A university with the potential to change all of Israel

Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, was a huge believer in the potential of the Negev Desert for the growth and stability of the Jewish state. In fact, he lived in the Negev when he wasn’t on the job in Tel Aviv or traversing the world on behalf of Israel. He wanted to set an example.
During his final year as prime minister, 1963, Ben Gurion put forward his vision of a university in the small Negev city of Beersheba — “an Oxford in the Negev.”
In 1969, the University of the Negev opened. After Ben Gurion’s death in 1973, it was renamed “Ben-Gurion University of the Negev” (BGU).
Ben Gurion’s notion that the Negev would, could and should play a crucial role in Israel’s future remains a driving force that is being carried forward fervently by BGU’s current president Prof. Daniel Chamovitz.