Cooperation Between Israel
and the State of Maryland

Binational foundation grants shared by Maryland institutions:

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

American Red Cross
CAD Language Systems
Comsat Corp.
Endo Image Corp.
Frederick Cancer Research Center
Goddard Space Center
Johns Hopkins Medical School
Johns Hopkins University
Maryland Biotechnology Institute
MedStar Research Institute
NASA
National Cancer Institute
National Institute of Dental Research
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Mental Health
National Institute of Science & Technology
New Horizons Diagnostics
NOAA
Online Computer Systems
Orgenics International
University of Maryland
University of Maryland Medical School
USDA Agriculture Research Center
USDA-ARS Florist & Nursery Crops Lab
USDA-ARS Plant Molecular Biology Lab
USDA Beneficial Insects Lab
USDA Horticultural Crop Quality Lab
USDA Molecular Plant Pathology Lab
USDA Plant Molecular Biology Lab
USDA Systematic Entomology Lab
Uniformed Services University

Agreements with Israel

In May 1988, the Maryland-Israel Exchange was signed by Governor William Donald Schaefer. It was designed to develop and expand ventures in the fields of trade, tourism, science and technology, communications, agriculture, aquaculture and transportation. In 1992, the Maryland/Israel Development Center was established by the state of Maryland, the Israeli government, The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore and the Jewish Agency for Israel to create jobs in Maryland and Israel by promoting trade and joint ventures.

In November 2003, Governor Bob Ehrlich announced the formation of the Maryland/Israel Homeland Security Partnership. The partnership will allow homeland security professionals from Maryland and Israel to share “best practices” used to respond to terror threats. In 2005, the partnership involved exchanges of homleand security officials and economic development opportunities. Maryland also hosted an international US-Israel Critical Infrastructure Security Conference

Also, in 2003, a new program was initiated between the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) and the US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development fund (BARD) for joint research.*

In December 2004, Israel Maryland launched the $1 million Maryland/Israel Development Fund. Each side will contribute $500,000 in grants to companies jointly developing products in the areas of telecommunications, electronics, software, life sciences and homeland security.

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 state and national level. Many states have recognized the opportunity for realizing significant benefits by increasing trade with Israel. In fact, 22 states have agreements with Israel for cooperation in areas such as agriculture, economic development, communications and transportation.

In May 1988, the Maryland-Israel Exchange was signed by Governor William Donald Schaefer. It was designed to develop and expand ventures in the fields of trade, tourism, science and technology, communications, agriculture, aquaculture and transportation.

In 1992, the Maryland/Israel Development Center was established to create jobs in Maryland and Israel by promoting trade and joint ventures. Its success is reflected by the fact that the value of exports to Israel since 1996 exceeds $459 million. In addition, Maryland companies received $48,475,377 in 2006 for U.S. government-funded military contracts with Israel through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program (U.S. military assistance to Israel). In 2007, Maryland exports exceeded $81 million. Israel is now Maryland's 22nd leading trade partner.

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

Israel, for example, has developed a number of pioneering education programs. One, the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters, has been praised by President Clinton as “the best preschool program on earth” and replicated throughout the country, including several counties in Maryland.

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 the State of Maryland is limited only by the imagination.

Maryland Firms Profit From Business With Israel

Because of Israel's unique status as the only country with free trade agreements with both the United States and the European community, it 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 and Intel have found that it is indeed profitable to do business in Israel.

More than 80 Maryland firms, including Motorola, Black & Decker and Westinghouse, have made similar discoveries.

Other companies have entered into joint research and development projects with the help of grants from the Binational Research and Development Foundation (BIRD). BIRD funds projects in 33 states and the District of Columbia. The United States and Israel established BIRD in 1977 to fund joint product development teams in the high-tech field, typically sharing costs. Grants are paid back, with interest, if revenues are shown from the R&D project. Products developed from these ventures have netted sales of more than $8 billion in each country, tax revenues of more than $700 million in both countries and created an estimated 20,000 American jobs.

