| | 10 June, 2009
| | Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson elected president of Hebrew University | |
 | | Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson |
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Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson, a former rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was elected today as president of the university. The election, based on the recommendation of a search committee, came at the closing session of the 72nd meeting of the university's Board of Governors.
Following the election, Prof. Ben-Sasson said that “these are difficult times. Our planet is not as it was. Economic uncertainty and the worldwide financial crisis affect many areas of activity; the academic arena is varied and competitive; the public standing of higher education is in great need of improvement.
“Nevertheless, there is no reason for despair. What is needed is a sensible leadership determined to solve the problems of Israeli higher education in general and of the Hebrew University in particular. You and I will do this together.”
For the near-term, he said, “the financial situation is so severe as to cast doubt even on the opening of the coming academic year. I call upon the government of Israel to honor its obligations and keep its commitments so as to ensure the further development of the university and to ensure the strengthening of the mother of Israeli higher education.”
He added that “this is the time to internalize the seriousness of the challenges we face and to change the degree of personal involvement of every member of the university family. This is the time for a ‘universal draft.’
“We must change our organizational and managerial structure and make the institution’s corporate governance as transparent as possible. We must change and become more open to the public by means of involvement (and commitment) in the community, in the media, in broad cultural discourse, and in ties with the Israeli economy and society. We must change in our relationship to our potential students – recruiting the best in Israel and abroad, courting them, drawing them closer to us and enabling them to get the best out of education. We just change in our discourse with state institutions and place it on the footing of a proper partnership between the political leadership and the academic leadership – a partnership based on mutual respect and on complete academic freedom.”
Ben-Sasson, a professor of the history of the Jewish people at the Hebrew University, was born in 1951 in Jerusalem. In 1982, after completing his doctorate at the Hebrew University, he did post-graduate research at Cambridge University in England. Upon his return to Israel he was appointed to the faculty of the Hebrew University and from 1997-2001 he served as rector of the university.
Ben-Sasson served from 2006-2009 as a member of the Knesset, representing the Kadima Party, and as chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. Also during that term he headed the Knesset lobby for higher education and was chairman of a parliamentary committee investigating phone tapping.
During his career he has taught or served as a fellow at leading centers of learning in the world, including Yeshiva University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America., the University of Pennsylvania, and the Russian National Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the history of Jews in Islamic lands and on research on Maimonides. Prof. Ben-Sasson has won the Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Feher prizes.
In addition to his research and service at the Hebrew University, he has served in a number of public positions, including head of the Ben-Zvi Institute, president of the World Union for Jewish Studies, head of the pedagogic committee at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, and a member of its executive council, and vice-president of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.
A Jerusalem native and resident, Prof. Ben-Sasson, 58, is married to Dr. Ada Ben-Sasson, a physician, and they are the parents of three children and three grandchildren.
Prof. Ben-Sasson replaces Prof. Menachem Magidor, who served three four-year terms as president. A professor of mathematics at the university, Prof. Magidor was previously chairman of the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science and dean of the Faculty of Science at the university.
(Photo of Prof. Ben-Sasson available via e-mail upon request)
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Downloadable File: BenSasson.doc |
| Downloadable File: BenSassonSpeech.pdf |
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