Liberal Arts, Real Outcomes: Meet TAU's 2026 BA Graduating Class

When Jonathan Sinyor started his Management & Liberal Arts undergraduate degree at Tel Aviv University, he chose life sciences as one of his liberal arts minors. "I'm interested in medical investments and biotech investments," he says. "This was the only way that I could get a business degree while learning more about science at the same time."

Sinyor graduated this month as part of TAU International's 2026 Bachelor's class.

What Do You Actually Get from a BA Degree at Tel Aviv University?

Ezra Horton, this year's valedictorian, pointed to the people behind the program. He's currently building a startup with classmates from the university, and when the team needed legal advice, a faculty member sat down with them in their own office and helped.

"If you want to start something of your own — a club, a project, or even a company — there are people here ready to partner with you and build it alongside you,"—Ezra Horton, BA in Liberal Arts ’26

For him, the day-to-day presence of the Lowy International team and JLIC (Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus) turned a degree abroad into a community, with the dinners, the trips, the everyday support. "There's not enough I can say to thank each and every one of you for your support," he said.

That support translates directly into what graduates can do. Sinyor, who spent the past two and a half years as a founder's associate at the startup Receive — joining pre-seed and staying through its Series A round — says the two halves of his education never felt separate:

"Learning management skills, learning marketing, accounting, financial modeling, and then going into work and applying those skills, then coming to class with the right questions based on the experiences I had at work."—Jonathan Sinyor, BA in Management & Liberal Arts ’26

Ask him for a favorite spot on campus and he doesn't pick a lecture hall: "The tree with the seats connected to it, in the main grass area by the entrance. Very nice place to study."

For Daria Gurskaia, also a Management & Liberal Arts graduate, the return on the degree wasn't only professional. It gave her something less formal but just as lasting:

"Don't be afraid to fail. There are plenty of chances to correct yourself and learn from your mistakes. And whatever happens, happens for the best."—Daria Gurskaia, Management & Liberal Arts BA ’26

Summed up in one line, the three years were, in her words, "a tough but very fun journey."

Why Choose Liberal Arts in the Age of AI?

Prof. Oded Lipschits, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, addressed the question directly at the ceremony. "The central question of our time is no longer whether information exists," he told graduates. "The question is whether we know how to judge it."

"How do we distinguish evidence from opinion? Truth from manipulation? How do we recognize bias, including the bias embedded in algorithms? And how do we decide what deserves to be done?"—Prof. Oded Lipschits

Prof. Noam Reisner, academic head of the Liberal Arts BA, connected that idea to professional life:

“Only a degree in the liberal arts can ground any possible professional career in the vocational aspects which are the basis of our culture and enterprise, and of what it means to be human in today's global world, along with all of its geopolitical, economic, and ecological challenges.”—Prof. Noam Reisner

Jeff Chen's degree is a working example of that argument. A Liberal Arts graduate from Shanghai, Chen majored in Digital Culture and Communication and studied Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies.

Before coming to Tel Aviv, he was already active online as a livestreamer. At TAU, he wanted to understand not only how digital platforms work, but what he could say through them.

“I learned a lot about Israeli people and the Jewish religion,” he says. “That is how I improve my channel and how I explain things and introduce Israeli culture and religion to people far away in China, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and East Asia.”—Jeff Chen, Liberal Arts BA ’26

Chen has received a conditional offer to continue to a master’s program in Jewish Studies at TAU and plans to return to Tel Aviv after the summer.

What he says he'll miss most isn't a class; it's the library. "I have a great time in the library here," he says, working on the seminar papers and doing his research during the quiet hours between deadlines.

The Next Stop: Columbia, New York

For some, TAU graduation day isn't the finish line. The ceremony also marked the transition of TAU's dual-degree cohort, who have completed their first two years of a Liberal Arts BA in Tel Aviv before starting their final two years at Columbia University in New York.

TAU-Columbia Dual Degree students at the Lowy International School’s 2026 BA graduation ceremony

"This is not a goodbye, only a temporary farewell as you continue your academic journey," Reisner told dual-degree students. He pointed to what they were taking with them from their two years in Tel Aviv — not a grade sheet, he said, but the people and experiences that would shape the road ahead.

Choosing How to Move Forward

By the end of the evening, the message to graduates was clear: the world ahead will keep changing, and their education was meant to prepare them for more than one fixed path. “You learned to move comfortably between disciplines, instead of remaining confined within only one,” Prof. Lipschits said.

“That intellectual flexibility is one of the greatest strengths you carry with you today, and perhaps there has never been a better moment to possess it.”—Prof. Oded Lipschits

Ayelet Diamant, director of the Liberal Arts BA, offered a different image. In the story she shared, an eagle does not fight the crow that lands on its back. It simply rises higher, until the crow can no longer follow. “The eagle refuses to let the crow determine its direction and its altitude,” Diamant told the graduates. “Choose not to descend to bitterness, frustration, or fear. Choose to ascend.”

Prof. Shai Danziger, academic head of the Management & Liberal Arts program, brought that message back to the future of work.

“Your greatest advantage will not simply be what you know. It will be who you are.”—Prof. Shai Danziger

TAU’s international BA Class of 2026 leaves with practical tools, academic breadth, and different plans for what comes next. They also leave with real life skills: the ability to adapt, ask better questions, work across fields, and build a life in motion.

Applications for Fall 2026 Are Now Open

Learn more about Liberal Arts BA and Management and Liberal Arts BA at Tel Aviv University and apply online.