Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement Awarded to Technion Supporter Nina Avidar Weiner
In 2019, Nina Avidar Weiner was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technion for her contributions to promoting higher education and expanding employment opportunities for outstanding Israeli youth from underprivileged backgrounds
The Technion congratulates Nina Avidar Weiner, founder of the Israel Scholarship Education Foundation (ISEF), on receiving the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement. ISEF is dedicated to supporting brilliant young Israelis from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Mrs. Weiner has devoted her life to advancing education in Israel’s geographic, economic, and social periphery. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technion for her contributions to fostering higher education and expanding employment opportunities for exceptional Israeli youth from underprivileged backgrounds.
Born in Alexandria, she immigrated to Israel with her parents a year after the state was founded. She later studied psychology under Jean Piaget and pursued a master’s degree in career counseling at Columbia University. While working as a psychologist in Israel in the 1950s, she became aware of the vast educational gaps and made it her life’s mission to bridge them.
In 1977, together with Edmond and Lily Safra, she established the ISEF Foundation. Through the Foundation, Mrs. Weiner has nurtured a new generation of leaders who are making a lasting impact on Israeli society. The Israel Prize committee noted that she works with a “deep awareness of the struggles faced by many young people in the periphery who lack access to higher education and, as a result, miss opportunities to realize their potential.” The committee further stated that she is “deserving of the Israel Prize for her lifelong efforts to reshape Israeli society through education and for the profound change she has brought to the lives of countless young people.”
At the 2019 honorary doctorate ceremony at the Technion, Mrs. Weiner reflected on the success of the ISEF scholarship program at the University. “Over the past 15 years, the Foundation has awarded scholarships to 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students at the Technion, and four ISEF-supported students have gone on to become faculty members at the University. The scholarship program has exceeded all our dreams and proven that change is possible. This honorary doctorate is a wonderful recognition of the thousands of ISEF alumni across Israel.”
In 2020, after decades abroad, Nina Avidar Weiner returned to Israel.
