Prof. Arnon Afek
Founding Dean
The State of Israel needs 2000 new doctors every year, but it trains only 40 percent of them. The rest are forced to study abroad, some of them in medical schools with very low standards.
These doctors work mainly in hospitals in the periphery, deepening the gap in the level of medical care between the center of Israel and its north and south.
The current reality, in which the State of Israel sends some of its best citizens — graduates of military service, people who volunteered with Magen David Adom for many years — to study abroad on their own dime, creates a moral issue.
Due to an understanding of this predicament and the need to train of all the doctors required by the Israeli healthcare system, Reichman University decided to open a new medical school. This Zionist, principled undertaking is in line with the general mission of Israel’s leading university. With the generous support of the Recanati family, we are establishing the Dina Recanati School of Medicine, whose purpose is to educate the doctors of tomorrow.
To realize its latest vision, Reichman University joined forces with Israel’s top medical institutions: Rabin Medical Center, Maccabi Healthcare Services, the Community Division of Clalit Health Services, and Sheba Medical Center, in order to establish a medical school that will serve as a model for Israel and the entire world for educating future physicians in a manner that is professional, innovative, multidisciplinary and personal. We are in the midst of preparing an innovative program which, upon completion, will be submitted to the Council for Higher Education. At the same time, we are building the school's infrastructure with the goal of inaugurating it in October 2024. Soon, dozens of young Israelis will no longer have to go abroad to study medicine; they will have the opportunity to do so at one of the best medical schools in Israel and the world.
Yours,