https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpD5ndH5Rb8
Vice-chancellors, deans, faculty members, and friends of ORT. Dear graduates and your families. We are delighted to welcome you to this ceremony to recognize the hard work you have put in over the years. You can be proud; your graduation is a testament to your ability and determination to see it through to the end.
Some of you are the first in your families to attend college; others are carrying on a family tradition. In every case, I am sure your families are very proud of you today. Today is a day to be proud, but also a day to give thanks. To thank your families for their patience, your classmates for supporting one another, and those special teachers who inspired you. And we, for our part, want to thank you for the trust you have placed in us. We are confident that each of you will be a great ambassador for our university.
Learning is a never-ending journey, one that we will have to continue throughout our lives. We hope we have been there for you along the way, and that we were always there when you needed us.
A year ago, we lost a great leader, our director general, my mother, Charlotte de Grünberg. Her light has not gone out; she continues to shine upon us. Just a few days ago, on March 8, we remembered how much she contributed to turning women’s rights from words into action. Her life began in fear as a war refugee, but she refused to define herself as a victim; she refused to live with hatred. Her entire life was dedicated to remembering, helping, and building. Her work enriched the education of our beloved country. She knew how to build a culture of education and compassion, a spirit that guides us, and a team that was—and remains—like her family. Many of us owe her a great deal.
Dear graduates: Many of you are probably thinking about your next steps. Don’t be afraid to have doubts; life is full of uncertainty, and what matters is how we face it. We never know what the future holds; the only certainty is that it will be different from what we plan. When you think about the future, look within yourselves—at your own values, your own goals, and your own aspirations. Every life plan is unique and personal. Do not chase the dreams of others; your efforts should be directed toward projects that are important to you. Do not fear the inevitable failures and frustrations; if you do not own your mistakes, you cannot own your successes.
Have confidence in yourselves, because if you don’t, others won’t trust you. Always exercise your critical and self-critical thinking. Be wary of dogmas, be wary of revealed truths, and be wary of those who think they have all the answers. Reality is complex; accept the challenge of thinking deeply. Reject simple but false explanations; always seek to distinguish opinions from facts. Always seek to expand your intellectual horizons, to learn about other experiences and points of view. Our view of the world is always necessarily limited and personal. Seek to challenge yourselves and others; confront without fear, without dismissing differing opinions.
Always be prepared to change. The ability to persuade and the willingness to be persuaded are essential to an innovative society. Avoid thinking in terms of a zero-sum game, where the only way to create value is by taking it away from someone else. In a zero-sum world, progress depends on the accumulation of power. In a positive-sum world, intelligence and knowledge open up opportunities for everyone.
Lead with integrity, empathy, and respect. Seek shared purpose, intellectual honesty, and loyalty. Leadership is not a position; it is an attitude. Leadership is not a privilege; it is a responsibility. Be demanding of yourselves, because that is a prerequisite for demanding more from others. Always be willing to listen. We sometimes think that leaders are distinguished by unforgettable speeches, but most of the time, effective leaders are distinguished by their ability to listen.
Dear graduates: You are graduating into a turbulent world. We are experiencing a technological spring, but a moral winter. This is concerning because increasingly powerful technologies require robust moral frameworks to contain them. Social media, for example, promised citizens more and better information, but in reality has become an amplifier of falsehoods and a fragmenter of societies. Cell phones were supposed to allow us to be more connected; in reality, they increasingly isolate us.
What fate awaits us in a world of artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, digital hyper-surveillance, and nuclear technology—all without the moral constraints that should govern their use?
One of the main consequences of this moral regression is, unfortunately, the resurgence of racism in one of its worst forms: anti-Semitism. One of the main symptoms of this moral regression is selective morality—that corrupt morality which is outraged only when the victims are to its liking. Corrupt morality classifies people into groups and assigns them rights based on racial, religious, or political preferences. If a woman from my group is raped, it is an unspeakable crime; if a woman from another group is raped, it can be understood as part of an anti-colonial struggle.
