Cooperation Between Israel
and the State of Tennessee

Binational foundation grants shared by Tennessee institutions:

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

Celerity Systems Inc.
Memphis State
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
University of Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt Medical School

Agreements with Israel

In 1996, Gov. Don Sundquist signed the Tennessee-Israel Cooperation Agreement to promote cooperation between the two countries in trade, arts, culture, education, tourism and university/industry alliances.

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, 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 23 states, including Tennessee, have cooperative agreements with Israel.

In 2007, Tennessee exported over $56 million worth of manufacturing goods to Israel. The total value of exports since 1996 exceeds $427 million. In addition, Tennessee companies received $6,155,982 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 now ranks as Tennessee's 40th 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 Tennessee.

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.

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 Tennessee is limited only by the imagination.

Tennessee 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 McDonald’s have found that it is indeed profitable to do business in Israel.

Seventy-five Tennesseans in the business, government, arts, culture, education and university sectors spent one week in January of 1997 on a trade mission to Israel. This was the first major initiative of the Tennessee-Israel Cooperation Agreement that was signed by Governor Don Sunquist in February 1996. The Tennessee-Israel Cooperation Committee serves to enhance the technological, research and development infrastructure of Tennessee and Israel; to increase cultural interchange between the two and to promote a deeper understanding of shared values. While on the trade mission, Governor Sunquist called on some of Israel’s leading industrial companies, asking them to consider establishing facilities in Tennessee or joint ventures with Tennessee companies. Specific projects were proposed for the automotive and healthcare sectors.

More than 50 Tennessee companies have discovered the benefits of doing business in Israel, including Federal Express, Advanced Vehicle Systems and Beck-Arnley World Parts.

In September 1997, the U.S.-Israel Automotive Industry Business Exchange in Nashville, hosted by government agencies in Tennessee and Israel, the Jewish community federations, the American Israeli Chamber of Commerce and Saturn Corporation, brought together 26 leading American automotive firms and 15 Israeli companies. The goal of the day was for Israeli companies to interest their American counterparts in products such as precision metals, hose assemblies, bonded rubber-metal engine parts and innovative safety features. Among the high-tech parts shown that were originally developed for military purposes was a Global Positioning Satellite navigation system that can locate a stolen car or distressed vehicle.

According to Link Magazine, one of the more promising proposals for a joint venture in the automotive industry between the U.S. and Israel, now under consideration in Israel, is the collaboration between Chattanooga-based Advanced Vehicle Systems Inc. and Jerusalem-based Electric Fuel. Advanced Systems is the designer of battery-powered buses and Electric Fuel designs a superior electric battery. Together, these two companies have jointly built 15 quiet, clean, zero emission AVS-built buses that are already operating in downtown Chattanooga.

Ira Davis, President of Beck-Arnley World Parts not only went on the trade mission with the Governor but also sponsored a reciprocal trade mission for Israel. Davis has been importing auto parts from Israel for about 20 years and said “it’s a good place to do business.”

Ofer Anaby, marketing manager for Flying Cargo, the Israeli firm that holds the FedEx franchise in Israel, told Link that Memphis-based Federal Express was one of the first express delivery services to “recognize Israel’s emerging high-tech economy as a business opportunity.” Flying Cargo was established in 1990 and today employs 250 people. Anaby added that while Israel only accounts for $35 million of the company’s $15 billion global business, Israel is part of FedEx’s global outreach strategy and has proven to be “a steadily growing market” primarily due to the huge growth in Israeli telecommunications software, hardware and pharmaceuticals.

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). 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.

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 $5 billion, tax revenues of more than $700 million in both countries and created an estimated 20,000 American jobs. Up until now, no Tennessee companies have taken advantage of the opportunity to reduce the risk of new ventures and tap into the deep pool of Israeli talent through the BIRD program.

Scientific Innovations

Tennessee researchers are making scientific breakthroughs and developing cutting-edge technologies in joint projects with Israeli scientists supported by the Binational Science Foundation (BSF). BSF was established in 1972 to promote research cooperation between scientists from the United States and Israel. BSF has awarded nearly 3,000 grants, involving more than 2,000 scientists more than 400 institutions in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The University of Tennessee, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have shared nearly $700,000 in BSF grants with counterparts in Israel since 1987.

Dr. James N. Ihle is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. He has been collaborating with Yakov Weinstein at Ben Gurion University to study aspects of growth factors and functions that affect blood cells. Ihle both hopes and expects that their research will have an impact in the control of blood cell production and that they will find new ways to treat leukemia and other blood cell disorders. “I have had a very productive collaboration and it has always been very positive,” said Dr. Ihle. “The BSF program is fantastic because otherwise Israel would have very little money to do research with. Israel is a relatively small country with very talented people that could do more research if they had more money. BSF has made a significant impact.”

