LIFE IN ISRAEL
GREAT RUGS OF WINTER
- -,••••••ty
;;.:z,:•:•••••
-
.
•
............
.
••••
12 Months Same as Cash*
Plus save 33-40% on this entire collection
of warm, all wool, oriental rugs
Now is the time to warm up your
home, with an oriental rug from
Hagopian. Our Great Rugs of Winter Col-
lection is from our wonderful inventory
Soviet Jewish immigrants working at SATEC.
of personally selected, beautiful quality
oriental rugs. These rugs are sure to im-
press and warm you up this winter. Offer
ends Feb 26, 1990.
CARL ALPERT
The Original Since 1939
Birmingham
1835 S Woodward
north of 14 Mile
Call 646-RUGS
GOPI
N
WORLD OF RUGS
•
Ann Arbor
3410 Washtenaw
west of Arborland
Call 973-RUGS
*With approved credit on purchases of $1,000 or more, 1/4 down payment required.
COATS
UNLIMITED
11/1
A
E
S
February 15 - 25
A Mixed Media — Juried Show
Presented by
CREATIVE COUNCIL
Sterling Heights
Sterling Place
37680 Van Dyke at 16 1/2 Mile
939-0700
Oak Park
Lincoln Center, Greenfield at 10 1 h Mile
968-2060
West Bloomfield
Orchard Mall, Orchard Lake
at Maple (15 Mile) • 855 9955
-
BOOKS
We Buy and Sell
Good Used Books
LIBRARY BOOKSTORE
545-4300
Open 7 Days
169 W. 9 Mile
Ferndale
M. Sempliner
Artists in Attendance
SOMERSET MALL
W. Big Beaver Road at Coolidge, Troy
Sunday 12-5 / Monday-Thursday-Friday 10-9 / Other Days 10-6
30
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1990
SATEC Helps Harness
Surge Of Soviet Talent
50% OFF
ERI C E E S_
A PP LA
IOU MEASURE, ONG & SMEI
NOW OPEN
O N
4sH uR EE IGHTS
10 ISON
IN MADIS
589-3032
MADISON
also ORCHARD PLACE
855-0122
Special to The Jewish News
M
ore than 25 percent
of the Soviet immi-
grants arriving in
Israel are engineers, scien-
tists or physicians. If the
figure reaches 100,000 within
the next year or two, as an-
ticipated, it will include
2-3,000 persons holding
Ph.D.'s — 20 times more than
the number of doctorates
turned out by all of Israel's
universities in three years.
While much is presently
made of the need for basic
physical absorption of the im-
migrants, what is Israel doing
to assure the proper harness-
ing of all those skills and
talents into the economy of
the country?
The universities are help-
ing, but the attitude of the of-
ficial authorities thus far goes
little beyond the social
welfare level. Some private
industries have been alert
enough to pick up talented,
experienced, well-trained
employees.
But the most significant
and most promising effort is
being made by a unique com-
pany in Jerusalem which
teams up the Soviet skills
with western-style manage-
ment. The immediate goal is
to create a pattern for well-
rounded absorption on a com-
mercial, not philanthropic,
basis, but the program in-
cludes concern for the hous-
ing and Jewish spiritual
needs of the immigrants as
well.
The company, known as
SATEC, has been in existence
less than three years, but is
already producing revenue in
excess of $1 million a year,
and the trend is steadily up.
The scientific director, Prof.
Yirmiyahu Branover, a
distinguished scientist in his
own right, and himself an im-
migrant to Israel from the
USSR in 1973, told of the first
three projects, based on know-
how brought in by the
immigrants.
One is in the field of elec-
tronic instrumentation, pro-
ducing a digital power meter
which has already penetrated
world markets; electrical
heating elements, which sell
well in this country; and a
sophisticated method of ex-
tracting precious metals
(gold, silver, platinum, etc.)
from electronic waste, like old
computers and telephones, as
well as from coal ash and low
grade ore.
Of the 70 employees of
SATEC, half are Soviet im-
migrants, with a sprinkling of
Americans, Britishers and
South Africans among the
others.
One of the Russians,
Yaakov Katz, is an electrical
engineer who arrived from
Novosibirsk (the Chicago of
Siberia) only a year and a half
ago. Seven years in refusal, he
spent that time studying
Hebrew.
Why did he choose Israel
rather than the U.S.? He
seemed surprised by the ques-
tion. "Because I am a Jew," he
answered simply.
Even high technology can
be Jewish. On the wall of the
office at SATEC is a picture of
the Lubavitcher Rebbe (him-
self an engineer by training),
who had inspired this prac-
tical approach to immigrant
absorption. It should be done