Prof. Arnon Afek
Founding Dean
The State of Israel needs 2000 new doctors every year, but it trains only 50 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 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 all of the doctors required by the Israeli healthcare system, and in accordance with the State Comptroller’s call, Reichman University decided to open a new medical school.
This Zionist and ethical mission is part of the overall activity of Israel’s leading university. With the generous support of the Recanati family, the Dina Recanati School of Medicine was established, educating the physicians of the future.
To realize the vision of the School of Medicine, Reichman University joined forces with Israel’s leading medical institutions: Rabin and Schneider Medical Centers, Clalit Health Services, Maccabi Healthcare Services, the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, and the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital. Together, they founded a new and innovative medical school that serves as a model for Israel and the world in teaching medicine through a professional, innovative, interdisciplinary, and human-centered approach.
The mission of the Dina Recanati School of Medicine is to ensure that dozens of young Israelis will no longer need to travel abroad to study medicine, but will be able to do so in Israel at one of the best medical schools in the country and in the world.
Yours,