56 Friday, Myst 25, 1918
WE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Water Reuse Keeps Israel Ahead of Demand
By SAUL ARLOSOROFF
•
World Zionist Organization
TEL AVIV — In the val-
ley of Soreg, where in bibli-
cal times Delilah cut the
locks of Samson, modern Is-
rael is creating new water
from old.
There, surrounded by
grassy hills, industrial and
municipal waste water from
Israel's capital city
Jerusalem is directed into
shallow channels. After ex-
posure to sun radiation,
aeration and the biological
activity of highly intensive
algae, the treated effluent is
sent out to irrigate cotton
crops in the valleys of the
nearby Judean hills.
This method of dealing
with sewage is only one
example of how Israel is
conducting a never ending
battle to help its limited
water supply keep pace with
the country's rapid growth
development. New towns,
the continuing absorption of
immigrants and an un-
paralleled agricultural
growth have forced Israel,
which is already using 95
percent of her available
water supply, to look for ad-
ditional nonconventional
sources.
Desalination will be one
answer. But for the time
being Israeli engineers and
scientists are making in-
novative use of regular
sewage treatment processes
combined with forces of na-
ture. The target is to in-
crease the national water
supply some 30 percent by
using this water for irriga-
tion.
On the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea, among
the once though useless
sand dunes south of Tel
Aviv, Israelis operate one of
the largest plants in the
world for the purification
Ancient, Modern at Israel College
By JOSEF GOLDSCHMIDT
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem
When the return to the
Jewish homeland started
some 100 years ago there
was also a return of Jewish
people to agriculture, trade
and industry, to self-defense
,
by arms, and, generally, to
providing by themselves
everything the new society
and economy needed. This
was then a matter of na-
tional pride as well as a
matter of sheer survival. It
is a far cry from those hum-
ble beginnings of "doing ev-
erything ourselves" to the
sophisticated technology
into which the Jerusalem
College of Technology in-
itiates its students.
Take, for instance, optics.
For the man in the street
• this means just his pair of
glasses or, maybe, a micros-
cope. At the college the pro-
' duction of highly
specialized optical coatings
and filters for scientific,
military and technical in-
struments is an important
field of study and practical
instruction.
Prof. William Low is
founder and rector of the
college. He has inspired
several of the college's
young graduates to venture
into the field of production
and, thus, the Ophir Optics
and Gak-Op companies
have been formed. Some of
their work for the Ministry
of Defense is of a classified
nature, but other products
are used in various electro-
optical devices, such as
infra-red vision equipment,
television cameras, lasers
and spectrophotometers.
The annual turnover of
these two young enterprises
already goes into several
million Israeli pounds.
Another start in the
same field has been made
by a team of former stu-
dents, the EL-DE
Electro-Optics Develop-
ment Ltd. Their first
steps aroused so much in-
terest that an overseas
manufacturer has un-
derwritten development
costs.
Within a year a new
school of metallurgy and
materials engineering will
be ready to receive students.
Its curriculum will focus on
areas not yet emphasized at
existing institutions, but
much needed in Israeli in-
dustry. The orientation will
be towards applied indust-
rial metallurgy, metal pro-
cessing, metal behavior,
and the theory of quality-
control.
There are also the de-
Sitting in front of the computer terminal, this
Jerusalem College of Technology student exemplifies
the nature of the college: modern technology com-
bined with Torah education.
•
partments of applied
physics, of computer science
and of electronics, all in all a
very impressive balance
sheet for a college founded
in 1970.
There is more to the story
than just the list of
technological topics. The
college is aware of another
need of Israel's industries:
trained teachers for the
country's many vocational
and trade schools. Various
estimates agree on a
minimum need of 400 such
teachers in many fields, but
the Ministry of Education
places the figure much
higher. The Jerusalem Col-
lege of Technology Depart-
ment of Teacher Education
hopes to provide instructors
of a standard that will pro-
mote the quality of voca-
tional training in such
schools as ORT, Amal, and
vocational yeshivot.
The college combines
the sphere of science-
based technology with an
open minded yet strictly
traditional Torah educa-
tion. Students are only
admitted after having
taken the University En-
trance Examination and
three years of army ser-
vice, but they must also
be qualified to accept a
curriculum of half-day
advanced Torah study
and half-day general
studies and laboratory
work.
Every day begins and
ends with the appropriate
prayer, and the organized
college life breathes the
spirit of modern Orthodox
Judaism. Prof. Low himself
heads the Institute for Sci-
ence and Halakha, which
elaborates ways to observe
the Shabat in Israel's mod-
ern industry. By its educa-
tion of Torah scholars who
can take-their place in the
forward ranks of Israel's
economy, the college strives
to make a major contribu-
tion to the truly Jewish
character of the new-born
state of Israel.
Century-Old Petah Tikva
Celebrates an Anniversary
and reuse of sewage. The
waste water, after conven-
tional and advanced treat-
ment, is artificially re-
charged through the vast
sand dunes, infiltrating into
ground-water basins.
Eventually the effluent
will be pumped to irrigate
the arid southern Negev.
Endangered water in the
Sea of Galilee, a lake of
great significance to many
religions, is being processed
non-conventionally with
floating fans which force
oxygen into the water. Af-
terwards the effluent is dis-
charged into nearby fish
ponds letting the fish com-
plete the biological cycle of
renewal.
