Hebrew University of Jerusalem
האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים الجامعة العبرية في القدس
Established	1925
Type	Public
Endowment	US$691 M[1]
Rector	Prof. Asher Cohen
Students	22,000
Undergraduates	12,000
Postgraduates	10,000
Location	Jerusalem and Rehovot, Israel
Campus	Mount Scopus
Nickname	Hebrew U, HUJI
Affiliations	UNIMED
Website	huji.ac.il

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Hebrew: האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים‎, ha-Universita ha-Ivrit B'irushalayim; Arabic: الجامعة العبرية في القدس‎, al-Ǧāmiʻah al-ʻIbriyyah fil-Quds; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot.^[2] The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J. Safra Givat Ram campus.

The First Board of Governors included Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, and Chaim Weizmann. Four of Israel's prime ministers are alumni of the Hebrew University. In the last decade, five graduates of the University received the Nobel Prize and one was awarded the Fields Medal.

According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, the Hebrew University is the top university in Israel, overall the 52nd-best university in the world, 16th in Mathematics, 27th in Computer Science and 44th in Business/Economics.^[3]

In 2012, the Center for World University Rankings ranked the Hebrew University 22nd in the world and second in Israel in its World University Rankings,^[4] while another survey ranked it as the 9th best university to work in, and the 2nd best outside of the United States.^[5]

History

National Library of Israel, Givat Ram

the building of Academy of the Hebrew Language in Givat Ram campus

Inauguration ceremony, 1925

One of the visions of the Zionist movement was the establishment of a Jewish university in the Land of Israel. Founding a university was proposed as far back as 1884 in the Kattowitz (Katowice) conference of the Hovevei Zion society.

The cornerstone for the university was laid on July 24, 1918. Seven years later, on April 1, 1925, the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus was opened at a gala ceremony attended by the leaders of the Jewish world, distinguished scholars and public figures, and British dignitaries, including the Earl of Balfour, Viscount Allenby and Sir Herbert Samuel. The University's first Chancellor was Judah Magnes.

By 1947, the University had become a large research and teaching institution. Plans for a medical school were approved in May 1949, and in November 1949, a faculty of law was inaugurated. In 1952, it was announced that the agricultural institute founded by the University in 1940 would become a full-fledged faculty.^[6]

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, attacks were carried out against convoys moving between the Israeli-controlled section of Jerusalem and the University.^[7] The leader of the Arab forces in Jerusalem, Abdul Kader Husseini, threatened military action against the university Hadassah Hospital "if the Jews continued to use them as bases for attacks."^[8] After the Hadassah medical convoy massacre, in which 79 Jews, including doctors and nurses, were killed, the Mount Scopus campus was cut off from Jerusalem.^[9] British soldier Jack Churchill coordinated the evacuation of 700 Jewish doctors, students and patients from the hospital.^[10]

When the Jordan government denied Israeli access to Mount Scopus, a new campus was built at Givat Ram in western Jerusalem and completed in 1958. In the interim, classes were held in 40 different buildings around the city.^[11]

The Terra Santa building in Rehavia, rented from the Franciscan Custodians of the Latin Holy Places, was also used for this purpose.^[12] A few years later, together with the Hadassah Medical Organization, a medical science campus was built in the south-west Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Kerem.

By the beginning of 1967, the students numbered 12,500, spread among the two campuses in Jerusalem and the agricultural faculty in Rehovot. After the unification of Jerusalem, following the Six-Day War of June 1967, the University was able to return to Mount Scopus, which was rebuilt. In 1981 the construction work was completed, and Mount Scopus again became the main campus of the University.

On July 31, 2002, a member of a terrorist cell detonated a bomb during lunch hour at the University's "Frank Sinatra" cafeteria when it was crowded with staff and students. Nine people — five Israelis, three Americans, and one dual French-American citizen — were killed and more than 70 wounded. World leaders, including Kofi Annan, President Bush, and the President of the European Union issued statements of condemnation.^[13][14]

Campuses

Mount Scopus

Mount Scopus campus: Frank Sinatra building

Mount Scopus campus: Rothberg amphitheater

Mount Scopus (Hebrew: Har HaTzofim הר הצופים), in the north-eastern part of Jerusalem, is home to the main campus, which contains the Faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Jerusalem School of Business Administration, Bearwald School of Social Work, Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Rothberg International School, and the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies.

