Bar-Ilan is the one who will establish the fifth medical school in Safed

Minister of Education Gideon Sa'ar will bring to the approval of the Legislative Assembly the recommendation of the professional committee that decided that Bar-Ilan University will establish the new medical school in the Galilee * Bar-Ilan University: we have signed agreements with leading medical schools in the world and tomorrow we will start work in March * The Dean of The new school: Prof. Ran Tor-Kaspa

The Minister of Education and Chairman of the Legislative Council, Gideon Sa'ar, will bring to the approval of the Council for Higher Education at its upcoming meeting the establishment of a new medical school in the Galilee, this after this evening the professional committee for the establishment of the medical school appointed by the Council for Higher Education held the concluding discussion and at the end chose the proposal of Bar-Ilan University over the proposal of the University of Haifa.

The professional committee decided to unanimously recommend Bar-Ilan University as the institution that will establish and manage academically and financially the fifth medical school in Israel to be established in the Galilee. In accordance with the decision of the Israeli government, the new medical school is expected to be built in the municipal territory of the city of Safed.

The professional committee headed by a member of the OT, Aharon Beit Halami, appointed by the Council for Higher Education began its work in December 2007 and during the two years in which it operated formulated the academic plan for the establishment of the school, established criteria that were published in a "call to research universities" and heard professional parties , held an international symposium on the establishment of medical schools and in addition received a number of opinions on this subject.

The new medical school will be the fifth in the higher education system in Israel. Today, there are medical schools within the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Technion in Haifa.

Following the "calling voice" published by the committee in August 2008, two proposals were submitted to the committee for the establishment of the new medical school. One proposal from Haifa University and the Technion and another proposal from Bar-Ilan University. The committee discussed the two proposals at length, met with the bidders and was impressed by the high capabilities of the institutions that approached the "voice of the reader".

The Minister of Education and Chairman of the Medical Council, Gideon Sa'ar, said that he intends to bring the recommendation to the approval of the Plenum of the Medical Council at its next meeting, in order to speed up the process of establishing a medical school. Minister Sa'ar: "Establishing the medical school in the Galilee is an important developmental anchor for the city of Safed in particular and the Galilee in general that will attract quality populations to it."

Members of the special committee: Aharon Beit-Halhami (Chairman), Prof. Manuel Trachtenberg (Chairman and TT), Prof. Avi Israeli (former Director General of the Ministry of Health), Prof. Haya Kalkheim (MLG Company) , Prof. Yaron Cohen, Prof. Ahmed Eid, Prof. Yitzhak Glenor (former deputy chairman of the MLA), Dr. Eitan Chai-am (Director General of the Ministry of Health), Mr. Shmuel Slavin (Member of the Ministry of Health) . Prof. Shlomo Grossman also served on the committee until the end of his term as chairman of the OT.

The chairman of the OT and member of the professional committee, Prof. Manuel Trachtenberg, said this evening that "I welcome the completion of the committee's work. This is a committee that worked for a long time on preparing the infrastructure for the establishment of the school. The committee was presented with two very worthy and high-quality proposals. What was in front of the committee's eyes was the professional aspect and the aspect of the development of the Galilem, since the medical school is a project of national importance.

Bar Ilan University responded that this is a very serious challenge, "The university dreamed of a medical school for a long time, it did not dare to offer itself to establish the school until it felt that in terms of the scientific and academic infrastructure it was ready for it, and the school of life sciences, one of the largest in Israel, will testify to this which has existed for about 40 years and has trained thousands of graduates. We appointed a steering team."
"The designated dean is Prof. Ran Tor-Kaspa, one of the senior doctors at Bilinson (a world-renowned expert in the field of the liver). Prof. Moshe Kove visited with a number of people from Bar Ilan together with Tor Kaspa in the USA and signed agreements with leading schools, including a medical school in Miami, an Einstein School of Medicine near Yeshiva University, there are agreements with the Harvard Medical School. There is interest from senior Jewish and Israeli faculty members from the United States. We believe that we will meet the challenge, we will go to work tomorrow."