NOV 2 to73 REPORT FROM REHOVOT PRESIDENT'S OFFICE / THE WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE / REHOVOT / ISRAEL ‘ARR No. 5 October, 1973 THE INSTITUTE ON AN EMERGENCY FOOTING THE FALLEN As these lines are written, word has been received that four members of the staff were killed in action. They are: Meir Ben-Ari (Heavy Oxygen Plant) Yaakov Leshem (Supply Department) Dr, Yaakov London (Chemical Immunology) Gad Reshef (Feinberg Graduate School) 10 other members of the staff have been wounded. The Weizmann Institute of Science joins with the rest of the nation in bitterly mourning those who have fallen in battle so that Israel might live. THE OUTBREAK OF WAR When war broke out, the Weizmann Institute had just settled into its post-summer pace. Most scientists had returned from conferences abroad. Feinberg Graduate School students were back in their laboratories, and the Institute's Biophysics Department was preparing for the now-postponed Edmond de Rothschild School on the Biophysics of Glycoproteins. Within hours of the first attacks by the Egyptians and Syrians on Israel Defense Force strongholds, Israel had mobilized itself for active service both in the battlefield and on the home front. By Sunday, the second day of the war, the. Institute's campus was half-empty; dozens of staff members had been called to the various services and many more scientists, visiting scientists, technicians, and administrative personnel were already urgently looking for ways in which to work on behalf of the war effort. By the second week of war, some departments were operating only with skeleton staffs; others, including all essential Institute services, continued to function at whatever pace can be considered as normal in a time of emergency. The essential services include: the Animal Breeding Center; various long-range ongoing agricultural or botanical experiments carried out by the Plant Genetics Department, among others; the computer; liquid air; the cold rooms; the heavy oxygen installation; various electronic services; and, of course, the overall main- tenance of the Institute's physical plant (electricity, water, etc. ). INSTITUTE GENERAL ASSEMBLY A few days after war began, those members of the Institute staff still on campus gathered at the Wix Auditorium to hear from representatives of the Institute's management about various arrangements that had been made regarding the organi- zation of the Institute and various plans that had been drawn up to guarantee for most eff- ective wartime use of Institute personnel. Prof. Nathan Sharon, Chairman of the Institute's Scientific Council, opened the meeting by asking the assembly to rise in memory of those who had fallen in battle. Then he announced the management's unpre- dented decision: all members of th Instit- ute's staff who wished to volunteer for war work might do so - provided that they secured the necessary permission from the heads of their department and informed Personnel of their whereabouts. The Institute, he said, was placing the services of all those members of the staff who had not yet been called up at the disposal of such Israeli defense, educational, industrial and other institutions as might re- quire their assistance. This manpower pool included scientists, technicians, and adminis- trative staff. Prof. Sharon added that virtually all of the visiting scientists from abroad who were on campus when war broke out had re- mained in Rehovot to offer their help wherever it could be used. Mr. Gershon Dror, Director of Finance and Administration, stressed the need for economy in the use of all supplies, electricity and water. The use of air-conditioning and hot water had already been severely cut. INSTITUTE VOLUNTARY WAR LOAN Mr. Dror also made public the staff's unani- mous decision to pledge a total of IL.1 million to Israel's voluntary war loan fund. This sum included a personal contribution by Institute Chancellor Meyer Weisgal of 1L.100,000. In addition, Institute personnel are contributing 7% of their salaries toward the war effort in the form of a compulsory government war loan. VOLUNTEERS Ever since the war started, tens of Institute scientists and technicians have been leaving Rehovot at dawn each morning to work in factories, orange groves, kibbutzim, post offices, hospitals and industrial plants, Most of them work a twelve-hour day. Some have found ''regular'' work, others have placed themselves on call. Some Institute scien- tists went off to Israel's nothern borders to help harvest crops and at least one sci- entist, raised in a kibbutz, went back to being a dairyman for a while. Another sci- entist, a recent arrival in Israel himself, undertook to drive new immigrants from Lod to their absorption centers, while an Instit- ute plastics engineer invented a special tube of remarkable flexibility which is now being used to help wounded soldiers eat and drink without having to sit up. . Of the 80 visiting scientists from abroad, many managed to find volunteer work, Some are helping to supervise muni- cipal blood banks, others work in hospitals, post offices, and nearby kibbutzim. Ata special meeting held for visiting scientists, Mr. David Moushine, Director of Institute Development, warmly thanked them for their efforts and those of their wives, a great many of whom were also busy with volunteer war work, THE FEINBERG GRADUATE SCHOOL has joined Israel's other institutions of higher learning in announcing the postponement, until further notice, of the new academic year. Hundreds of Feinberg graduate stu- dents have been called up for active milit- ary service and most of the girl students have volunteered for civilian activities. SCORES OF CABLES OF SUPPORT and encouragement sent by leading scientists from around the world have been received by their colleagues in Rehovot. A typical message is expressed in a cable from a bio-chemist at Oxford University: ''Please let me know if there is anything at all which I can do for you, now or later, If you need scientists for any job, no matter how menial, I will attempt to bring them over."