Bar-Ilan University

Israel's second-largest university was dreamed up at a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

historicalculturepeople

The plan for this campus was drawn up in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1950, the American Mizrahi organization met there and conceived a university for Israel. Its founder was Pinkhos Churgin, an American Orthodox rabbi and educator, who became its first president when the doors opened in 1955. The New York Times described the new school as a cultural link between the Israeli republic and America. The name honors Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan, born Meir Berlin, who trained in Orthodox seminaries in Berlin and came away convinced that a school could teach secular subjects and Torah side by side. That double curriculum is still the rule. Jewish students take at least five courses in Jewish studies before they can graduate. Non-Jewish students take general courses instead. Twenty thousand students study here now, with about thirteen hundred and fifty faculty.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
it was conceived in Atlanta in a meeting of the American Mizrahi organization in 1950, and was founded by Professor Pinkhos Churgin, an American Orthodox rabbi and educator

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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