Tel-Hai Opens Its First Academic Year as a University, and the Students Are Back

Tel-Hai University in Kiryat Shmona opened its first academic year this week as Israel's 11th research university, TPS reports. The news agency calls it a milestone in northern Israel's recovery after three years of war. The opening comes 21 years after the government's 2005 decision to turn Tel-Hai into a research university.

The students are coming back with it. TPS reports more than 5,000 students enrolled for the 2026-27 academic year, up from 4,700 last year and back to prewar levels. In the war's first year, when classes moved online, enrollment dropped to 4,400. The new number means the campus has more than made up that ground.

More than 70% of the students come from outside the Eastern Galilee, according to TPS. Each one brings youth and spending to a region rebuilding its communities after prolonged conflict. TPS reports the university's opening gives a boost to reconstruction efforts across the north.

The Times of Israel notes the new university sits near Israel's northernmost city and hopes to lift a war-battered region. Kiryat Shmona lies in Israel's Galilee, TPS reports, a region that has carried three years of war. Classes that moved online in the war's first year now have a full university standing behind them.

For families in the Galilee, a full campus means more than lecture halls. It means young people choosing to live, study and spend in a region that is rebuilding its communities. A decision made in 2005 has become a university in 2026, with students filling its classrooms. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." (Psalm 126:5)