To Mr. Shimon Peres, President of State of Israel
To Mr. Benyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of State ofIsrael
August 12, 2009
Open Letter
Dear Mr. Peres,
Dear Mr. Netanyahu,
Subject: Saving the KAMEA program
A unique program which has brought great benefit to the State of Israel is now under the threat of complete destruction. For Israel – a country living and prospering mainly due toits human intelligence resources – this is a very disturbing situation.
Need we remind you that Aliyah of the Jewish people is a fundamental principle of the State of Israel, and recognition of the contribution of science and scientists to continued existence of the Jewish state was already recognized by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion? Don’t we remember for how many years did Israel and World Jewry fight for the release and aliyah of Jews from the Soviet Union? The KAMEA program –the special program for absorption of new immigrant scientists in Israeli universities – was established 11 years ago to solve a burning issue: how to employ leading scientists in their fields of expertise, and thereby gain from their knowledge and years of experience, when our universities could not afford to employ all of them under regular academic routes.Of about 12,000 scientists who immigrated to Israel at the beginning of 1990’s, only 500 scientists were selected by Israeli universities for the KAMEA program. In overwhelming majority, theyhave been high-rank scientistswhose scientific contribution and impact is well recognized and appreciatedby the national and international scientific community.Indeed, it was not an easy process: there where few high scientific hurdles along the way, in accordance with a strict academic procedure used in Israel, after which only the select elite remained. That process however has justified itself as the proven and documented past and present contribution of the KAMEA scholars is invaluable to the scientific and technological strength of the state of Israel. There are many leading political figures in Israel, who understood the importance of the KAMEA program for the State of Israel, helped in organization of the Program and are still strongly supporting it.
In 1999, journal "Science", one of the world leading scientific journals, wrote about absorption of new immigrant scientists in Israeli universities: "Ten years after Jews began arriving in droves from the formerSoviet Union, newcomer researchers are transforming Israeliacademia and turning the country into a high-techheavyweight". Today the community of the KAMEA fellows has become a very important and integral part of Israeli academia in all aspects of academic activity (research and publications, teaching courses, supervising graduate students, obtaining research grants and supervising national and international projects). The economic added-value of KAMEA’s research fellows is many times the cost of their salaries, as they have brought income into the country by way of research grants from overseas and in many cases. Their basic knowledge has even gone on to commercialize the developments in Israeli hi-tech, bio-tech, military, software, and engineering industries. They strengthen Israeli security and competitiveness in the international marketplace.
The KAMEA program was (and, presently, is) a unique phenomenon in the world practice of integratingnewimmigrantscientists into the structures of academic science. The Program was intended for high-ranking scientists over the age when most scientists are just beginning their careers. Israeli universities were then, and still are now, interested in such scientists, but given the conditions of financing Israeli academia, did not have the financial ability to give them permanent academic staff positions which are retained, naturally, for young scientists. For this reason, the program was financed through alternate route. It was implemented with special guarantees of Israeli Government, in parallel with the Government financing of universities. This financing system provided reliable integration of high-rank new immigrant scientists into Israeli academic science over the years.However, it turns out that the system for funding of the KAMEA program, being separated from the universities financing system, has left it wide open to the risks of political manipulations. The high-ranking status of new immigrant scientists has become a very attractive target for such political manipulations. In view of new political reality in Israel, we seem to be faced now with a declaration by the Ministry of Absorption itself about complete destruction of the KAMEA program.
Dear Mr. President and dear Mr. Prime Minister, we appeal to you to reverse the dangerous path of destroying the trust of those immigrants, who had been promised a safe position as a KAMEA fellow. We strongly hope and trust that you will act to re-install the KAMEA program to its full extent.The action against the KAMEA program will dangerously weaken the Israeli academia, which is benefiting from the scientist immigrants. This is an action against the integrity of Israeli academia.Recently, many of us signed up a petition against boycott of Israeli universities by some of UK academics. We ask not to boycottnew immigrant scientists in Israeli academia, to separate the KAMEA program from political manipulations and preserve its financing funding in full measure. We believe that the action for supporting the KAMEA program is of high importance for our country.
