was able to conduct my dissertation research there under the direction of Professor Larry Stein.
Israel had been put on “hold” during the period of my studies, but in 1970 I was offered a prestigious Weizmann Institute Fellowship to spend a year with Professor David Samuels. This gave us an opportunity to see what Israel was like through a more professional lens rather than though our earlier experience as adventurous teenagers. We spent the year as a family under the protective shield of the Weizmann Institute and saw how it might be should we return as “Olim”.
Israeli universities were in a period of development during the early 1970’s, and my field of psychopharmacology / behavioral pharmacology was in its infancy. Thus, I received many “feelers” from Universities in Israel, but the one that interested me most was from the University of Haifa. I remember that Joel Norman and Marilyn Sefer came down to Rehovot to talk with me about joining the young Department of Psychology at the young University of Haifa. The North of Israel had always been my preferred location in Israel and I loved the challenge of joining and helping to build something from scratch - something no doubt connected to my Zionist ideology.
I paid a site visit to the Department of Psychology located in the Multi-Purpose building, hosted warmly by Joel and Marilyn and by others in the Department who then included Amos Hendel (Department Chair) and others including Baruch Nevo, Ofra Nevo, Sam Rockover, Yohanan Hoffman, Michael Merbaum and others including Lee Gabor, Shaul Sohlberg, Avraham Lavi, Rachael Seginor, the Departmental Secretary, Rina Eyal, and the CEO of the University, Eliezer Refaeli. I gave an informal “job talk” on “Drugs and Memory” and Bev and I spent several days meeting faculty and staff at this very intimate institution. Within a few days I was offered a tenure track teaching and research position and a firm commitment to build Departmental Research laboratories – both “dry” and “wet” facilities to our specifications. As I recall, Joel Norman was the coordinator and my contact person for this undertaking.
I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and warmth of the people I met at Haifa and saw the position in the Department as a way to actualize my professional, ideological, and personal dreams. I explained that I needed to return to the US for a year to finish my obligations to Wyeth Labs and to see if what Haifa had promised would actually materialize. We also had to deal with the fact that moving to Israel was a huge and risky step at many levels in our lives and that we would be leaving family, friends, and our US cultural lives. It was not a decision without ambivalence. Nevertheless, we accepted the offer, returned to the US for a year, and returned in the Fall of 1972 as permanent residents.
The University was amazingly supportive in those days of us and I think of new faculty in general. We were protected from administrative, bureaucratic, and even financial hurdles through various support structures and individuals at the University. Amos Hendel was very important to me as a role model during that period and Joel and Gabi and Marilyn and Effi and Baruch and Ofra as friends. .. and a few years later, Yochi and Michal as friends and neighbors in Tivon. We settled in with our children in rental housing in Denya. I also recall the Deans during that period, Zvi Sobel and David Lapkin as greatly supportive of the Department and of us. Eliezer Refaeli was a “bulldozer” in the positive sense of the word. Rina Eyal and successor, Sara, knew everything about navigating the University and helped at every level. The promises to build the Psychology Laboratories in a wing of the Multipurpose Building were fulfilled to the maximum, including funds for permanent administrative positions for laboratory workshops and technicians (Avraham Papo and Dalia Teucher). To cap it all off for me, the University eventually sponsored a festive opening ceremony for the Laboratories and my former mentor, Dr. Larry Stein, was the honored speaker. Thus, our initial transition period was very smooth, supportive, and personally challenging.
In 1973, one year after our arrival in Israel, the Yom Kippur War broke out. At that time, we were still not “citizens” and I had not yet served in the army. Nevertheless, during the initial uncertain and stressful period of the war, we did our best to maintain structure and to volunteer in whatever capacity we could… our car was registered for being drafted but this was not actualized.
After several days, I received a call from the army asking if I would be willing to volunteer to be part of the units who had the impossible duty of informing the parents, siblings, and spouses that their loved ones had been killed. I spent at least two weeks going from family to family carrying out this horrendous task. One case stands out in particular – being assigned to inform my student and lab collaborator, Eva Shapira, that her husband, Ilan, had been killed. My very sad task was to inform Eva and the rest of Ilan’s family; I maintained contact with them all for many years – directly and through the “Ilan Shapira” University run that the family sponsored. As terrible as this was, more than anything else these personalized experiences solidified my commitment to Israel and our decision to move here.
University classes resumed over the next months to a degree, considering the confusing, surrealistic post war atmosphere. In addition to my regular teaching, I volunteered to “fill in” at Tel Aviv University for fellow psychobiologist, Ariel Merari, who had been wounded in the fighting. (A year or so later, we became citizens, I did basic training and then went directly into a reserve duty position as a psychologist in the Air Force where I served until I was 56-years old).
