Among the many awards given out at Siyyum every year, there is one that sticks out compared to the rest. While every other award is given to a student of the graduating class, the Dr. Anat Kimchi Award for Excellence in Tikkun Olam is given to an alumnus.
Created in memory of Anat Kimchi (‘08), who was murdered in a sidewalk attack in 2021, this award recognizes alumni who embody the JDS value of Tikkun Olam, or in English, repairing the world. At the time of her death, Anat was about to complete her doctorate in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland under the Flagship Fellowship; she was awarded her posthumous PhD a few weeks after her death.
“She saw the injustice that exists in the system,” Anat’s mother Chava Kimchi said. “How, especially minorities, are not treated equally. So I think that was a big motivation.”
Anat focused on the quantitative aspect of criminal justice in her studies, which involves data sets and statistics. According to Anat’s father Avi Kimchi, one of the greatest challenges in criminal justice is gathering reliable data, which is far more difficult to measure and analyze in criminology than in many other scientific fields.
According to Chava, Anat always wanted to pursue an academic career as a professor. She was well on that path before her death, as she excelled in her studies and even taught once a class on statistics.
“She wanted to prove her point, not just to say ‘this is what we should do,’ but show the actual proof,” Avi said.
According to Avi, Anat did not solely want to do research passively. Instead, she wanted to use her studies to influence policy and create change in the world.
This year, in that same spirit, the Anat Kimchi Award went to Rachel Lieber-Hoffman (‘06), Director of Programs at the nonprofit D-tree International, who has spent her career working to ensure that mothers and children in East Africa have access to the healthcare they need to thrive.
“The values that JDS instilled in me, Tikkun Olam, and really being motivated to help make the world a better place, especially for people who may not have the same resources and privileges that we’ve been really lucky to have, that’s something that really drove me to do this work, and drives me today,” Lieber-Hoffman said.
In Zanzibar, Lieber-Hoffman worked with the government, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children to design Zanzibar’s first national community health program.
A major part of this program included the development of digital tools such as apps for health workers to track maternal and child well-being, which provide real-time data for government decision-making. The program now serves over 1.8 million people and has been fully integrated into the Zanzibar health system for eight years.
“It just entailed a lot of creativity, persistence, policy-level work and really thinking about what works today, but also how can this be managed and owned by the government in the long term,” Lieber-Hoffman said.
Lieber-Hoffman is one of five alumni who have won the Anat Kimchi award since its creation. According to Dean of Students Roz Landy, who worked with Avi and Chava to bring the award into existence, the award serves to show current students how JDS values like Tikkun Olam are carried into adulthood and professional careers.
Beyond the award, Avi and Chava encourage JDS students to remember Anat as someone who was truly aiming to repair the world. According to Chava, to honor her is to actively practice Tikkun Olam and support those without a voice.
“Continue to talk about her, continue to remember, continue to remember the values that were important for her, because these are the values that JDS is established on,” Chava said. “Really helping, supporting and looking at people that are underprivileged and trying to see how we can assist them. Remembering Anat; that’s the main thing for us.”