Major policies on a
The top photograph depicts the early days follow-
nation-wide scale and spe- ing the establishment of Petah Tikva 100 years ago.
cially allocated budgets The bottom photograph shows the modern apartment
have been put into action to houses that can be seen throughout the city.
develop efficient and rela-
• ••
tively inexpensive means of
By GLORIA DEUTSCH
In July, 1878 they bought.
diverting all cleaned up in-
From the World
3,375 dunams from the
Zionist Organization
dustrial and municipal
land's owner, an Armenian
JERUSALEM — Exactly Christian, and began to
wastes back into the fields
100 years ago, a group of prepare the land for cultiva-
for irrigation purposes.
Jews living within tion. There were many set-
Israel scientists are con- Jerusalem's city walls de-
tinuously looking for cided that the time had backs and lives were lost,
cheaper and more efficient come to re-settle the land. both by marauders and
wat-r treatment methods. All deeply religious, they fever. Ther celebration of
the first Passover in April
Already in use near Tel
realized that only by estab-
Aviv, serving almost 30 lishing an agricultural set- 1879 brought great joy to
percent of the country's tlement could they begin the small community.
The first harvest a few
population, is an improvisa-
the redemption of the people
months later was even more
tion of the "activated sludge of Israel in the Land of Is-
process," a highly common rael. They chose the name of joyous. A large crowd
gathered there to watch the
U.S. practice, but one which their village even before the
arrival of the first produce
is being used here in sun- site and purchase of land. It
radiated lagoons with the was to be called Petah
of Jewish tillage since the
destruction of the Temple.
addition of lime to treat vir- Tikva, Door of Hope.
uses and other organic pol-
The problems were so
The settlers were far from
lutants.
overwhelming that the
being experienced farmers.
settlement
was temporar-
In the laboratory too, sci- The leader, Joel Moses
ily abandoned in 1881 but
entists are active in the field Saloman, although born in
with
the
aid
from the
of advanced treatment Eretz Yisrael, was a yeshiva
Hovevei Zion Movement
technology. Prof. Menahem graduate and printer. David
and
later
from
Baron
Rebhun, at The Technion, Meir Guttman came from
Edmonde de Rothschild,
Israel's Institute of Hungary in 1827 and was a
the swamps were drained
Technology in Haifa, has mohel. Yehoshua Stampfer,
and the area made habit-
come up with a new process another founder, also came
able.
that promises to be cheaper from Hungary and was
Today that tiny settle-
by 30 percent than proce- more familiar with learning
ment of houses made from
dures now being used—and a blatt gemara (a page of the
lime and straw, with a popu-
with an energy savings of Talmud) than cultivating
lation of 818 in 1900, is a
20-30 percent thrown in as a crops. Zerach Barnett was a
busy, thriving town of
bonus.
rich fur trader and a
120,000 inhabitants.
An ambitious research naturalized Briton.
Nevertheless, they knew
project, undertaken
A Great Vision
that
the
land
must
have
a
jointly with West Ger-
"The Jewish People have
many, is presently taking natural water source and in
a great vision. In every land
place in Israel. A team 1878 they went all together
they are struggling for so-
from a number of univer- to inspect the village of
cial rights. They are trying
sities and research insti- Mulabbes near the upper
to relieve the burden of
tutes are working to de- reaches of the tiny Yarkon
their friends and relatives
velop a new commercial River. They were impressed
in Russia and to lessen the
by
the
rich
soil
and
abun-
treatment process based
toil of the poor. The true
on accelerated activation dance of water, but dis-
happiness in life is not to
mayed
at
the
unhealthy
pal-
of algae.
donate, but to serve. The
lor of the local fellahin
The algae are grown and (peasants) and the con-
great message that Mr. Sol-
harvested for protein rich nected rumors of malaria
olow brought to Boston may
fodder, after having first from the surrounding
sometime become a reality,
played a major role in sew- swamps.
and the Jewish people may
age treatment processes.
establish the national state
To allay their fears,
At Hebrew University,
that they have aspired to
another joint project, this they invited a Greek doc-
and longed for so long. "We
time with scientists from tor to come and give his
have listened to the unfold-
Harvard University, has opinion of the place. Anx-
ing of a wonderful dream.
developed a new technique iously watched by the
The great quality of the
for purifying water by would-be pioneers, he
Jews is that they have been
means of suspension in the climbed on the roof of a
able to dream through all
waste water of a magnetic ruined house and spent
the long and dreary cen-
powder which attaches it- half an hour inspecting
turies; and mankind has
self to the micro-organisms the sky. Finally he came
credited them with another
down and gave his ver-
in the water.
quality, the power to realize
dict. Because he had seen
their dreams. The task
They are then absorbed
no birds in all the time he
ahead of them is to make
by a powerful Magnet. The
had stood there, it was "a
this Zionist ideal a living
researchers have been test-
deadly place."
fact. "If they wish it, they
ing the method for the pos-
can by service bring it ab-
But
the
settlers
had
fallen
sibility of eliminating dye
out." ‘— Justice Louis D.
and other residue. from in- in love with the area and
Brandeis
paid no heed to the warning.
dustrial wastes.