Ono Academic College

Ono’s educational mission centers on making higher education accessible across Israel’s social, religious, cultural and ethnic spectrum while preparing students for professional employment through applied learning.[5] Its approach combines academic instruction with accommodations intended to let students participate without abandoning their cultural identities, alongside activities that bring students from different communities together.[4] In 2024, its fields of study included education, nursing, law, computer science, business administration with an accounting specialization, and sports therapy.[3]

Kiryat Ono is the college’s main location, but its expansion has included teaching sites in several parts of Israel.[1][3] A January 2022 account described five campuses in Kiryat Ono, Jerusalem, Haifa, Netanya and Or Yehuda, and a July 2024 account again reported five campuses.[1][3] A later 2024 profile described three campuses—Kiryat Ono, Haifa and Jerusalem—and more than 23,000 students.[6] These dated descriptions accompany a period of campus consolidation and new construction, including the opening of the Savion Junction campus in July 2023.[7]

The institution’s stated social purpose extends beyond admission to higher education: it seeks to support entry into Israel’s labor market while preserving students’ cultural identities.[4] All undergraduate programs require four academic credit hours of community service, connecting professional preparation with participation in community life.[5] Required courses about Israeli society, joint projects and dialogue forums form another part of this educational approach.[4]

Ranan Hartman founded Ono Academic College in 1995, when he was 26, after graduating from Bar-Ilan University’s School of Law.[1] He linked the initiative to the experience of Israeli applicants who could not gain admission to local institutions and traveled abroad, particularly to England, to study law.[1] In a 2021 interview, he recalled that his then-partner’s rejection from university law studies and subsequent departure for England had helped prompt the idea.[8] The institution initially had 100 students; accounts of its beginnings describe accommodation in a community-center building and an early operation in a single trailer, offering law and business programs.[8][3]

During its early years, Ono was affiliated with the University of Manchester.[1] It subsequently became an independent Israeli institution accredited by Israel’s Council for Higher Education.[1] A separate institutional milestone was the establishment of its association in 1997, with Renan Hartman, his father David Hartman and his brother Daniel Hartman named among its founders.[9] Before becoming Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations in 2008, Gabriela Shalev served as president of the college’s Academic Council and as its rector.[10]

The history of the School of Music extends to 1998, when it began as “Hed” College in Yehud under the founding vision of musician, conductor and educator Professor Yehuda Somer Cohen.[11] Cohen later served as chairman of the School and led the development of graduate curricula and international collaborations.[11] Another major development was the opening of a separate campus for the ultra-Orthodox community in 2001, six years after Ono began.[1]

By 2021, Ono had grown to more than 18,000 students across five campuses.[8] In January 2022, its academic provision comprised 47 programs, a substantial expansion from its initial law and business offerings.[1] Hartman described this growth as part of an effort to reach populations that had not previously entered higher education in large numbers, particularly Haredi and Arab communities.[1] He also said he had lowered the admissions threshold and rejected the idea that high secondary-school grades should be the sole measure of an applicant’s potential.[8]

Ono’s student population in 2024 included secular, modern Orthodox, Haredi, Muslim, Christian and Druze students.[3] A July 2024 account reported more than 21,000 students, more than 44,000 graduates, and a student body in which half were the first in their families to attend college.[3] A separate 2024 profile recorded more than 23,000 students and put the first-generation share at 40 percent.[6] The college’s English-language homepage reported more than 24,000 students for 2025.[12]

First-generation participation also featured in a 2024 account produced in cooperation with the college, which reported 23,000 students and described Ono as Israel’s third-largest academic institution by undergraduate enrollment.[13] In that account, college president Professor Shlomo Noy said that 40 percent of undergraduates were the first in their families to pursue higher education.[13] An institutional page associated with the Savion Junction campus listed more than 20,000 students, 45,000 graduates and 3,000 academic and administrative staff.[7]

The Jerusalem branch had 3,640 students in the 2019/20 academic year, many of them Haredi and Arab students.[14] An earlier account of Jerusalem higher education recorded 3,300 Ono students in 2018/19 and excluded Ono from its count of seven academic colleges in the city.[15] These figures describe the Jerusalem operation rather than the college’s overall enrollment.[14][15]

