Members of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, leaders of the Government of Israel and prominent figures in the Israel educational world participated today in a cornerstone laying ceremony for the projected George and Florence Wise Auditorium of the Hebrew University. Dr. Wise, chairman of the University’s Board of Governors and president of the American Friends of the University, contributed $100,000 toward the cost of construction of the building.
Immediately after the cornerstone laying ceremony was concluded, the Board opened its biennial meeting, exactly 30 years to the day after the University was opened on Mt. Scopus. Premier Moshe Sharett, in an address of welcome to the board members from the United States, Britain, Canada, South Africa, Switzerland and Israel, declared that it was important for Israel to feel that in fostering the activities of this “great center of human and Jewish learning” it could rely on the sympathy and support of wide sections of the Jewish people throughout the world. The opening session of the Board’s meeting was also attended by Israel Minister of Education Ben Zion Dinur and members of the Jewish Agency executive.
Dr. Wise told the meeting that the Board was proud that after the destruction of European Jewry, the Hebrew University had been in a position to become the central seat of Jewish learning. Reviewing progress since the last Board meeting, in March, 1953, he said that faculties of dentistry and pharmacy had been added to the University-Haddasah Medical School and that the Eliezer Kaplan School of Economics and Social Science had been added to the University.
Dr. Wise reported that the student body of the University had increased to 3,300 and that the faculty now numbers 500. He was followed by University president. Prof. Benjamin Mazar, who said that the current budget of the institution was over 6,000,000 pounds and that thanks to subsidies from the Israel Government and assistance from the Jewish Agency and friends abroad the current budget had been met without a deficit.
Just before the Board meeting began the University formally opened to the public the exhibition of Biblical documents, including an ancient manuscript of the Book of Isaiah, which will be kept permanently in the University in a special room to be built for it. The collection, which has been declared a national trust of the State of Israel, will be open to the public for the next week.
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