JERUSALEM — Montreal-based real estate mogul and philanthropist Marcel Adams, 90, was honoured last month for his contribution to the pure sciences in Israel.
Dr. Yael Elbaz explains a finer point of her work to Marcel Adams
“I am sure that I speak for Israel’s science community at large in expressing heartfelt admiration and appreciation to Marcel Adams for his gracious and far-sighted support of Israel’s outstanding young scientists,” said Prof. Menahem Yaari, president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem, where Adams distributed his sixth annual round of fellowships to 12 doctoral students.
The “Adams Fellows,” the cream of the crop in the natural sciences, computer science, mathematics and engineering from Israel’s research universities, received more than $1 million (US), to cover tuition, living expenses and travel grants so that they can participate in international research and conferences during four years of study.
“The idea is to make sure they are comfortable enough to focus on their research without worrying about money,” Adams said.
This year’s 12 recipients, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion, Tel Aviv University (TAU), Ben-Gurion University, the Weizmann Institute and Haifa University, specialize in neural computation, neural biology, cell biochemistry, electrical engineering, geology, plant sciences, physics, and evolution.
Adams Fellows are now in top postdoctoral programs at UC Berkeley, Stanford, University, Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Adams Fellows have made some significant contributions. One of them, Dr. Amir Shlomai, a resident in internal medicine, made a major discovery about the behaviour of the hepatitis B virus. His discovery was published in the prestigious journal Science under “Editor’s Choice.”
Adam’s son, Dr. Julian Adams, president of research and development and chief scientific officer of Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., was the keynote speaker at the ceremony.
Why does Adams give to science? “We have enough intellectuals. We need producers in the scientific areas who are elevating or adding to scientific research,” he said. “These will hopefully be the leaders of Israel one day. They are developing the essence of the country and its future.
“A lot of people say, ‘It’s very nice that you support Israel, but what about philanthropic causes in Canada?’” said Adams, who gives the bulk of his philanthropic support to the Adams Fellows, the Adams Super-Center for Brain Studies at TAU, and the Marcel and Annie Adams Institute for Business Management Information Systems, which he and his late wife, Annie, co-founded at TAU.
“To these people I say Canada is a rich country with a lot of natural resources. Israel has no natural resources. All it has is its brains,” Adams said.
To this, Adams adds another reason: “My heart is in Israel,” he said.
In 1942, when Adams was 21 years old, he fled his native Romania for Israel, leaving behind his parents and his five sisters. A Jewish school graduate and member of a Zionist youth movement, Adams had been expelled from the University of Romania because he’s Jewish and was compelled to work in a forced labour camp. “It was misery, misery, misery,” he said.
He made it to a harbour on the Black Sea and jumped a ship – the one that departed after the Struma, which sank and took with it 768 Jewish refugees – and made his way to Palestine.
Once in Israel, he went from a kibbutz near Ashdod to a cattle farm in Pardes Chana. Then the pioneer and Haganah member was drafted on May 11, 1948, to join the War of Independence. “One day, they came to me and said, “Hey, put on your uniform and come, so that’s what I did,” recalled Adams, who served as a soldier for a year and a half.
After the war, his fluent French landed him a position as a shaliach in Marseilles, France, where he prepared Moroccan youth for aliyah. He took a vacation in Canada, where he met his late wife, and ended up getting married and settling in Quebec City.
It was in Canada that Adams made his mark in real estate, building apartments, shopping malls and hotels. His business, Iberville Developments, expanded to eastern Canada, western Canada and the United States. The company is now headquartered in Montreal.
“Although I didn’t return to live in Israel, I never forgot the country that took me in and gave me my identity,” Adams said.
That may be the reason why he says that this, his latest three-week trip, with its significant events – which included being honoured at the opening of a national brain conference at TAU – was highlighted by his grandson’s bar mitzvah at the Kotel.
“It was a great bar mitzvah! It felt so great to be there. I was given two aliyot, one on Shabbat and one on the day of the bar mitzvah. I was very proud,” said Adams, who has 11 grandchildren.
“Just as I want the Adams Fellowships to go on in perpetuity so, too, do I want my family to be connected to Israel.”