State-to-State Cooperation:
North Carolina and Israel

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North Carolina Jewish History

• Trade & Population Statistics
• Binational Foundation Grants
• Bilateral Institutions
• Cooperative Agreements
• Government Missions to Israel
• North Carolina Honors Israel’s 60th Birthday
• Partners for Change
  • Business/Industry
  • Science/Technology
  • Agriculture/Farming
• Other Cooperative Programs
• Sister Cities & State Contacts

Trade and Population Statistics

Exports to Israel (2015)	$139,052,082
Percentage Change (2014-2015)	+13.96%
Total Exports to Israel (1996-Present)	$1,846,509,323
Israel's Trade Partner Rank (2015)	35
Military Contracts with Israel (2015)	$17,322,802
Jewish Population (2015)	120,000
Jewish Percentage of Population	1.6%

 

Binational foundation grants shared by North Carolina and Israel

Agricultural Research & Development (1979-Present)	$3,647,460
Science & Technology (1996-Present)	$4,989,822
Industrial Research & Development (1977-Present)	$1,155,239
Total Binational Grants	$9,792,521

Grant recipients in North Carolina from U.S.-Israel binational foundations:

Duke University
Duke Medical School
East Carolina University
Gaston County Dyeing Machine Co.
North Carolina State University
University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina Medical School
Wake Forest University

Bilateral Institutions

American-Israel Chamber of Commerce Southeast Division -
Though based in Atlanta, the Southeast Division of the AICC was established in 1992 to help Israeli businesses explore new markets and develop business relationships with companies in Georgia as well as North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. AICC-SD boasts over 450 members today amd has earned the reputation as one of the most successful and effective bi-national business organizations in the United States. Since its founding, AICC-SD has been involved in completed transactions valued at over $700 million, thereby contributing to the economies of both Israel and the Southeastern United States. To learn more about the AICC Southeast Division, CLICK HERE.

Cooperative Agreements - "Memoranda of Understanding"

In 1994, Gov. Jim Hunt established an International Commission that includes task forces to stimulate trade and exchanges with Israel in business, academia, arts and culture, education and social services. The Israel-North Carolina International Commission (INCIC) was created in 1996 to manage the cooperative projects. Gov Hunt originally chose Israel ecause of the country’s potential as a regional center for trade in the Middle East. Read more about the commission, CLICK HERE (page 12).

In 1993, the governments of North Carolina and Israel signed a far reaching and broad agreement that led to the establishment in 1996 of North Carolina-Israel Development Centers in both places as well as an Israeli center for people with autism based on a North Carolina model.

North Carolina Government Missions to Israel

None. Help us build this section. Email AICE with any updates, additions, corrections or comments.

North Carolina Honors Israel’s 60th Birthday

In 2008, the North Carolina General Assembly expressed the state’s strong friendship with the State of Israel.  The House and Senate resolutions highlighted the state’s historical ties to the Jewish people, the state’s vibrant trading relationship with Israel, and called for North Carolinians to honor Israel’s 60th anniversary as a modern state.

North Carolina and Israel share a robust friendship built on economic cooperation and common values. As the resolution states, “the people of Israel have established a vibrant, pluralistic, democratic political system, including freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion.” Israel is also one of North Carolina’s top trading partners. Since 1996, Israel has purchased over $1.3 billion in goods and services from the Tarheel State. The two have also shared millions of dollars in bi-national grants, supporting their respective universities as they strive to make new technological and medical advances.

The joint resolution was the fifth piece of legislation honoring Israel passed in the Southeast. Similar resolutions were also passed in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Read the joint declaration, CLICK HERE.

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.

As analyst David Pollock noted, Israel is an advanced country with a population that surpassed eight million people in 2013 and a robust, dynamic economy that allowed it to join the  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Between 2005 and 2013, Israel has represented a larger market for U.S. exports than Saudi Arabia. Although Israel's citizenry make up just 3 percent of the total region's population, Israel accounts for 25 percent of American exports in the Middle East.

"It has also been one of the top 20 foreign direct investors in the United States since 2009," Pollock confirms. He adds that "$2.25 billion of the $3 billion in annual U.S. aid to Israel comes back via Israeli purchases of U.S. military equipment - and that is just 5 percent of the total bilateral trade each year."

