Hadassah to Open Unique Community College in Israel in Fall

Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, will introduce the first community college of its kind to Israel this October. Mrs. Benjamin Gottesman, national chairman of Hadassah Israel Education Services, announced here at the organization’s 56th national convention. Hadassah is holding its annual national convention today through Wednesday where more than 2,500 delegates will attend workshops and seminars, hear reports, and vote on policies concerning Hadassah’s health, education, Jewish and American affairs programs here and in Israel. Mrs. Max Schenk of New York, is national president. While the college, which will accommodate 350 students, is modeled after its American counterparts, it is unique because it is planned as part of a comprehensive educational complex which will extend from junior high school through the first two years of college, serving a total of 1,200 students. “As in the United States.” Mrs. Gottesman explained, “the community College is the most significant major contribution toward expanding educational opportunity. It will be a pilot venture, for Israel, in advanced career preparation.” Marvin Feldman, former Ford Foundation education expert and presently Assistant Director, Program Management, Office of Economic Opportunity, who has been a consultant to Hadassah in developing this program says: “The opening of the Community College this fall may prove to be as important in setting the standard of equal educational opportunity in Israel, as were Hadassah’s pioneering efforts in medical education. Hadassah Community College will, it is hoped, become part of a chain of community colleges which will throw open the doors of higher education to every Israeli, regardless of income.”

Dr. Helen Kittner director of Hadassah’s Education Projects in Israel, will head the Community College. She recently returned from a national tour of American two-year colleges arranged with the cooperation of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Dr. Kittner reported to the Hadassah National Board that the close collaboration of industry and government in community college-manpower development programs in the U.S. provides a useful model for dealing with Israel’s problems, where there are acute shortages of trained technical manpower in such industries as plastics, aircraft, tourism and education. The curriculum, therefore, will be geared to overcome these shortages. The college, located in Jerusalem, is to occupy a new building within the existing educational compound. The Hadassah-Alic. Seligsberg Comprehensive School for Girls and Hadassah’s Brandeis Vocational Training Center for Boys, have been merged, These together with the College will form the new comprehensive co-educational center for 1,200 students from junior high school through two years of study at the college level. Most in the initial student body of 350 young men and women will be drawn from the ranks of those who cannot afford to pay for higher education. Many will be from Oriental Jewish families, generally a disadvantaged group, with little opportunity for higher education or career training, particularly after they complete their army service.