The inaugural director says the establishment of the program is a 'ray of light' amid efforts to boycott Israeli academics

The funds are being used to overhaul the organization's aging headquarters, which have increasingly been found to be insufficient

The five-day retreat, titled the Idra Project, was held in October at a retreat center legally authorized to administer so-called 'magic mushrooms'; participants also had kosher meals, nature walks and Jewish text study

Most of the attendees at the event, held in Manhattan's Safra Center, were Israelis, staying in New York for treatments

Funding for the intitiative, which will build a cohort of students and a network of affiliated schools, comes from longtime benefactors Ronald and Ethel Gruen