MAY 26, 1961
THE   CANADIAN   JEWISH   REVIEW
Can Israel Afford Research?
IT FtOrBttt Mttlir MOttitOtl, Of COWtfU WNVRfllY,  KOTO AITM4IIYSICIST
The belated rains of early spring in Rehovoth hav* scrubbed the air of dust, and allow me, for the first time in days, to mark the horizon by the sawteeth of the Judean hills. It is the most natural thing in the .world for a phyBiciat-on-leave from upstate New York to be here at home and at work, so far from Cayuga's waters. In medieval Europe, scholars were wanderers by choice, and by right, and where they went, there followed the whole trail of students from Paris perhaps to Bologna or Salamanca. A physicist "today wanders nearly as much; of my twenty colleagues from Ithaca, one is in Sydney this week, one in Geneva, another in Rome, and here I am in Rehovoth,
It is a measure of what the Weizmann Institute of Science means in the world of physics that it is held everywhere as a sizeable and potent center, as probable a place to find a wandering Cornel-lian as anywhere else. A dozen different kinds of specialists, from polymer chemists to students of tumor induction, would agree that between Rome and Bombay, or Kharkov, there exists no equal center of scientific research.
A couple of hundred people, most of them very highly trained, indeed, work here with equipment which is far from cheap, to produce anfoutput that is neither ponderable nor marketable: an output of diverse and difficult papers jagged with formulae, read as a whole by no one at all. They make, without doubt, a meaningful increment in the world's public stock of knowledge, the pool from which are drawn the extraordinary technical advances which typify our times � for good or evil. But, the question comes easily to the mind: can a new, half-desert, hard-pressed state afford the luxury of such a center of creativity?
Of course, there is more to say. The perpetual hum of the heavy-oxygen plant reminds the passerby that here, at the Weizmann Institute, not all is laboratory science. This plant, which is unique, is a full-scale commercial plant manufacturing the finest of fine chemicals. Its product is sought out for purchase by internationally known research laboratories. It was conceived and designed here, using the skill and experience of men from different departments, at a level of modern chemical engineering which could not have been excelled. But this, and the dozen other economic enterprises which owe part or all of their being to the scientific workers of the Institute, are not characteristic.
Most of the work, and most of the essential spirit of the Institute, is done seeking no economic end, direct or indirect. This is the
work which needs frank assessment in a time of struggle.     r"
Let me press the point further. I am a theoretical physicist. For the past four or five days, two or three of the Institute theorists and I have given some hours each day to discussion and calculation, and plain thinking, about a kind of puzzle. The puzzle was printed in the leading American journal of physics research by two physicists from an English university (one a Brazilian national, the other an Israeli). Of course, it. is not a game, or a'play on words. It is an ingenious and serious mathematical inference from well-established theories which leads to what we feel strongly is an absurd result.
We have been trying to find the catch. The task, so far, has escaped us, but we shall not give up. Nor can we write to the authors for the answer, because they donj� know it either. Men in Copenhagen, Birmingham, and Pasadena are all trying to solve this particular puzzle. Will the electrons, forced to move in a very curious path, in a quite unconventional sort of apparatus never yet built, shift to the side, or will they remain undeviated, as we think they must?
The effort spent on this quite hypothetical and curious topic is not as scholastic or impractical as it seems. For it makes us doubt the powerful tools of theory which Einstein and Bohr and a hundred others forged for us, and which have so far, in the domain where they have been well tested, not once failed to cut true.
The physicist is a man always entering the unknown, and if he cannot rely entirely upon his conceptual equipment, he is lost. And still, he knows that any clear failure of his concepts is the greatest of opportunities, for it signals the need for new concepts, the root of all progress in theory.
The point is more general: the Weizmann Institute, like every scientific research center, is, first of all, a producer of innovations. These are novel ways of thinking about the physical and biological world, new ways of controlling it. Research is towards an end: understanding. But understanding is not research if it is not new. Research laboratories are committed, by their work, to newness. And here lies the root of their real importance.
