The first Arab Christian woman president of an Israeli university

Maroun was elected last April and will assume her new position in October. She told the Catholic News Agency that she considered her election “an important message that anything is possible in Israeli academia.”

“It is a message to the Christian minority that we are rooted here, that we are able to succeed here. It is also a message to the younger Arab generations: If you have a dream, you can really achieve it in Israeli society and especially at university.”

Can trauma be erased?

Maron is a world-renowned researcher in the field of neuroscience and post-trauma and currently serves as Vice President for Research.

She researches the neural and molecular basis of anxiety disorders and PTSD. She wants to investigate whether it is possible to “erase” fear memories by silencing the neural mechanisms responsible for fear memories in the brain. Maroun received his PhD from the University of Haifa and did a post-doctoral degree in France at the University of Paris-Sud.

Study of integration

The University of Haifa is located on Mount Carmel, about ten kilometers from the small village of Isfiya, where Maroun was born.

Her grandparents came there from Lebanon at the beginning of the twentieth century. Her parents were semi-literate because there were no schools for them at the time, but, she says, “they believed that only through higher education could their four daughters integrate into Israeli society. That’s why they encouraged us to continue our studies.

Maroun adopted this position. “My childhood was centered around being active in the church and studying, knowing that only through studying could I succeed in Israel.”

When Maroun arrived at university, she did not know a word of Hebrew — Arabs and Jews have a separate educational system — and spoke little English. But Maroun became the first woman from her village to obtain a doctorate.

“No one expected me to succeed – as an Arab in Israel, or as a Christian, or as a woman,” she explains. “I could do what I believed in, I had a dream and I followed it without pressure. Only my family encouraged me to continue on this path.