Professor David Greenstein, assistant professor of cell biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine has collaborated with Millet Treitin of Hebrew University’s Hadassah Medical School to study neurodegeneration using nematode worms. They use these worms to discover molecules that are the cause of neurodegeneration and by using modern techniques they will hopefully find the molecular basis for this problem. By doing so, Greenstein and Treitin will further understand neurodegeneration in humans and it may then be possible to create a drug that can prevent ailments such as Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The University of Tennessee's Albrecht Von Arnim is currently studying how plants respond to a light environment. He and his colleague at the University of Tel Aviv are interested in how various organisms process and respond to light on a cellular and molecular level. This sort of information varies with plants, yeast, humans and bacteria. This basic research will hopefully lead to the generation of plants that carry traits of commercial importance and that will only show up at certain times of need. As of now, Von Arnim does not have enough information to do this, but is hoping that his collaboration with Israel with help.

Dr. George Kablalka is in search of a potential new drug for cancer therapy. Together with Dr. Peter Bendel of the Weizmann Institute, Kabalka, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee, builds a few molecules and then tests their basic properties. This project took ten years to create and although the BSF grant has expired, Kabalka and Bendel are still collaborating.

Some BSF projects have practical applications; however other projects involve basic science and are meant only to stimulate advances in a particular field. For example, Professor Jeff Becker of the University of Tennessee along with Professor Levitzky and Professor Kulka of the Hebrew University have had a very positive experience collaborating together to study the molecular biology of cell membranes.

BSF-sponsored studies benefit the United States by extending research resources to achieve milestones that might not otherwise be attainable; introducing novel approaches and techniques that can lead American researchers to move in new directions; confirming, clarifying and intensifying research projects; providing access to Israeli equipment and facilities and early access to Israeli research results that speed American scientific advances. BSF documented no less than 75 new discoveries that probably would not have been possible without foundation-supported collaboration.

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. Since its inception, BARD has funded more than 800 projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia that have led to new technologies in drip irrigation, pesticides, fish farming, livestock, poultry, disease control and farm equipment. In 2005, 28 projects were funded at 31 U.S. institutions. New projects promote increased quantity, and improved quality of agricultural produce. The University of Tennessee received the first BARD grant in 2002. The state also benefits from the funds research elsewhere.

While on one hand pesticides are crucial to much modern agriculture, they have also become a contamination problem of rural water resources. American manufacturers produce more than 1.5 billion pounds of pesticide a year and spend nearly $1 billion just to comply with EPA regulations controlling waste discharge. This created a dilemma that BARD grantees tackled. BARD researchers developed a new economical procedure for diminishing water-born pesticides using the sun. In the laboratory, scientists tested 69 dye sensitizers that can oxidize pesticides when activated by visible light. After testing the pesticide breakdown products they found that these treatments were harmless and permitted normal germination and seed growth. After these lab tests, a prototype was created in Livinsgston, Tennessee. In August 1986, the BARD Solar Wastewater Disinfection Plant opened two 20,000 liter reactors to process multiple sewage. Simultaneously, Israel opened a different prototype design in Herzilia. The goal of removing injected pesticides by sunlight was successful. The BARD solar process also destroyed 99.9 percent of most bacterial pathogens in the sewage within two hours.

Tennessee, one of the country's largest producers of cotton (total U.S. production exceeds $5 billion a year) also benefits from BARD research done outside of the state. Joint research resulting from a BARD grant has shaped the way cotton is grown today. BARD grantees from Israel and Mississippi developed and tested a computer model that would reduce the amount of water and fertilizer cotton farmers need to produce their crops. Their research resulted in an invention called COTMOD, which describes how water, soil, fertilizer and farming practices affect cotton production. The model can also be expanded to predict the fate of pesticides and environmental contaminations as well. The USDA combined this model with two others and provide it, free of charge, to American farmers and agricultural consultants. By advising growers, such as those in Tennessee, on optimal irrigation and fertilization strategies, the system can save farmers an average of about $60 per acre, or about $48 per bale.

A team of agricultural economists from the University of Maryland and the 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.

Other Cooperative Programs

Sister City Agreements:

City of Chattanooga City of Givataim

Hillel Campus Profiles

State Contacts

Jewish Federation Of Greater Chattanooga
5326 Lynnland Terrace, P.O. Box 8947
Chattanooga, TN 37414
Tel. 423-894-1317

Jewish Federation Of Memphis
6560 Poplar Ave.
Memphis, TN 38138-3614
Tel. 901-767-7100

Jewish Federation Of Nashville
801 Percy Warner Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37205
Tel. 615-356-3242

Knoxville Jewish Community
P.O. Box 10882
Knoxville, TN 37939
Tel. 423-693-5837

Bill Baxter
Commissioner
Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development
Rachel Jackson Bldg., 326 Avenue North
Nashville, TN 37243-0405
Tel. 800-251-8594