Prof. Jacob Katz, who teaches social and educational history and leans toward Orthodoxy, was elected rector of the Hebrew University by the University Senate yesterday. His election was a surprise since humanities and natural science professors usually alternate in the post and his predecessor, Prof. Nathan Rotenstreich, is a professor of philosophy. Prof. Katz was one of a number of religious faculty members who recently signed a letter protesting the opening of the university’s swimming pool on the Sabbath.
Prof. Katz, who was born in Hungary in 1905 and came to Palestine in 1935, took a cool view of foreign students whose numbers are increasing at the Hebrew University. He told reporters that while the university must devote a great deal of energy toward integrating them, it should not be at the expense of other obligations which he defined as “education, scholarship, Israeli students and the teaching staff.”
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