Beit Berl College

Beit Berl College is a multi-disciplinary academic college for higher education located in Beit Berl in the Sharon region of Israel. It is one of the oldest colleges in Israel. The college grants undergraduate degrees (B.Ed and B.Ed.F.A.) and graduate degrees (M.Ed and M.Teach) in a variety of disciplines in teaching and education (formal and informal), in the Arts (Fine Arts, Film, Art Education, Art Therapy), Humanities, and Social Sciences. The college also issues teaching certificates for academics and various types of diplomas. History Beit Berl was established in 1949 on the grounds of Kalmania farm as an educational institution of Mapai. It was designed to realize and perpetuate the ideological legacy of Berl Katznelson; after immigrating to Mandatory Palestine, Katznelson worked on the educational issues of the Yishuv as a whole and of the Zionist Labor Movement in particular. In 1938, during the fourth Mapai conference, Katznelson publicly presented his views on the seminary of the Labor movement. Weeks after his death, in September 1944, it was decided that a seminary would be established for youth counselors and activists in Katznelson's name. The institute's cornerstone laying ceremony took place on the second anniversary of his death in 1946. In 1949, a movement seminary opened in Beit Berl, in which a seminar for teachers and kindergarten teachers was also established. In the 60s, the seminar developed and began to focus more on academic studies. In the summer of 1968, at the initiative of the then-director general of Beit Berl, Nahum Shamir, a proclamation was published announcing the establishment of the Berl Katznelson University Institute for Research and Education, and the Council for Higher Education in Israel recognized the seminar as an academic college of education in 1971.