Cooperation Between Israel
and the State of Pennsylvania

Binational foundation grants shared by Pennsylvania institutions:

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

Allegheny Research Institute
Allegheny University of Health Science
Altec Lansing Technologies
Bryn Mawr
Bentley Systems Inc.
Carnegie-Mellon
Drexel
Ecogen Inc.
eV Products
Fore Systems, Inc.
Fox Chase Cancer Center
General Instrument Corp.
Hahnemann University
Haverford College
Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc.
Lemmon Company
MSA Company
Medical College of Pennsylvania
Monell Chemical Senses Center
Numar Corp.
ORBIT Advanced Technologies Inc.
PDQ Industries Inc.
Penn State
Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
Policrom Screens USA Inc.
Roy F. Weston Inc.
Schott Glass Technologies, Inc.
SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories
Solarex
Temple
Temple Medical School
Thomas Jefferson
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania Medical School
University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh Medical School
USDA Eastern Regional Research Lab
USDA Insect Attractants Research Lab
Vishay Intertechnology Inc.
Westinghouse Electric Corp.
Wistar Institute

Agreements with Israel

In May 1998, Gov. Tom Ridge led a technology trade mission to Israel and signed an agreement to create high-tech business incubators and family-sustaining jobs in Pennsylvania and Israel. The agreement will assist high-tech start-up firms by offering them low-cost or free office space; shared administrative services; development of targeted programs to stimulate joint ventures and research and development; investment banking and venture capital financing; marketing; networking and personnel recruiting. Pennsylvania also opened a trade office in Jerusalem.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher joined eight other attorneys general for a trip to Israel on July 14-22, 1999. 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.

Pennsylvania schools also have ongoing relationships with counterparts in Israel. Temple University in Philadelphia has a relationship with Tel Aviv University Law School, and Philadelphia’s Drexel University has a presence in Israel as well.

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.

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 such as the environment, energy, space and health.

Today's interdependent global economy requires that trade policy be developed at the national and state level. Many states are realizing significant benefits by increasing trade with Israel. No fewer than 23 states have cooperative agreements with Israel, including Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania exports to Israel reached almost $185 million in 2007. The total value of exports since 1996 has exceeded $1.6 billion. In addition, Pennsylvania companies received $13,956,257 in 2006 for U.S. government-funded military contracts with Israel through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program (U.S. military assistance to Israel). Israel is now the State's 25th leading trade partner.

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 Pennsylvania.

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 Pittsburgh.

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 Pennsylvania is limited only by the imagination.

Pennsylvania 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, Motorola, Intel and National Semiconductor have found that it is indeed profitable to do business in Israel.

More than 350 Pennsylvania companies have also discovered the benefits of trade with Israel. Several own interests in Israeli companies or have subsidiaries there, including Ecogen, Kulicke & Soffa Industries and Vishay Intertechnology.

The Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce provides information about trade opportunities and helps match Israeli and Pennsylvania 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 from which both the Israeli and American company can expect to derive benefits commensurate with the investments and risks. 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.

Sixteen Pennsylvania companies have benefitted from BIRD grants, including Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Ecogen, General Instrument Corp. and PDQ Industries. Grants shared by Pennsylvania companies have totaled nearly $4 million.

Ecogen Inc. is an agricultural biotechnology company specializing in the development and marketing of biological products to control plant pests and pathogens. The company received a BIRD grant to work with its subsidiary, Ecogen Israel Partnership, on the development of a new fungal agent to protect grapes, ornamental flowers and grapes. The product is now awaiting final EPA approval.

"BIRD brought together the resources of Israelis and Americans and expedited the research and development of the product," said John McIntyre, Ecogen's vice president of business development. "The grant enhanced the rate of technology transfer."

Orbit Advanced Technologies used a BIRD grant for a joint venture with its Israeli subsidiary to develop an automatic near-field antenna measurement system. The project combined the Israeli company's hardware manufacturing with the American side's expertise in software design.

“BIRD made the bridge between the two companies quicker and more economical,” according to Orbit President Yossi Harlev. “The grant also softened the risk of undertaking the project. Since you don't always know ahead of time if a product will succeed, BIRD made the project economical.” Harlev said the product was finished a year ago and the company is already beginning to pay back the grant from its profits.

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 Pennsylvania have shared with counterparts in Israel nearly $3.8 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 grants, involving scientists from more than 400 institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia. Drexel, Carnegie-Mellon, Temple, Bryn Mawr, Hahnemann, Haverford, Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania are among the grant recipients.

