The Hebrew University and its Tel Aviv Branches, 1950-1970

Abstract

After Israel gained its independence, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) faced a severe economic and political crisis. Ben-Gurion and his Government opposed the HU’s administration and board of directors and tried to subordinate higher education under government control. By choosing a scholar who combined administrative and political skills to head the university and who was acceptable to Ben-Gurion, and by co-opting government representatives to its executive bodies, the HU obtained substantial financial support and a choice site for a new campus, without ceding its formal autonomy. Nevertheless, it failed to retain its status as the sole university in Israel certified to award advanced academic degrees, despite years of political and organizational maneuvering aimed primarily at forestalling the establishment of an independent university in Tel Aviv. A major step in this struggle was the absorption of the Tel Aviv ‘Higher School of Law and Economics’ into the HU’s ‘Schools of Law and of Social Sciences’. When Mapai won the Tel Aviv municipal elections, the political direction reversed and the way opened for establishing a strong university in Tel Aviv with government, Knesset, and public opinion backing. This support and the growth of the new university, as well as the increased difficulties in running the Tel Aviv branches without a second building, eventually compelled the HU to withdraw from Tel Aviv. A more sober and perceptive understanding of the political and demographic developments in Israel would have allowed the HU to contribute to higher education in Tel Aviv without administrative and financial control – as was done in Haifa and later in Beer Sheva – saving much expense and protracted aggravation.