Prof. Uriel Reichman

Professor Uriel Reichman is the founder of Reichman University, Israel's first private, non-profit university. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1942 to refugees from Nazi Germany. He served in the IDF Paratroopers from 1960 to 1963 and fought as a reserve commander in the Six Day War, the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War, in which his brother Gad was killed.

Reichman earned his LL.B. and LL.M. with honors from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a J.S.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1975. He became a professor of law at Tel Aviv University and served as Dean of its Faculty of Law from 1985 to 1990. In 1990 he founded Ramot Mishpat, Israel's first private law school operating without government subsidy.

In the mid-1980s he led the team that drafted a proposed constitution for Israel and chaired the Movement for a Constitution in Israel. In 1992 the Knesset turned parts of the proposal, including direct election of the prime minister, into Basic Laws. He co-founded the Shinui movement with Amnon Rubinstein and in 2006 was elected to the Knesset for Kadima. He resigned weeks later when the education portfolio he had been promised went to a coalition partner, and returned to academia.

In 1994 Reichman founded the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya with 240 students in the barracks of a former military base. Built on the values he called "freedom and responsibility" and on an interdisciplinary approach to educating future leaders, IDC grew despite strong opposition from the established universities. It pioneered programs in counterterrorism and entrepreneurship, launched an English-language international school that drew students from 87 countries, and hosts the annual Herzliya Conference.

In 2021 IDC became Israel's first private university and was renamed Reichman University in his honor. Reichman retired as president after 27 years and now serves as Founding President and Chairperson of the Board. He led the creation of the Dina Recanati School of Medicine, opened in 2025. His honors include the Israel Bar Association prize, the Tufts University Bendetson Public Diplomacy Award, and the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor.

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