The staff of such a center is a repository of men and women who can assess novelties of all sorts. A technique which is brand-new, which is without counterpart in practical affairs, can best be appraised by those who are specialists in no particular economic process, but rather expert in novelty itself, and in the old and tested
A Look At Canada�Israel Tracfe Relations
�Y YICMIIl NAMitt,IttAIL THAN COMMISSIONER TO CANADA
During the 12 years sitace the establishment of the State, Canada exported to Israel some $110 million worth of goods, wheat, steel, aluminum, telegraph and telephone equipment, chemicals, .asbestos, lumber, and canned meats. During this same twelve years Canada imported from Israel only |16 and a 'half million worth of goods, cut and polished diamonds, oranges, peanuts, confections, mat-zohs, wines, woollen goods, yarns, fabrics, textiles, and plywood. With growing production in Israel, these figures have narrowed in the past two years.
In 1959, Israel imported $6 million worth of goods from Canada and sent here some $2 and a half million in product value. In 1960, Israel imported $6 and a half million worth of goods from this country against $2 and a half mil-facts on which it is based. In a world seething with novelty, the presence of a body of people trained in this art seems to me indispensable for a state, whose future depends on the twists and turns of technical change everywhere else. This art is, above all, learned only by practice.
MONTREAL
APPROACHING MARRIAGES
Mr. and Mrs. David S. Katz, 4894 Fulton Street, announce the marriage of their daughter, Miss Joyce Katz, to Stuart Millowitz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Millowitz, 5&3t) Hudson Road, on June 22, at six o'clock, at the Windsor Hotel, Dr. Solomon Frank, Rabbi, officiating.
The marriage of Miss Elaine Helfield, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. N. Helfield, 2235 Bedford Road, to Robert Williams, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. Williams, 7265 Querbes Avenue, will be solemnized on June 29, at half-past six o'clock, at Beth David-Beth Yitz-chok-Kehal Jeshurun Synagogue, Rabbi Isaac J. Teicher officiating.
Mr. and Mrs. Allan tHarvey, 4510 Montclair Avenue, announce the marriage of their daughter, Miss Merle Ann Harvey, to Lionel Gottlieb, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Gottlieb, 8594 Stuart Avenue, to be solemnized on June 29, at seven o'clock, at Shaare Zion Synagogue, Rabbi Maurice S. Cohen officiating.
The marriage of Miss .Beverlee Zack, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Zack, 1137 Bardet Avenue, to Paul Tabakman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Morris Tabakman, 4027 La Peltrie Street, will be solemnized on May 27, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, by Dr. Harry J. Stern, Rabbi, of Temple Emanu-El.
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lion worth of products exported to Canada. It should be noted that surplus commodities play a major role in trade between both nations, 60% of our imports from Canada consisting of surplus wheat; 25% of Canada's imports from our country being in the form of one of our quality "surplus" products, Jaffa oranges.
Obviously) the answer to this trade imbalance is to sell more Israel goods in Canada. But in order to appreciate our efforts in bringing about this desirable situation, one must have an understanding of Israel's overall economic and production situation, and a picture of the steps that we are taking to improve our trade position. These points will give you a basic idea as to where the matter stands.
Our foreign exchange budget of approximately 700 million dollars ?s still not more than 47% covered by our own resources, the bulk of investments being financed by foreign capital and outside grants and loans. There are, however, (despite this staggering fact) a number of promising bright spots on Israel's economic horizon.
Due to conservative monetary government policies, the beginning of large scale savings is evident in the country. Though in the past one half of all investments were diverted to housing and services, today two-thirds of these investments are destined for production purposes. Private financing is now taking a much larger share of new investments. Local production of consumer goods is beginning to create a buyers' market in which quality is high and competition keen.
Providing the present rate of export expansion is maintained, it is anticipated that within 4 to 5 years 70% to 80% of our foreign needs will be covered by our own earnings, leaving roughly one quarter to be supplied from foreign sources through loans and in-
vestments. But in order to bring about 'this dynamic change (remember we are only at the 47% level now) much spade-work is needed, and it is in this area that my mission to Canada presents a great challenge.
It is realized at the outset that purchases of Israel products by Canadian Jewry alone cannot be expected to rectify the trade im-
balance between Canada and Israel. It is understood, too, that a foundation for a steadily developing trade cannot be,built oh the basis of sentimentality. It Is our hope to bring Israel products to the attention of the entire Canadian community and to place them on sale in the consumer's market just as many other countries are doing today.                            i^
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rtO gleaming lamps of London, that
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O Lights of London Town?"-
�George Robert Sims
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