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.