Last update - 00:00 04/01/2008
Nod to U.S. medical schools in Israel eases aliyah
American medical schools in Israel have finally received recognition from the Israeli Council for Higher Education (ICHE), a step that will allow its graduates to remain in Israel for their residencies.
Last year, AngloFile reported that graduates of the American programs at Tel Aviv University and the Haifa Technion, both of which are in the World Health Organization's World Directory of Medical Schools, were being forced to return to the U.S. to continue their training at hospitals there because of the lack of ICHE recognition, despite wanting to remain here and become Israeli citizens.
Most students in these programs return to the U.S. after graduation, but each year a small number decides to stay in Israel. While the American programs are not intended to be a conduit for aliyah, graduates say that in the past those who did want to stay on could do so. Last year, however, graduates say they were suddenly told they no longer had that option. "I feel like I was placed in handcuffs and forced on the plane," one medical student, who returned to the U.S. for his residency after he learned that he could not continue his studies in Israel, told AngloFile at the time. "I am an American who wants to make aliyah and I am very committed, but I feel like they are pushing me out."
Last year's policy meant that graduates of thes American programs in Israel, while accepted to hospitals affiliated with Harvard, Yale, Duke and UCLA, were ineligible for placement at Israeli hospitals.
ICHE spokesman Yair Barak said the recent decision came after a committee evaluated the schools and found that they "fit the Israeli criteria." The schools were approved in separate stages in 2007.
Representatives of the medical schools have welcomed the decision. "We're obviously very happy," said Dr. Louis Shenkman, a professor of medicine at Tel Aviv University and program director of the university's Sackler program for Americans. "Students who want to stay in Israel now have recourse." A Health Mininstry spokesperson confirmed the ICHE recognition and said that graduates of these programs must first complete their licensing exams, like other Israeli students, before they continue to residency.
If graduates of the two programs returned to the U.S. to complete their residency there, they will not have to take a licensing exam if they choose to practice in Israel at a later date, the spokesperson said.