The Weizmann Institute of Science at Rehovoth extended an invitation tonight to Arab scientists as well as to all qualified scientists and research graduates “of all religions and races, including our neighbors in Cairo, Beirut and Amman and elsewhere in the Arab world” to use the Institute’s facilities “for human advancement and as a spur to the development of their home countries.”
The invitation was tendered here tonight at a dinner given by the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science to celebrate the Institute’s 23rd anniversary, the 50th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and the 20th anniversary of the United Nations partition resolution sanctioning the creation of the State of Israel. It was made, with formal authorization of the Institute, by Dr, Aharon Katchalsky-Katzir, head of the Institute’s polymer research department, who will be the first incumbent of the newly-established Abba Eban Chair for International Scientific Cooperation.
Establishment of the chair, the gift of Harry Levine, treasurer of the American committee, and his family, was announced at the dinner by Mr. Levine. He said it would bring to Israel, on a rotating basis, “the greatest names in science to help shape the course of science as a catalyst for peace and development in Israel, among its neighbors, and throughout the world.”
Dr. Dewey D. Stone, chairman of the Institute’s board of governors, was chairman of the function at which contributions of $4 million were announced. Dr. Stone noted the appropriateness of the triple celebration, pointing out that “the architect of the Balfour Declaration and the Father of the State of Israel are one and the same man — the Founder-President of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Six American donors it was announced, contributed a total of $3.5 million. These included $1 million from Jacob Michael, in memory of his late wife, to establish the Erna and Jacob Michael Institute of Nuclear Science at the Rehovoth Institute; $1 million from the Siegfried and Irma Ullmann Foundation; an additional Ullmann Foundation gift of $250,000 for an Ullmann Art Gallery at the Institute; the $250,000 gift for the Eban chair by Mr. Levine; one of $250,000 for the establishment of a Marc R. Gutwirth Chair of Molecular Energy, given by Mr. Gutwirth’s mother, Mrs. Charles Gutwirth; another $250,000 for the Israel Matz Chair for Organic Chemistry, the gift of the Alice Matz Goodman Foundation, and $250,000 from the Annenberg family of Philadelphia for the Annenberg Chair for High Energy Physics to commemorate the name of the late Mrs, Moses L. Annenberg. In addition, $500,000 was contributed by the 1,500 guests at the dinner at $350 per plate.
In a statement read to the dinner, the Weizmann Institute was described by Mr. Eban “as Chaim Weizmann’s legacy to mankind,” the basic expression of “Israel’s destiny in the world,” whose frame of reference “is human welfare across all the frontiers of our world,” representing for Israel “a pursuit of new dimensions beyond the limitations of size and wealth.” He said that the Institute’s “frame of reference is human welfare across all the frontiers of our world. When we preserve and enlarge Chaim Weizmann’s legacy, we enhance Israel’s pride and serve the highest interests of mankind.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
