Cooperation Between Israel
and the State of Illinois

Binational foundation grants shared by Illinois institutions:

Recipients of grants from U.S.-Israel binational foundations:

Agreements with Israel

In 1988, Gov. James Thompson signed a Memorandum of Intent that created the Illinois-Israel Initiative, which calls for projects of mutual economic benefit through improved trade, technology development, science, agriculture and tourism.

Partners For Change

The U.S.-Israel relationship is based on the twin pillars of shared values and mutual interests. Given this commonality of interests and beliefs, it should not be surprising that support for Israel is one of the most pronounced and consistent foreign policy values of the American people.

Today's interdependent global economy requires that trade policy be developed at the national and state level. Many states have recognized the opportunity for realizing significant benefits by seeking to increase trade with Israel.

No fewer than 23 states have cooperative agreements with Israel. In 1988, Gov. James Thompson signed a Memorandum of Intent that created the Illinois-Israel Initiative, which calls for projects of mutual economic benefit through improved trade, technology development, science, agriculture and tourism.

In 2007, Illinois exports to Israel exceeded $200 million, making Israel the State's 33rd largest trade partner. Since 1996, the total value of exports to Israel has exceeded $2.7 billion. The principal commodities exported were electrical and non-electrical machinery and transportation equipment. Illinois also received $11,772,470 in 2006 for military contracts with Israel using foreign military financing.

Israel is certainly a place where potential business and trade partners can be found. It can also be a source, however, for innovative programs and ideas for addressing problems facing the citizens of Illinois.

Israel, for example, has developed a number of pioneering education programs. One, the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), has been praised by President Clinton as “the best preschool program on earth” and replicated throughout the country, including Chicago and Park Forest.

A range of other exciting approaches to social problems like unemployment, environmental protection and drug abuse have been successfully implemented in Israel and could be imported for the benefit of Americans.

The potential for greater cooperation with Israel for the benefit of Illinois is limited only by the imagination.

Illinois Firms Profit From Business With Israel

As the only country with free trade agreements with both the United States and the European community, Israel can act as a bridge for international trade between the United States and Europe. Moreover, because of the deep pool of talent, particularly in high-technology areas, Israel provides excellent investment opportunities. Some of the nation's largest companies, such as IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Digital Equipment have found that it is indeed profitable to do business in Israel.

Roughly 200 Illinois companies have also discovered the benefits of trade with Israel. Several own interests in Israeli companies or have subsidiaries there, including American National Can Co., A Epstein & Sons International, Motorola, Bio-Logic Systems and Sara Lee.

Sara Lee, for example, has a minority interest in Delta Galil Industries, an underwear and sock manufacturer in Israel, and now distributes its clothing around the United States.

American National Can has for many years owned an interest in a company at a kibbutz near Haifa. Lageen Box Can Factory, Ltd. makes three-piece metal cans for fruits and vegetables.

High-tech giant Motorola has been in Israel for more than forty years. Some of the technologies developed by the company and now used worldwide, such as its fast, low-voltage 24-bit Digital Signal Multimedia Engine and Chipset for Fiber Optics Distribution Data Interface, originated in Israel.

The American-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Metropolitan Chicago (312-693-4800) provides information about trade opportunities and helps match Israeli and Illinois companies that are interested in cooperative ventures. One source of funds for such projects is the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD).

The United States and Israel established BIRD in 1977 to fund joint U.S.-Israeli teams in the development and subsequent commercialization of innovative, nondefense technological products. BIRD funds projects in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Most grant recipients are small businesses involved with software, instrumentation, communications, medical devices and semiconductors.

Several Illinois companies have benefitted from BIRD grants, including Amcol International, Molex, Inc., Motorola, Bio-Logic Systems, Display Technologies, Interactive Systems, Encyclopedia Britannica, Wheelabrator Technologies, Siemens Medical Systems and Zenith Electronics. Grants shared by Illinois companies have totaled nearly $2.7 million.

Gabriel Raviv of Bio-Logic said that his company has had two BIRD grants for joint ventures with its Israeli subsidiary to develop medical equipment. The most recent one resulted in the production of a new EEG product that has been doing so well the company will easily be able to repay the grant.

“BIRD helps lower the risk for projects,” Raviv noted, making it easier for companies like his to take chances on developing new products.

Since its inception, BIRD has funded more than 740 joint high-tech R&D projects through conditional grants totaling more than $210 million. Products developed from these ventures have generated sales of more than $8 billion, tax revenues of more than $200 million in the United States alone and created an estimated 20,000 American jobs.

