The Sackler School of Medicine: Established in 1972 at Tel Aviv University, the school was a major philanthropic project of Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler.
Removal of Name: Following global trends, TAU removed the Sackler name from its U.S.-facing medical program in 2022 and the full Faculty of Medicine in June 2023.
Renaming: The faculty is now known as the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences following a donation from the Gray Foundation, while the Biophysics prize was renamed to the Tel Aviv University International Prize in Biophysics.
Initial Resistance: Contrary to many U.S. institutions, TAU initially refused to remove the name, stating in 2019 that it would not act until court cases in the US were resolved.
Context: The Sackler family is widely accused of contributing to the U.S. opioid epidemic through their company, Purdue Pharma, particularly through the marketing of OxyContin.
The Sackler School of Medicine: Established in 1972 at Tel Aviv University, the school was a major philanthropic project of Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler.
Removal of Name: Following global trends, TAU removed the Sackler name from its U.S.-facing medical program in 2022 and the full Faculty of Medicine in June 2023.
Renaming: The faculty is now known as the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences following a donation from the Gray Foundation, while the Biophysics prize was renamed to the Tel Aviv University International Prize in Biophysics.
Initial Resistance: Contrary to many U.S. institutions, TAU initially refused to remove the name, stating in 2019 that it would not act until court cases in the US were resolved.
Context: The Sackler family is widely accused of contributing to the U.S. opioid epidemic through their company, Purdue Pharma, particularly through the marketing of OxyContin.