Attorney Ira Jaffe
Helps Russian
Researcher

KIMBERLY LIFTON STAFF WRITER

ISRAEL DIGEST

Specially compiled by The Jerusalem Post

—$1 EQUALS 2.94 NIS (shekels) - Close Price 11/5/93 —

E=M C2

A

ttorney Ira Jaffe doesn't
"We are half-way there," Mr.
want to let the political
Jaffe says, adding they are just
turmoil and economic
beginning to seek contributions
problems of the former
from foundations and public in-
Soviet Union jeopardize the fu-
dustrial companies.
ture of famous Russian scien-
In the 1950s and the 1960s,
tists.
Dr. Fradkin made significant
So Mr. Jaffe, a partner of the
contributions in quantum field
Detroit firm Jaffe, Raitt and
theory and quantum statistics
Heuer, is trying to help a world-
that helped shape the method-
renowned Russian scientific
ology of modern theoretical
team — the Quantum Field
physics. His current team has
Theory Group — secure private
been in the forefront of modern
funding to continue an inter-
theoretical physics and has
national research center in Ann
made significant contributions
Arbor.
at every stage of the develop-
As chairman of the advisory
ment of theories about electro-
board for the newly formed In-
dynamics and gravity.
ternational Center for Science
Dr. Fradkin, the son a rab-
and Technology (ICAST), Mr.
bi, was born in 1924 in a small
Jaffe hopes to spread his mes-
Jewish community in Schedrin,
sage throughout the communi-
in Byelorussia. His father, Rab-
ty. He also hopes private
bi Samuel, was arrested in the
business people
and foundations
will contribute
money to keep
the team alive.
"This is one of
the finest teams
ever assembled,"
Mr. Jaffe says.
"We now have a
chance to keep it
together."
The team,
headed by Dr.
Efim Fradkin, a
theoretical physi-
cist who worked
on important
Russian nuclear
projects with No-
bel Laureates
I.E. Tamm and
A.D. Sakharov,
no longer can be
supported by the
Russian govern-
ment. And infla-
tion there has
made govern-
ment salaries es-
sentially
worthless.
Because of
the political tur-
moil, many sci-
entists have Ira Jaffe and Arthur Weiss review ICAST license.
begun looking for
opportunities in other regions
late 1930s when dictator Josef
of the world. Dr. Fradkin came
Stalin started a widespread
to Michigan at the urging of a
campaign against Jews.
Michigan investor, whom he
The synagogue and school
met in 1991 in Russia. ICAST
where Dr. Fradkin studied were
is housed at the Environmen-
closed, and his father was killed
tal Research Institute of Michi-
in prison at the end of 1938.
gan. Dr. Fradkin comes to
Later, his mother and siblings
Michigan with the esteemed
were killed when the Nazis in-
Dirac Medal, years of research
vaded his hometown in 1942.
experience, but little cash.
He and his brother Lev sur-
ICAST, which has $80,000 in
vived because they were serv-
the bank, has $300,000 pledged.
ing in the Russian army.
By the end of the year, orga-
In 1948, Dr. Fradkin entered
nizers expect the group to
the Lebedev Physical Institute
achieve tax-exempt status.
as a graduate student in theo-

GE, Siemens Contracts

The Israel Electric Corpora-
tion has awarded two con-
tracts, worth $180 million, to
be split between General Elec-
tric and Siemens.
GE will supply two gas tur-
bines, while Siemens will sup-
ply four turbines. GE's
turbines, which will join two
previously purchased from
GE, will be installed at the
Electric Corp.'s new Hagit

power plant site.
The Hagit site, located be-
tween Yokne'am and Zichron
Ya'acov, is expected to supply
1,200 megawatts when fully
developed. It has been report-
ed that the Hagit site will be
the power plant linked to a
natural gas pipeline using gas
purchased from a Gulf state,
thought to be Qatar.

