Bar-Ilan University

Bar-Ilan University

אוניברסיטת בר-אילן
Motto	Tradition of Excellence
Type	Public
Established	1955
President	Daniel Hershkowitz
Rector	Miriam Faust
Principal	Menachem Greenblum
Vice-Presidents	Arie Zaban Judith Haimoff
Administrative staff	1,250
Students	26,367
Undergraduates	17,345
Postgraduates	6,806
Doctoral students	1,852
Location	Ramat Gan, Israel
Campus	Urban
Website	www.biu.ac.il

Bar-Ilan University (BIU; Hebrew: אוניברסיטת בר-אילן‎‎ Universitat Bar-Ilan) is a public research university in the city of Ramat Gan in the Tel Aviv District, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students (including 9,000 students in its affiliated regional colleges) and 1,350 faculty members.

The University aims to forge closer links between Torah and universal studies, "to blend tradition with modern technologies and scholarship, and teach the compelling ethics of Jewish heritage to all... to synthesize the ancient and modern, the sacred and the material, the spiritual and the scientific."

Bar-Ilan University has Jewish-American roots: it was conceived in Atlanta in a meeting of the American Mizrahi organization in 1950, and was founded by Prof. Pinkhos Churgin, an American rabbi and educator. When it was opened in 1955, it was described by The New York Times "as Cultural Link Between the [Israeli] Republic and America". The university was named for Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan (originally Meir Berlin), a Religious Zionist leader who served as the inspiration for its establishment. Although he was trained in Orthodox seminaries in Berlin, he believed there was a need for an institution providing a dual curriculum of secular academic studies and religious Torah studies.

The founders of the university hoped to produce alumni committed to Jewish tradition, Zionist ideology and science. In 1965, the professors and lecturers were all religious Jews, as were the majority of students. Yosef Burg, one of the prominent leaders of the religious Zionist movement warned that admission of too many non-religious into the university could undermine its character: "If you spill too much water into a wine bottle, you will have no wine." Today, the student population includes secular and non-Jewish students, including Arabs. In the past, all Jewish male students were required to cover their heads, but this is no longer the case. Seven courses in Jewish studies are required for graduation. In hiring senior academic staff, the university gives preference to religious Jews, although the faculty includes many secular members.