A multi-media program featuring Irv Elenberg, Mid-Atlantic regional director for the American Technion Society (ATS), will be presented by the Men’s Club of Congregation Beth El and Avraham and Patricia Ashkenazi.
Elenberg has transformed the Washington, DC office from a minor presence to a thriving region of support for the ATS, which exists to support the Technion and raise more than $100 million each year.
A graduate of The Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania, Elenberg will speak about The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
The Technion is a major source of innovation and brainpower that drives the Israeli economy, and is a key to Israel’s reputation as the world’s “Start-Up Nation.” Technion makes immeasurable contributions to the world in the areas of medicine, energy, computer science, water conservation, and nanotechnology. Its founders patterned Technion after MIT, but on a “shoestring” budget. Annual tuition at the Technion is $3,000 vs. $40,000 at MIT.
Israel has 72 companies listed on NASDAQ and 49 of them were founded or are led by Technion alumni. In addition, more than 80% of the engineers at Rafael (makers of the Iron Dome and Arrow Missile protection systems) are Technion alumni.
Technion researchers and alumni have:
- Created Goog’es “suggested search” feature
- Invented drip irrigation
- Created the Flash Drive
- Created PDF format
- Created the Pentium, Centrino, and Core 2 Duo chips
- Invented the Rewalk robotic exoskeleton.