D O C U M E N T 1 4 5 J A N U A R Y 1 9 2 6 1 6 3 145. To Felix M. Warburg[1] Berlin, 1 January 1926 Dear Mr. Warburg, As I am hearing from various sources, you and your friends have reservations concerning the decisions to restructure the administration of the university, adopted at the Munich meeting of the Board of Governors of the Jerusalem university.[2] Since I was heavily involved in the formulation of those decisions and, through my accepting the presidency, also assumed responsibility for their execution, I feel ob- ligated to give you a brief presentation of those decisions and the considerations that led to them in order to prevent any misunderstanding with regard to those fun- damental decisions.[3] As you are aware, in that meeting, first, the functions of the entire Board of Gov- ernors were defined more sharply than previously. After that, the Board of Gover- nors had to decide about the budget and financing, the principles of administration, and the further development of the university, as well as the appointment of profes- sors and lecturers, the latter based on the recommendations of the Academic Council. The Board of Governors has two administrative bodies: a presiding com- mittee, which currently has its office in London, and an executive committee, whose headquarters is in Palestine. For now, the presiding committee is to manage the business of the Board of Governors between its individual meetings, represent the university publicly, foster the close contact between the individual members of the Board of Governors, and, finally, through the Academic Council, with whose leadership it has been closely connected, to see to an appropriate prior consultation on all academic issues, in particular, appointments. In contrast, the executive com- mittee in Palestine was to implement in Palestine the decisions of the Board of Governors and to perform all those administrative functions that, of necessity, must be managed on site. This division of management proved to be indispensable in light of a sober assessment of the existing circumstances. It is my profound convic- tion that nothing would be more disastrous than to transfer the top-level gover- nance of the university to Palestine, under the present circumstances, for the captious ostensible advantage of apparent simplification. All prerequisites for that are currently still lacking, as I know from personal observation. The people who would have the essential experience and the intellectual caliber to be able to con- struct and to govern a university worthy of the entire Jewry as a whole are lacking. Also lacking are the scientific atmosphere and, above all, the general intellectual