Israeli College Expands $100M, Unites Jews and Arabs

When students from Pittsburgh and Israel exchanged places through a university program, nobody expected romance to bloom across continents.

But that's exactly what happened when a female engineering student completed her internship in Pittsburgh and met her future husband. Now she's expecting her second child, a happy accident of a partnership that continues to yield unexpected benefits.

Sarit Sivan, president of Braude College of Engineering in Karmiel, Israel, shared that story as an example of the deep ties between Pittsburgh and northern Israel. The connection runs through the Jewish Agency's Partnership2Gether program, which has facilitated exchanges between Braude and the University of Pittsburgh for 35 students on both sides.

Those students now work in Israel's thriving tech sector, including biotechnology, mechanical engineering, and food technology. Sivan visited Pittsburgh in late May to discuss the college's ambitious expansion and her life as both an engineer and a mother of three sons serving in the Israeli Defense Forces.

The $100 million expansion will add a new 25-acre campus and biotechnology engineering building to the college. The project will increase Braude's capacity by roughly 50 percent and includes a planned entrepreneur and innovation center that Sivan hopes will deepen connections between Karmiel and Pittsburgh.

Sivan knows firsthand the challenges of maintaining hope during difficult times. Her children have served on the Gaza and Lebanon borders for nearly a decade, and she wrote about the fear mothers face in a blog post for The Times of Israel earlier this year.

Work at the college provides her island of normalcy. "We are very hopeful," she said. "We are seeking peace."

The Ripple Effect

More than 11,000 alumni have graduated from Braude College, where Jews, Muslims, Druze and Christians study engineering together. The school serves as a living model of coexistence in Israel's Galilee region.

The expansion strengthens the Galilee as both an innovation hub and an economic engine for northern Israel. Students gain international experience through programs like the Pittsburgh exchange, preparing them to work as engineers anywhere in the world.

Sivan, who earned her doctorate from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and conducted postdoctoral research at Oxford University, helped develop materials for herniated discs and worked on projects helping aneurysm patients. She brings that bridge-building expertise between medicine and engineering to her leadership of the college.

The expansion project demonstrates the resilience of Israel's north and the power of education to unite diverse communities. In a region often defined by conflict, Braude College shows what happens when people from different backgrounds work together toward common goals.

One engineering internship led to a marriage and growing family, proof that building connections across borders creates ripples far beyond the classroom.