The Rothberg International School features secular studies and Jewish/Israeli studies. Included for foreign students is also a mandatory Ulpan program for Hebrew language study which includes a mandatory course in Israeli culture and customs. All Rothberg Ulpan classes are taught by Israeli natives. However, many other classes at the Rothberg School are taught by Jewish immigrants to Israel.

The land on Mt. Scopus was purchased before World War I from Sir John Gray-Hill, along with the Gray-Hill mansion.^[15] The master plan for the university was designed by Patrick Geddes and his son-in-law, Frank Mears in December 1919. Only three buildings of this original design were built: The Wolfson National Library, the Mathematics Institute, and the Physics Institute.^[15]

Housing for students at Hebrew University who live on Mount Scopus is located at the three dormitories located near the university. These are the Maiersdorf (מאירסדורף) dormitories, the Bronfman (ברונפמן) dormitories, and the Kfar HaStudentim (כפר הסטודנטים, the students' village).

Nearby is the Nicanor Cave, an ancient cave which was planned to be a national pantheon.

Edmond J. Safra, Givat Ram

Givat Ram campus

The Givat Ram campus (recently renamed after Edmond Safra) is the home of the Faculty of Science including the Einstein Institute of Mathematics; the Institute of Advanced Studies, the Center for the Study of Rationality, as well as the Jewish National and University Library.

Ein Kerem

The Faculties of Medicine and Dental Medicine and The Institute for Medical Research, Israel-Canada (IMRIC) are located at the south-western Jerusalem Ein Kerem campus alongside the Hadassah-University Medical Center.

Rehovot

Rehovot campus, Ariovitch Auditorium

The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and the Environment^[16] and the Koret School of Veterinary Medicine^[17] are located in the city of Rehovot in the coastal plain. The Faculty was established in 1942 and the School of Veterinary Medicine opened in 1985. These are the only institutions of higher learning in Israel that offer both teaching and research programs in their respective fields.

Libraries

The Jewish National and University Library is the central and largest library of the Hebrew University and one of the most impressive book and manuscript collections in the world. It is also the oldest section of the university. Founded in 1892 as a world center for the preservation of books relating to Jewish thought and culture, it assumed the additional functions of a general university library in 1920. Its collections of Hebraica and Judaica are the largest in the world. It houses all materials published in Israel, and attempts to acquire all materials published in the world related to the country. It possesses over five million books and thousands of items in special sections, many of which are unique. Among these are the Albert Einstein Archives, Hebrew manuscripts department, Eran Laor map collection, Edelstein science collection, Gershom Scholem collection, and a collection of Maimonides' manuscripts and early writings.

In his will, Albert Einstein left the Hebrew University his personal papers and the copyright to them, as well as the right to use his image. The Albert Einstein Archives contain some 55,000 items.^[18] In March, 2012 the University announced that it had digitized the entire archive, and was planning to make the entire collection available online, free-of-charge. Included in the collection are his personal notes, love letters to various women, including the woman who would become his second wife, Elsa. Also to be included in the online collection is a letter to the Arabic newspaper Falastin, proposing a "Secret Council" composed of Arabs and Jews to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.^[19][20][21]

In addition to the National Library, the Hebrew University operates subject-based libraries on its campuses, among them the Avraham Harman Science Library, Safra, Givat Ram; Mathematics and Computer Science Library, Safra, Givat Ram; Earth Sciences Library, Safra, Givat Ram; Muriel and Philip I. Berman National Medical Library, Ein Kerem; Central Library of Agricultural Science, Rehovot; Bloomfield Library for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Mt. Scopus; Bernard G. Segal Law Library Center, Mt. Scopus; Emery and Claire Yass Library of the Institute of Archaeology, Mt. Scopus; Moses Leavitt Library of Social Work, Mt. Scopus; Zalman Aranne Central Education Library, Mt. Scopus; Library of the Rothberg School for International Students, Mt. Scopus; Roberta and Stanley Bogen Library of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Mt. Scopus; and the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive.

The Hebrew University libraries and their web catalogs can be accessed through the HUJI Library Authority portal.

Friends of the University

The university has an international Society of Friends organizations covering more than 25 countries. The American Friends of the Hebrew University (AFHU) is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that provides programs, events and fundraising activities in support of the university. It was founded by the American philanthropist, Felix M. Warburg in 1925.

