1 9 6 D O C U M E N T 1 9 4 J A N U A R Y 1 9 2 4
This body will be responsible for the general, academic administration. It will es-
sentially be an advisory body and assist the Board of Governors with its counsel
regarding the creation of new institutes, the appointment of professors, etc. Above
all else, this body should serve to assure the university’s integrity and the coopera-
tion of the various factors involved in its construction and maintenance.— In third
place, an administrative body for the individual faculties should then be formed af-
ter the model of the American Jewish committee of medical
doctors.[6]
These bod-
ies are supposed to consist of professional experts and bear the responsibility, joint-
ly with the directors of the various institutes, for their administration. They are
supposed to establish the teaching agenda and curriculum and should submit nom-
inations to the Board of Governors through mediation of the Council regarding pro-
fessorship appointments.— All these bodies are supposed to be represented in Pal-
estine by some members who provide advisory assistance but can only act in the
name of the associated committee as a whole with its approval.
This is essentially the project we are presently considering. The Executive
would owe you much thanks, now, if you would accept its invitation to enter the
Board of Governors. Among the other gentlemen we have contacted, Achad
Ha’am, Sir Alfred Mond, and Baron J. de Rothschild have announced their consent.
In this connection I permit myself to convey to you some further information
about the progress of these endeavors. Fullest agreement has now been reached
with the American physicians on the plan for the Department of
Microbiology[7]
and the construction work consequently already commenced at the beginning of
November. The old building is being renovated and a new building erected, in
which the microbiology laboratory will be accommodated on the ground floor and
the one for biochemistry on the first story. The detailed floor plans are now com-
pleted and the construction and furnishing should be ready by June. The apparatus
purchased in Germany has already arrived in Palestine. Dr. Weizmann also issued
instructions prior to his departure for the shipment of his chemistry laboratories.
The apparatus still needed is now being procured and will be dispatched in the near
future.
In the preparations for the Institute of Jewish and Oriental Studies, which is sup-
posed to form the first department of the Faculty of Humanities, positive progress
can now also be recorded. Agreement has now essentially been reached with the
Parisian committee, which is in charge of the disposition of Baron E. de Roth-
schild’s endowment (annually £2,000.– for 5 years), and which has hitherto op-
posed the inclusion of the new institute in the Hebrew
University.[8]
The Parisian
committee consents to the inclusion in the university, but only demands internal au-
tonomy of the new institute’s administration, to which we also agree. It will there-
fore be possible to begin with the appointment of some professors in the imminent