Heidelberg- Event

At the invitation of the City of Heidelberg, a multidisciplinary symposium entitled "Heidelberg-Israel, Science and Culture" was held on July 17 and 18. It illustrated Heidelberg's many contacts to Israel.

Heidelberg-Israel, Science and Culture

Opening ceremony on July 17, 2008

A festive dinner at the historic Prinz Carl palace marked the beginning of the Heidelberg-Israel event. The musical accompaniment was provided by a youth guitar ensemble from Heidelberg's Municipal School of Music and Singing and a baritone from the Stadttheater.
In his welcoming address, Dr. Eckart Würzner, Lord Mayor of Heidelberg, underlined the three reasons for the event: the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, the 25-year twinning between the two "cities of science" Heidelberg and Rehovot, and the German-Israeli Year of Science and Technology 2008. The guests included city councilors from Heidelberg and Rehovot, researchers from the University of Heidelberg, the College of Jewish Studies in Heidelberg, the Weizmann Institute, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the many Max Planck Institutes that are located in and around Heidelberg, and citizens who play an active role in the city twinning.

Würzner's counterpart from Rehovot, Mayor Joshua Forer, underlined the importance of science and sport for understanding among nations: "Science and sport help overcome barriers and build bridges." Forer invited Lord Mayor Würzner to Rehovot, where a park is to be named after the partner city of Heidelberg.

Professor Otmar D. Wiestler, chairman of the management board of the German Cancer Research Center, and Professor Wolfhard Semmler, the bilateral cooperation coordinator, spoke about German-Israeli cooperation in the field of cancer research, which has been taking place for over 30 years now. Teams of researchers from both countries have published over 1,000 papers, carried out 120 projects and achieved numerous results, many of them groundbreaking.  Since 1976, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has provided a total of €23.1 million to collaborations between the DKFZ and Israeli research institutions. The support of young scientists is particularly important in this partnership. In this context, Wiestler mentioned the first Winter School, which took place in Austria in May.

Professor Isaac P. Witz, who is a member of the program committee for cooperation in cancer research, spoke about the field of cancer research at Tel Aviv University and its affiliated clinics. 

Professor Bernhard Eitel, the Rector of the University of Heidelberg, said that his university had lost a quarter of its professors during the displacement and expulsion of Jewish scientists during the National Socialist era. He also spoke about the University of Heidelberg's 30-year partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the projects and exchange programs that are being carried out with almost all Israeli universities.

Professor Johannes Heil, Prorector of the College of Jewish Studies in Heidelberg, presented his institution. Approximately 180 students from 14 different countries, both Jews and non-Jews, are enrolled at the college. Founded in 1979, it maintains exchange programs with almost all Israeli universities. Heil also described the difficult early days of relations between Germany and Israel. For example, the debate about whether a ship built in Germany and delivered to Israel could enter port in Haifa flying the German flag seems unimaginable today.

Professor Daniel Zaijfman, president of the Weizmann Institute, described how problematic German-Israeli rapprochement still is for the older generation. His decision to conduct research at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics between 1991 and 2007 was based not only on professional interest, but also by the belief that "history should not be used to separate people, but rather to bring them together". Zajfman's mother, a survivor of the Shoah, could not understand his decision for a very long time. It was only when her son received the Minerva Award that she could bring herself to visit Germany. "As we sat in a café here in Heidelberg, we both had tears in our eyes, and she was happy to have taken this step," Zajfman said.


Symposium in the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)

After the welcoming addresses given by politicians and scientists, the second day of the event at the DKFZ conference center featured presentations on Hebrew literature and on German-Israeli cooperation projects in the fields of environmental physics, archaeology, history and cancer research.

Federal Minister Dr. Annette Schavan described science as the key to development and underlined the importance of Heidelberg as a symbol of science and research. She said that in addition to the - usually science-oriented - collaborations between Israeli institutions and the DKFZ, the University of Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institutes, cooperation in the field of the humanities is also to be intensified in the future. To this end, one of the Minerva Centers is to be equipped as a "Cross-Cultural Center" as part of the German-Israeli Year of Science. Schavan also reiterated how important the support of young researchers was for the future of German-Israeli cooperation. In this context, she welcomed this year's three winners of the "Israel Young Scientists Competition" (similar to the German "Jugend forscht" competition), which the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) awards to three young Israelis every year.

Ilan Mor, Minister of the Israeli Embassy, talked about the success story that is the state of Israel - in addition to its stable democracy, its significant achievements in the field of science and research are also something to be proud of. He ended his speech by quoting Goethe: "Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality."
Dr. Amnon Barak, the Director of the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF), gave an overview of the foundation's support of Heidelberg-based research institutions. To date, the GIF has provided a total of €3,462,346 to the University of Heidelberg, the DKFZ and the Max Planck Institutes.

