On November 27, 1895, Nobel signed his last will providing for the
establishment of the Nobel Prize.
"It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration
be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most
worthy shall receive the prize"
The Nobel Prize is an international award given yearly since 1901 for
achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and for
peace. In 1968, the Bank of Sweden instituted the Prize in Economic
Sciences.
The Prize Winners are announced in October every year. They receive
their awards a prize amount, and a gold medal.
As of August 2005, a total of 770 Nobel Prizes have been awarded. Of
that number 169 or 22% of the total, were Jews.
Most people attribute this fact to an extremely high value of
education in Jewish tradition and customs.
Elie Weisel, a Nobel Prize winner, once said that he could not live
and work in Israel because of the violence in that part of the world.
However, Israelis proved Weisel wrong.
Israelis have already garnered eight Nobel prizes.
The laureate list includes:
Not many years ago the Israel Defence Forces were the pride of the
country. They rated high in bravery and operational excellence.
However, with the passage of time Israelis moved their orientation to
excellence in academic fields, science and technology.
That two Israeli chemists who won the chemistry prize in 2004, are
ample proof of that.
The change in national values and the esteem tendered to Nobel Prize
winner Robert Aumann, are proof that we can expect the list of
Israeli Nobel winners to expand in the years to come.
Alfred Nobel was born in 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. Nobel invented
dynamite in 1866 and later built up companies and laboratories in
more than 20 countries all over the world.
Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Literature, 1966
Menachem Begin, Peace, 1978
Yitzhak Rabin, Peace, 1994
Shimon Peres, Peace, 1994
Aaron Ciechanover, Chemistry, 2004
Avram Hershko, Chemistry, 2004
Daniel Kahneman, Economics, 2002
Robert Aumann, Economics, 2005