Ugly, May 11, 1919 Israeli Scientists Making Strides in Alternative Energy Research By PAUL HIRSCHHORN HAIFA Primitive man worshipped with awe that flaming globe in the sky, the sun, Today, however, modern Jewish scientists in Israel are taking a second look at the sun. National policy dic- tates that alternatives to fossil fuel must be foUnd, and found fast. Ina way, it may be said, they are attempting to bring the sun down to earth. Working in har- mony with nature, scien- tists are also seeking new ways to harness energy from ever-present sea waves and wind. The poisibilities for man- kind? Clean energy from unlimited sources. In Israel, great strides have already been made in the use of solar energy, of which Israel is the largest per capita user in the world (20 percent of Israel's homes are outfitted with solar heating or refrigerating systems). Dr. Nathan Arad, director-general of the country's Energy Authority, is optimistic that this use can be increased from the current two per- cent of the country's energy consumption to between eight and 15 percent in the 1990s. "About 20-25 percent of all household energy needs — predominatly for space heating and hot water — could be saved by passive — systems and solar energy applications," Dr. Arad said. With this goal in mind, scientists throughout the country are involved in re- search to expand the prod- uction of power from the sun. Recent Israeli de- velopments have included: a high-temperature solar energy system, capable of powering solar air- conditioning in summer, heating in winter and ob- taining mechanical energy for home use; and a new solar cell with its own internal storage system that can produce electricity after sundown. Solar Ponds One of the most promis= ing developments in Israel's solar energy research has been that of "solar ponds." The ponds are based on the natural phenomenon that all bodies of water trap the heat at the bottom. There it can be collected for use as a source of energy. Research into solar ponds, originally suggested by Dr. Rudolph Bloch of the Dead Sea Works, is under- way on a national level. A group of scientists headed by Dr. Zvi Tabor, now at Hebrew University, began solar pond investigations some 20 years ago. They have succeeded in develop- ing a pond which produces heat at temperatures be- tween 90 degrees and 100 degrees centigrade. Heat drawn from the pond's bot- tom has successfully pow- ered turbines developed specially to operate in con- junction with the ponds. Using similar princi- ples, Technion — Israel Institute of Technology engineers have de- veloped a shallow solar pond — a 50 x 3 meter plastic bag consisting of a transparent upper layer and at black bottom layer with water held between them. The "shallow pond" is installed next to a greenhouse: heat col- lected and stored during the daytime can be trans- ferred to the greenhouse at night. Future solar pond uses are promising. The Weiz- man Institute's Dr. Gad Assaf has made a math- ematical study of using the Dead Sea itself as a "solar lake." According to his cal- culations, 50 square miles of the sea would provide enough energy to double Is- rael's resources, through desalination of seawater. Methane Gas Water also figures prom- inently in another project underway in Israel, the production of methane gas from agricultural wastes, including animal manure and vegetable waste. At Kibutz Yagur, near Haifa, Technion experts have built the world's largest pilot plant for the production of methane gas. As a side benefit, the methane reactor is also an excellent medium for algae growth. The algae can be fed to many farm animals, which then create manure. The project head, Prof. Gedaliahu Shelef, believes this could ultimately lead to farm units self-sufficient in stationary energy require- ments, through a cyclical re-use of their own solid or- ganic wastes. Bio-chemists at the Weizmann Institute have begun a basic investiga- tion of an unusual algae that grows in ponds along the Dead Sea. They believe this algae may some day serve as an in- expensive source of glycerol, a combustible alcohol that can be used as a fuel itself and may possibly also serve as a raw material in the prod- uction of natural gas or gasoline. Other Israeli scientists have made headway in modernizing a more tradi- tional form of energy, the windmill. Technion Prof. Anthony Peranio has de- veloped a new "rotary visc- ous friction" device. Con- sisting of a paddle-wheel enclosed in a tank of water or oil, the device, rotated mechanically by the wind, heats the liquid, providing power. Ben-Gurion University scientists have discovered that the energy output of a wind turbine can be tripled if it is surrounded by a spe- cial shroud. Dr. Ozer Igra, who developed the circular shroud, has taken advan- tage of the principle of airplane wing design, in which differences in air pressure create a suction ef- fect drawing more air into the turbine. The shroud, which Igra claims produces three times the output of a regular tur- bine, can pick up wind with as little as 20 percent of the turbine facing in the direc- tion of the wind. Using the Sea Prof. Peranio, of the Technion, also sees the sea as an alternative source of energy. In his laboratory he has built a small working model of a sea wave conver- sion device consisting of a long, inclined ramp leading up to a water tank, some - what above sea level The kinetic energy of waves rushing up the ramp is con- verted into potential energy. This energy is then extracted from the con- troled flow of this water thrrough a conventional turbine. Increasingly in their var- . ied researches, Israeli sci- entists are linking the de- velopment of energy sources with the preservation of de- velopment of other re- sources, especially water. Technion's Dr. Gershon Grossman, head of the team that developed the high temperature solar collector, has turned his attention to the development of a solar desalination system. It could provide the water needs of a family in an iso- lated area. "Use of alterna- tive forms of energy could have wide-ranging effects for Israel and other develop- ing countries as well," Grossman says. "For example, n 1.01 villages the basi. ,co- nomic support comes from raising cattle and sheep," Grossman ex- plains. "These animals need vegetation, But the residents need to burn the vegetation for cook- ing and heat. So more and more places become bar- ren desert. This con- tinues until there is no more land and people are forced to move into the cities. Solar and wind energy can save vegeta- tion, and, in doing so, preserve a way of life. While