At the end of 1933 he immigrated to Palestine. The following year he was appointed secretary to the Hebrew Language Committee (forerunner of the Academy of the Hebrew Language), working closely with committee head Hayim Nahman Bialik in the last months before that poet's sudden death. Ben-Haim lectured in the Hebrew language at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1948, becoming a full professor in 1955 and retiring in 1976.