The Israel Society for History & Philosophy of Science was established in 1999, by leading scholars in the field, representing each of the university graduate programs in the field: Bar Ilan University, Ben Gurion University, Haifa University, The Hebrew University, and Tel Aviv University. The founding President of the society was Prof. Menachem Fisch, working with his colleagues Profs. Rivka Feldhai, Yemima ben Menachem, Itamar Pitowsky, Giora Hon, and Leo Corry, all scholars of international reputation. In 2004, Dr. Noah Efron, Chair of the Graduate Program in Science, Technology & Society at Bar Ilan University, was elected to succeed Prof. Fisch.

The aims of the organization, initially, were modest. The primary goal of the society, in the first stages, was to bring together the many different historians and philosophers of science in Israel. It is a small country, but there is a surprising variety of research and teaching in the field, and too little communication between people working in different places and in different sub-fields. With time, this core group has expanded in number and in range of interests, including now sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, etc., who study science, medicine and technology. There are now just under 50 full-time scholars in these fields, spread through all of Israel’s universities and many of its colleges.

This large group is growing quickly. At present, there are more than three hundred and fifty students pursuing advanced degrees in the field, making it one of the most popular (and vibrant) fields in the Israeli academy.

The society aims to reach beyond the hundreds of scholars who study science, medicine and technology for a living. We seek as well to be a resource and home for the many others with a lively interest in these things, and especially their place in Israeli society: working scientists, of course, but also policy-makers, amateur historians, teachers, and others.

Another goal of the society is to ensure that professional historians and philosophers of science in Israel remain aware, not just of each other (itself no easy accomplishment), but also of our colleagues abroad. We hope to facilitate exchange on all sorts of levels; by encouraging our members to participate in international conferences, by inviting scholars from abroad, perhaps by organizing formal "exchange programs" of faculty and graduate students and by participating in international organizations. We wish to promote here in Israel a greater awareness of what is happening in HPS in the wide world, and to promote abroad a greater awareness of what is happening in HPS in Israel. This greater mutual awareness, we hope, will also lead to richer collaborations between scholars in Israel and abroad.

Still another goal, and perhaps our most important one, is to encourage our colleagues to study the development of Israeli science. The place of science in Israeli society has been exquisitely complicated since before the state existed, for reasons that you can probably imagine. Israeli scientists have accumulated some extraordinary achievements. They have done so in an intricate web of political, ideological, and military circumstances. Because of its unique situation, Israeli science is a marvelous subject of study: a thousand doctorates remain to be written about it. We hope to help get these written.

In all these things, we hope that you’ll join us.