Faculty

Aharon Barak

Howard Cedar

Lumír Ondřej Hanuš

Elon Lindenstrauss

Nurit Peled-Elhanan

Frances Raday

• Dorit Aharonov, computer science
• Lydia Aran, scholar of Buddhism
• Robert Aumann, 2005 Nobel Prize laureate for Economics
• Yishai Bar, law
• Yehoshua Bar-Hillel, linguistics
• Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, international relations
• Aharon Barak, former President of the Israeli Supreme Court
• Yehuda Bauer, Holocaust history
• Jacob Bekenstein, physics
• Norman Bentwich, international relations
• Ernst David Bergmann, chairman of Israeli Atomic Energy Commission
• Martin Buber, religion & Jewish philosophy
• Howard Cedar, Chairperson, Developmental Biology & Cancer Research, IMRIC
• Ilan Chet, agricultural biotechnology
• Richard I. Cohen, history
• Avishai Dekel Andre Aisenstadt Chair of Theoretical Physics
• Shmuel Eisenstadt, sociology
• Menachem Elon, former Deputy President of the Israeli Supreme Court
• Adolf Abraham Halevi Fraenkel, mathematics
• Hillel Furstenberg, mathematics, Israel Prize Winner
• Leah Goldberg (1911–1970), poet
• Asher Dan Grunis, Supreme Court Justice
• Louis Guttman, social sciences and statistics
• Ephraim Halevy, Mossad chief
• Elihu Katz, communication
• Lumír Ondřej Hanuš, analytic chemist
• Daniel Kahneman, 2002 Nobel Prize laureate for Economics
• Ruth Kark, geography of (Eretz) Israel
• Aharon Katzir, chemistry
• David Kazhdan, mathematics
• Baruch Kimmerling, sociology
• David Kretzmer, law
• Ruth Lapidoth, law
• Ruth Lawrence, mathematics
• Yeshayahu Leibowitz, biochemistry and Jewish philosophy
• Avigdor Levontin, law
• Amia Lieblich, psychology
• Joram Lindenstrauss, mathematics, Israel Prize Winner
• Elon Lindenstrauss, mathematics, laureate of the 2010 Fields Medal
• Avishai Margalit, philosophy Israel Prize Winner
• Amihai Mazar, archaeology, Israel Prize Winner
• Benjamin Mazar. archaeologist, Israel Prize Winner, former University president and rector
• George Mosse, history
• Bezalel Narkiss, art history
• Amnon Netzer, Jewish Studies and history
• Ehud Netzer, archaeology
• Mordechai Nisan, social science
• Dan Pagis
• Nurit Peled-Elhanan, education
• Tsvi Piran, astrophysics
• Joshua Prawer, history
• Michael O. Rabin, computer science and mathematics, Israel Prize Winner and recipient of the Turing Award.
• Giulio Racah, physics
• Frances Raday, law
• Aharon Razin, Researcher, IMRIC
• Eliyahu Rips, mathematics
• Mordechai Rotenberg, social work
• Gershom Scholem, Jewish mysticism
• Eliezer Schweid, Jewish philosophy
• Nir Shaviv, astrophysics
• Saharon Shelah, mathematics
• Zlil Sela, mathematics
• Zeev Sternhell, political science
• Hayim Tadmor, Assyriology
• Jacob Talmon, history
• Gadi Taub, social sciences
• Amos Tversky, psychology
• Claude Vigée, French literature
• Avi Wigderson, computer science and mathematics
• Joseph Yahalom, Hebrew poetry
• Hanna Yablonka, Holocaust history
• S. Yizhar, writer
• Gabriel Herman, Historian

