Avishay Braverman (, born 15 January 1948) is an economics professor, politician, and Israeli public figure. Having held senior positions as economist at the World Bank, he was later elected as fifth president of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (1990-2006). As a Knesset member on behalf of the Labor Party (2006-2015) he served as Minister of Minority Affairs, Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee and Chairman of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee. Israel Prize laureate in 2020 for Lifetime Achievement, for his work as president of Ben-Gurion University.
Biography
Avishay Braverman was born in Ramat Gan, then Mandatory Palestine. His Polish-born father Jacob Braverman was a carpenter and his mother Sarah, a native of Lithuania, a kindergarten teacher. Braverman graduated from “Blich” High School in Ramat Gan, where he also served as captain of the basketball team. In 1968, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Statistics from Tel Aviv University, summa cum laude as part of the Academic Reserve (Atuda) and later served as system analyst, with the rank of Lieutenant. He studied for a master's degree at Tel Aviv University and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University, California, under the guidance of Professor Joseph Stiglitz.
Upon receiving his Ph.D. in 1976, he joined he World Bank in Washington, D.C. and served there for 14 years as senior economist and division chief. During those years, he led policy, research and development programs in South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In his final role, he was entrusted with the Bank's agricultural policies. During these years, he published numerous articles and edited several books dealing with topics related to development economics, agricultural economics, industrial organization, public policy and resource and water resource management.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
In October 1990, he returned to Israel to serve as president of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, then a small university with approximately 5,700 students. In his first speech, he announced that the university would grow significantly on the basis of three principles: excellence in research, opening its doors to disadvantaged populations, and building a hi-tech park adjacent to the university.
His tenure was characterized by a great building momentum on the university's three campuses in Beer Sheva, Sde Boker and later, Eilat, and the initiation and establishment of many curricula and research programs, including: the Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies; the National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev, sponsored by the de Picciotto Family; the Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology; the reconfiguration of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research (BIDR) in Sde Boker which transformed under the renamed Institutes to incorporate three research institutes, among them, the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR), as well as the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies; and on the Marcus Family Campus in Beer-Sheva, the Heksherim Research Institute for Jewish & Israeli Literature & Culture; further development and naming of the unique Joyce and Irvine Goldman School of Medicine, founded by the School's first Dean and first University President, the late Professor Moshe Prywes; establishing the Medical School for International Health (MSIH) in collaboration with Columbia University; the School of Management, later named the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management; the Department of Computer Science; the Department for Computer Systems Engineering; the Pilots Training Course - a full undergraduate degree program for Israeli Air Force cadets in a combined Flight School and university setting, among others.
With a focus on community outreach and inspiring the city and region's populations to become an integral part of the university, under Braverman's tenure, the Robert H. Arnow Center for Bedouin Studies and Development was established, as was a socially-engaged complex designed to house the Department for Community Action sponsored by the Deichmann Family of Germany, to develop the university's social outreach with Jewish and Bedouin residents of Beer Sheva and the region, together with the Spitzer Department of Social Work. In addition, the Mandel Center for Leadership in the Negev was established in Beer Sheva.
