American Businessman Zuckerman Launches $100 million Program for Scientific Collaboration Between U.S. and Israel

TEL AVIV – In the latest trouncing of the BDS movement, American businessman and philanthropist Mortimer Zuckerman launches a game-changing $100 million initiative aimed at fostering scientific collaboration between the United States and Israel.

Zuckerman announced the launch of the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program in New York on Tuesday in the presence of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo and a host of Nobel laureates and business leaders (pictured).

The program, which was roundly endorsed by senators, CEOs of global giants like Google and even by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is designed to support future generations of leaders in science, technology, engineering and math in the U.S. and Israel.

In addition to bolstering Israeli research institutions by providing access to large-scale funding, the program will also give America’s highest-achieving post-doctoral researchers and graduate students the chance to collaborate with Israel’s top research institutions including the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science.

“The result will help transform not just the work of the scholars involved, but the way the United States and Israel approach collaboration and cooperation across the sciences,” said Zuckerman.

According to Netanyahu, the initiative will also serve to counteract Israel’s “brain drain,” the term used to explain the growing phenomenon of emigration by Israeli scientists and academics. Netanyahu said the project will help bring back home some of Israel’s most brilliant sons and daughters, allow them to advance their own careers here, and in so doing contribute to Israel’s growing scientific excellence.”

“It will also enable some of America’s brightest young scientists to conduct their research in Israel,” the prime minister added.

Speaking at the VIP launch, Governor Cuomo commented on the “deep and unparalleled connection” between New York and Israel.

“[T]he Zuckerman Scholars Program is a prime example of how we can keep that relationship strong today and in the future,” said Cuomo. “By helping some of America’s best and brightest students work and learn alongside leading researchers in Israel, this program gives us a new model for cooperation and partnership that will ultimately better society as a whole.”