My generation grew up under the influence of a chilling book called *Nunca más* (Never Again), also known as the *Sábato Report*. That book documented crimes committed during Argentina’s last military dictatorship. It practically created a moral vocabulary to describe what is unacceptable in human behavior: the “disappeared,” “death flights,” torture, and systematic rape became the canon of evil. In particular, in that book that spoke of so many crimes, the universal consensus that emerged starting in the 1980s was that there was one crime that was unacceptable under any circumstances: the kidnapping of children. That was the consensus until Kfir Bibas came along. Kfir was a seven-month-old Argentine baby who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, by Hamas terrorists. The kidnapping was filmed by the kidnappers themselves. After several months, he was murdered by the kidnappers themselves. Kfir spent more of his very short life in captivity than he did free.
This case fills us with profound sadness for the victim and a demand for justice, but what shocks us most is the hypocrisy, the repugnant double standard. People and groups who built their lives around human rights suddenly fell silent when Kfir was kidnapped, fell silent when he was killed, and fell silent when his body was returned in a coffin filled with propaganda leaflets. Little Kfir could not yet speak when they killed him, but he calls out to us from wherever he is. Why did the Red Cross never visit him? Why did human rights organizations not demand his release? Why are his murderers not being sought by international justice?
The question is how anti-Semitism could resurface after the terrible lessons of the Holocaust. Could it be that the world has learned nothing? Anti-Semitism has managed to resurface because it is a virus—a virus that has mutated, and our defenses do not recognize it because it is now called anti-Zionism. It is spread by human rights organizations that turn a blind eye to torture when the torturers are their allies. It is spread by media outlets that lie and distort the truth. It is spread by carnival groups that choose to perform anti-Semitic plays. It is spread by international organizations that treat the State of Israel by a different standard than all other countries.
In many ways, Judaism represents freedom—the freedom to believe something different from the majority, and the affirmation that coexistence is possible. To tolerate anti-Semitism is to reject freedom. No matter how many progressive speeches they give or how many trendy flags or clothes they wear, anti-Semites are immoral, irrational, and enemies of freedom.
The harm that racism inflicts on its victims is obvious, but no less devastating is the harm it causes to society as a whole, because anti-Semitism is a way of blaming others for our failures. It is an obsession; events have no causes or explanations—they arise solely from conspiracies. In a racist society, intellectual capacity is wasted on inventing enemies and chasing increasingly fantastical conspiracies. Societies infected with racism lose their creative capacity and end up devouring themselves. That is why anti-Semitism is incompatible with a world based on reason and intelligence.
Dear graduates: The challenge facing your generation is the emergence of new forms of intelligence that were previously the exclusive domain of humans. Artificial intelligence will not be just another technological change; it will impact every aspect of human activity, and this raises concerns—it fuels anxiety that humans will be replaced by machines. But that is not necessarily true. It is not true that the more work artificial intelligence can do, the fewer jobs there will be for humans. The synergy between people and machines has the potential to bring greater prosperity for all, but it requires adaptation. We humans will have to cultivate skills that are difficult to automate, such as intuition, sensitivity, and creativity.
In the age of artificial intelligence, humans will have to constantly retrain and adapt. The ability to learn will become one of the essential human skills, and our educational system will need to transform itself to cultivate this ability in every student. The great challenge will be to ensure that the pace of our relearning always outpaces the pace of technological change.
Dear graduates: We have much to be proud of in our country, but there is still much to be done. Part of our society has a college education, speaks other languages, has access to high-speed internet, and embraces the entrepreneurial spirit that opens so many doors. But too many Uruguayans lack the education they need to work today and to survive in the future. You, as the most educated members of our society, have the mission of helping to take our society to the next level—a level that allows all Uruguayans to stay ahead of the technological changes that could leave them marginalized from the workforce. A change that prevents the creation of a divide between the educated, the educable, and everyone else.
Sometimes we wonder: What can I, as just one person, do to make a difference?
But we are not insignificant. Each of you has the potential to achieve great things if we have that conviction.
Dear graduates: Find your own path, pursue your ambitions, but always keep in mind the contribution you can make to our beloved country. Help make it increasingly fair and prosperous, increasingly innovative and dynamic. And whatever you do, wherever you are, know that ORT will always be your home.
Thank you very much.