Haredi participation increased substantially during the college’s development.[16][17] In 2010, its Haredi campus had 2,100 students studying law and business administration: 1,800 in Or Yehuda and 300 at a Jerusalem branch, with women making up half of enrollment.[16] By 2012, the Haredi programs had 2,500 students—1,400 men and 1,100 women—and 1,965 graduates.[17] In 2024, Noy said that approximately 8,000 Haredi students had graduated after studying in dedicated tracks.[13]

Ono’s 47 programs in 2024 covered professional fields ranging from law and accounting to nursing, computer science, education and sports therapy.[3] Its program development has also included an MA in Digital Strategy and a Multicultural Jewish Studies Program for teacher training.[18] The college’s educational model emphasizes practical experience alongside academic study, including legal clinics that provide assistance to people with limited means.[19][18]

A 2021 account described computer-science students gaining work experience in organizations and technology companies, while communication-disorders students undertook clinical training and hearing exercises with people experiencing hearing loss.[19] Communication-disorders students were required to complete 1,000 hours of clinical experience.[19] A July 2024 account reported that 83 percent of Ono graduates were employed in their field of study.[3]

Professional examination outcomes have varied by field and examination session.[20][21] A 2023 account reported that 95 percent of the School of Health Professions’ graduates over the preceding 12 years had passed state licensing examinations.[20] In a separate bar-examination session, 800 Ono graduates sat the examination and 165 passed, approximately 21 percent; this was lower than the college’s results in some earlier sessions.[21]

The School of Health Professions was established approximately 16 years before a 2023 interview with its dean, Professor Shlomo Noy.[20] Its purpose included making occupational therapy, communication-disorders treatment, sports therapy and nursing more accessible, particularly to Haredi and Arab communities and residents of Israel’s geographic periphery.[20] Training took place at the Kiryat Ono main campus, while the Jerusalem campus offered clinical communication disorders, occupational therapy and nursing.[20]

By 2023, the college also operated an extension at Alei Negev near Ofakim and a center in Taibeh for training communication-disorders therapists.[20] At that time, it was planning a health-professions extension in Haifa and seeking Council for Higher Education approval for a nursing program at EMMS Nazareth Hospital.[20] A 2024 account subsequently described a nursing-studies branch at the English Hospital in Nazareth among the college’s initiatives for Arab communities.[13]

Clinical placements included community settings such as the Keshev Center, which treats children with hearing deficits, and rehabilitation centers operated by Israel’s health funds.[20] The school also offered two accredited graduate programs: an MA in Multidisciplinary Health Sciences and Rehabilitation and an MA in Case Management.[20] The latter was a clinical program primarily for nurses, preparing case managers to coordinate professionals working across multiple medical disciplines.[20]

Ono’s Haredi programs have combined professional degrees with arrangements accommodating religious practice.[17] In 2012, teaching took place in Or Yehuda and Jerusalem rather than at the Kiryat Ono campus, and available degrees included law, accounting and business management.[17] Applicants without a high-school diploma could take preparatory mathematics and English classes.[17] Earlier business specializations included banking and capital markets, accounting and human-resources management.[16]

The Beyahad, or “Together,” program for Druze women was founded in 2012 by Temer Wahaba and was described in 2019 as the first program of its kind in Israel.[22] Modeled on the Haredi campus, it supported professional study while respecting students’ traditional way of life.[22] Its first cohort comprised 60 information-systems students; by 2019, it had 750 students studying various subjects.[22] Accommodations included preparatory courses, reduced tuition, buses from students’ homes in the Galilee, examinations scheduled around Druze holidays and permission to use translators during examinations.[22]

Support for Ethiopian-Israeli students includes academic reinforcement, career guidance and tuition assistance, with an institutional account describing participation by more than 150 students.[4] Other measures include scholarships for residents of Israel’s periphery and support for military and security personnel.[4] A 2024 account also described school-level preparation centers among the initiatives serving Arab communities.[13]

Language support has included reciprocal tutoring, with Arab students teaching Jewish students Arabic and Jewish students helping Arab students with Hebrew.[1] The college’s “Batsavta Hada,” or “Together as One,” project brings students from different groups together to seek agreement on shared civic issues.[4] These activities accompany required courses on Israeli society, joint student projects and forums for dialogue.[4]

Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom founded the International Center for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry at Ono’s Kiryat Ono campus in 2019.[23] The center documents and researches Ethiopian Jewish heritage and culture through classes with Kessim, conferences, study tours to Ethiopia, cooperation with related organizations and an academic journal.[23] It also developed a Beit Midrash involving Kessim and curricula on Ethiopian Jewish history, Zionism, religion and culture for Jewish schools in North America.[23]

The center presents its work as a means of studying Ethiopian Jewish traditions on their own terms, strengthening cultural knowledge and addressing racism, cultural loss and challenges to identity after immigration to Israel.[23] It also launched a Chair for Research of Ethiopian Jewry, described as the first such academic position in Israel and likely the first worldwide.[24]

Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid represented Ono’s engagement with emerging legal and technological questions at a 2023 webinar on international copyright issues and artificial intelligence.[2] Her presentation examined the effects of language and bias in generative AI on non-English-speaking countries and communities; attendance at the webinar reached nearly 2,000 people.[2] In another area of legal scholarship, Dr. Avi Beker taught international law at Ono in 2014 while also lecturing in Tel Aviv University’s master’s program in diplomacy.[25] His earlier public service included membership of Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and service as secretary general of the World Jewish Congress.[25]

International academic contacts included a planned 2017 meeting between Ono’s leadership and a delegation of United States university presidents visiting Israel to exchange ideas about innovation and learning and explore bilateral collaboration.[26] In January 2018, visiting American university and college presidents held working meetings with Ono administrators and representatives of other Israeli institutions to learn about curricula, techniques and procedures.[27] Participants included Georgia State University president Mark Becker and leaders from California State University Northridge, Hunter College, New College of Florida, San Jose State University and Wake Forest University.[27]

Ono is also listed as an external academic organization in the network associated with Ben-Gurion University’s Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences.[28] Its publishing activity includes Yaron Zelekha’s English-language book The Macroeconomics of Corruption, issued in Kiryat Ono in 2013.[29] The 186-page volume includes bibliographical references.[29]

The Savion Junction campus opened in July 2023.[7] Plans announced in 2021 had envisaged combining the Kiryat Ono campus with the ultra-Orthodox campus in Or Yehuda in a development covering 13 dunams, with academic facilities, student dormitories and offices.[30] The project, developed with Tidhar Real Estate Group and Harel Finance Group, carried an estimated cost exceeding NIS 750 million.[30]

A related 2021 description of the Savyon Junction development specified approximately 32,000 square meters for the college and about 7,000 square meters of student housing containing 200 residential units.[31] The plans also included office and retail space and a park, and the college had signed a 25-year lease.[31] These details were announced as part of a project intended to replace its existing campuses in the Ono Valley.[31]

In Jerusalem, a 2022 development in the Talpiot neighborhood was intended to unite the city’s general and ultra-Orthodox campuses.[32] The three-story building was described as covering approximately 13,000 square meters and costing NIS 140 million.[33] It was expected to serve around 4,000 students and offer 20 programs in law, education and business administration, including information systems, marketing and other technology subjects.[33] Plans included prayer spaces for all religions and programs encouraging interaction, alongside arrangements allowing different communities to maintain their cultural identities and religious practices.[32]

The Central Library is listed at 2 Nahar Hayarden Street, Kiryat Ono, postal code 5510701.[34] Ono undergraduates and staff may qualify for a free home-loan subscription at the National Library of Israel, subject to presenting a letter of guarantee from their academic institution.[35]

Following the October 7 attacks, Ono established a multidisciplinary trauma center drawing on rehabilitation, nursing, occupational therapy, sports therapy, art therapy and drama therapy.[13] Its staff began working in hotels housing evacuees on October 8, and the college temporarily accommodated approximately 350 displaced people in student dormitories.[13] A 2024 profile reported that 24 Ono students and alumni had been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, dozens had been injured and hundreds had served in military reserve duty.[6]

In October 2023, a threat actor calling itself “Malek Team” carried out a hack-and-leak operation against the college.[36] The operation exposed multiple items of personally identifiable and sensitive information and caused some interference with college services.[36]

Gender-separated study arrangements in Ono’s Haredi programs have attracted public criticism.[1] Hartman defended culturally sensitive programs as necessary to attract students who might otherwise not pursue higher education, including Haredi women.[1][8] The disagreement concerns an important feature of the college’s access model: providing religiously accommodating study environments while responding to objections to separation between women and men.[1]