History
A Brief History of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
In the late 19th century, great thinkers came together to envision what a Hebrew university could look like. A university of the Jewish people. It was a thought, a dream, to establish an exceptional institution of higher learning in Israel – Well before statehood was assured.
In 1882, Zvi Hermann Shapira, a rabbi and professor of mathematics, began publishing a series of articles advocating for such a place. Soon the idea was embraced by major Jewish scholars and leaders of the early 20th century, including Otto Warburg, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, Chaim Weizmann and Albert Einstein – each of whom helped develop and rally support for the idea. Finally, in 1918, after years of campaigning, a university for the Jewish people broke ground in Jerusalem and its doors opened in 1925.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's premier university as well as its leading research institution and is consistently ranked among the 100 leading universities in the world and number one among Israeli universities. From the early days of developing new methods of irrigation for a dry climate to today, our scholars receive extraordinary numbers of research grants and academic awards. The work done within our campuses has led to breakthrough treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and ovarian cancer, agricultural advancements, new perspectives on the legal system, politics, and society, as well as lifesaving smart vehicle technology. The university encourages multi-disciplinary activities in Israel and overseas and serves as a bridge between academic research and its social and industrial applications.
Hebrew University has set as its goals the training of public, scientific, educational and professional leadership; the preservation of and research into Jewish, cultural, spiritual and intellectual traditions; and the expansion of the boundaries of knowledge for the benefit of all humanity.
About the Campuses
In Jerusalem, one of the most beautiful of cities in the world, the university maintains three campuses: the Mount Scopus campus for the humanities and social sciences; the Edmond J. Safra Campus for exact sciences; and the Ein Karem Campus for medical sciences. Its other campuses are the Rehovot faculty for agriculture, food, veterinary medicine and environmental sciences; the veterinary hospital in Beit Dagan; and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat.
The university boasts three sports facilities which are among the most advanced in the country, 11 libraries, five computer centers, 6,000 dormitory beds, and dozens of student activity groups focusing on politics, society, the environment, and more.
Mount Scopus Campus
Mount Scopus was the university’s first campus. Its cornerstone was laid in July 1918, and on April 1, 1925 the ceremony marking the university’s official opening took place in the presence of Lord Arthur James Balfour, the Chief Rabbis, including Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, representatives of foreign countries and philanthropic organizations, and religious figures. When the War of Independence broke out, the faculty, administrative staff and students all left the campus due to shooting from nearby Arab villages. When Jerusalem was reunited during the Six Day War, the Mount Scopus campus started to be rebuilt and expanded, and extensive construction took place in those years. On July 31, 2002, a bomb exploded in the campus’s crowded Frank Sinatra cafeteria while many Hebrew University staff and students, both from Israel and abroad, were having lunch. Tragically, nine people were killed by the terrorist attack and many more were injured. Read about the victims here.
Edmond J. Safra Campus (Givat Ram)
Construction began on the Edmond J. Safra campus in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem in 1953. The new campus sought to solve the problem that was created at the end of the War of Independence, when the Mount Scopus campus remained under Israeli control but lacked territorial continuity with the Jewish part of Jerusalem. As a result, holding classes on Mount Scopus was impossible and the university had to look for temporary housing elsewhere in the city. The new campus was built according to the principles of the nearby Government complex – in the style of the British “garden city,” consisting of buildings spread out over a green area and surrounded by a ring road. In 2005, the campus’s name was changed to the Edmond J. Safra Campus (Givat Ram), after the philanthropist Edmond J. Safra.
Ein Kerem Campus
In 1960, the university inaugurated the Medical Center in Ein Kerem. Like Givat Ram, it too was meant to replace the hospital on Mount Scopus, which was not territorially connected to the rest of Jewish Jerusalem. The Faculty of Medicine and School of Dental Medicine were founded in the late 1950s. Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital opened its doors in 1961, and in 1965 the Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine moved to the new Ein Kerem campus, eventually becoming independent faculties. In 1972, the School of Pharmacy also moved to the Ein Kerem campus and, together with the Nursing School, School of Physical Therapy and School of Public Health, they formed the Faculty of Medicine.
Faculty of Agriculture
Hebrew University’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment is located in northern Rehovot. It is the only academic institution in Israel which offers university degrees in agricultural sciences. The Agricultural Institute was inaugurated in 1942 and in 1952 it became a regular faculty in the university that awards Master’s and PhD degrees. Several years later, due to the high demand for teachers and instructors with higher education in agriculture, the faculty also started offering B.Sc. degrees in Agricultural Sciences. In 1985, the Koret School of Veterinary Medicine was inaugurated – the only school in Israel to grant Doctor in Veterinary Medicine degrees. The Faculty of Home Economics was founded in 1978, and was later converted to the School of Nutritional Sciences, authorized to grant bachelor degrees in Nutritional Sciences.
University Veterinary Hospital at Beit Dagan
In 1986, the University Veterinary Hospital was established within the Agricultural Campus at Beit Dagan, adjacent to the Volcani Center. It is the only university hospital for animals in Israel. Veterinary students receive clinical training at the hospital, and over 10,000 animals are treated there every year.
The Inter-University Institute for Marine Sciences
The Inter-University Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat is a new incarnation of the H. Steinitz Marine Biology Lab, which was founded by Hebrew University in 1968. For more than a decade, when the shores of the Sinai Peninsula were under Israeli control, the Lab conducted extensive studies and experiments on all aspects of Marine Science, along the coral reefs and in the open sea. Activities and education were carried out in collaboration with researchers from other institutions, mainly from Tel Aviv University and Bar-Ilan University. In 1985, the Council for Higher Education repurposed the Steinitz Lab into an inter-university institute. The new institute is subordinate to the Council for Higher Education’s Planning and Budgeting Committee, and Hebrew University continues to be the owners of the institute’s physical assets and is responsible for its development.