​Eli Landau

In the 25th year of IDC Herzliya (Reichman University), we sat down with our partners to hear from them how it all began.

Eli Landau, former Mayor of Herzliya, was one of the first to believe in Prof. Reichman's vision of establishing an international university in Herzliya. It seemed natural to him for the location of the university to be Herzliya, which was named for the visionary of the state, Theodor Herzl. Landau’s enthusiastic support for the idea of founding an academic institution to serve as a home to students from Israel and around the world led to the establishment of IDC Herzliya on the remains of a site once used as a military base. Today, Landau tells us, "IDC, first of all, elevated - not by one level, by several levels - the city of Herzliya. It gave the city clout. Today the city has clout. Herzliya has become a city in its own right, and this dimension was added to it by the university established by Uriel Reichman.”