Scholar speaks on "Israel at 70: Social Fissures, Shared Aspirations"

EVANSTON - Israel Studies Visiting Scholar Manuel Trajtenberg, one of Israel’s leading economists, will speak today (April 11) at Northwestern University on the topic: “Israel at 70: Social Fissures, Shared Aspirations.”

Trajtenberg, a former member of the Israel Knesset and a distinguished visiting scholar, will deliver his lecture at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in McCormick Tribune Forum, 1870 Campus Drive, on the Evanston campus. It is free and open to the public.

The lecture is sponsored by Northwestern’s Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies and comes a month before Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary as an independent state. 

Professor Trajtenberg is an expert on higher education in Israel and on one of Israel’s top economists. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and has been a professor of economics at Tel Aviv University since 1984.

He served as Chairman of the Higher Education System in Israel (2009-2014). Prior to that he established and served as (first) Head of the National Economic Council at the Prime Minister’s Office (2006-2009).

He was appointed Chairman of the Committee for Economic and Social Change following mass social protests which took place in Israel in 2011. Trajtenberg joined the Zionist Union list in December 2014 and was elected to the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) in 2015. He left politics in 2017.

He has held visiting positions at Harvard and Stanford universities and is the 2018 Israel Studies Visiting Scholar at Northwestern.