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Brain Drain: Existential Threat For Israel

After Israelis Michael Levitt  and Arieh Warshel won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, their decisions to emigrate from Israel to the United States provoked a discussion about the academic "brain drain" Israel has been experiencing.
Photos of Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel, the three laureates of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, is seen on a screen during the announcement of the winners at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm October 9, 2013. Karplus, Levitt and Warshel won the 2013 Nobel Prize for chemistry for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems, the award-giving body said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Claudio Bresciani/TT News Agency  (SWEDEN - Tags: MEDIA SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY)
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Let’s start with the good news. On Oct. 13 in Israel, more than 300,000 students started the academic year at universities and colleges around the country. In the past decade, the percentage of Israelis accepted into institutions of higher learning has increased from some 20% of the relevant age group to almost 50%. Since the mid-1990s, Israel has ranked third in the number of scientific citations (relative to country wealth) and third in the number of scientific publications per million residents. Since 2000, five Israeli scientists have been awarded Nobel prizes.

From the world’s most prestigious award, we now move to the bad news in the areas of science, research and higher learning in Israel. Two of the three laureates for the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Arieh Warshel and Michael Levitt, emigrated from Israel and  make their homes in the United States. Many in Israel regard them as “descenders,” the translation of a term coined in Hebrew to describe those who leave the country. In the outspoken words of retired general Uzi Dayan, they are “traitors.”

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