Prof. Ben-Shashon: I call on the government of Israel to give what it promised for the basic existence and development of the university and for the strengthening of higher education * Mickey Federman was elected chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hebrew University
The Board of Trustees of the Hebrew University today accepted the recommendation of the search committee for the president of the university and elected Professor Menachem Ben-Shashon as the next president of the Hebrew University as part of a plenary session that concluded the 72nd session of the board of trustees of the university.
After his election Prof. Menachem Ben-Shashon said: ''The hour is difficult. The world is not what it used to be: the economic uncertainty and the global financial crisis are affecting many arenas of activity, the academic arena is diverse and competitive, the position of higher education in the public needs correction. But there is no room for despair. There is room for balanced leadership that is determined to solve the problems of higher education in Israel in general and of the Hebrew University in particular.''
According to him, "in the immediate term, the current financial situation threatens the opening of the upcoming school year, therefore I call on the Israeli government to fulfill its mandate and give what it has committed to for the basic existence of the university, for its development and for the strengthening of higher education."
Prof. Ben-Shashon added that "it is time to recognize the seriousness of our situation and the urgency of the need to change it." It is time to change in internalizing the seriousness of the challenges before us, to change in the level of personal involvement of each member of the university family - it is time for a general recruitment. We must change the organizational and administrative structure and make the institution's corporate governance as transparent as possible; We must change and open up more to the public through community involvement (and commitment!), the media, the broad cultural discourse and the relationship with the world of economy and society in Israel. We must change in our attitude to our potential students - locate the best in Israel and abroad, court them, bring them closer to us and protect them so that they absorb the best of our academic education; We must change the dialogue with the state institutions and place it on the threshold of the right partnership between the public leadership and the academic leadership.''
Prof. Ben-Shashon is a researcher of the history of the Jewish people at the Hebrew University. He was born in 1951 in Jerusalem, where he still lives today. In 1982, after completing his doctoral studies at the Hebrew University, he studied post-doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge, England. When he returned to Israel, he was appointed a faculty member at the Hebrew University, and between 2001-1997 he served as rector of the university.
Prof. Menachem Ben-Shashon served as a member of the Knesset on behalf of the Kadima party and as chairman of the Law, Constitution and Justice Committee of the Knesset between 2009-2006. During these years he also served as the chairman of the lobby for higher education in Israel and as the chairman of the parliamentary investigation committee regarding wiretapping.
Throughout his extensive academic career, Prof. Ben-Shashon taught and researched at leading institutions in the world such as Yeshiva University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), the University of Pennsylvania and the Russian National Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the history of the Jews in the Islamic countries as well as on Rambam. Prof. Ben-Shashon won the Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi prize for researching the communities of Israel and the East and the Fahr prize for academic excellence of young researchers.
In addition to his academic positions, Prof. Ben-Shashon held a number of public positions, including head of the Ben-Zvi Institute, president of the World Association for Jewish Studies, head of the Pedagogical Committee and member of the executive board of Yad Vashem and vice president of the Jewish Culture Memorial Fund. Prof. Ben-Shashon is married to doctor Dr. Ada Ben-Shashon, and they have three children and three grandchildren.
Prof. Ben-Shashon will replace Prof. Menachem Magidor, who completed three terms of four years each. Prof. Magidor is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and previously served as the head of the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science and as the Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the Hebrew University.
Mickey Federman was elected chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hebrew University
Michael (Mickey) Federman, a businessman, was elected yesterday, June 8, as the chairman of the board of trustees of the Hebrew University as part of the 72nd meeting of the board of trustees of the university that is taking place this week. Federman will replace the businessman Charles Goodman from the USA who held the position for the past three years.
Federman, born in 1943, grew up in Haifa, served as an officer in the Matkal patrol and graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics and political science at the Hebrew University. Today, Federman heads the Federman Enterprises company and serves as chairman of the board of directors of Elbit Systems and the Dan hotel chain.
Federman first joined the Board of Trustees of the Hebrew University in 1984. "I received a call from the then president of the university, Dan Patinkin, who asked me to join as a substitute member of the board of trustees and I stayed for 25 years," he recalled. At that time there was a severe economic crisis and Federman mobilized to help the university get out of the crisis.
The Federman family has a long and close relationship with the Hebrew University. The family helped establish the course of study in "hotel management, food resources and tourism" in the Faculty of Food Agriculture and Environment by Robert H. Smith, and in 2006 made a significant contribution to the Federman School of Public Policy and Government at the university. In 1994, Mickey Federman received an honorary doctorate from the university, his father, Yekutiel Federman, received this degree in 1988.
Upon accepting the appointment, Federman said that he promises to work tirelessly to support the new president who will take office this week and to work for the continued positioning of the Hebrew University as the leading research and educational institution in Israel.
The search committee for the chairman of the university's board of trustees stated today that Federman "dedicates his energy, his wisdom and his resources for the benefit of the university and he attracts other people to work with him".
