Thousands of drivers and passengers on Jerusalem’s Deganya Street, overlooking Highway 16 toward the Givat Shaul industrial quarter, couldn’t miss a huge election poster for the Religious Zionist Party’s Bezalel Smotrich, hung for weeks under the name of the Jerusalem College of Technology-Lev Academic Center.
The poster was mounted on the campus of JCT’s Machon Tal for Orthodox and haredi female nursing students.
Those familiar with the institution were likely shocked
Those who know the highly regarded college, which since 1969 has produced religious graduates with degrees in a variety of engineering fields and nursing, were likely surprised, or even shocked, by the combination of academics and electioneering by a candidate who has opposed the drafting of haredi men.
Physicist Prof. Ze’ev Lev founded the college and became a world expert in paramagnetic resonance, which led to the development of microwave and MRI devices.
In 1969, Lev decided Jerusalem needed a men’s college that combined scientific study with religious studies. Despite resistance from many rabbis and educators, he started the institution with a dozen students, and it became one of Israel’s four accredited engineering schools.
One of his sons, Nahum, became a high-ranking officer in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit and led the commando operation to assassinate Khalil al-Wazir in Tunis in 1988.
Machon Tal, where observant women earn degrees in engineering, computer sciences, and nursing, alongside Torah studies, is located in the Givat Shaul building.
Since its founding in 1969, JCT has produced 17,000 bachelor’s and master’s degree Modern Orthodox academic graduates in engineering, haredi and Orthodox male and female engineers, and female and male nursing graduates at its Givat Mordechai and Givat Shaul campuses.
As the Givat Mordechai campus expands, the women will, in a few years, leave the Givat Shaul building, which JCT rents from the Ben-David family, and move to a separate campus near, but separate from, the men’s college.
Locals wonder why the sign is placed under institution's name
Since the poster was displayed several weeks ago, JCT management and this reporter received calls from people who saw Smotrich’s sign and asked why it was placed there under JCT’s name.
Prof. Avi Domb, the current JCT president, and JCT vice president Stuart Hershkowitz told the Magazine that their institution has nothing to do with politics but was upset by the campaign sign because it was misunderstood and unfit to be placed under its own name, giving the impression that JCT favored a specific candidate.
They called on Oded Ben-David, owner of the Givat Shaul building and whose family members are proprietors of several sites in the industrial neighborhood, to take down the sign or at least cover JCT’s sign with cloth; this was not done. Complaints about the sign were made to the Jerusalem Municipality, which also called for removing the poster.
Ben-David noted that before the last Knesset elections four years ago, he attached a large poster for Benjamin Netanyahu on his Givat Shaul building, which also provoked objections. “Bibi will manage on his own. Now I’m especially for Smotrich,” he declared.
The nonprofit Academy for a Democratic Israel learned of the poster and took action, instructing its lawyers to send a letter to Smotrich demanding that his poster be removed immediately. Domb and Hershkowitz said they were not involved in the lawyers’ letter.
Last week, the campaign poster was removed. It was unclear who did it, but peace has returned to the building.■
– Judy Siegel-Itzkovich