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. North Carolina is one of 33 states that have cooperative agreements with Israel.

In 2012, North Carolina exported over $121,290,810 worth of manufacturing goods to Israel. Since 1996, North Carolina exports to Israel have totaled more than $1,597,899,570 and Israel now ranks as North Carolina’s 18th leading trade partner.

Additionally in 2012, North Carolina received more than $26,179,330.55 in foreign military financing (FMF) for US military aid to Israel. Some of those companies that have received funding through FMF in 2012 or past years include: Honeywell International in Rocky, Piedmont Propulsion Systems, Inc in Winston-Salem and Shakespeare Company in Charlotte.

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 North Carolina.

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 North Carolina is limited only by the imagination.

North Carolina 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, Motorola and Intel, as well as more than 80 North Carolina firms, have found that it is indeed profitable to do business in Israel.

Sara Lee of Winston-Salem has discovered the benefits of exporting to Israel as well as importing products. The company has a minority interest in Delta Galil Industries, an underwear and sock manufacturer in Tel Aviv, and now distributes its clothing around the United States. Terry Gill, Director of Global Sourcing for Sara Lee described the relationship as a good one with a company that makes a good product.

Another textile giant, Fieldcrest Cannon, recently signed a $26 million distribution agreement with Kitan to sell its bedding in the United States.

Gambit Computer Communications has a marketing agreement with the Raleigh-based networks group of Memorex Telex Corp. Gambit develops, manufactures and sells computer communications equipment for local and wide area networks. The strategic alliance is focusing on sales, support and marketing in the short-term, but Gambit’s North America Operations Manager, Ehud Katzir, says that a second phase might involve establishing a manufacturing facility in the U.S. that would create new jobs in North Carolina.

Mike White, Executive Manager for Protec, went on a trade mission to Israel and met with some of the leading Israeli telecommunications companies to discuss possible service agreements. Today, the Burlington-based company services ISDN equipment manufactured by Telrad. While in Israel, White discovered untapped business opportunities. “You could put the marketing genius available in North Carolina to work with Israeli companies to sell a variety of products in the United States,” he said.

North Carolina companies could also take advantage of the new Russian talent in Israel. Southern Optical, for example, is in the process of concluding a deal with a kibbutz factory to support an incubator in Jerusalem whose Russian engineers are producing a new product that could be beneficial to the optical industry. Southern Optical’s Tom Sloan praises the Israelis for their “low-cost, highly capable technological development.”

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. North Carolina companies have benefited from close to $1.2 million in BIRD grants over the 16 years.

In 1995, Gaston County Dyeing Machine Co. became the first North Carolina firm to receive a BIRD grant (to develop a monitoring sensor for the industry). Subsequently, two more Carolina firms received grants.

Scientific Innovations

North Carolina researchers 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.

Institutions in North Carolina have shared with their counterparts in Israel more than $4.7 million in BSF grants awarded since 1996 alone. The University of North Carolina, North Carolina State and Duke are among the grant recipients.

BSF-supported collaborative research between Prof. Joseph Yanai of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Prof. Theodore Sorkin from Duke University has succeeded in reversing brain birth defects in animal models, using stem cells to replace defective brain cells. Neural and behavioral birth defects, such as learning disabilities, are particularly difficult to treat because the prenatal teratogen substances that cause the abnormalities act diffusely in the fetal brain, resulting in multiple defects. Profs. Yanai and Sorkin’s BSF sponsored teams were able to overcome this obstacle in laboratory tests with mice by using mouse embryonic neural stem cells. These cells migrate in the brain, search for the deficiency that caused the defect, and then differentiate into becoming the cells needed to repair the damage. The scientists are now developing procedures for the least invasive method for administering the neural stem cells, which is probably via blood vessels, thus making the therapy practical and clinically feasible.

Tom Petes, a geneticist at UNC, is doing basic research to discern the rules of recombination. “By looking at the way a cell breaks down in a primitive organism like yeast,” he explained, “we hope to gain an understanding of what goes haywire in higher organisms and is thought to cause tumors.” Petes is working with a colleague who knows a lot about damage to DNA and DNA repair and finds the collaboration gives him ideas and new ways of thinking. “Without this type of collaboration,” says Petes, “you get inbred ideas. The BSF grant allows me to meet and work with other scientists.” This is especially important, he added, because money has become tight and it is difficult to go to as many conferences as he used to for such exchanges.

