A recent change, reflecting seismic shifts in society at large and at HUJI in particular, is our newly redesigned logo. The original logo of Mandel Scholion was from the 15th century Rothschild Miscellany. The image from this beautiful early modern haggadah featured five rabbinic-looking men in conversation and perfectly captured the spirit of conversation and engagement that remains an ideal at Scholion. With our new logo, however, we sought to remove the all-male presentation and to broaden the lens to include all religions and cultures. Designed as three gates, paving the way to new knowledge and reflecting different cultures, we hope it will be a harbinger of what we seek to achieve in the years to come. Gender equality continues to be a challenge, as pools of postdoctoral applicants are still two-thirds male and one-third female. As such, a balanced gendered community remains a desideratum, although we are making progress. In addition, over time, we support more and more of our members in their focus on Islam, Christianity, Asian, and African culture alongside the important emphasis on Jewish studies and Western civilization. There is still progress to be made here as well.
Finally, the bridges of the logo do not only reflect these broader focus areas, but also our goal to disseminate our research, both within Israel and internationally, beyond the current scholarly articles and conferences. It is my hope that at our next milestone celebration we will have made progress with this as well.