BIRD provides grants for the development and subsequent commercialization of innovative, nondefense technological products from which both the Israeli and American company can expect to derive benefits commensurate with the investments and risks. Most grant recipients are small businesses involved with software, communications, medical devices and semiconductors.

Since its inception, BIRD has funded more than 740 joint high-tech R&D projects through conditional grants totaling more than $210 million. Several Maryland companies have benefited from BIRD grants, including Comsat, New Horizons Diagnostics and Online Computer Systems. Grants shared by Maryland companies have totaled nearly $1.5 million.

Other business ventures have been the result of trade missions sponsored by the Maryland/Israel Development Center. As a result of one, Morton Management, Inc. of Silver Spring developed a new relationship with Y.A.D. Computers. The Center also played a role in putting together another Silver Spring company, COMSIS Corp., with Eyal Dani Ltd. of Israel to market a unique in-vehicle automated data collection device for the elderly and handicapped transportation market. It also helped Lee L. Dopkin/Standard Plumbing Supply of Baltimore arrange to sell plumbing fixtures designed and manufactured by Israel's Hamat Fittings Ltd.

Maryland businesses invest about $70 million a year in Israel, and 18 Israeli companies have their offices in the state. In November 2003, Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. announced that Oblicore, an Israeli business software development company planned to expand its U.S. operations by opening a headquarters in Columbia, creating dozens of new jobs in the state. Another Israeli company, Medispec, which has developed a new technique for using shock waves to break up kidney stones, planned to open an office in Germantown.

Governor Ehrlich and Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Ehud Olmert discussed establishing Israel’s first international R&D fund at the sub-national level during Governor Ehrlich’s trade mission to Israel. Israel has international R&D funds at the national level with 20 countries including the United States. In July 2005, the Maryland/Israel Development Fund (MIDF) was established to foster job creation through the growth of companies selling technological products developed jointly by Maryland/Israel company teams.

The MIDF is a joint project of the Maryland/Israel Development Center (MIDC), Maryland’s Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), and the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) of Israel’s Ministry of Industry and Trade. The $5,000,000 five year fund will make investments between $100,000 and $300,000 in Maryland/Israel company teams collaborating on new product development joint ventures.

The program is valuable for companies seeking to leverage their technical and marketing talent by partnering with a complementary business. It will also help companies expand into international markets. Investments may range from $100,000 to $300,000, half from DBED for the Maryland company and half from MOIT for the Israeli firm. The Maryland/Israel Development Fund has limited financial resources. Investment decisions will be made on a competitive basis. The funds can only be used for the R&D expenses of the project. Company matching funds are required, equal to a minimum of fifty percent of total project costs. For products successful in the market, investments will be repaid with interest.

During a November 2005 trade mission, Lt. Governor Michael Steele announced the formation of the Maryland/Israel Incubator Partnership under which incubators in each country will welcome each other's companies and provide up to six months free office space. The Emerging Technology Center in Baltimore and the Misgav Technology Center in the Galilee are the first incubators to participate in the program; four additonal Maryland and Israeli incubators will soon join the program.

Scientific Innovations

Institutions in Maryland have shared with counterparts in Israel more than $10.1 million in grants awarded by the Binational Science Foundation (BSF) since 1987, the third highest total of any state. 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 in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Maryland institutions that have benefited from the program include the Fredrick Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute for Mental Health and the National Institute for Standards and Technology. Researchers have been awarded grants in life sciences, physics, chemistry and mathematics.

Dr. Laure Aurelian, a virologist in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland, is interested in research related to skin cells that appear to protect the body from infection and cancer. Working with a collaborator at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Dr. Aurelian hopes to learn how to stimulate responses from dendritic cells to prevent disease.