One of the keys to health care reform will be figuring out how to provide services to a population that lives longer than past generations. UNC sociologist Elizabeth Mutran is working on a study that could provide some answers by determining how the elderly feel about different aspects of health care and what they want at the end of their lives. Mutran is working with an Israeli colleague from Beersheva on a project that involves interviews with 1,000 Israelis who are over 70. The respondents will be requestioned over the next three years to see how life events affect their attitudes toward treatment.

Mutran said the population in North Carolina is too homogenous to examine many important variables. By doing the study in Israel it will be possible to look at the influence of such things as health care funding, family structures, the role of religion and attitudes toward death. The results could help determine the care older Americans will need and expect.

Richard Smith is a statistician at UNC conducting research on extreme values, which has the practical application of making possible predictions about extremes in sea level and climate. Smith cited the example of trying to determine the frequency and magnitude of floods to assist people in a place like Holland determine how high dikes should be built. The BSF grant allowed Smith to work closely with a colleague at the Technion in Haifa who also works in his specialized area of research. “Any collaboration is beneficial in research,” Smith said, “and BSF gave me an opportunity to work on an international basis.”

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.

Agriculture Benefits

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.

North Carolina institutions have shared grants worth nearly $3.5 million since 1979. North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina are among the grant recipients with NC State receiving the lions share.

John Brake, a professor in the department of poultry science at North Carolina State, teamed with two professors in Israel in 2009 to develop a method for improving the survival rates of broiler chickens. Supported by BARD, their research uncovered a method that may help farmers increase the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and profitability of growing broiler chickens. The research revolved around changing incubator conditions that would help decrease the chickens body temperatures, leading to a lowering of their metabolic rate, stress levels, and heat loss.

Overall, Prof. Brake and his Israeli counterparts found that reducing heat stress related mortality will contribute $25 million to the USA and global broiler industry, which has been rapidly growing in years past though was searching for answering in dealing with the incubation problem. Additionally, Prof Brake found that slight changes in incubation temperatures could improve meat yeild by 1%, an addition that will contribute over $20 million annually to the USA broiler industry.

Professor Brake was extremely happy with the support and leeway given to his research team by BARD. With the help of BARD facilitating the collaboration with Israel, Prof Brake is confident that his research team is "going to change the manner in which incubation of eggs take place all over the world." For more information on this project, CLICK HERE.

In another project together with scientists at the Israel Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Gabriel Katul, a professor of Hydrology and Micrometeorolgy at Duke University, completed a BARD-sponsored project in 2010 that may have significant impact on the way water is used and preserved during irrigation process in closed areas such as screenhouses or greenhouses. While irrigation requirements of crops in open fields are relatively well established, Dr. Katul and his colleagues were aware of a significant knowledge gap related to irrigation practices and requirements for protected or closed crops. Since the number of of argicultural crops grown in protected enviornments is constantly increasing, gaining a better understanding for proper irrigation techniques for these crops will help to better maximize water use efficiency.

Thanks to the support of BARD, cooperation between Dr. Katul's research team in North Carolin and the Israeli team was very close and "significantly promoted all the research objectives." Both principle investigators were able to travel between the two countries and personally collaborate numerous times together. To read more about this project, CLICK HERE.

Spanning more than two decades, another BARD-sponsored project put a group of scientists from North Carolina University that included Professors D. Mason Pharr (deceased in 2009), Steven Huber and John Williamson together with a large group from the Volcani Center in Israel to research ways in making melon taste sweeter. Through help from the BARD foundation, the group researched and found the complete characterization of the metabolic pathway responsible for the melon's sweet taste. The scientists then showed that almost twenty enzymatic reactions are involved in this process, and have further identified the key enzymes that determine the level of sucrose in the fruit. The group published a number of articles in various academic and scientific journals, including Physiologia Plantarum. Learn more about this study, CLICK HERE.