European Car Market

retical physics. There, he stud-
ied with Dr. Tamm.
Because of anti-Semitism, it
was difficult for the young Jew-
ish student to enroll in a doc-
toral program in the Soviet
Union. Every student had to
pass a strict test of loyalty to the
government and the communist
party. And being a Jew auto-
matically meant disloyalty.
In Dr. Frad-
kin's case, his ex-
ceptional status
form the acade-
my helped him
beat the odds.
Once he became
part of the team
that worked on
Soviet nuclear
projects, he often
found himself
fighting attacks
of the communist
party against
young Jewish
students apply-
ing to study with
the team.
"If I do not
succeed fighting
for them, who in
the world will,"
he would say.
Dr. Fradkin
calls the Ann Ar-
bor institute a
dream. Yet, he
says, it is more
important to
bring the entire
team to the area.
"My aim is not
only to continue
my research," he
says. "It is im-
portant not to de-
stroy the Russian schools in
physics and math, which are
like medicine is here in the
United States.
"Before we had two countries
— Russia and the United
States — against each other,"
Dr. Fradkin says. "Now we can
work together with these two
great forces to help to world to
be more stable."
If the project works, Mr. Jaffe
says, Ann Arbor will be great for
the world of science. But if it
fails, he says, "it could be the end
of theoretical physics teams." ❑

European car imports held a
majority share of the car im-
port market in Israel in Oc-
tober, for the first time in three
years.
According to the Association
of Car Importers, European
car imports accounted for 54
percent of customer orders last

month. Approximately 11,000
new cars were sold in October,
less than the average number
of vehicles sold during the last
10 months.
According to the associa-
tion's reports, 116,221 new
cars were supplied to cus-
tomers in the last 10 months.

EFI, Sharp Agreement

Israel's Electronics for Imag-
ing (EFI) announced it has en-
tered into a licensing
agreement with Sharp Elec-
tronics to incorporate EfiCol-
or management technology
with Sharp's color scanners
and printers.
The EFI technology records
specialized information about
a device's color capabilities and
limitations to provide consis-
tent color across input, display
and output devices.
Sharp will include the tech-
nology in a number of dye sub-
limation printers, desktop
printers and commercial print-
ers. During the past nine
months, EFI has signed

strategic partnership agree-
ments with Chicago printers
RR Donnally, Adobe Post-
Script Software, Quark Print-
ers, Canon and Xerox.
Third quarter results
showed a rise in the compa-
ny's net profit to $3.4 million.
The California-based firm had
a $2.4 million net profit dur-
ing the same quarter in 1992
and a $2.8 million net profit
during the second quarter this
year.
Total revenues rose by
about 38 percent to $23 mil-
lion from $16.7 million during
the same period last year and
from $20.9 million during the
1993 second quarter.

`No Internet Restrictions'

The Communications Min-
istry has announced it will
"aim to end" restrictions on ac-
cess to Internet, the world's
largest computer network,
which until recently was used
mostly by university re-
searchers.

At a recent meeting of com-
puter users, ministry officials
were lambasted for requiring
a special ministry license for
Internet that has prevented
individuals and small com-
mercial firms from using it.

Teva Shares Show Rise

Teva Pharmaceutical Indus-
tries shares jumped more than
seven percent in trading on
the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
last week after the company
announced it received U.S.
Food and Drug Administra-
tion approval to market Gem-
fibrozil.
The company announced it
received the FDA approval to
market Gemfibrozil 600 mg.
tablets, the generic equivalent
of Lopid — a cholesterol-re-
ducing agent available from
Warner Lambert.

Teva said the annual U.S.
market for the original ver-
sions of the drug is estimat-
ed at $350 million. The
company will manufacture
Gemfibrozil in Israel and mar-
ket it in the United States
through Lemmon Company,
a fully owned American drug
manufacturer.
Teva develops, manufac-
tures and markets human
pharmaceuticals, bulk phar-
maceutical chemicals, medical
disposables, veterinary prod-
ucts, baking yeast and alcohol.

0)
0)

CC
U..11
CO

LU

C.)

33