Bar-Ilan University

Bar-Ilan University (BIU, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן) is a university in Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second largest academic institution. It has nearly 24,500 students (including 6,000 students in its affiliated regional colleges) and 1,350 faculty members. Bar-Ilan University has six faculties: Exact Sciences, Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, Jewish Studies, and Law. There are also interdisciplinary studies.

The University aims to forge closer links between Torah and universal studies, "to blend tradition with modern technologies and scholarship, and teach the compelling ethics of Jewish heritage to all... to synthesize the ancient and modern, the sacred and the material, the spiritual and the scientific." [1]

History of Bar-Ilan University

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Bar-Ilan University is named for Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan, a Religious Zionist leader who served as the inspiration for establishing such a university in the early 1950s. He studied in Orthodox seminaries in Berlin and anticipated the need for an institution providing a dual curriculum of secular academic studies and religious Torah studies.

The founders of the university hoped to produce alumni committed to Jewish tradition, Zionist ideology and science. In 1965, the professors and lecturers were all religious Jews, as were the majority of students. Today, the student population includes secular and non-Jewish students, including Arabs.

At first, the plan was for a four-year course of study for the B.A. degree (not three years as elsewhere in Israel) in order to include a great number of courses in Jewish studies as a requirement for graduation. Today, studies last three years but Jewish students who did not study in a Yeshiva must complete seven courses in Jewish studies.

Bar-Ilan did not limit admission of secular students, although candidates with a background in yeshiva take precedence. The result is that most of the students do not observe a religious lifestyle. Consequently, the rule requiring that every Jewish male student must cover his head was abandoned. Senior lecturers, however, still do so.

While selecting senior academic staff, the university holds explicit preference for religious Jewish scholars. It was even said that some of the lecturers pretend to keep religious lifestyle, hoping to have tenure. Still, many professors are avowed seculars.

The question about the character of the university rose again in the time of heavy immigration from the USSR in the 1990s. Some said that "flooding" of immigrants, being people of no religious Jewish background, can result in significant change in the religious image of Bar Ilan. In the end that attitude was not accepted. Moreover, Bar-Ilan desperately needed financial assistance from the state, depending on number of students, and couldn't afford to be overly selective.

Yosef Burg, one of the prominent leaders of the religious Zionist movement warned that admission of too many non-religious into the university could undermine its character: "If you spill too much water into a wine bottle, you will have no wine."

In order to strengthen the orthodox identity of Bar-Ilan, the university founded Kolel, yeshiva for men, and Midrasha, for women. The Kollel holds traditional Yeshiva-like studies which accentuates Talmud. In the Midrasha, women study Jewish philosophy and Torah, also according to the tradition that prevents females from studying Talmud.

The students in those two institutes do not have to pay for their academic studies. They even enjoy a stipend.

There is a significant difference between the traditional way of studying in the Kolel and Midrasha and the academic attitude taken in the faculty of Jewish studies, where even discussion of the historicity of the Bible is not forbidden.

While the Israeli academic circles are identified with a dovish attitude to the Arab-Israeli conflict, in Bar-Ilan, things are different.

In the great controversy which accompanied the progression of the peace process by Yitzhak Rabin, hawkish movements were very active in the campus.

Rabin's convicted assassin, Yigal Amir, was a student of law and computer science at Bar-Ilan. The assassination shocked the university authorities, who had to cope with accusations of extremism from the public and press.

One of the steps taken by the university following the assassination was to encourage dialogue between left-wing and right-wing students, even by giving academic credit for taking part in mutual discussions.

In recent years the University, under the leadership of President Moshe Kaveh, has substantially expanded, with major building projects in the northern extension of the current campus. Particular emphasis has been placed on expanding the science programs, including an interdisciplinary brain research center [[2]], a large scale center for nanotechnology [[3]] [[4]] research. In addition, other fields have been placed in focus, such as Biblical archaeology (see the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological project (www.dig-gath.org) which is affiliated with Bar-Ilan University).

Programs for overseas students and new immigrants

Bar-Ilan has a preparatory program which prepares new immigrants for Israeli colleges. In addition, the university runs a One Year Overseas Program called Tochnit Torah Im Derech Eretz, which combines traditional Kollel Torah studies in the morning separate for men and women and co-ed general university studies and Jewish history classes in the afternoon. Many American students enrolled in regular programs of study in the University also take these Jewish history classes to fulfil their Jewish studies requirements.

See also

• List of universities in Israel

• Hebrew Theological College - a Chicago based institution, "preparing its graduates for roles as educators and Rabbis", while providing "broad cultural perspectives and a strong foundation in the Liberal Arts and Sciences."

• Lander College - a New York City based college, combining Torah study with secular, University study, based on a philosophy of Torah Uparnassa (Torah and Livelihood).

• Yeshiva University - a New York City based university, whose undergraduate programs operate according to the Modern Orthodox philosophy of Torah Umadda ("Torah with secular knowledge").

• Jerusalem College of Technology - a Jerusalem based college, founded to "educate students who see the synthesis of Jewish values and a profession as their way of life".

External links

• Bar-Ilan University English website
• BIU History (English)

Universities in Israel
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

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