Scientific Innovations

Institutions in Illinois have shared with counterparts in Israel more than $5.4 million in grants awarded by the Binational Science Foundation (BSF) since 1987. BSF was established in 1972 to promote research cooperation between scientists from the United States and Israel. It has awarded more than 3,000 research grants, involving more than 2,000 scientists more than 400 institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia. The Universities of Chicago and Illinois, Northwestern and Northern Illinois are among the grant recipients.

The University of Chicago's Ronald Harvey is collaborating with a “first-rate chemist” at Hebrew University to investigate a molecule suspected of being a carcinogen, and its relationship to hydrocarbons. The research may add to the understanding of the connection between sources of hydrocarbons like cigarette smoke and car exhaust and causes of cancer.

Another project with important implications for health is being conducted by Jim Grotberg at Northwestern. He and his collaborator are leading authorities on the fundamental mechanics of gas exchange in the lungs and the causes of wheezing and crackling sounds. Their research has laid the groundwork for understanding shortness of breath in people with asthma and emphysema. Grotberg does math modeling while his colleague at the Technion is an “outstanding” experimentalist in physiology. Their work has been especially useful in the development of treatments for infants with pulmonary problems.

James Norris of the Argonne National Lab and a Hebrew University colleague are using magnetic resonance to develop an understanding of the chemistry of photosynthesis. The significance of this work is clear, Norris explained, when you consider that food, coal, and petroleum are products of photosynthesis. The BSF grant has provided Norris with extra manpower for his lab and the opportunity to work with one of the world's experts in the use of liquid crystals.

Minerals & Refractories Ltd. (M&R) is an Israeli importer of refractories and ferro alloys to the heavy industry, as well as a consultant on the selection and application of these materials to the cement, fertilizers, oil refining, electric, and glass industries. M&R has been involved in engineering and installation of refractories in large scale projects in many of the heavy industries in Israel in which refractories are used. U.S.-based Vesuvius Corp. is one of the largest refractory manufacturers and suppliers in the world, as well as the largest monolithics producer in North America. The two companies jointly developed a complete integrative redesign of the refractory and insulating lining structure of various electrolysis cells and other vessels in the chemical industry. The project dealt simultaneously with the testing, development, selection and sometimes upgrade of highly durable refractory materials, as well as with structural and installation design of the lining. The project concept will be applied and tested first at the Dead Sea Magnesium (DSM) plant. The joint venture intends to offer its customers the on-going supply of relatively large, ready to install, pre-fabricated refractory lining building units of a cell, which will be engineered, cast, heat treated and delivered ready-to-install to the customer.

CMT Medical Technologies is an Israeli company specializing in digital radiography and digital fluoroscopy products. Illinois-based Richardson Electronics Ltd., (RELL) is a publicly held U.S. manufacturer of electronic components and subsystems for diagnostic medical imaging. The companies are collaborating to develop and market a product for upgrading medical X-ray radiography systems from film to state-of-the-art digital systems, based on flat panel detectors (FPDs). The upgraded system offers will offer all the advantages and performance of digital radiography, at a much lower price than completely new digital X-ray radiography systems.

The general benefits to the United States from BSF-sponsored studies include the extension and elaboration of research to achieve milestones that might not have been reached otherwise; the introduction of novel thinking and techniques that led American researchers to move in new directions; confirmation, clarification and intensification of research projects; access to Israeli equipment and facilities unavailable elsewhere and early access to Israeli research results that sped American scientific advances.

BSF documented 75 new discoveries that probably would not have been possible without foundation-supported collaboration. These advances included the development of new methods and techniques, the discovery of new phenomena and major theoretical breakthroughs.

A 1999 external economic review took an in depth look at 10 BSF projects. These 10 alone, produced aggregate benefits of $780 million, a figure four times the total expenditure of BARD since its inception (1978). The benefits accrue to the United States, to Israel and to both countries together.

In addition, Illinois companies received approximately $5,853,970 million in 2003 for U.S. government-funded military contracts with Israel through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program (U.S. military assistance to Israel).

Agriculture Benefits

The Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD) was created in 1978 with equal contributions by the United States and Israel. Its goal is to serve the research objectives of both nations and all projects must be of mutual benefit. Since its inception, BARD has funded more than 800 projects that have led to new technologies in drip irrigation, pesticides, fish farming, livestock, poultry, disease control and farm equipment. BARD funds projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia. In 2005, 28 projects were funded at 31 U.S. institutions. The Universities of Chicago and Illinois have received grants worth more than $4.7 million since 1987, with Illinois receiving the lion's share.

