By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
JAFFA, Israel — To mark my husband Yigal’s special birthday, we invited the whole family to the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, followed by a meal at a nearby restaurant.
The Center is situated overlooking the beach at the point where Jaffa joins Tel-Aviv and where young Shimon Persky (later Peres) disembarked from the ship bringing him from Belorussia to Mandatory Palestine in 1934. After studying agriculture at the Ben Shemen school and helping to found Kibbutz Ma’alot in the Jordan valley, Peres was selected by Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, to acquire arms for the nascent State of Israel.
Peres accomplished his task successfully, enabling the forces of the State to defeat the invading armies of several Arab states. In later years Peres continued to obtain weapons that enhanced Israel’s military might, including its nuclear missile. During his career Peres held various ministerial posts, including that of Prime Minister after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, together with whom Peres was awarded the Nobel Prize for their efforts on behalf of peace in the region. In his later years Peres was appointed President of the State of Israel.
Our tour of the Center, which celebrates our ‘Start-Up Nation,’ started with a brief introductory talk from our excellent guide, Tzachi, about the foundation and aims of the Center (which are many and varied), after which we were taken into the first interactive exhibition. This consisted of life-size figures of various individuals who have played a significant role in the development of scientific research or technological innovation in Israel. By pressing keys labelled according to spheres that interested us (e.g., the individual’s childhood or original trigger for development of the device or system) we were able to hear first-hand accounts in the individual’s voice.
For the following hour and a half, we were led through halls displaying aspects of the various spheres of invention and innovation in which Israel has excelled since even before its establishment. Each subject was presented in an original and entertaining form, whether by means of huge interactive computer screens, virtual reality headsets or well-designed displays, enabling even the most jaded technological whiz-kids among us to enjoy the experience and even learn something new.
First and foremost among these was the revival of the Hebrew language by Eliezer Ben Yehuda, followed in close succession by examples of innovations in the fields of agriculture (drip irrigation), animal husbandry (boosting productivity) medicine (the stent), and many others. Moving on to other scientific and technological achievements, we heard about ways of producing meatless (i.e., parve) meat and milkless (ditto) milk and many other products in a wide range of spheres.
The invention of the disk-on-key, the WAZE guidance system, advanced weaponry of various kinds, satellites, to name but a few, all originated in Israel, and it is no surprise to find that the number of Israel’s Nobel Prize laureates for science far outstrips our proportion in the global population. Israelis continue to invent and innovate, establishing startup companies which in many cases become Unicorns (i.e. privately-owned firms valued at over US$1 billion). To quote Peres: “optimism is not just an option it’s a basic work method.”
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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson is an author and freelance writer based in the Jerusalem suburb of Mevasseret Zion, Israel.