2001

​The International School was founded with the generous donation of Dina, Udi and Michael Recanati and bears the name of the family patriarch, the late Raphael Recanati z”l. The school realizes Prof. Uriel Reichman’s vision to establish an international university.

The school was formed during the Second Intifada and met exceeding difficulties in its early days, but over the years it has been recognized as the first higher-education institution in Israel to offer fully-rounded undergraduate and graduate programs in English.

The school’s singularity derives from its innate integration of academic excellence and Zionist values, and the aspiration to strengthen the bond between Israel and the Diaspora.

The majority of the students attending the International School are foreign students, who have chosen IDC Herzliya as the best place possible through which to experience and become familiar with Israel.

While in its early days the school numbered only a few dozen students, over the years the student body has steadily grown in numbers.

The school is headed by IDC Herzliya's Vice President for External Relations, Mr. Jonathan Davis.

​IDC Herzliya operates several unique innovation and entrepreneurship programs that reflect its enterprising character and offer studentsthe tools to turn their ideas into reality. One of these programs is the Zell Entrepreneurship Program, generously founded by renowned American businessman Sam Zell.

For the past decade, the program has been headed by Executive Director Adv. Liat Aaronson. The program includes outstanding students from all the various schools, who undergo a rigorous screening process ahead of an intenseyear during which they learn to develop new initiatives.

Alongside the unique curriculum, each project is headed by a highly-experienced business mentor.

It has been thirteen years since the Zell Program was launched and 40% of its graduates have gone and formed their own startups, formed own startups, including, LabPixies, Wibbitz, Bizzabo, Wibiya, The Gifts Project, Formlabs, Feex and PicScout, with financing rounds

or exit amounting to $200 million overall. Some 40 of the program’s graduates are CEOs of leading Internet companies.

​As an academic institution emphasizing the values of freedom, social responsibility, entrepreneurship and excellence, IDC Herzliya encourages its students to pursue extracurricular activities and initiatives outsid school, to enhance their involvement in the community and improve Israeli society.

Since IDC Herzliya’s inception, this spirit of entrepreneurship has manifested in many ways, from student-promoted high-tech projects, to dozens of activities for the community in the form of initiatives that are still being operated by IDC Herzliya students, long after those who set them in motion have graduated. Among these activities are the Debate Club, the MICS Seminar on international conflict resolution, the Model UN project, and more.

Another initiative created by students is the Entrepreneurship Club, which was established in order to encourage social and business entrepreneurship and to develop entrepreneurial abilities among undergraduate and graduate students. The club offers diverse programs for entrepreneurial development in various fields, including “StartUpClass”, business entrepreneurship programs in the fields of communications and television, and the Nitzanim program for business development in the ultra-Orthodox sector.

In addition, the club's activities include guest lectures by leading figures from business and technology.

​The master's programs at IDC Herzliya seek first and foremost to train professionals of the highest caliber. The programs balance theory and practice and are taught by some of the best professors and researchers, who teach at the top universities worldwide. The IDC's graduate programs expose the students to the global market and host world-renowned guest lecturers.

In 2001 IDC Herzliya was given the green light by the Council for Higher Education to introduce an MBA Program, which offers students advanced business administration studies, and has since become IDC Herzliya’s flagship M.A. program.

A world-renowned faculty at Arison School of Business was recruited to ensure the program’s high standards from its very first year. The head of the program was Prof. Eli Berkowitz, who was a professor at the University of Michigan. IDC's innovative MBA programs continue to evolve and are constantly updated to adapt to changing realities.

The Arison School of Business is a longtime partner of the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania; this partnership includes

an MBA student exchange program and a joint strategic counseling program for the Global MBA degree.

Over the years more M.A. programs have opened in various fields, and there are currently over 1,000 students in IDC Herzliya’s M.A. programs.