Click here to find out more about the specialist presentations and the three winners of the "Young Scientists Competition" (link)


Specialist presentations

Prof. Anat Feinberg of the College of Jewish Studies presented developments in Hebrew literature from the 1920s to the present. In the years before and just after the foundation of the state, the focus was on the "strong, upright, fearless and suntanned Jew, as opposed to the fearful, oppressed Diaspora Jew", but the emphasis changed starting in the 1960s. Yoram Kaniuk criticizes the Israeli wars; Amos Oz demystifies life in the kibbutz, while Eli Amir addresses the discrimination of Oriental immigrants in Ashkenazi-dominated Israel. The lost world of Jewish life before the war and the subject of religion have also become increasingly important. In the last 20 years, "collective" themes such as war, military and nation have declined in favor of more subjective topics such as love, family, sexuality and interpersonal relationships, partly due to the rising influence of women in Israeli literature.
Feinberg pointed out that Israeli literature is translated into German more often than into any other language, and that it has won a permanent place on the German book market.

Professor Ulrich Platt, the Director of the University of Heidelberg's Institute of Environmental Physics, talked about the collaborations between his institute and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the field of atmospheric chemistry. Researchers from both institutions are working together to investigate the reasons behind the extraordinarily high concentration of bromine over the Dead Sea. They have already discovered that the bromine-rich substances that form directly in the large salt evaporation ponds on the southern part of the Dead Sea contribute to the elevated bromine oxide concentration in the atmosphere, which in turn is responsible for ozone depletion and the low ozone levels in this region.

The archaeological project in Ramat Rachel near Jerusalem was the subject of a presentation given by Professor Manfred Oeming of the University of Heidelberg's Faculty of Theology. The excavation site contains remains dating from the Persian era (about 500 B.C.) right up to early Islamic times (8th century A.D.).  The project includes the cooperation of professors and students from the University of Heidelberg, the College of Jewish Studies and Tel Aviv University. It has the aim of reviewing and publishing earlier excavation results.

Dr. Fania Oz-Salzberger of the University of Haifa and her German colleague Professor Thomas Maissen presented their work on the European history of ideas in the 17th and 18th centuries, which is financed by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF). Among other things, the project focuses on the way in which the meaning of concepts such as freedom and democracy has changed in the course of history.

Professor Benny Geiger of the Weizmann Institute gave a presentation on his area of expertise, cell adhesion, which describes the binding of a cell to its neighboring cells or to an extracellular structural protein matrix. Cell adhesion is central to the regulation of a whole series of physiological processes such as cell morphology and cell growth, but also to the ability of cells to leave their original tissue and settle in other tissues. The latter is a key process in the development of metastases in cancer.

Professor Varda Rotter, also a scientist at the Weizmann Institute, spoke about the importance of the tumor suppressor gene p53. The p53 gene, which is also known as "the guardian of the genome", is mutated and thus "immobilized" in almost half of all malignant tumors. As a result, if a cell's genetic material is damaged, uncontrolled growth occurs, without the damage being repaired or programmed cell death initiated. In her current work, Varda Rotter has repressed genes that are of central importance for the onset of cancer in cells from different types of human tissue. The researchers are using these experimentally created cell lines to examine which genetic interaction networks are initiated through cancer-typical changes in genetic material. In this way, the scientists hope to get an insight into processes that ultimately lead to the malignant degeneration of a cell.
Varda Rotter is currently a member of the board of trustees of the German Cancer Research Center. She and her colleague Benjamin Geiger were partners in numerous collaborative projects with DKFZ researchers as part of the German-Israeli Cooperation Program in Cancer Research.


Young Scientists


The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) awards the "Israel Young Scientists Competition" (which is similar to the German "Jugend forscht" competition) to three Israeli students every year and invites them to spend three weeks in Germany. This year's host institution was the University of Heidelberg. During their first week in Germany, the students had already seen Berlin, Potsdam, Weimar, Mainz and the Rhine Valley.


Amir Sasson, 18 years old, from Jerusalem, subject: law:

Even before receiving this award, I was interested in Germany and tried to find out more about German history and the Jews, about German politics. I like Germany. I always used to think that Germans were a little aloof, but that is not true. They always seem willing to help, and I do not think this depends on whether they are young or old. In Israel, Germany is still strongly associated with the Holocaust. I am the grandson of two survivors myself. I'm sure that if my grandparents were still alive, they would not be happy to see that I am in Germany now. Three years of military service await me when I go back to Israel. Afterwards, I really want to study law, which is my favorite subject; I even attended courses at the university while I was still at school. I could see myself studying here in Germany.


Doron Levin, 18 years old, from Beer Sheva, subject: quantum physics:

I had no connection to Germany in the past. After I won the award and I found out that I was going to come to Heidelberg, I started reading about the city. Everything is very efficient and well-organized here. I like the atmosphere in Heidelberg, but also in other places in Germany. The old buildings, the culture. And above all: Everything is so green here! Now I have to serve in the army for three years; afterwards, I will study physics.


Itay Yahalom, 19 years old, from Jerusalem, subject: artificial intelligence:

I like German culture. Heidelberg is a great city, and I also liked the other places I've seen so far. I'm impressed by how well everything works; especially the public transportation system - it's fantastic! People in Germany are much more quiet and calm than Israelis. What I don't like is fizzy water.
Unlike the other two, I am already in the army. When I finish, I would like to study computer sciences.

 


 

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