Cooperation is valuable on a number of levels, according to Dr. Aurelian. One is that her Israeli colleague is one of the few people in the world interested in the type of cell she is studying. She also has a personal attachment, having grown up in Israel. “I also genuinely believe Israel has a powerful cadre of intellectuals who have trouble contributing because of financial constraints.” Dr. Aurelian believes she and her collaborator have made greater progress together than they could have alone, and that their work has stimulated younger researchers to conduct similar studies.

By studying protein molecules in fruit flies, Craig Montell of Johns Hopkins Medical School, and his Israeli partner hope to learn more about human vision. Dr. Montell has characterized a previously unknown protein that is important in visual transection.

A biochemist at the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology at the University of Maryland has the opportunity to study organisms unique to the Dead Sea thanks to his BSF grant. Dr. John Moult is interested in the properties of protein molecules, the understanding of which is crucial to the future development of medicines. Moult is looking at organisms that survive in high salt conditions and testing a computer model that helps explain differences in organisms.

Researchers Joseph Kost from Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva, Robert Langer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and Henry Brem from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore are all researching this project together. Using a group of molecules that combines to form a polymer, a timed release of a drug was developed. Langer and Brem saw the possibility of a polymer as a "remote control" device for the controlled release of drugs. The same idea has been developed for the use of women's birth control and brain cancer treatment.

Professor Ilana Gozes at Tel Aviv University, along with Douglas E. Brenneman at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda used a BSF grant to research the effects of a neuropeptide called VIP (Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide) found in neurons on different areas of the brain. Neuropeptides transmit information related to many body functions, including: learning, memory and aging, sexual function and brain development. They are linked to conditions such as gastric diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis and arthritis.

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 no less than 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.

Agriculture Benefits

The Binational Agricultural Research And Development Foundation (BARD) was created in 1978 with equal contributions by the United States and Israel. 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.

Two of the major beneficiaries have been the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Beltsville. Overall, Maryland has shared more than $9.3 million worth of grants since 1987, fourth most of any state.

Israel is such a small country, the whole state can sometimes be a laboratory. Also, unique institutions like kibbutzim allow for controlled experiments. Richard Just of the University of Maryland, for example, was able to develop a data set from Israeli moshavim (a type of agricultural cooperative) to create econometric models for estimating efficient agricultural production. The model has been used to make estimates for growing tomatoes, peppers, onions and other crops.

John McMurty of ARS worked with the Israeli Agricultural Research Organization to develop techniques to stimulate growth in broiler chickens and turkeys. The approach they developed increases feed efficiency and reduces fat in the birds. “The result is the farmer saves money on feed and the consumer gets a leaner bird,” he said.

Researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Israel's Kimron Veterinary Institute and the University of Alabama developed a vaccine that protects pregnant sheep from Rift Valley Fever. The vaccine can help protect animals in Africa, where RVF is common, as well as cattle in the United States.

Working with Hebrew University scientists who pioneered solarization techniques that protect and boost yields in a variety of fruits, nuts and vegetables, Deborah Fravel of the ARS is looking for ways to cover crops for shorter periods and with less fumigants. Fravel enjoys the collaboration and benefits from her counterpart's years of experience. “He sees things I haven't,” she says, “and that makes me think.”

Another ARS researcher, Roger Lawson, is one of the few American scientists doing research on ornamental flowers. He received two BARD grants to work with the Volcani Institute to develop a better understanding of viruses in gladiolas and lilies. The floral industry in the United States, Lawson says, is about $9 billion and gladiolas is approximately fifth on the list of flowers sold. In Florida alone, gladiolas are a $14 million industry. The research helped make it possible to develop more sensitive tests to detect viruses in the flowers. Because ornamental flowers are a big industry in Israel and scientists there share his interest, Lawson found the collaboration a natural.

