From the Liveblog of
Thursday, November 2, 2023
University of Haifa to give emergency scholarships to students called up to war
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
Students called up to reserve duty will receive a NIS 2,000 ($500) scholarship, drawn from a special emergency fund, the University of Haifa announces.
“The State of Israel has a great debt to our reserve soldiers, who have left everything and mobilized in order to defend the country. This is the least we can do for them… in light of the response from many of our donors, I believe we will be able to increase the amount in the coming weeks,” the university’s president, Prof. Ron Rubin, says in a statement.
The scholarship program comes after similar announcements by Tel Aviv, Bar Ilan, and Ben Gurion universities. Other institutes of higher education are expected to follow suit, with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem set to present a plan for emergency student aid early next week.
The unprecedented call-up of reserve soldiers, initiated by Israel after the deadly Hamas assault on western Negev communities on October 7, has caused Israel’s university system to delay the start of the academic year to at least December 3.
About 30% of university students have been called up to serve, along with many thousands of staff and faculty.