Sincerely,
KAMEA fellows:
Dr.Eugene O. Kamenetskii, Microwave Magnetic Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel. Contact: Phone: +972-8-6472407, Fax: +972-8-6472949, email:
Dr. Boris Barmashenko,Physics Department, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel. Contact: Phone: +972-8-6477127, Fax: +972-8-6472904, email:
Dr. Leonid Rubinovich, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr.Vitaly Erukhimovitch, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Dmitry Mogilyanski, Institutes for Applied Research, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Vladimir Markovich, Physics Department, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Yakov Unigovski, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Alex Reznik, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Prof. NatalyaFroumin, Materials Engineering Department,BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Alexander I. Shames, Physics Department, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Boris Mikhailovich,Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Inna Khozin-Goldberg, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Ruvim Lipyanski,BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. E.A. Katz, Dept. of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Arkady Leiderman,Department of Mathematics,Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev,Israel; email:
Dr. Mark Auslender, Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Lev Pustil'nik, Israel Cosmic Ray and Space Weather Center, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Israel; email:
Prof. Boris Krasnov,Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev,Israel; email:
Dr. Georgy Shenbrot,Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev,Israel
Dr. Irina S. Khokhlova, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Ben-Gurion, Israel; email:
Dr. Elena Ivanitskaya, Haifa University, Israel.
Dr. Alexander Panich, Physics Department, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Yana Shraga, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev,Israel, email:
Dr. Gregory Furman, Physics Department, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Gennady Koganov, Physics Department, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. S. Biryukov, Dept. of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Jacob Blaustein Institute forDesert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Elena Litsyn, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev,Israel; email:
Dr. Yury Lyubarsky, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev,Israel; email:
Dr. Matvey Klebanov, Physics Department, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Yitzhak Ladizansky, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev,Israel; email:
Dr. Janna Abramovich, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Vladimir Sokolovsky, Physics Department, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev Israel; email:
Dr. Alexander Kaganovich, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Lev Goldfeld, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Leonid Berezansky, Department of Mathematics, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Leah Orlovsky, J. Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev,
Dr. Ephim Golbraikh, Physics Department, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev,Israel; email:
Dr. Igor Rogachevskii, Department of Mechanical Engineering, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Anatoly Dubinsky, Department of Mechanical Engineering,Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel email:
Dr. Andrew Fominykh, Department of Mechanical Engineering Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, email:
Dr. Boris Krasovitov, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev, email:
Dr. Yuly Dolinsky, GurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Evgeny Rozenberg,Physics Department, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negevemail:
Dr. Gregory Rudin, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben Gurion Universit of the Negev, email:
Dr. Alexander Eidelman, Dept of Mechanical Engineering, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel;
Dr.Nathan Kleeorin, Dept of Mechanical Engineering, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel
Prof. Michael Shokhen, Department of Chemistry, Bar Ilan University,Israelemail:
Dr. Michael Braverman,Department of Mathematics, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Elena Chauser-Volfson(Wolfson), BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Victor Meerovich, Physics Department, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev; email:
Dr. Grigory Mashevitzky, Department of Mathematics, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Prof. Zinovi Dashevsky, Department of Materials Engineering, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev; email:
Dr. Valery Dikovsky, Physics Department,Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Dr. Yuri Shtemler, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev; email:
Dr.Misha Sinder, Materials Engineering Department, BenGurionUniversity of the Negev, Israel; email:
Prof. Gregory A. Derfel, Department of Mathematics Ben-Gurion University, Israel;
email:
Dr. Nina Chernyavskaya, Department of Mathematics Ben-Gurion University, Israel; email:
Prof. Leonid Shuster, Department of Mathematics,Bar-Ilan University, Israel
1