Roi Ohev Tzion, CEO of Lev Academic Center, said in an interview at the center’s conference on Channel 7 that his institution treats reserve-duty service not as an academic disability but as an advantage. He said some in academia see reservists as needing academic “crutches,” while Lev tries to turn the experience of war and repeated reserve service into a source of initiative, creativity and achievement.
Ohev Tzion said the war has affected the center’s technological output and exposed the challenge of supporting students who have completed many reserve rotations. He acknowledged the difficulty of keeping academic standards high after hundreds of days of service, but said the center builds a support framework so students do not drop out and still graduate as strong professionals.
He described that framework as a way to help students adapt quickly to changing conditions, comparing it to battlefield behavior, and said this approach is especially valuable in startups and innovation. In his words, the goal is to create “a new generation,” one that is more challenged but also stronger, more resilient and more creative.
Ohev Tzion also pointed to center alumni who won Israel Defense Prizes during the war for technological developments that helped Israeli civilian security, including work related to the drone threat. He said some of the projects were classified, and cited one of his own soldiers who took part in a classified development with Elbit in response to a security problem identified in Lebanon. He added that the center sees artificial intelligence as a force multiplier in its study programs, helping students enter the labor market better prepared for leading companies.
