Language dispute / Einstein palms

Language dispute

The fact that the first lectures were held in Hebrew was not something that could be taken for granted. Prior to this the infamous “language dispute” had been raging, specifically concerning the question as to whether teaching should be in German or Hebrew. One factor in favour of German was that in those days it was the dominant academic language; furthermore many of the professors came from Germany and would have preferred to teach in their native language. But in the end the Zionist wing won the upper hand and enforced Hebrew as the teaching language.

© Goethe-Institut

Einstein palms

It was back in 1923 that the Deutsche Komitee für das Technische Institut in Haifa (Technion Society) was founded as well, and its President was Albert Einstein. The German-Jewish Nobel prize winner planted two palms here, which still stand in front of the old Technion building. This was the oldest Technion Society in the world – it had to cease operating in 1933 and was re-established in Hanover in 1982.

When the state of Israel was declared, the Technion had 680 students. Soon after this it was bursting at the seams. The Prime Minister at the time, David Ben Gurion, chose a site covering 1 325 square kilometres on the outskirts of the city for the new campus. Since then the Technion has produced three Nobel prize winners: physicist Dan Shechtman in Chemistry in 2011, and in 2004 the two professors from the Faculty of Medicine, Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover.