Humanitarian Zafra Lerman's beautiful memoir:

a testament to the power of scientific research, education and science diplomacy

 

It is rare to know someone who has experienced so much in their life that they have enough material to write a memoir. Humanitarian Prof. Zafra Lerman lives such an exciting life, and she has written her very own memoir called: “Human Rights and Peace - A Personal Odyssey.”

 

Indeed, Zafra’s life is nothing short of fascinating. She grew up in the British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel) where her family nourished her curiosity and love for science. This led her to become a Professor of Chemistry who took her teaching duties very seriously. Zafra’s effort to excite students from all walks of life for chemistry using unusual teaching methods, such as dancing, are legendary.

 

True to the Hebrew saying, “walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light”, Zafra became an advocate for politically persecuted scientists in the 1980s. Her bravery not only saved the scientists from certain death, but it also allowed them to flourish and pursue their passion for science in safety.  In the early 2000s Zafra further conceived the Malta Conference to bring together scientists from the Middle East to foster peace. The conference is still going strong and just celebrated its 10th installment, Malta X, in 2022.

 

In her memoir, Zafra candidly shares these stories and much more. This great read will hopefully inspire many people to join the science diplomacy movement for peace. Proceeds of book sales will be used to support future Malta Conferences, which are needed more than ever in these times.

 

Zafra sat down with us to talk about how her memoir was conceived and even shared some stories that did not make it into the book.

​

​​

Did you read many autobiographies and memoirs before and is there a particular one that captivated you?

​​

I like to read about biographies. I think the person whose biographies I have read the most was Albert Einstein. However, one fascinating biography I read that changed the way I was writing as I started my own autobiography was about Dr. Ruth. She was my friend too, so she gave me a copy and I met with her a few times. I realized that in the biography she talked about her three marriages and other more personal parts of her life. I did not plan to put those types of stories in my book but after reading her book and talking to her, I added more personal parts. We celebrated New Years together for 27 years as part of the Renaissance Weekends [invitation-only gatherings for intellectual exchange that are hosted by the US Ambassador to the UK, Philip Lader, and his wife Linda]. Dr. Ruth passed away unfortunately not that long ago. We had a memorial for her, and I attended the funeral virtually. 

​

​​

Your memoir was and is a fascinating read and it was hard to put the book down. Was there someone who inspired or supported you to write about your personal journey?

​

I myself considered publishing for many years. First, I was under tremendous pressure to write the book on my method of teaching science through art, music, dance, drama and poetry. This really did miracles with underprivileged students around the world, but I never had the time to do it.

Then came the Malta Conferences [or Malta] and people told me to write about them.

Many chapters of my memoir originally were about Malta and only one chapter was about my life, human rights, and education. I distributed it to publishers and to my friend Professor Peter Atkins at Oxford who himself wrote many books. After reading it, several of them suggested that the memoir would be more interesting if Malta was just a few chapters, and the rest of the memoir was about my life, so we made the switch.

​

​

How long did it take you to complete your memoir from start to finish?

​

That is the very sad part. I wanted the book ready while my life partner Al White was still alive because he had cancer. He was very involved in reading every chapter and giving comments. Unfortunately, we encountered many problems on the way and in the end, it took three years to publish my memoir. Al did not survive to see the memoir published but I was able to dedicate the book to him.  

 

After he passed away, I added a chapter called “Accompanying Member” because he used to accompany me to every conference. We would go to a chemistry meeting and the chemists would talk to him all the time and show him structures and he would say “I'm not a chemist. I'm an economist. She's the chemist!” It took a long time for the atmosphere to change that women were accepted as scientists, but I always found the interactions Al had with the scientists in my research field funny.

​

​

In 12 chapters you take the reader on an exciting journey through your entire life. Which chapter is your personal favorite and which ones were the easiest and hardest to write and why?

​

The education chapter is my favorite because it goes through all the processes on how I learned from my students how to teach non-science majors, especially people in the arts. It is a completely different way from what we were taught and the way I was teaching until then. This part was very interesting and there is a lot of humor in this chapter because it was a very funny process to learn it.

 

The hardest chapter to write or talk about was the chapter titled “From Mission Impossible to Mission Possible” because it describes the hardships of getting a visa, and when you write about Malta you walk on a very tight line. You want to tell the story, but you have to be careful what you say not to harm any participant from any country. The easiest chapter was probably the beginning when I talk about my background.

​

​​

Has writing your memoir changed the way you see yourself? If yes, how did you discover new aspects about yourself that came out in the writing process?

​

I do not think that is the case. When it comes to education or Malta, I wrote several chapters for other books about these topics, so that was not new.

What was new for me was writing about my parents and myself. There are a few pictures of my family in the book. My mother was one of eight siblings, and the cousins were all very close, so we were always very involved in each other’s lives. My mother was one of the youngest siblings and was sent to an orphanage and she never recovered from that. If she would see you throwing out a piece of bread, she would start crying because as a child she was sent to beg for a piece of bread, so this was painful for her to witness. Talking about my family and my mother could have led to a book of one thousand pages, but I was tasked with writing no more than 200 pages because anything longer than that is not considered readable for most people.

​

​

Is there something you can share about yourself that the readers do not know yet?

​

I have been a terrible picky eater all my life and my mother used to make fun of me. She would tell all the people who wanted to lose weight to come and eat with me because then they will lose their appetite. I am still a very picky eater. I do not eat intelligent animals, but I hate vegetables. So, I have a big problem. I also do not like many desserts like cakes, cookies or pies. However, I love eating nuts, eggs and cheese. When Al and I would go out with friends to eat, people would ask which restaurant we should try and he would always answer that he eats everything and I eat nothing, so just pick any place.

Another topic I did not write about in the book involved my two grandsons because I did not want the book to be too long. I have two wonderful grandsons Ben and Daniel, and I am very proud of them and I even managed to put the picture of my great grandson in the book. Ben got married very young. He went to Brandeis University and met his future wife Saige there. She became a veterinary doctor. Currently she is doing her residency at Tufts University and wants to be an oncologist for dogs.

​

​

Looking back at your life and your groundbreaking work in science diplomacy now, would you do it all over again or is there anything you would like to change if you could?

​

I am not sure that today I would go all by myself after midnight into dark alleys in Russia to meet with dissidents. When I wrote that chapter, I frightened myself just writing it and realized I must have been braver many years ago because this sounds so scary to me now. What I did was all illegal in the Soviet Union and I could have been arrested for bringing in scientific material, giving seminars in an attic until two o’clock in the morning, taking CVs back to the US to help people to get out of the Soviet Union, etc. Maybe if I were younger I would do it again, but today it sounds frightening to me.

Everything else I probably would do again. It is a tremendous pleasure to help people who were imprisoned and bring them to freedom, but it was also very scary in places like China and in the Soviet Union.

I wish I could do more for peace in the Middle East, but to do this science diplomacy takes a lot of money and all the money must be raised. If there would be more money, there would be more people involved. If we could form a critical mass of scientists, all of them working on science diplomacy for peace, we would have peace in the world. There is a lot of money to build weapons of mass destruction but for peace, there is not much available.

In Malta, everybody is collaborating. This tells me that science diplomacy is superior to any other diplomacy. It overcomes barriers of religion, language and culture because it is an international language. I used to always say in my lectures that the chemist in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the USA can communicate to the chemist in Bethlehem in the West Bank without knowing each other’s language because their language would be chemistry.

​

​

Where do you see the role of science diplomacy concerning the current situation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also in the Russian-Ukrainian war?

​

Well, it looks like we will have to postpone Malta XI for this year because of the situation. A lot of participants are telling me that Malta is the only model to create a bridge to peace and we must continue and enlarge it. This is why it is very important to get more people involved in science diplomacy. I was contacted by a Ukrainian to think about creating a Malta Conference for Ukrainians and Russians, like the model we have for Israel and Palestine. We were thinking about that but as I said, there is no money for peace. There are billions and billions of dollars available for weapons. A fraction of that would bring peace to the world because then we could involve many people in this effort.

At the end of a Malta Conference, it looks like a family reunion and then people are hugging each other with tears in their eyes saying goodbye. If we could have more money, then more people would be able to join forces. We would be able to enlarge the mission and the world would be in a different place.

​​

​

What advice would you give someone who aspires to follow your path and become active in science diplomacy?

​

Today there are several groups involved in science diplomacy. When I started, barely anybody was involved and they did not even call it science diplomacy then. I came up with the idea to bring together scientists from hostile countries to meet in person and see what unites them rather than what separates them. I came up with the idea to form the Malta Conferences after the United States was attacked on September 11th. I would encourage every scientist to get involved in science diplomacy.

I used to tell my students that every night before you go to sleep, think about what good you did for somebody else that day. If you did something good for somebody else, you had a very good day, and I still believe in that. I do not think people should come to this planet just for pleasure for themselves and contribute nothing for the betterment of humankind. Everybody should leave the planet a better place than when they came into being and I believe very strongly that for scientists, it is important to get involved in science diplomacy.

​​​

​

The interview was conducted by Nicole Kilian and has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Image sources: Zafra Lerman.

Follow Zafra: