Rhode Island and Israel
Trade and Population Statistics
| Exports to Israel (2015) |
$10,265,609 |
| Percentage Change (2014-2015) |
+18.95% |
| Total Exports to Israel (1996-Present) |
$120,477,687 |
| Israel's Trade Partner Rank (2015) |
29 |
| Military Contracts with Israel (2015) |
$683,470 |
| Jewish Population (2015) |
25,400 |
| Jewish Percentage of Population |
3.17% |
Binational
foundation grants shared by Rhode Island and Israel
Grant recipients in
Rhode Island from U.S.-Israel binational foundations:
Brown University
GTECH Corp.
Hasbro
University of Rhode Island
Bilateral
Institutions
None. Help us build this section of the Rhode Island
state page. Email AICE with
any updates, additions, corrections or comments. Thanks for your support.
Cooperative
Agreements - "Memoranda of Understanding"
None. Help us build this section of the Rhode Island
state page. Email AICE with
any updates, additions, corrections or comments. Thanks for your support.
Rhode Island Government Missions to Israel
November 2011 (Planned) - Governor
Lincoln Chafee announced plans to lead an economic mission to Israel
with the hopes of increasing Rhode Island exports to Israel, bringing
more tourists to the Ocean State and spurring local job growth by improving
the amount of trade. Rhode Island's Economic Development Corporation
will organize the mission for the begining of November which will represent
the first governor-led mission from the state to Israel since the mid
1990's. Read about the plan, CLICK
HERE.
August 2011 - Congressman David Cicilline
traveled to Israel with 80 fellow House members to learn about the regional
politics and about the American-Israeli relationship.
February 2009 - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
joined a congressional trip to the Middle East during which he met with
high ranking Israeli government officials. The focus of the trip was
on U.S-Israeli bilateral relations, including cooperation in addressing
military and security issues, as well as the political and social situation
in the Palestinian Authority. "For decades, the conflict in the
Middle East has been among America's most difficult foreign policy challenges,"
said Whitehouse. "I look forward to working with the Obama Administration
to reaffirm our commitment to achieving a viable and independent Palestinian
state living peacefully alongside Israel." Read more, CLICK
HERE.
July 2008 - In a buildup to the 2008
presidential elections, Senator Jack Reed joined Senator Barack Obama
(D-IL) on an official visit to Israel as part of a whirlwind tour in
which the oval office-hopeful visited seven different countries. In
Israel, Senators Reed and Obama stressed how much they want to work
towards solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and used their short
time in country to visit the southern Israeli city of Sderot which has
been under constant rocket attack from Hamas in Gaza since the Israeli
withdrawal in 2005. Read more, 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. Rhode Island is one of 33 states that have cooperative
agreements with Israel.
In 2012, Rhode Island exported nearly $8 million worth
of manufacturing goods to Israel. Since 1996, Rhode Island exports to
Israel have totaled more than $100 million and Israel now ranks as Rhode Island’s 45th leading trade partner.
Additionally in 2012, Rhode Island received more than
$2,074,215.84 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: KVH Industries, Inc. in Middleton, Schneider Electric IT Corporation in West Kingston and Meller, Adolf Co. in Providence.
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 Rhode Island.
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 Rhode Island is limited only by the imagination.
Rhode Island Firms
Profit From Business With Israel
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.
Rhode Island companies have benefited from more than $16,000 in BIRD grants over the last three decades.
In 2011, Pawtucket-based toy and boardgame company Hasbro was awarded
funding through the BIRD Foundation to partner with
the Israeli-based company VivoText to develop a life-like speech capability
for embedded platforms. This grant was part of over $8.1 million awarded
by BIRD to nine new projects in December 2011 to companies
throughout the US and Israel.
Scientific Innovations
Researchers in Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island have shared with their
counterparts in Israel nearly $1.5 million in BSF grants
awarded since 1996 alone.
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.
No firm in Rhode Island has yet to take advantage of the opportunities
presented by BARD to stimulate research, though the
availability of these grants is always there.
Other Cooperative
Programs
Help us build this section of the Rhode Island state page. Email
AICE with any additions or modifications.
Sister Cities:
Help us build this section of the Rhode Island state page. Email
AICE with any additions or modifications.
UJA Partnership 2000
Communities:
State
Contacts:
Bureau of Jewish Education of Rhode Island
130 Sessions St.
Providence, RI 02906
Tel. 401-331-0956
Jewish Federation of Rhode Island
130 Sessions St.
Providence, RI 02906
Tel. 401-421-4111
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