Most species of fish in warm, brackish seawater found in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Gulf of Mexico and areas of North Carolina are susceptible to a deadly parasite. Ed Noga, an immunologist at North Carolina State, has a BARD grant to study the immune response of fish. He and his Israeli collaborators are interested in understanding this response so they can develop ways to immunize them.

Noga finds the project beneficial because he has the opportunity to see how other scientists do research, some technology is transferred and he interacts with people who have different expertise and experiences. “It is a very productive, positive interaction.”

Jack Britt, an animal physiologist at North Carolina State, is interested in improving the fertility of dairy cattle. His colleagues in Israel have similar interests and work in a similar climate. The system they are developing appears to increase fertility in a cattle population with low fertility.

A geneticist at North Carolina State, Ben McDaniel, is also interested in cattle, but he is looking at how traits are passed on from one generation to the next. He went back to 1883 to trace the development of one breed.

The research indicates that it is important to look at the maternal lines of bulls, supporting the observations of Israeli breeders who said that certain traits were passed on better to daughters than sons.

The project also involves researchers at Iowa State and, McDaniel says, BARD helped combine the unique expertise of scientists in Israel, Iowa and North Carolina. In addition, Israel had a molecular genetics lab that State lacked. The collaboration has established strong links between McDaniel and his Israeli counterparts.

Some of the benefits to North Carolina from BARD research are more indirect. For example, BARD grantees have developed techniques to help preserve the color, taste and texture of apples, one of the State’s important crops. Other projects have developed strategies for breeding leaner poultry with no loss of other valuable characteristics, which can reduce costs for the state’s poultry industry.

Other Cooperative Programs

The North Carolina-Israel Autism Project is intended to expand existing relationships and establish new ones through the systematic training of professionals and parents in Israel based on 1) the knowledge and technology of the North Carolina TEACCH program (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children), 2) the importance of diagnostic, assessment, treatment and education programs in Israel, and 3) the exchange of information and ideas between the Israeli and North Carolina parent organizations (ALUT-The National Association for Autistic Children in Israel and the Autism Society of North Carolina).

“Reading Together” is a peer tutoring program adopted from Hebrew University’s YACHAD program. The program involves fifth graders tutoring second graders who are slow readers. The pilot project is being run in Guilford County. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is being established as a national center for the training, development and dissemination of the program.

The Israel/North Carolina Cultural Exchange began in the fall of 1996 and included 11 exhibitions, film festivals, artist residencies and public programs designed to explore Israeli art and make it available throughout the State and Southeast.

The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and the Israel Arts and Science Academy signed an agreement to establish joint curricula and activities in the area of world leadership.

Duke University has developed the Duke Information System for Cardiovascular Care (DISCC), which allows analysis of epidemiological information, national health care profiles, clinical trials data, resource utilization, etc. The university is sharing its databank with the Israeli Ministry of Health.

The Guilford County School System has entered into an agreement with the Alexander Muss High School in Israel (AMHSI) whereby students from Guilford schools can receive credit for participating in an eight-week program at AMHSI.

NCIP coordinated and presented a live teleconference linking cardiac care centers at Duke University Medical Center, The Rabin Medical Center, Baylor Children’s Hospital and the University of Milan to demonstrate the advances and uses of video-conferencing in diagnostic medicine in December 1996.

A teaching curriculum for dealing with stress in children who live in regions of war and terrorism is being jointly developed by Israeli and North Carolina researchers and will involve teachers and students at the Jordan Institute for Families at the University of North Carolina and Tel Hai College in the Upper Galilee.

North Carolina State and the Volcani Center of Agricultural Research signed a cooperation agreement for joint research.

The Jewish Community Day School Durham/Chapel Hill is electronically linked with elementary school students at the Beit H’Tfozut school for a program related to Jewish identity in the Diaspora.

Israel and North Carolina signed a technology cooperation agreement in which the Israel Center for Industrial R&D and the North Carolina Technology and Science Authority will set up a joint framework for fast Internet data transmission, GLOBES reported (4/9/98). This will include databases of high-tech companies in the two states and technological business cooperation opportunities. Seminars and meetings on cooperation will be held in North Carolina and Israel during the next two years, the first of which will occur during the Telecom ’98 Exhibition in Tel Aviv this November.

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