New York, November 26, 2007 -- Last month, 4,500 faculty members at universities throughout Israel went on strike to protest salary erosion and inadequate facilities.  The strike, which is still going on and represents the most recent effort on the part of Israeli faculty to secure equitable compensation, reveals the zeitgeist of a nation at a crucial turning point.

First, the good news.  It has been a mark of Jewish pride that the People of the Book have transformed the State of Israel into one of the most intellectually and technologically accomplished countries in the world.  Global companies view Israel as one of the world’s chief incubators of high-tech innovation and life-saving medical advances.  Practically every cutting-edge industry, from lasers to nanotechnology, is being shaped by Israeli visionaries.  Israel became Israel, after all, in large measure because of its university system and the dedication to academic excellence by its students, professors and researchers.

The academic strike is the result of a festering problem that if not addressed through a change in policy, legislation and increased investment from supporters of Israel and its institutions, can put Israel into a position of losing its leadership status as the region’s incubator of innovation.

What has changed?  For one thing, higher education in Israel is stymied by salary caps, tuition caps and mandatory retirement ages.  Israeli faculty members have not received a salary increase since 2002. The problem is exacerbated by tuition caps, which, however noble in their aim, have the effect of starving schools of resources.  Caps on salaries have the almost automatic effect of forcing talented academics to seek employment abroad, where they can easily earn as much as three times their salaries in Israel. For example, Israeli lecturers currently earn between $2,500 and $5,250 a month — much less than academics in America and Europe, even after adjusting for disparities in cost of living.  Israel needs to raise the salary cap or abolish it altogether.

The mandatory retirement age of 67 for Israeli academics is even more archaic.  In the coming decade, unless the mandatory retirement rule is rescinded, Israel risks facing an employment crisis as its baby boom generation retires.  We simply cannot replace an entire generation overnight.

The financial problem has been exacerbated by a decrease of government funding for higher education.

Over the past six years, the Israeli government’s resources have been strained beyond measure.  The fight against terror, the second Intifada, the Gaza withdrawal, the War in Lebanon – all of these have understandably diverted resources away from investment in science and technology.  Everything from the smallest laboratory to the most advanced research institution requires government resources that have not been available. As a result, it should be no surprise that Israel could begin to hemorrhage talent.  Indeed, with all the talk of possible threats to Israel from the outside, we overlook a slower but equally pernicious, danger: the ebb of Israel’s intellectual life due to fierce competition from abroad.  Currently, 4,500 Israeli professors work in Israel, and 3,000 work abroad.  That’s an exodus of 40 percent — a stunning proportion that will only increase if current conditions persist.

The resulting "brain drain" has a trickle-down effect throughout the Israeli economy.  In the near term, fewer innovators working in Israel means there will be fewer commercially viable patents developed in Israel.  Patents are often owned by universities, which license their use to support vital university programs.  In the longer term, the loss of talent will diminish the status of Israel’s universities. Once started, the cycle is hard to stop: If the professors leave, top students have little reason to stay. Over the course of a generation, the effects on Israel’s economy could be considerable.

We should understand that Israel’s continuing status as the Middle East's high-tech powerhouse isn't guaranteed.  Saudi Arabia is currently investing $12.5 billion to create the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a graduate research institution that will boast one of the 10 largest endowments in the world.  Unless Israel can compete, it will lose its place as the center of regional innovation.

The faculty strike should be a wake-up call to all of us who are committed to strengthening Israel.  Wherever we live, Jews cannot simply stand by, knowing that Israel’s universities are suffering.  We need to step up, not just morally but financially, to support Israeli universities as they sort through these complex issues.

  Now is the time to invest as much as possible, to ensure that Israeli faculty never feel the need to strike again.  Only through increased investment will Israel’s universities be able recruit and retain the kind of talent that has put Israel’s higher education on the global map.  This includes not only increased salaries but cutting-edge laboratories, research grants, stipends for research assistants, and all other necessary material that will allow Israel’s professors to compete on an equal footing with their counterparts elsewhere in the world.

Today, the Middle East desperately needs the example of a strong, successful democracy with functioning institutions and a superlative educational system to serve as a model for other countries in the region.  If we succeed, we will update the traditional Jewish mission as a "Light unto the nations."

Peter T. Willner is the national executive director of American Friends of The Hebrew University.

For further information:
American Friends of The Hebrew University One Battery Park Plaza, 25th Floor New York, NY 10004-1405 phone: (800) 567-2348 email: info@afhu.org www.afhu.org
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