First Woman President of Israeli University

Professor Rivka Carmi has made history by becoming the first woman president of an Israeli institution of higher education. Carmi was unanimously chosen as president by the board of directors and a presidential search committee of Ben-Gurion University, the university located in Beersheba where she served as the first dean of an Israeli medical school. Carmi, a pediatrician and geneticist, replaces Prof. Avishay Braverman, who said he was going to quit his position at BGU and join the Labor Party under the leadership of Amir Peretz. Braverman had already served as president for multiple terms and his eligibility had expired. BGU stressed that she has been named "acting president" of BGU, as Braverman left before the formal end of his term.