ZIONIST ORGANIZATION
(f AMERICA
MIC.HIGAN REGION
In Commemoration
Brain Drain
of the 0448-1983 U.S. Embassy bombing
in Lebanon
Limited opportunities subjects Israel
to loss of well-trained young people.
Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tel Aviv
E
ven though Hebrew
University's economics
department is rated one of
the top centers for economics in the
world, the head of that department is
having a tough time recruiting faculty.
It's not that good students don't
come out of the center. Just last year,
eight went to top doctoral programs at
Harvard, Stanford, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Yale,
according to the departmental chair,
Professor Eyal Winter.
It's that they're not
coming back.
"We discuss their
prospects of return
after graduating
and they say it's
inconceivable that
they'll stay in the
U.S., but it turns out
they rarely return:'
Winter said. "Once
they receive offers in
the American market
they decide to stay"
Hebrew
University's problem is Israel's prob-
lem.
In growing numbers, young top-tier
Israeli academics and professionals
are being drawn to positions abroad,
mostly in the United States, lured by
higher salaries and better working
conditions.
The academics expect to earn much
more money overseas than in Israel,
and abroad they face lighter teaching
loads and better research facilities.
A recent study found that more than
one-quarter of lecturers who have
taught in Israel have taken jobs in the
United States.
especially in economics and the sci-
ences.
Professor Dan Ben-David, the direc-
tor of the public policy department
at Tel Aviv University, has conducted
research on academic brain drain and
says 10 percent of Israeli physicists
and a third of computer-science aca-
demics work in top U.S. university
departments.
Brain drain is a significant problem
as well in other professional fields
with major salary gaps, including
high-tech, engineering, business and
medicine.
"I think we should be alarmed:'
said Omer Moav, a Hebrew University
economist who co-authored research
on the topic for the Jerusalem-based
Shalem Center think
tank.
Low salaries and
high taxes are lead-
ing thousands of
Israelis with higher
educations to leave
the country every
year, the report
found.
"The canary in the
coal mine is telling
us something: that
the State of Israel is
failing to allow the
educated, middle- and upper-middle
class a good life here said Moav, who
co-authored the report with Eric Gold,
another Hebrew University economist.
The study found that between 1995
and 2002, 4.7 percent of Israelis with
master's degrees and above between
the ages of 30 and 40 — considered
the primary period people emigrate
— decided to leave the country.
The figure for the same age group
was even higher, 6.9 percent, when
immigrants to Israel, the majority of
them from the former Soviet Union,
were included.
Ron Siegal is part of this trend. After
receiving offers from the economics
departments of Hebrew University
and Tel Aviv University, he decided
to accept a tenure-track assistant
professor position at Northwestern
Fewer positions,
less pay than in
the United States
Largest Brain Drain Level
That figure makes Israel's rate of aca-
demic brain drain the highest in the
world — 10 times the rate in Europe.
The problem is not new to Israel,
but it has intensified in recent years,
Brain on page A40
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