At Illinois, Harris Lewin is working on a project to identify genes in dairy cattle that control important traits like milk production. He calls the collaboration a "good marriage of expertise" between his work as an experimental geneticist and his colleague's quantitative research.

Another Illinois scientist interested in dairy cattle is starting his third BARD project. Sidney Spahr works in the only major U.S. program concerned with dairy automation. His first BARD grant involved the use of automation for data acquisition about cows, such as the measurement of milk yield. The second grant focused on integrating the data into a software management system. His current research focuses on the use of ultrasonics to develop a way of measuring a cow's body fat.

Spahr's work focuses on the biology of the problem, while the Israelis develop the technology. The collaboration is important because the United States has de-emphasized livestock engineering.

At the University of Chicago, Donald Steiner is studying growth hormones to see if they can be genetically engineered to grow fish faster for food. His collaborator is able to do things in her lab that Steiner can't, such as making the protein for use in the fish and analyzing the biological activity. “She works at the protein level,” he said, “and we're at the DNA/RNA level.”

A team of agricultural economists from the University of Maryland and University of California found that the economic benefits of just five projects-related to cotton, pecans and solarization-exceeded all U.S. investment in BARD. It is difficult to break down the impact on a state-by-state basis, but, overall, BARD-sponsored research has generated sales of more than $500 million, tax revenues of more than $100 million and created more than 5,000 American jobs.

The University of Illinois is also a member of the International Arid Lands Consortium, an independent nonprofit organization composed of four other universities, the U.S. Forest Service and the Jewish National Fund, which explores the problems and solutions of arid and semiarid regions. According to the director of the consortium, Israel is "by far the leading country" in the application of various technologies studied by the group.

Other Cooperative Programs

The University of Illinois is a member of the International Arid Lands Consortium.

UJA Partnership 2000 Communities:

Chicago Kiryat Gat-Lachish-Shafir

Hillel Campus Profiles

State Contacts

AIPAC
4801 W. Peterson Ave., #315
Chicago, IL 60646
Tel. 312-685-5595
Fax. 312-685-2130

America-Israel Chambers of Commerce
180 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 911
Chicago, IL 60601
Tel. 800-645-3433 or 312-641-2944
Fax. 312-641-2941
Email: aicc@interaccess.com

America-Israel Chamber of Commerce & Industry-Metropolitan Chicago
180 North Michigan Ave., #911
Chicago, IL 60601
Tel. 312-641-2937
Fax. 312-641-2941
Email. aicc@interaccess.com

Sherwin Pomerantz,  Director
American-Israel Chamber of Commerce/Chicago
c/o Atid EDI Ltd
Bldg. 2, Har Hotzvim, P.O. Box 45005
Jerusalem
Israel 91450
Tel. 2­571­0199
Fax. 2­571­0713
Email. atidedi@netvision.net.il

Elgin Area Jewish Welfare Chest
330 Division St.
Elgin, IL 60120
Tel. 708-741-5656

Sherwin Pomerantz, Representative
Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs
c/o Atid EDI Ltd
Building 2, Har Hotzvim
P O B 45005, 91450 Jerusalem
Tel. 02-571-0199
Fax. 02-571-0713
Email: sherwin@atid-edi.com
Web: http://www.atid-edi.com/illinois.htm

Israeli Consulate
111 E. Wacker Dr.
Chicago, IL 60611
Tel. 312-565-3300
Fax. 312-565-3871

Jewish Community Center of Chicago
5050 West Church St.
Skokie, IL 60077
Tel. 708-675-2200 x152

Jewish Federation
520 S 2nd St.
Springfield, IL 62701-1735
Tel. 217-753-1010

Jewish Federation of Champaign-Urbana
503 East John St.
Champaign, IL 61820
Tel. 217-367-9872

Jewish Federation Greater Rockford
1500 Parkview Ave.
Rockford, IL 61107-1821
Tel. 815-399-5497

Jewish Federation of Metro Chicago
1 S. Franklin
Chicago, IL 60606
Tel. 312-761-1000

Jewish Federation Of Peoria
5901 N Prospect Rd.
Peoria, IL 61614
Tel. 309-689-0063

Jewish Federation Quad Cities
209 18th St
Rock Island, IL 61201-8706
Tel. 309-793-1300

Jewish Federation Of South Illinois
6464 W Main St #-7A
Belleville, IL 62223-3811
Tel. 618-398-6100

Jewish Federation of Springfield
730 East Vine St.
Springfield, IL 62703
Tel. 217-528-3446