Notable alumni

Daniel Kahneman

A young Ariel Sharon

Natalie Portman

• Nobel Prize laureates: Daniel Kahneman (economics 2002), David Gross (physics 2004), Avram Hershko (chemistry 2004), Robert Aumann (economics 2005), and Ada Yonath (chemistry 2009).
• Educators: Brother Rafael S. Donato FSC, Ed.D., was a Filipino De La Salle Brother and was the past President of De La Salle University Manila, University of St. La Salle, De La Salle Lipa, La Salle Green Hills and De La Salle Araneta University.
• Fields Medal laureate: Elon Lindenstrauss (2010)
• Presidents of Israel: Ephraim Katzir, Yitzhak Navon, Moshe Katsav
• Prime Ministers of Israel: Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert
• Supreme Court Justices: Aharon Barak, Dorit Beinisch, Menachem Elon, Elyakim Rubinstein, Meir Shamgar, Jacob Turkel, Yitzhak Zamir, Salim Joubran
• Members of the Knesset: Colette Avital, Yael Dayan, Taleb el-Sana, Dalia Itzik, Roman Bronfman, David Rotem, Ahmed Tibi, Avigdor Lieberman, Dov Khenin, Danny Danon, Shulamit Aloni, Rachel Adato, Ze'ev Elkin, Roni Bar-On, Ze'ev Bielski, Yohanan Plesner, David Rotem, Reuven Rivlin, Yuval Steinitz, Dan Meridor, Yisrael Katz, Jamal Zahalka, Shai Hermesh, Zvulun Orlev, Taleb el-Sana, Menachem Ben-Sasson, Ya'akov Ne'eman, Geulah Cohen
• Foreign service: Naomi Ben-Ami, Gabriela Shalev
• Sports and culture: Shaul Ladany, Yochanan Vollach, Itzik Kornfein, Adin Talbar
• Culture: Natalie Portman, Uri Zohar
• Archaeologists: Ruth Amiran, Trude Dothan, Aren Maeir, Benjamin Mazar, Amihai Mazar, Eilat Mazar, Yigael Yadin
• Activists: Elie Yossef
• Journalists: Khaled Abu Toameh, Ron Ben-Yishai, Nahum Barnea, Zvi Yehezkeli, Sayed Kashua, Amira Hass, Akiva Eldar, Yossi Melman, Meron Benvenisti, Tom Segev, Haviv Rettig, Dan Margalit, Ya'akov Ahimeir, Michael Bar-Zohar, David Witzthum, Haim Gouri, Ehud Yaari, Amos Kenan, Boaz Evron
• Writers: Yehuda Amichai, Galila Ron-Feder Amit, Aharon Appelfeld, Netiva Ben-Yehuda, Elias Chacour, Yael Dayan, David Grossman, Batya Gur, Shifra Horn, Amos Oz, A. B. Yehoshua, Amnon Jackont, Amalia Kahana-Carmon, Yehoshua Kenaz, Anton Shammas, Natan Yonatan, Helen Epstein, Yuval Elizur.
• Academics: Ahron Bregman, Richard I. Cohen, Uri Davis, Gerson Goldhaber, Igal Talmi, Haim Harari, Joshua Jortner, Alexander Levitzki, Efraim Karsh, Asa Kasher, Walter Laqueur, Avishai Margalit, Dana Olmert, Miri Rubin, Ada Yonath, Eli Salzberger, Amit Schejter, Benjamin Elazari Volcani
• Lawyers: Elias Khoury, Menachem Mazuz, Ya'akov Ne'eman, Malcolm Shaw
• Soldiers: Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu
• Theologians: Fr Malachi Martin, Yigal Arnon
• Physicists: David Gross, Igal Talmi, Haim Harari, Amikam Aharoni, Micha Tomkiewicz
• Chemists: Renata Reisfeld, Aaron Barkatt
• Business: Léo Apotheker (former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and SAP), Orit Gadiesh (Chairman of Bain & Company), Dina Dublon (Board member of Microsoft, Accenture and PepsiCo), Gil Shwed (CEO and chairman Check Point Software Technologies), Eli Hurvitz (CEO 1976–2002 Teva Pharmaceuticals), Kobi Alexander (former CEO and founder of Comverse Technology)
• Mathematicians: Rami Grossberg (1986), Joram Lindenstrauss (1962), Moshe Machover (1962), Saharon Shelah (1969), Oded Schramm (1987)
• Astronomers: David H. Levy

See also

	Israel portal
	University portal

• List of universities in Israel
• Einstein Papers Project
• Yehezkel Kaufman

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Hebrew University web site
• Hebrew University web site (Hebrew)
• The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies web site
• Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University
• American Friends of the Hebrew University
• British Friends of The Hebrew University (BFHU)
• Canadian Friends of The Hebrew University (CFHU)
• The European Alumni of The Hebrew University

v t e Israeli Universities Ariel University Center of Samaria Bar-Ilan University Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Hebrew University of Jerusalem Open University of Israel Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Tel Aviv University University of Haifa Weizmann Institute of Science

Coordinates: 31°46′33″N 35°12′00″E / 31.77583°N 35.20000°E / 31.77583; 35.20000