EMET_PRIZE_2017

even dream of discovering a
drug,” Arnon – Weizmann’s Paul
Ehrlich Professor of Immunology
– recalled.
“I have been on the committee
for several years. Michael asked
me to join, and I did. Michael has
been here since the beginning,”
Arnon said in an interview with
The Jerusalem Post. “It’s very hard
for me to say ‘no’ to Michael. I am
very busy,” said Arnon, who until a
year ago was president of the prestigious
Israel Academy of Sciences
and Humanities in Jerusalem.
“There are meetings and decisions
to be made, but they don’t take too
much time.”
The members of the committee
first have to pick the exact fields for
which the EMET Prize will be given
that year. “Then we have to choose
the three-member panels of judges
in each field. The general categories
are the exact sciences, life sciences,
social sciences, humanities
and Judaism, and art and culture.
For example, a number of years
ago, an outstanding journalist was
chosen for the social sciences category.
“Every year,” said Arnon, “the
judges are different. There has
to be at least one women on the
three-member panel. I remember
one year in which there were three
women on a panel, but they picked
a man to win the prize.”
The committee then meets
to give the judges directives and
receive their decisions and decide
whether to approve them. “I don’t
remember there having been disagreements
when the winners are
finally chosen.”
Usually, one outstanding individual
receives a whole prize and
doesn’t have to share it with someone
“unless they collaborated or
worked on two aspects of the same
subject and complemented each
other,” Arnon said. “There is no
age limit to the candidates, but
they must all be Israelis or at least
live in Israel.”
Arnon added: “The chairman of
the Award Committee is always
a retired judge. It was previously
Judge Ya’acov Kedmi, who died last
year, so another judge must be chosen
by the prime minister, who has
been very busy. In the meantime,
there is a temporary replacement.”
In any case, the prime minister
always attends the festive award
ceremony, usually in the fall, at the
Jerusalem Theater.
Despite the prime minister’s
involvement, the procedure is apolitical
– which cannot always be
said about the process in which
winners of the Israel Prizes are
selected.
“The percentage of women who
have received the EMET Prize since
its founding has been relatively
low. We can’t tell the judges whom
to choose, but we would be pleased
if there are more women laureates,”
Arnon said.
Asked how the EMET Prize is
unique, the Weizmann Institute
scientist said that “the Israel Prize
is very prestigious, but it does not
include all the subjects that the
EMET Prize does, including prizes
in the arts and culture such as theater,
music and dance.” In addition,
the EMET Prize awards much more
money. The Wolf Prize, which is
often called “Israel’s Nobel Prize”
and which both Sela and Arnon
have received, is awarded more
to foreigners than to Israelis. The
EMET Prize, she said, “gives more
of a chance for very accomplished
individuals to get the recognition
they deserve. And it is very well
run.”
WHILE ARNON is a recipient of the
Israel Prize and has served as dean
of the biology faculty at Weizmann
as well as its vice president, Sela
served as president of the outstanding
Rehovot institute.
Sela is acclaimed for his immunology
research, especially for his
research on synthetic antigens –
molecules that trigger the immune
system to respond. This led to the
discovery of the genetic control of
the immune response, as well as
to the design of vaccines based on
synthetic molecules.
His joint research with Arnon on
Copaxone took a long time: “We
started with a theoretical study
in 1967, but our results, including
on monkeys, were published only
eight years later. We then conducted
the first clinical trial, which was
published in 1977.”
The drug’s development was
taken over by Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical
Company in 1987, and
it took nine years to be approved
by the drug authorities here and
abroad. “We spent 29 years working
together on Copaxone. Developing
a drug like this takes tremendous
patience and a long life,”
both of which he and Arnon have
enjoyed.
Sela has been on the Award Committee
since the EMET Prize was
established, even he did not know
the Mexican-Jewish donor. “I was
a member of the selection committee
for the Israel Prize several times,
but never was involved in choosing
outstanding people in the arts.”
Amazingly, he himself received the
Israel Prize in 1959, when he was
only 35 years old.
His second wife, Sarah, who is
74, was introduced to Sela by Ariel
Sharon and his wife Lily, not long
after Sela’s first wife, Margalit, suddenly
died of a heart attack. “She is
my driver, taking me to Jerusalem
and elsewhere. But she is also very
busy in the executive of the Israel
Opera. I don’t know even how to
read musical notes.”
Sela recalls having a lot of satisfaction
when outstanding mathematicians,
physicists and other
scientists received the EMET Prize.
The ceremonies have usually been
without controversy, but he does
recall when author David Grossman
– whose son was killed in the
Lebanon War – refused to shake the
hand of then-prime minister Ehud
Olmert. “Olmert accepted his decision,”
the scientist said.
Sela concludes that “life is never
boring for me. I read, travel and
work in the lab. Being busy is the
only way to be at my age.”
The Jerusalem
Report
May 2017
7