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Scientist in the Service of Israel / William B. Jensen
1903-1975The Life andvaTimes of Ernst David Bergmann
הוצאת האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים משנת 2011 374 עמודים, כריכה קשה
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Preface
A distinctive development of the 20th century was the rise,
especially in the decades following the Second World War, of the
governmental science advisor. The importance of such men as the
Harvard chemist, James Bryant Conant, who served as an advisor to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and the British
physicist, Frederick Alexander Lindemann (Baron Cherwell), who
performed a similar role for Winston Churchill, are well known, and it
consequently comes as no surprise that both of these scientists have
been the subject of detailed biographical studies. The same, however,
is not true of Ernst David Bergmann, who served as science advisor to
David Ben-Gurion for almost two decades. Though it might be argued
that this discrepancy is not unexpected, given that Israel is hardly a
world power comparable to either the United States or Great Britain,
the fact remains that Bergmann’s unrelenting campaign to develop a
strong Israeli defense policy based on the acquisition of high-tech
weapons, including the atomic bomb, continues to haunt the politics
of the Mideast to this day.
While this association alone would justify a book-length
biographical study of Bergmann, it must be further noted that he is
also of great importance for the key role which he played in the
establishment of virtually every aspect of the present-day Israeli
scientific community, and likewise for his 18-year association with
Chaim Weizmann and the latter’s vision of establishing an economic
foundation for Israel based on “green chemistry” – a vision which has
great relevance for a world which is now facing the specter of globa
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