February 9: The Technion

The Technion, Israel’s oldest modern university and its leading institution of science, was officially opened in Haifa on this date in 1925. Its cornerstone had been laid in 1912, and its first sixteen students, including one woman, had begun their studies in 1924. In the 1930s, many Jewish scientists fleeing Nazi Germany and other European countries came to the Technion, which was the only institution bestowing engineering degrees in Israel until the early 1970s. In its first decades, the Technion was the site of fierce debate over whether Hebrew or German would be the language of instruction. Today, more than 70 percent of the managers and entrepreneurs in Israel’s booming high-tech sector are Technion graduates.

“Israel can win the battle for survival only by developing expert knowledge in technology.” —Albert Einstein, president of the first Technion Society