Dateline Jerusalem – The list of Nobel Prize winners is out, and again the tiny country of Israel, whose entire population of 8 million is less than the cities of New York and Tokyo, has distinguished itself among the recipients.  Three of the joint winners, in the fields of Chemistry and Physics, have Israeli citizenship.  They had attended, taught, or did research at Israeli universities. 

Those of us who live in Rehovot  are especially proud.  The Weizmann Institute of Science, one of the several distinguished universities in our small community, is linked to two of the three professors jointly sharing the prize for chemistry. Both men have Israeli citizenship, one has his Ph.D from Weizmann and the other was a post-doctoral scholar at Weizmann.  According to the winners, their discovery actually occurred in 1975 at Weizmann, but it took all these years to prove it.  This year's Nobel Prize in chemistry is not a first for the Weizmann Institute.  In 2009, a female professor at Weizmann won the coveted Nobel Prize in chemistry.

This year's co-recipient for the Nobel Prize in Physics is a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University.  He was originally from Belgium and is a Holocaust survivor. The Technion in Haifa is the home to 2011's Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. This year's third joint winner in chemistry also has ties to Israel.  He has a daughter who lives in Jerusalem. 

Rehovot is the home to the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  Both Weizmann and Hebrew U. were rated iamong the top 100 universities in the world.  Rehovot's Kaplan Hospital is a teaching hospital for Hebrew U.'s Medical School and also has a nursing school.  There is Peres College, named for the former Prime Minister and current President of Israel, as well as several smaller colleges. Rehovot also is known for its Tamar Science Park, home to some of the world's leading bio-tech and high-tech companies.  The area is known as Israel's Silicon Valley.  Not bad for a small city of 125,000.  No wonder Rehovot is called the City of Science and Culture. 

Look Who Is Coming

China is so impressed with Israeli knowledge and achievement, especially in technology, it entered into agreements with Tel Aviv University to establish a new Center for Sciences there, and with The Technion in Haifa to establish a Technion branch in China.  Over the years, they, too, have ranked in the top 100 universities of the world.  Chinese students will be attending Israeli universities, have joint research ventures, and receive training for its professors in Israel.

Although Israeli education is world renowned, its academics are leaving Israel for America's higher salaries and research budgets.  Both of this year's Israeli winners of the Nobel Prize in chemistry made their prize-winning discoveries in Israel but completed their proof in the States.  The cost of living in Israel is high, and salaries are one-quarter of those in the U.S. When I first moved to Israel, I was shocked at the meager salary I received working for an American company outsourcing its work in Israel.  My salary was what I had paid the receptionist in my law office in the States. The Israel National Brain Gain Program was established to combat the brain drain of Israeli academics.  A guaranteed standard of living is one of its goals.

Although Jews comprise only 0.2 percent of the world population, 22 percent of Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish.  Could it be that those who want the world to divest itself from Israeli academic institutions are jealous of their achievements and alumni?

L'hitraot.  Shachar