In 2003, the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) and BARD established a framework for conducting collaborative aquaculture research between UMBI and Israeli scientists – the UMBI/BARD Program. A year later, it was announced that the collaboration will study and develop new environmentally sustainable and economically feasible aquaculture technologies and explore new aveneues for the production of marine natural compounds with pharmaceutical potential. The program was initiated by the Maryland/Israel Development Center and the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture. Each government originally agreed to provide $250,000 annually for three years to fund the project, which will be administered by UMBI and BARD. During his November 2005 visit to Israel, Lt. Governor Michael Steele announced the program would be funded for another three years.

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. 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.

Other Cooperative Programs

The Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt and Ben Gurion have worked on several joint projects related to Satellite-ranging systems and the study of atmospheric and surface properrties in the desert.

In 1998, Elron Electronic Industries, a holding company for Israeli high-tech firms, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Maryland to collaborate on the study of emerging Internet technologies for conducting business. Israel will now be a partner in the Institute for Global Electronic Commerce at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Also in 1998, the University of Maryland School of Nursing and Hadassah announced a partnership to develop and offer a clinical masters degree program in nursing at the Henrietta Szold Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Nursing in Jerusalem. This will be the first masters degree program in nursing offered in Israel.

In 1999, the University of Maryland in Baltimore created the Maryland/Israel Visiting Fellows Program in Biotechnology. The program is designed to build and encourage ties between the bioscience communities of Maryland and Israel. Fellowships will be offered to qualified Israelis at the M.D. and Ph.D. levels to conduct collaborative research at Maryland biotech research institutions.

In 2000, the University of Maryland business school is offering a course, High Technology Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Israel's Technion.

The University of Baltimore Law School is collaborating with the University of Haifa in offering a summer study abroad program in 2000 with courses offered comparing the U.S., Israeli and other legal systems.

The United States-Israel Educational Foundation (USIEF) and the Maryland/Israel Development Center (MIDC) offer a joint grant to a postdoctoral scholar in the natural sciences who is about to begin a program of research at an accredited university, or at a public or private, nonprofit research institute in the State of Maryland. The program grant provides $20,000 in partial support of the recipient's first year of activity Maryland.

UJA Partnership 2000 Communities:

Baltimore Carmiel-Misgav

Greater Washington Beit Shemesh-Adullam

Hillel Campus Profiles

State Contacts

Baltimore Jewish Council
2701 North Charles St., #510
Baltimore, MD 21218
Tel. 410-542-4850

Baltimore Zionist District
3723 Old Court Rd., #200
Baltimore, MD 21208
Tel. 410-602-1200

Board of Jewish Education
11710 Hunters Lane
Rockville, MD 20852
Tel. 301-984-4455
Fax. 301-230-0267

CRC
6101 Montrose Rd., #205
Rockville, MD 20852
Tel. 301-770-0881
Fax. 301-770-7553

JCC of Greater Washington
6125 Montrose Rd.
Rockville, MD 20852
Tel. 301-881-0100

Jewish Federation of Howard County
5885 Robert Oliver Pl
Columbia, MD 21045-3734
Tel. 410-730-4976

The Jewish Historical Society of Maryland
15 Lloyd St.
Baltimore, MD 21202

Jewish National Fund (JNF)
8607 Second Ave., Suite 404A
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Tel. 301-589-8565

Jewish National Fund (JNF)
4 Reservoir Circle, #104
Baltimore, MD 21208
Tel. 410-486-3317

Barry Bogage
Director
Maryland/Israel Development Center
217 East Redwood St., #1300
Baltimore, MD 21202
Tel. 410-767-0681
Fax. 410-333-4302
Email. mdisrl@clark.net
Web. http://marylandisrael.org/

Steve Rhodes, Co-Director
Todd Dollinger, Co-Director
Maryland Office of Economic Development
Trendlines International Ltd.
Moshav Shorashim, Israel
Tel. 04-958-3323
Fax. 04-958-3325
Email. todd@trendlines.com, steve@trendlines.com

UJA Federation of Greater Washington
6101 Montrose Rd.
Rockville, MD 20852
Tel. 301-230-7200