In the aftermath of the war, I was asked by Amos Hendel to assume the responsibility of Department Chair and the challenges of further developing the Department of Psychology. Despite my lack of experience, I felt that I had the consensus of my fellow Departmental members and members of the University infrastructure and on that basis I agreed to the post. My recollection of that period is very positive, in that the University administration was amenable and supportive of our requests and plans and made it “relatively” easy for us to actualize our short and long term intentions. Life at the University in general, and in the Department in particular, was very informal, friendly, and intimate. Everyone encountered while walking the corridors was a friend or colleague. I remember how bizarre it was to be asked to co-sign bank guarantees for people I had just casual contact with …. and for me to do the same! A highlight during that period were the annual Yom HaAtsmaut treasure hunts organized by the Nevo and Eshel families (if I remember correctly) and the participation by the faculty extended including spouses and children. For me, the facilities and activities sponsored by the physical education department (Micky Herzig) were important – especially faculty basketball and tiyulim.
In that period, the Department of Psychology was considered by the University to be the “measuring stick” for the reputation and achievements of the University and on that basis of that criterion, we enjoyed a degree of “priority” in approval of our requests for new faculty and funding for infrastructure and projects. I cannot say that we had a well-defined long term plan for the Department at that time. If we had a “strategy”, it was to recruit individuals based on excellence and promise – we needed so many positions, that we filtered applicants more on the basis of quality than on the basis of some overall plan. It was clear that we wanted to develop MA and PhD programs within focus areas (megamot), and that we needed to recruit additional senior faculty for these purposes. Again, this fit the University’s general objective; I recall that though I needed to make a strong case and argue for each petition, my requests in these areas as Departmental Chair based on the collaborative consensus of the members of the Department, were met with a positive attitude of common objective by the University administration. Special mention must be made of the partnership I had with the Departmental Secretary and Administrative Coordinator, Ruth Fried who helped not only me, but also helped steer other Department Chairs after my terms(s) of service.
I served a term, perhaps, two terms as Departmental Chair and then was elected Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Mathematics, which included the Department of Psychology. Thus, whatever leadership I had begun as Department Chair continued pretty seamlessly when I became Dean. My administrative “partner” as Dean was Guiora Lehavi who also served as a car-pool partner (together with Yochi Eshel - neighbor, colleague, and friend,) between the University and home in Tivon. As Dean, I saw my role primarily as a supervisor, sounding board, filter, and hopefully, facilitator for the wishes and programs of the Departments that comprised the Faculty. There were times that I needed to intervene in policies and practices of Departments when I thought they had overstepped (or under-stepped) academic norms. One outgrowth of these interactions was my recommendation to separate the Departments of Economics and Business Administration into two independent units.
During this period, we “recruited” senior and core faculty, many of whom are still associated directly or indirectly with the Department. These included: Shlomo Breznitz, Ozer Shield, Amnon Rapoport, Asher Koriat, Amalia Koriat, David Navon, Benny Beit-Hallahmi, Yohanan Eshel, Raanan Lipshitz, Richard Schuster, and Micha Leshem. During my “Deanship”, others joined including Avi Sagi-Schwartz, Rutie Kimchi, Ruth Sharabany, Rachel Seginor, Shimshon Rubin, Ramzi Suleiman, Yael Liron, Judith Harel, Michael Katz, and Alexander (Shoni) Giora. Please (!!!), forgive me for those colleagues from this period whom I may have inadvertently omitted. Of course I did not include here, colleagues who joined the Department not during my terms as Chair or as Dean.
Meanwhile, and throughout this entire period I divided my time between teaching responsibilities, the laboratory, and administrative tasks. The area of psychobiology became more developed both in Israel and in the University. Together with Professor Ami Carmon, Professor Joel Elkes, and other leading figures in this emerging area in Israel, we formed the Israel Institute of Psychobiology (Charles Smith Foundation). In the Department, we increased our psychobiological faculty from just me and perhaps Sam to include Micha and Richard. During this initial period, we had a very cohesive group of dedicated students and support staff. For me, it was a stimulating and very fulfilling environment. Later, of course, the psychobiology area expanded even further when Gal Richter joined the Department, later Irit and Mouna, and more recently other additions … and when the separate, though related area of Neurobiology was developed at the University. Also, at a later period, again during a term in which I believe I was serving as Chair, I supported that the Department adopt a more clinical / applied megama to study brain/behavior – Clinical Neuropsychology. Rachael Tomer and Simone Shamay-Tsoory spear-headed this effort historically together with Zohar Eviatar; since then, this has become an independent and prolific Departmental focus area including second and third generation faculty members.
The Cognitive Psychology group decided to organize itself as an independent research unit (MAAMAKA). From the perspective of the Department of Psychology, I was disappointed by this decision, as I thought such a “split” by a group of such talent would detract from the reputation and achievements in the name of the Department. Now, years later, while I still wish that the MAAMAKA could have been formalized as a unit within the Department, I can only praise them for their individual and collective achievements that at least indirectly have brought honor to the Department.