Charles Swindell, a chemist at Bryn Mawr University is working with a pharmacologist in Israel to develop a better understanding of the way a new anti-tumor drug called Taxol works. Currently, the drug is used to treat ovarian tumors, but Swindell noted that evidence suggests it may also help people with tumors in the lung and breast. “By better understanding Taxol,” Swindell says, “it may be possible to assist in the future development of more effective drugs to treat tumors.” He called the project a “truly collaborative one, where neither piece could be done without the other.”

At Carnegie-Mellon, physicist James Russ has been working for two years with a colleague at Tel Aviv University to develop equipment that will precisely measure the energy of photons that comes from atomic debris. One practical application may be to improve the precision of devices that are difficult to calibrate, such as CAT scanners. "This is a real team project," Russ noted.

Chemist Irwin Rose of the Fox Chase Cancer Center collaborated with an Israeli biologist on a study of how protein is broken down in a cell. Rose said many medical problems are associated with inadequate protein breakdown and their research may provide a better understanding of degenerative diseases in humans.

Researchers Ze'ev Seltzer from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem along with his colleague Professor Gary Bennett from Allegheny University in Philadelphia may have discovered the genes that cause chronic pain and additional genes that cause related symptoms including depression, anxiety, and epilepsy. Seltzer and Bennett are researching the cause of chronic pain.

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.

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 Fund (BARD) was created in 1978 with equal contributions by the United States and Israel. BARD funds projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Since its inception, BARD has funded more than 800 projects that have led to new technologies in drip irrigation, pesticides, livestock, poultry, disease control and farm equipment.

In 2003, 26 projects were funded at 21 U.S. institutions. The Fox Chase Cancer Center, Monell Chemical Senses Center and U.S. Department of Agriculture research labs have received grants worth more than $4.1 million since 1987.

Beverly Cowart, a psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, worked with chemists at Hebrew University and the Agricultural Research Organization in Haifa to study the enhancing purity of spice flavor in herbs.

Israelis have been heat-shocking apples and found that this process inhibited the fruit's growth. Peter Irwin used money from BARD to buy a special probe for the USDA lab, and time to do spectroscopy in an effort to help the Israelis understand the inhibition of ripening fruit.

In an older BARD study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that inert fats in the diet of cows boosted milk fat and protein quality, while improving reproduction and the general health of the animals. According to the BARD publication Partnership for Tomorrow, inert fats have subsequently become part of commercial rations in both nations.

A joint BARD project between researchers in Israel and at Penn State, Michigan State and the University of Delaware led to the invention of a new machine for harvesting peppers.

Some of the benefits to Pennsylvania from BARD research are more indirect. For example, BARD grantees have developed guidelines for vaccines to prevent egg production losses due to infection and DNA-probes that can detect the onset of disease. These innovations can lead to significant savings for Pennsylvania's multimillion dollar egg industry.

BARD grantees have also developed techniques to help preserve the color, taste and texture of apples, one of the State's important crops.

Other Cooperative Programs

In May 1998, the University City Science Center in Philadelphia signed an agreement with the Technion that will allow Israeli start-up companies to locate in the Science Center, and Pennsylvania start-ups to have incubator space at the Technion.

eV Products of Pittsburgh is collaborating with GE Medical Systems of Wisconsin and ISORAD of Israel on a $2.2 million project funded by the U.S.-Israel Science & Technology Commission to develop high performance imaging cameras for medicine.

Sister City Agreements:

City of Allentown City of Tiberias

City of Harrisburg City of Maalot

City of Lancaster City of Beit Shemesh

City of Philadelphia City of Tel Aviv

UJA Partnership 2000 Communities:

Philadelphia Netivot-Azatta

Pittsburgh Carmiel-Misgav

Lehigh Valley Ma'alot

Reading Ma'alot

Scranton-Lackawanna Ma'alot

Hillel Campus Profiles

State Contacts

The America-Israel Chamber of Commerce
Central Atlantic Region
200 South Broad St., #700
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tel. 215-790-3722
Fax. 215-790-3600
Email. aicc@gpcc.com

Israeli Consulate
225 S. 15th St., 8th Fl.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-546-5556

Jewish Community Relations Council
226 South 16th Street, 17th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tel. 215-922-7222
Fax. 215-440-7680
Email. info@jcrcphila.org
Web. http://www.jcrcphila.org/

Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
2100 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Tel. 215-832.0500
Fax.
Email. webmaster@philafederation.org
Web. http://www.jewishphilly.org

Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition
204 State St.
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Tel. 717-233-1110

Seth Vogelman
Associate Director
Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development
c/o Atid EDI Ltd.
Bldg. 2, Har Hotzvim, P.O. Box 45005
Jerusalem
Israel 91450
Tel. 2-571-0199
Fax. 2-571-0713
Email. atidedi@netvision.net.il
URL: www.atid-edi.com/pennsylvania.htm