Jack Cohen of the St. Louis chapter of the American Technion Society spoke on “Israel’s Only Natural Resource,” at Nusach Hari B’nai Zion on Sunday, June 29.

“Those who founded Israel and the Technion knew that Israel’s only natural resource would be the brain power of its people,” said Cohen. “And it is a renewable resource.” Cohen noted that it is also a resource that has to be cultivated and nurtured.

Lacking natural resources like oil and with little water, Israel was forced to cultivate the resource it had: the intelligence of its people, noted Cohen. The Technion Institute was part of the effort to move Israel from an agricultural base to a technological one.

Cohen, a retired aeronautical engineer at McDonnell Douglas, is Chapter Director of American Technion Society. B’nai B’rith sponsored the talk on Israel’s science and technology university Technion Institute. The lecture took place in association with Nusach Hari B’nai Zion’s monthly “Lion’s Den” kosher pizza dinner.

Michelle Gralnick of B’nai B’rith arranged to have Cohen speak at the event. “The gentleman responsible (for this event) is Joel Ehrlich, who is a member of this congregation,” said Gralnick. “He has been encouraging me to do a program here piggy-backing with the Lion’s Den pizza buffet they have once a month. He was a big fan of Jack’s and thought it would be a great first educational program to offer to this group.”

“For the last six years I have been aware of the Technion, and how it is such a special organization in Israel,” said Ehrlich. “Because of our special relationship with Israel, we have an ownership of the miracles going on at the Technion.”

While B’nai B’rith was presenting the talk as part of the yearlong celebration of Israel’s 60th birthday, the Technion Institute itself is 84 years old, as Cohen pointed out.

According to Jack Cohen, Technion was Israel’s first university, established in 1924, although efforts towards its founding actually began much earlier.

“It all began during the 5th Zionist Congress in 1901. Theodore Herzl proposed the establishment of a Jewish university. Martin Buber, age 24; Berthold Feivel, age 27 and Chaim Weizmann, age 28, seconded Herzl’s proposal and recommended a technical institute because anti-Semitic laws in Europe had kept most Jews from technical studies,” Cohen said. The cornerstone of the first building was placed in Haifa, Israel in 1912.

“Today, there are 12,500 students and 800 faculty members at the Technion,” said Cohen. “There are 42 research centers at the Technion, and the Technion is one of the five technical universities in the world that has a medical school.”

Cohen described how Technion’s research covers a wide range of scientific fields, and the importance of work by scientists at the Technion to scientists around the world. Technion researchers contribute to advances in medicine, engineering, genetics and anthropology, among other fields. The Technion also produces technological advances and products such as drugs, which are marketed internationally by a separate technology company.

Cohen described some of the groundbreaking research projects undertaken by Technion in the last few years. These include advances in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and for heart failure, and “high-tech goggles that help disabled patients walk.” Israel was an innovator of drip irrigation. Other current research includes “the use of ultraviolet light to purify water, a technique that is 10,000 times more effective than what existed.” Other current work includes “a robot that can search for survivors in collapsed buildings, a hydrogen car that generates its own hydrogen, and protective armor for soldiers that is five times stronger than steel,” Cohen told the group.

The American Technion Society was established to support the Technion’s work and promote collaboration with researchers in this country. “Albert Einstein was one of the founders of the American Technion Society in 1941,” said Cohen.

St. Louis is one of 22 cities with chapters of the American Technion Society, according to Cohen. Although St. Louis has one of the smaller chapters of ATS, the list of programs and facilities that exist at Technion as a result of St. Louis’ support is long, he told the audience. Among those are engineering, medical and computer labs, a professorship in finance and management and fellowships in developmental and molecular genetics. There is even a St. Louis dormitory.

The St. Louis Chapter of ATS hosts two major events a year: a spring event with students and a professor from Technion visiting St. Louis and a fall lecture. The second annual Milford Bohm Memorial Lecture, a panel discussion by two Technion professors, is set to take place Sept. 15 at the Jewish Federation Building.

Technion scientists cooperate with scientists around the world, including MIT and Washington University. Cohen also described how recently international scientists refused to cooperate with an attempt to organize a boycott of Israeli scientists at Oxford University in Great Britain. Cohen quoted Technion professor Aaron Ciechanover, one of Technion’s two Nobel laureates in chemistry, who said “Science for me is a language of peace and the only one I know that is international.”

Ehrlich gave a warm, wonderful introduction for Cohen to the audience that stayed for the talk after the dinner.

Nusach Hari B’nai Zion’s Rabbi Ze’ev Smason was pleased to have Cohen speak about the Technion at the congregation’s pizza dinner.

“We are always interested in promoting and hosting important Jewish organizations in the St. Louis community, because I feel it is very important for our congregation to be aware of what other organizations are doing. And when we can partner with them, and we can benefit by having them coming to an event like our pizza night, it is a win-win.”