During this same period and extending to my retirement in 2008, I continued to be involved in virtually every aspect of University life. (At the same time, Beverly opened the first “Beverlys Books” in the Hadar, which eventually morphed to an online internet venture.) A dramatic year for me was during the “early days” when I was the acting Dean of Students. This was a period of political activism at the University and as Dean of Students I was called on to make very difficult decisions about “freedom of speech”. Extremists on both sides tested how and if theory and practice could exist at the University. As Dean, the “buck stopped with me” but I was most thankful to have had the support of the University administration for my policies and decisions. I think I remained true to my personal principles and ideals during that trying period.
I also undertook the position as Head of the Department of Overseas Studies, enabling students from abroad to spend an academic and experiential semester / year at the University. I stayed in that position for a full ten years(!) with Tamar Vital by my side as Administrative coordinator. In retrospect, this to a degree this undertaking “closed the circle” from my youth as a member of Habonim in the US to our decision to become Israeli. Actually, even after my retirement and (almost) to the present, I taught classes on Contemporary Israeli Society at the University of South Florida and, through my good friend and colleague, Professor Len Saxe, became active in follow-up research of the Birthright/ Taglit program. As Ofra Nevo likes to joke about me – I essentially stayed a madrich all my life!
Following retirement, I taught part time at YVC (Jezreel Valley College), becoming Chair of the Department of Psychology there, and achieving recognition from the Council of Higher Education independent status as an accredited Department of Psychology.
Overall reflections: I recall a wise mentor’s advice to me – “there are green and red lights ahead of you in life – follow the green ones”. In general, for better or worse, I have tried to do this, though sometimes the green lights have caused me to stray from a well-defined and professionally productive path in my research.
Without a doubt, I look back with great satisfaction on the numbers of students whom I taught and many of whom I hope that I have influenced in and out of the classroom as they have enriched me. A side benefit to this aspect is that a large number of our faculty members and faculty in other universities in Israel passed thought my classrooms in the course of their studies.
In keeping with my overall outlook, I believe there must be more cross fertilization between the clinical and the physiological / experimental in our teaching and training programs. We pay lip service to this integration, but it doesn’t always reflect how it is applied in our teaching and research programs. Indeed, at one period in my career I had considered certification as a clinical psychologist and even began a training program, mostly to better understand the dynamics of pathologies I was studying in the laboratory.
In my research projects relating drugs, brain, and behavior and in my teaching, I tried throughout to focus on behavioral mechanisms of these interactions rather than on micro or molecular ones. In recent years I became interested in “Addiction”, but unlike the popular current stream of thought, I came to see the applied and therapeutic aspects of this area as requiring behavioral/social more than physiological intervention.
For several years, I focused my research on learned food preferences and aversions, interested in both theoretical and applied aspects of that broad area. One particularly satisfying project was to reduce damage caused by rodents gnawing on electrical wires and irritation pipes by inducing taste aversions to these objects.
Though I worked with animal (rat) models my entire career, I came (correctly or incorrectly) to see the limitations of simple animal models to simulate or study complex human behavior. To this end, I developed the “Zugia” – an animal (rat) model of social interaction. Richard Shuster and I partnered in this venture, the idea being that I would do the more physiological /pharmacological side and he the more behavioral /comparative side. We had a few personal and interactive cooperative hiccups along the way, but in retrospect, I think the zugia and models like that are important research tools to study the complex behavior. I hope others take up where we left off.
Now that I am in my retirement phase, I hope to focus on some more informal areas of interest. I have become interested in the concept of “wisdom” and its folk-based link to ageing. I also have developed a renewed interest in how an intrinsic and hard-wired need for reward guides and motivates behavior and I relate that concept to an understanding of “drug-seeking behavior” and addiction. I also hope to continue to develop some of my personal projects: an “app” enabling parents / grandparents to record stories and books for their children and grandchildren, fostering tolerance and cross-cultural understanding through internet dialogue, and of course, I hope to continue my hobby of germinating cherry tomato seeds to provide seedlings each spring to members of the Department!
"I've submitted my "reflections" in English, as the most natural way to express my thoughts. Actually, leaving it in English is also consistent with my written communications throughout my years at the University. I'm not especially proud of the fact that I didn't totally switch to Hebrew over the years for all my writing and reading tasks. Interacting mostly with University colleagues and with our bilingual family and friends, made it easy for me to "get away" with using English for my day to day correspondence. When I needed or when it was appropriate for me to write in Hebrew for formal or official communications, I usually dictated in Hebrew and then requested the help of tolerant and patient administrative staff to polish and correct my Hebrew style and grammar for the final text. Apologies to all!"
Final item: My biggest concern in composing my thoughts here is what and mainly whom I may have omitted, distorted, or errors in historical fact. None of these are intentional and I hope these mostly impromptu perspectives are received in the honest and positive spirit intended.
Thank you, all … it has been, and continues to be, a “great ride”!
Barry - ברי
