Eliahu Elath, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States and Britain, said today he regarded his election to the presidency of the Hebrew University as not only an honor “which any graduate of the University could only have dreamt of” but also a challenge to match the achievements of his “distinguished predecessors.” Elath’s candidacy was proposed by Pinhas Rosen, who declined to run for the post.
The election of Elath, currently head of the Afro-Asian Institute of the Histadrut, ended a four-day election deadlock of the board of governors of the university over both the candidates for the post and the question of separating the positions of president and rector of the institution.
Judge Louis Levinthal of Philadelphia was elected chairman of the board. He is expected to come to Jerusalem in several months. Daniel Ross, who headed the nominations committee, said that George Wise, who resigned as board chairman during the board meeting, had been elected to the board as a governor for the Mexican Friends of the University.
(In New York, Dr. George S. Wise told the JTA today that “my statement of last November still holds true, that I will be glad to serve the university in any capacity, especially now that the principle for which the American delegation and I have been fighting–for the separation of the functions of the president and rector–has been put into effect.”)
Mr. Ross said that a $4,000,000 loan to the university being arranged by the American Friends organization was assured and that the university’s budget would be balanced. The board decided to increase the number of members to 120 to provide for 50 percent representation by Israel members.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
