Academia in Tel- Aviv

This book describes the urban, academic, and political causes that led to the establishment of Tel Aviv University and to its consolidation as a research university before the independence of the state of Israel and during the first two decades after its independence. The attempts to establish a stable academic framework to the residents of Tel Aviv and its surroundings took shape when Chaim Levanon, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, announced the establishment of Tel Aviv University on 1 June 1956. This included the merger of three academic institutions that acted in the city: the University Institute for Natural Sciences, which replaced the Biological-Pedagogical Institute under the management of Dr. Heinrich Mendelssohn and Dr. Yaacov Galil, the Institute for the Israeli Culture under the management of Professor Israel Efrat who was appointed Rector of the University, and The School for Law and Economics of Tel Aviv which was managed by Dr. Augusto Levi and Judge Ze’ev Zeltner. In time there would be a discussion whether to determine the day of the establishment of the University as the date when the Urban University was formed or when it became an independent institute with the appointment of George Wize as President of the University in 1963. An expression for that could be found in the words of Professor Shlomo Simonsohn, the Rector of the University between 1971 and 1977:

“It is inconceivable [to understand] the development of the university in its second decade without the infrastructure of the first decade and even of the period beforehand. The academic and public breakthrough which was achieved then entailed much work by the founders of the university. Despite this, there is no doubt that in the second decade the pace of development of the university was accelerated compared to the first decade.”

Tel Aviv University was constructed as a ‘bottoms-up university’ – a local university that grew out of urban entrepreneurship with civil characteristics, which had to conduct a long struggle in order to achieve academic and state-wide legitimacy. This struggle led the academic personnel, including academics that were still in their early stages of their academic career, to become more involved in the management of the institute, involvement which led to dramatic decisions and moves, including the removal of the first Rector, Professor Israel Efrat. The leading academic personnel included Ben-Zion Katz, Zvi Yavetz, Shlomo Simonsohn, Meshulam Grol, Andre De Vries, Chaim Sheba, Heinrich Mendelssohn, Yaacov Galil, Alfred Klopstock, Joshua Jortner, and Yuval Ne’eman. These intellectuals were the creators, distributors and those that implemented the academic culture that developed in the new institute, as well as those who struggled for legitimacy from the Israeli political establishment.