Israeli Astronomical Association

Dr Zaichik was the first chairman of the association and kept his position for many years until his retirement due to personal health matters.

The decision to make the association national was made in 1953 in the chamber of David Ben-Gurion, the country's prime minister, in order to promote astronomical knowledge and related science fields in the newly formed state of Israel.

In 1953 the association built an observatory in the suburb of Talabia in Jerusalem and started branching all over the country—Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Haifa and the Galilee.

Currently the association does not have the resources to maintain the battle and neither the observatory nor the planetarium in Givat Ram do function in their designated purposes.

Giv'atayim was the choice of preference due to the height of the place allocated for the observatory, far above the sea level and in distance from its humidity (relative to the surroundings at the time).

The activities of the association are financed by membership fees (as for the year 2014, membership fees are 100 NIS per year), incomes raised from the activities and from time to time it is also supported by the ministry of science and other donating bodies (the most recent is the Pelephone company on 1999).

The two prominent divisions are: Nowadays, only Ofer Gabzo holds the relevant knowledge inside the association.