This week, a delegation on behalf of the U.S. embassy in Israel visited Machon Lustig, a center of academic studies for hareidi-religious women which is located in Ramat Gan and is one of the campuses of the Jerusalem College of Technology.

The purpose of the visit was to get to know the students and understand the impact they have had on technological developments in the defense industry and in major high-tech companies, both in Israel and around the world. The students at Machon Lustig recently developed a unique microchip for the aerospace defense industry, and have developed studies in many fields in high-tech.

One of the visitors was Dr. Ayanna Howard from the Georgia Institute of Technology who told Arutz Sheva, “Women and men each make up about 50% of the population, but when you look at the sciences that’s not equal, and in order to have a diverse culture you need to have representation that’s equal to the population.”

One of the things that made visiting Machon Lustig significant, she said, is the fact that the hareidi community “has some of the same issues in terms of encouraging women that have very strong family values but still look outside in terms of improving technology. And those two are not conflicting goals,” stressed Howard.

According to Stuart Hershkowitz, Senior Advisor to the President of the Jerusalem College of Technology, the visit proved that hareidi women “are fully capable of studying high-tech. We want to show them the potential, what can be done and what has been accomplished so far.”