Mannheim Bilha

Obituary for the late Prof. Emeritus Bilha Mannheim, 1929–9/2020

The late Bilha Mannheim was born in Germany in 1929 and immigrated to Israel with her family in 1936. In 1948, while still a student, she was recruited into the Women’s Corps, and she later served in the Communications Corps and as a sergeant for cultural affairs.

In 1957, she received a PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana, USA. She joined the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management in 1960, when the graduate program in Behavioral Sciences and Management was established in that faculty. Bilha held the Yigal Alon Chair in Human Sciences and she worked at the Technion until her retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1997.

Bilha was one of the founders of the field of the sociology of work in Israel and one of the senior professors in this field in Israel. She wrote the first Hebrew book in this field: Hagorem ha’enoshi ba’avoda (The human factor in work), with Jay Yanai Tabb, published by Dvir and Am Oved (1965), which served as a textbook for many students for generations.

Her research dealt with the centrality of work, work values, women and men in the world of work, the conflict of career and family, and more. Her research had an impact on strengthening the status of women in the world of employment.

In 2003, Bilha Mannheim was awarded the Israel Prize for Sociology Research in recognition of her great contribution to the advancement of research in the field of the sociology of work and its social impact.

Bilha had many students who continued the research in the field of the sociology of work, among them Prof. Yitzhak Samuel and Prof. Zehava Rosenblatt – Haifa University, Prof. Daniel Jacobson – Tel Aviv University, Prof. Emeritus Uzi De Haan, the Technion, and Prof. Emerita Naomi Carmon, in the field of the sociology of urban planning, at the Technion.

Bilha held many positions in the faculty at the Technion and in Israel in academic, civil and public fields. Her positions at the Technion included Dean of the Faculty, Commissioner for Student Complaints, initiator and holder of the first position in Israel of coordinator of the status of women at the Technion (1987), a position that was later adopted by all institutions of higher education in Israel.

At national level, Bilha was active in both the academic and civil spheres. Bilha was a member of the women’s pension review on behalf of the Ministry of Labor and a member of the committee for policy on training senior employees in public administration on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office. For many years she was a member of the committee for the appointment of professors at colleges on behalf of the Council for Higher Education, a member of the board of trustees of the University of Haifa and of the academic councils of Jezreel College and Ort Braude College in Karmiel.

She was also a member of the editorial board of the journal Sociology of Work and Occupations and a member of professional associations in Israel: The Israeli Sociological Society, the Israeli Industrial Relations Research Association, and abroad, the American Sociological Association, the American Academy of Management and the International Sociological Association. Bilha was a guest at a number of universities in the world – University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, as well as the University of Technology, Sydney.

After her retirement from the Technion until her death, she was active in the Society for the Blind in Haifa and was also awarded the title of “exemplary woman” in Haifa.

For us, the students who grew up in her presence, she served as a revered model combining values, thoroughness, basing scientific truth on research data, standing by principles and loving others.

Bilha was married to the late Prof. Chaim Mannheim, of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, and is survived by two daughters, a son and grandchildren.

May her memory be blessed.