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State-to-State Cooperation:
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Trade and Population Statistics: top
| Exports to Israel in 2012: | $11,627,444.00 |
| Percentage change from 2011: | +6.59 |
| Israel's rank as trade partner: | 44 |
| Total exports since 1996: | $218,791,356.00 |
| Foreign Military Financing Contracts with Israel in 2012: | $707,524.81 |
| Jewish Population in 2011: | 13,890 |
| Jewish Percentage of Total Population: | 1.0 |
Binational foundation grants shared by Maine and Israel: top
| Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (1979-2010): | $0 |
| Binational Science Foundation (1996-2009): | $0 |
| Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (1977-2012): | $0 |
Grant recipients in Maine from U.S.-Israel binational foundations:
Ventrex Labratories Inc.
Bilateral Institutions top
None.
Cooperative Agreements - "Memoranda of Understanding" top
None.
Maine Government Missions to Israel top
July 1999 - Attorney General Andrew Ketterer joined eight other state attorneys general for a legal affairs mission to Israel. The participants in the mission went to explore U.S.-Israel cooperation in legal affairs and discussed issues including youth violence, the death penalty, and extradition laws.
Partners For Change top
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.
It is more difficult to devise programs that capitalize on the two nations' shared values than their security interests; nevertheless, such programs do exist. In fact, these SHARED VALUE INITIATIVES cover a broad range of areas, including the environment, science and technology, education and health.
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 33 states have cooperative agreements with Israel.
Maine does not yet have a formal partnership with Israel; nevertheless, in 2010, Maine exported over $11.2 million worth of manufactured goods to Israel. The total value of exports to Israel since 1996 exceeds $196 million. Israel now ranks as Maine's 42nd leading trade partner.
Additionally, Maine companies received more than $80,000 in foreign military aid from Israel through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program run by the US government. One such Maine-based company that got a contract through the FMF program is General Dynamic Armaments based in Saco.
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 Maine.
Israel has developed a number of pioneering education programs. For example, AICE introduced an innovative Israeli peer tutoring program to North Carolina that educators adapted for use in the United States. Now known as Reading Together, the program is used in 28 states. The program is designed to help students achieve reading fluency and is mostly used for children in second grade. The hope is that with its implementation, increasing numbers of students will perform at grade level or above.
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 Maine is limited only by the imagination.
Maine Firms Profit From Business With Israel top
One good way to break into the Israeli market is through a joint venture
with an Israeli company. Funding for such projects is available from
the Binational Industrial
Research and Development Foundation (BIRD). BIRD funds projects in 36 states and the District of
Columbia and hundreds of companies including AOL, GE, BP Solar, Texas
Instruments and Johnson & Johnson have benefitted from BIRD grants.
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 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, instrumentation, communications, medical devices
and semiconductors.
Since its inception, BIRD has funded more than 800
joint high-tech R&D projects through conditional grants totaling
more than $210 million. Products developed from these ventures have
generated more than $8 billion in direct and indirect revenues for both
countries and has helped to create an estimated 20,000 American jobs.
Dr. Eli Opper, the former Israeli chair of BIRD, has
said that BIRD is a strong pillar of US-Israel industrial
cooperation and that the extreme success of BIRD has
led Israel to adopt similar models of R&D with other countries.
As of yet, though, no Maine-based companies have succeeded in receiving any BIRD grants.
Scientific Innovations top
Researchers across the United States are making scientific breakthroughs and developing cutting-edge technologies in joint projects with Israeli scientists thanks to support from the Binational Science Foundation (BSF). BSF was established in 1972 to promote scientific relations and cooperation between scientists from the United States and Israel. The fund supports collaborative research projects in a wide area of basic and applied scientific field for peaceful and non-profit purposes. Since its inception, BSF has awarded some $480 million through more than 4,000 grants in 45 states and the District of Columbia.
BSF-sponsored studies are highly successful in achieving their two main goals: strengthening the US-Israel partnership through science and promoting world-class scientific research for the benefit of the two countries and all mankind. The BSF grants help extend research resources to achieve milestones that might not otherwise be attainable; introduce novel approaches and techniques to lead American researchers in new directions; confirm, clarify and intensify research projects; and provide unmatched access to Israeli equipment, facilities and research results that help speed American scientific advances. BSF has documented no less than 75 new discoveries made possible by its research grants and counts 37 Nobel Prize and 19 Lasker Medical Award laureates among its joint partners.
While no Maine institutions have taken the opportunity to fund projects through BSF grants, the opportunity is always available.
Agriculture Benefits top
In 1978 the United States and Israel jointly created the Binational
Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD)
to help fund programs between US and Israeli scientists for mutually
beneficial, mission-oriented, strategic and applied research into agricultural
problems. Since its inception, BARD has funded more
than 1,000 projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia with a
total investment of more than $250 million. In 2000, an independent
and external economic review of 10 BARD projects conservatively
projected more than $700 million in revenue by the end of 2010, a number
which far outweighs the total investment in all BARD projects over its 33 year existence and helps to continually strengthen
the foundation.
Most BARD projects focus on either increasing agricultural
productivity, plant and animal health or food quality and safety and
have been influential in creating 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 and at present is beginning to administer collaborative
efforts between Australia, Canada and Israel as well. 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.
No researchers in Maine have yet used BARD funds to support their research initiatives.
Other Cooperative Programs top
None.
Sister Cities: top
None.
UJA Partnership 2000 Communities:
None.
State Contacts: top
Hillel Campus Profiles
Jewish Federation of Lewiston-Auburn
74 Bradman St.
Lewiston-Auburn, ME 04210
Tel. 207-786-4201
Jewish Federation of Southern Maine
57 Ashmont St.
Portland, ME 04103
Tel. 207-773-7254
