By Karin Kloosterman
Expertise in archeology to astronomy, medicine to music and sociology to statistics; high rates of publication in academic journals, and copious international prizes have placed Israel solidly on the academic map. The back and forth of Israelis studying abroad, and international students studying in Israel makes the Global Academic Village even smaller.
The founding father of modern Zionism, Theodore Herzl, imagined in his utopian novel Altneuland, that the future society would be filled with centers of learning. The world-class caliber of Israel’s institutes of higher education have made that dream into a reality. Seven major universities, scores of smaller and specialized colleges, art academies and now, even private universities, make higher education varied and accessible to a large part of the Israeli public.
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Tel Aviv University foreign students
on a trip to the desert |
Holders of Israeli degrees are readily accepted for graduate and post-graduate work at the world’s finest institutions abroad — take note of the graduate rosters at Stanford, Harvard, Columbia and the top State schools. In fact, it has become a rite of passage for some Israeli’s to broaden their horizons outside the country - with a chance to improve their English, access to different libraries, research facilities, colleagues and connections. By the same token, when it comes to areas such as engineering, genetics, Jewish thought and philosophy, Middle Eastern politics, archaeology and environmental technologies, both Jewish and non-Jewish students from abroad are eager to take advantage of the opportunities in Israel.
Los Angeles native Beth Ryne, 26, is studying for her Masters in Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University’s School for Overseas Students. Her field is anthropology and her interests are “nomadic Bedouin women.” She wanted a genuine “out-of-the-textbook” experience, and that is what she got through fascinating work in the field, and intensive Hebrew and Arabic classes, in addition to her classroom studies.
In English
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On Campus |
Both in response to demand, and to encourage demand, Israeli universities developed specialized graduate tracks taught in English. This is in addition to their traditional year or semester abroad programs. Tel Aviv University: Middle Eastern History studies, and a new Yiddish summer school. Haifa University: semester- long Global Law Program for law students. Ben Gurion University: Desert Studies degree, and a Medical School for International Health in collaboration with the Columbia University Medical Center. Hebrew University: Jewish Civilization, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, and Community Leadership and Philanthropy Studies. Bar Ilan University: International MBA and a Creative Writing Program. Israel’s one private university, the Inter- Disciplinary Center, Herzliya, has a range of undergraduate and graduate programs in computers, business, government and management.
More than a Pretty Face
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Doctoral Candidate, Yardena Fanta |
Besides attracting an international student body, universities aim to diversify their student body and serve the public interest by providing scholarships to disadvantaged students in Israel. This year’s poster girl is Yardena Fanta – a TAU post-doctoral student in education who is presently studying at Harvard. “The Ethiopian Jewish community underwent a drastic transformation,” explains Fanta, “from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial one in less than the twelve hours it took to travel from Ethiopia to Israel.
“I sat down in a classroom for the first time at the age of fourteen,” smiles Fanta. From a village of mud huts in Ethiopia to the best universities in the world, Fanta is looking forward to becoming Israel’s first Ethiopian professor.
Brain Drain or Gain
With substantially higher salaries and richly-endowed research labs, there is a lure for Israelis like Fanta to stay living abroad permanently. Israeli universities, frequently in debt, cannot always afford their staff the conditions found in other more affluent Western institutions. Yet, after pouring money into academicians who emerge with enviable degrees, the State is unhappy at the prospect of losing them and their talents; so the government is developing strategies to counteract the local brain drain.
“However,” says PhD student in biology, Moshe Braun, from Hebrew University, (who has no intention of going abroad), “those that do venture abroad and stay, can help Israel through collaborative endeavors. Israelis abroad tend to keep strong ties with colleagues and friends in Israel. One of the benefits of having Israelis overseas is that everybody in the world now knows that Israeli universities and Israeli-trained academics are on the top of the heap.”
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The Israeli Student Experience
At an average age of 24-years-old, Israeli students are typically not living away from home for the first time, and have life and work experience under their belts. Says 23-year-old Shir Goldstein, a student at Haifa University, “I’ve finished the army, worked, spent seven months traveling abroad—now I’m ready to study.”
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| In the summer of 2007, Tel Aviv University announced a partnership in conflict resolution with Al Quds University in East Jerusalem; Bar Ilan University’s Dr. Ruth Halperin-Kadari was appointed by the UN to the prestigious women’s rights organizations; Hebrew University Professor Danny Porat was assisting his former star graduate student, Mukhles Suwwan to set up a nanotechnology lab at Al Quds University, the first in the Arab world. Israel’s universities are a nexus of tolerance, innovation and excellence. Despite it’s postage stamp size, Israel is a leader in science, medicine, environment, the humanities, communications and security, and through its ingenuity the lives of millions of the world’s citizens are improved on a daily basis.
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“We no longer admit a division of the body and the spirit, or a division of the man and the Jew.”
...”We know well that true wisdom is that which learns from all; the windows of this house will therefore be open on every side, that the fairest fruit produced by man’s creative spirit in every land and every age may enter.”
Haim Nahman Bialik on the inaguration of Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, 1925 |