The college was established under the academic auspices of
Bar-Ilan University. in 1970, established as a separate non-governmental organization in 2000, and was granted independent accreditation by Israel's Council of Higher Education in 2007. As of the 2007/8 school year, the college has begun independent academic study programs for a bachelor's degree in several tracks. Part of the Zefat Academic College campus includes the original building and grounds of the historic Rothschild-Hadassah Hospital. In the early 1900s,
Sender Trovitz and the leaders of Zefat persuaded the
Rothschild family to help finance the first modern Jewish-owned hospital in the city. Construction began in 1909 and the Rothschild hospital opened in 1912. That same year, the only previous source of inpatient care, the Scottish Hospital which was owned and staffed by Christian missionary physicians, closed its doors. The Rothschild Hospital served the residents of Zefat during the Typhus epidemics, food shortages and local skirmishes of
World War I. In 1919, the
Hadassah organization assumed responsibility for the hospital's operation. The hospital served the residents of Zefat and surrounding communities through Israel's 1948 War of Independence and until 1973, when the larger, new
Ziv Regional Hospital and Medical Center opened in the Southern part of the city. == The college ==