For the first time in its history, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has conferred the University President's Lifetime Achievement Award. The 2025 award was presented to Prof. Eva Illouz, in recognition of her outstanding academic work and her significant contribution to Israeli society and to public discourse in Israel and around the world.
Prof. Illouz’s extensive body of research explores the connections between history, capitalism, culture, and emotions. She examines how deep human emotions, rooted in psychology, are shaped, intensified, and traded by capitalist actors and institutions. In her writing and public appearances, she consistently defends the values of the Enlightenment; reason, critical inquiry, and universal human rights, and underscores the need to safeguard academic independence and intellectual freedom in the spirit of universalism and humanism.
Prof. Illouz is among Israel’s most prominent sociologists, known for her courage and her commitment to promoting a more just and reflective society. Following the October 7 massacre, she became a leading public voice in defense of Israel, publishing dozens of articles worldwide that offered a profound and systematic response to antisemitic attacks.
Her latest book, October 8th, Genealogy of a Virtuous Hatred, presents a detailed and forceful defense of the State of Israel’s right to exist, alongside the principles of humanism and liberalism, principles that, she argues, have been forgotten or distorted by radical elements of the global left.
Over the course of her distinguished career, Prof. Illouz has received numerous awards in Israel and abroad. Among others, she was awarded the A.M.T. Award for Lifetime Achievement and Research Excellence in 2018, and in 2023 was selected by the American Sociological Association as one of the ten most influential sociologists of the past decade.
Prof. Tamir Sheafer, President of the Hebrew University, said:
“Prof. Eva Illouz is a world-renowned scholar, and her contribution to Israel’s standing as an intellectual powerhouse is evident throughout her career, especially during the difficult war years we have all experienced over the past two years. The Lifetime Achievement Award, which is being presented for the first time at the Hebrew University, reflects our commitment to research excellence and to contributing to society, precisely the values Prof. Illouz has advanced for many decades.”
Prof. Gili Drori, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and herself a sociologist, notes:
“Prof. Eva Illouz is a model of public sociology. She is a sociologist with a strong voice in public debates on emotions, popular culture, capitalism, and, more recently, antisemitism, and she has been uniquely successful in bridging the gap between deep critical thinking and broad, meaningful public discourse.”
The prize was awarded this year for the first time at a tribute event honoring Prof. Illouz, along with Israel Prize laureates Prof. Yinon Ben-Neriah, Prof. Dwora Gilula, and Prof. Ruth Kark.