no major fossil fuel deposits have been found in Israel, giant strides have been taken there in develop- ing alternative sources of energy. Today, the coun- try's sunny climate, full blowing breezes and long seashore make it possible to say that Israel, too, is blessed: with solar, wind and wave energy. And the research being done in Is- rael today can help solve problems of energy shortage in other countries as well. Conservative M'sorati Movement in Israel Has Grown in 9 Years By BARBIE ZELIZER JERUSALEM (JTA) — "Conservative Judaism is what Israelis have been waiting for all along. We didn't have .to give .it to them. All we had to do was be here." This remark, ex- pressed during the recent 12th International Conven- tion of the World Council of Synagogues (Conservative) in Jerusalem, aptly sums up the sentiments of the lead- ers of the newly-formed Conservative movement in Israel. Unlike the decades-old movement of the U.S. or Canada, Israeli Conser- vative Jewry — as a na- tional organized movement — is a mere eight years old. Calling itself the "Move- ment for M'sorati (tradi- tional) Judaism in Israel," it has sf cured steadily- growing public. support since its founding in 1970. Twenty.five congregations have been established, two of them by second- generation members, and three more are presently being set up. Together they boaaa: membership of 2,000 : 1 P families, two-thirds of them Israeli-born. In the laSt few years, the movement has established a center for Conservative Judaism. in Jerusalem, 19 local youth chapters and three day camps, and in at least one city, it is repsonsi- ble for third-grade Jewish content programming in the public school system. Future plans include opening an overnight camp and two additional day camps, establishing a M'sorati high school, de- veloping a national youth movement, publishing Hebrew editions of M'sorati liturgical mate- rials and, in general, enhancing the movement in the eyes of the Israeli public. These accomplishments, however, were realized against a background of numerous obstacles. A min- imal budget — until last year, $30,000 annually — and shortage of both rabbin- ical and lay leadership characterize the movement even today. However, the most overriding barrier to its legitimate acceptance within Israel is the ideologi- cal one. A decade ago, most Is- raelis had never heard of Conservative Jewry, or if they had, they were quick to denigrate its legitimacy. "Israeli society is polarized in terms of reli- gion," contends Yehuda Mor, executive member of the United Synagogue of Is- rael. "There are two camps — Orthodox and secular" — and a dominant all-or- nothing approach to Judaism is practiced by most of the public. The Orthodox establish- ment, even today, refuses to formally permit Conserva- tive rabbis to officiate at Jewish functions, and in only a few cases have the local rabbis managed to gain legitimacy in the eyes of their Orthodox col- leagues. Yet many of the movement's leaders see the rabbinate as ultimately a product of society, and con- tend that once public sup- port for the movement has grown, the rabbinate will have to adopt a more pluralistic approach to reli- gious observance. The real challenge, they contend, is in reach- ing this public and mak- ing it aware of the move- ment's character. Rabbi Michael Graetz, the Is- raeli movement's execu- tive director, likens this task to changing the image of the American black in the 1950s. "We must launch an assault on established stereotypes that claim there is only one way of being Jewish," he says. "Only then will people open up and listen to what we have to say." Rabbi Philip Spector, spiritual head of the highly successful model M'sorati community in Ashkelon, explains the movement's at- traction as a question of timing. "The Israeli today has a lot of Yiddishkeit. He just doesn't have a spiritual hook to hang it on," he con- tends, adding that the movement is needed here because its open-ended ap- proach to Judaism can withstand the characteris- tic tensions of Israeli society. "On the other hand, the Conservative movement, as a whole, needs the Israeli desperately," he adds. "We need his vigor because we are tired. When an Israeli sets foot into a synagogue, it is not because he is running looking for val- ues,-and - a spiritual uplift. The healthiest thing the Is- raeli can do for us is show us how to develop without the need to be a haven for as- similation." In that light, movement heads maintain that M'sorati Judaism in Israel must differ from that prac- ticed in other countries. Of the 75 member families in his community of Omer, near Beersheba, Graetz notes that 40 "are serious about their Judaism. I foresee a more traditional movement here," he says, "one in which people really try to live out the ideology." For all the energy ex- hibited by the local lead- ership, the movement still faces a series of prob- lems. Only two congrega- tions — in Ashkelon and Natanya — have their own buildings. Hopefully, this situation will soon improve. The Jewish Theological Semi- nary of America recently agreed to donate $50,000 to the movement annually, in addition to $36,000 a year recently promised by the World Council of Synagogues. A fund-raising tour is now being conducted in the U.S. ministries and institutions. Manpower also consti- tutes a problem. While more than 80 ordained Conserva- tive rabbis presently reside in- Israel, only 10 — all of them recent immigrants are employed by the move- ment, and only five of them on a full-time basis. "We must develop a cadre of in- digenous leaders, of good consistent rabbinical lead- ership," observed Rabbi Moshe Cohen, director of the United Synagogue of Is- rael. The movement intends - to actively attract local people to the rabbinate and hopes to eventually open a local branch of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Movement leaders main- tain that greater under- standing of the M'sorati movement must be ex- hibited by Conservative Jewry throughout the world. Pointing to the poor American resporh: a re- cent request th _ .;om- munities abroad adopt synagogues here, Graetz notes that more efforts to educate constituencies abroad must be made. David Zucker, interna- tional president of the World Council of Synagogues, has pledged backing of such an objec- tive. "We fully support the M'sorati movement and its philosophy," he says. "And we want this sup- port to follow the European conception of kehilla, in which the Israeli section of the World Council of Synagogues will help each local community to gain administrative autonomy.