Major Campaign Launched to Mobilize Support for Expansion of Tel Aviv U $2.5m Initiates Campaign

A total of more than $2.5 million in contributions to spur the development and expansion of Tel Aviv University kicked off a major campaign today to mobilize support for the University. The record campaign opening was announced by Victor M. Carter of Los Angeles, chairman of the international Board of Governors of the University, at a luncheon at the Israeli Consulate-General here, honoring Professor Yuval Ne’eman, world-famous physicist who was recently elected president of Tel Aviv University. Ambassador David Z. Rivlin, Consul-General of the State of Israel, was the host of the luncheon attended by over 150 Jewish leaders and public figures.

In his address to the luncheon, Prof, Ne’eman, the first foreigner to win the Albert Einstein Award for scientific achievement, outlined the progress which Tel Aviv University has achieved. Since 1964, he indicated, the number of students increased from 2,000 to 14,000, of whom more than 1,200 are from the United States. The faculty, he said, has grown from 270 to 2,000, and the physical plant has been enlarged from two buildings to twenty-five.

HIGHER EDUCATION CRUCIAL

Carter, a member of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Board of Directors. cited Prof. Ne’eman’s leadership and dedication and stressed the crucial role of higher education in Israel’s future. “It is an unfortunate fact of life,” he said, “that Israel must still concentrate much of its resources and effort on the very elementary need to assure its survival. Yet, even under these circumstances, the leaders of Israel–and, I might add, the people of Israel–have kept their sights on more than mere survival They are concerned not only that their country have a future, but that it have the right kind of future.”

Noting the degree to which Tel Aviv University has been a decisive force in this area, Carter called for a powerful and united effort to mobilize the maximum resources for the University throughout the American community.

Rivlin gave heightened emphasis to the importance which Israel attaches to higher education. Joining in the tribute to Prof. Ne’eman, he expressed confidence that the noted physicist would lead the University to ever greater levels of achievement. Pointing out that support of higher education in Israel is a crucial channel through which the American and Israeli communities are linked, Rivlin voiced appreciation for the efforts made in the past and those now being planned