Agnes Heller, philosophy professor at The New School for Social Research received an honorary doctorate degree from Ben-Gurion University in Israel in recognition of her accomplishments. The ceremony took place at the university’s 38th Annual Board of Governors Meeting on May 27, 2008.

According to University President Professor Rivka Carmi, all of the honorary degrees were granted in recognition of an individual’s distinguished contributions to science and humanity. Rector Professor Jimmy Weinblatt noted that each of the evening's recipients "symbolize one or more facets of David Ben-Gurion's visions" for Israel.

The university’s citation for professor Heller was: “In recognition of an eminent philosopher, one of the founders of the "Budapest School," who has been a model of personal and intellectual courage; in admiration of a Holocaust survivor who has dedicated her life to examining the moral and ethical issues of our lives, posing fundamental questions about history, culture, democracy and modernity; in appreciation of a woman who bravely withstood persecution by a totalitarian regime in her native Hungary, unwilling to compromise her independent thought and integrity; in acknowledgement of an award-winning scholar whose prolific body of work and teaching continues to inspire generations of students; in profound esteem for a person who did not hesitate to re-examine her ideas, never losing her belief in the spirit of man and the values of mutual responsibility and brotherhood which have found expression in her support of the State of Israel."

Degrees were also conferred upon: former President of the University, MK Professor Avishay Braverman, Israel; winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, Professor Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, France; philanthropist Baron David de Rothschild, France; philanthropist Carol Saal, United States; and internationally acclaimed Israeli author Professor Amos Oz.