After a six-year absence, the University of Haifa has reopened its office in New York.
“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense not to have an office in the United States,” said Joel Leibowitz, executive vice president of the American Society- University of Haifa.
Most Israeli universities maintain offices in New York, but Haifa had shut down its U.S. operation because of “political opinions that were not the same” between the university’s American and International boards, Leibowitz said.
The American Society is in charge of public relations, development, and faculty and student exchange programs.
Established in 1963, the University of Haifa has some 13,000 students, 18 percent of them Arab.
With Arabs and Israelis in the same classroom, “you can imagine the fascinating dialogue between these groups,” said Leibowitz. “They have to start talking to each other.”
Haifa has also absorbed more Russian and Ethiopian immigrants any other Israeli university, he said.
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