The Yaffa and Ezra Yerucham Cancer Research Laboratory was dedicated at The National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev on Thursday in the presence of the benefactors and their extended family.
BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi lauded the philanthropic initiative by a local Beer-Sheva resident, “You are one of ours who is supporting research. There has been good progress on fighting cancer but there is still a long way to go before finding a cure. The research at this lab is a new approach that I think will become a very big deal in the future.”
Prof. Varda Shoshan Barmatz, director of the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev (NIBN) and head of the new laboratory, said “Two hundred thousand Israelis are being treated or are under observation for cancer. Another 23,000 new cases appear every year.”
“We are developing a treatment that will turn surviving cancerous cells into normal cells. As far as I know, no one else is working on that aspect. Destroying or inhibiting growth of cancerous cells yes, but not turning them back into normal cells,” she added.
Dudi Yerucham, son of Ezra and Yaffa, said his father recently came to him with the desire to make a philanthropic donation and they decided to donate to the University.
“Your success is our success,” Dudi said. He also noted that he and three of his siblings, as well as his wife, are graduates of the University.
Ezra Yerucham was born in 1922 in Basra, Iraq. He went into the auto parts business in Iraq and was active in the Jewish underground between 1944 and 1948. He was jailed for those activities in 1945 along with Mordechai Ben-Porat. In 1950, he fled Iraq to Iran and made Aliya a year later. He returned to the auto parts industry in Israel and today he is the authorized Toyota and Chevrolet dealer for Beer-Sheva and the South.
Above: Yaffa and Ezra Yerucham (front left) and some of their children with Prof. Varda Shoshan Barmatz (center with glasses) and Prof. Rivka Carmi (right).
