About the Institution
Keeping pace with the Jewish state, Bar-Ilan University took root despite the adversity of the 50s, flourished after the Six Day War, became seasoned and established in the 70s and 80s, burgeoned with the mass immigration of the early 90s, and became Israel’s fastest-growing and largest university at the turn of millenium. 1948. The modern State of Israel is established.One man has a dream..... “to create an institution of higher learning in the newly-established Jewish republic in which Jewish learning and the Torah of Israel would be studied together with all the latest findings in the fields of human research”. "A university demonstrating that", wrote Bar-Ilan's architect and founder Prof. Pinkhos Churgin, "Judaism is not a cloistered way of life, removed from scientific investigation and worldly knowledge.... A college of excellence that will strive to implant within the heart of each student an unswerving faith in the unity of our people with all of its diversity, in all of its divisions and parts". Prof. Churgin, an American rabbi and educator, nourished the dream and pursued it relentlessly. A graduate of the famed Volozhin Yeshiva, scholar of Semitics, and professor of Jewish history and literature at Yeshiva University, Churgin gathered around him an elite group of American orthodox academics and leaders who shared his vision. Central figures in this group were Rabbi Dr. Joseph H. Lookstein (later Bar-Ilan Chancellor), Rabbi Zemach Zambrowsky, Rabbi M. Kirshblum, Prof. Saul Lieberman and Rabbi Prof. Emanuel Rackman (later to become Bar-Ilan president), along with philanthropists Philip, Max and Frieda Stollman of Detroit. 1950. Getting Started.Meeting in Atlantic City, the leadership of Mizrachi Religious Zionists of America enthusiastically endorsed Churgin's vision and adopted the project. An Israeli founders committee was established, involving national religious leaders Moshe Haim Shapira, Dr. Joseph Burg, Dr. Zerach Warhaftig, David Pinkas, Herman Hollander, M. D. Magid, Y. Karib, Rabbi Zev Gold and others. The name Bar-Ilan was chosen, in honor of Rabbi Meir Bar- Ilan (Berlin), a spiritual leader w ...

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