New Hampshire Jewish History
Trade & Population Statistics
Binational Foundation Grants
Bilateral Institutions
Anti-Boycott Law
Cooperative Agreements
Government Missions to Israel
Partners for Change
Other Cooperative Programs
Sister Cities & State Contacts

Trade and Population Statistics

Exports to Israel (2024)	$184,479,386
Percentage Change (2023-2024)	70.53%
Total Exports to Israel (1996-Present)	$1,520,037,107
Israel’s Trade Partner Rank (2024)	9
New Hampshire’s Rank as Exporter to Israel (2024)	17
Military Contracts with Israel (2015)	$954,592
Jewish Population (2024)	20,900
Jewish Percentage of Population	1.49%

Binational Foundation Grants

Agricultural Research & Development (1979-Present)	$168,000
Science & Technology (1999-Present)	$331,887
Industrial Research & Development (1977-Present)	$1,423,631
Total Binational Grants	$1,923,518

Grant Recipients in New Hampshire From U.S.-Israel Binational Foundations

Dartmouth University
Ion Beam Milling
Magna Computer Corp.
University of New Hampshire

Bilateral Institutions

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Anti-Boycott Law

Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order on July 6, 2023, aimed at preventing the state from doing business with companies participating in an international economic boycott against Israel. The executive order would also prohibit state investments in companies participating in the boycott, although Sununu said he is not aware of any business dealings the state has with such firms.

Cooperative Agreements

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New Hampshire Government Missions to Israel

March 2014 - Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) visited Israel with two colleagues and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. Following the meeting with Netanyahu, Ayottee said it “emphasized how unbreakable the relationship is with Israel regardless of what any official says at any one time.” Regarding Iran nuclear talks and the peace process, she said that “[Israel and the US] are very much aligned.”

July 2010 - Senator Jeanne Shaheen led a delegation that included several other senators on a trip through the Middle East which included a short stop in Israel. In Israel, Sen. Shaheen met with high-level Israeli officials to discuss the ongoing security threats faced by Israel, including Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. Sen Shaheen also met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. The delegation traveled to Sderot, a small Israeli town that has been attacked on multiple occasions by missiles from the Gaza Strip over the last several years, and received a briefing from the Israeli missile defense agency on the joint U.S.-Israeli programs being developed to counter the threat of long- and short-range missiles in the country.

July 1999 - New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin joined eight other attorneys general for a trip to Israel. The participants in the mission went to explore U.S.-Israel cooperation in legal affairs and discussed issues including youth violence, the death penalty, and extradition laws.

Partners For Change

The U.S.-Israel relationship is based on the twin pillars of shared values and mutual interests. Given this commonality of interests and beliefs, it should not be surprising that support for Israel is one of the most pronounced and consistent foreign policy values of the American people.

It is more difficult to devise programs that capitalize on the two nations’ shared values than their security interests; nevertheless, such programs do exist. In fact, these SHARED VALUE INITIATIVES cover a broad range of areas, including the environment, science, technology, education, and health. States can benefit from Israeli innovations in these areas as well as through collaboration.

In addition, today’s interdependent global economy requires that trade policy be developed at the national and state level. Many states have recognized the opportunity to realize significant benefits by seeking to increase trade with Israel. New Hampshire is one of 33 states that have cooperative agreements with Israel.

In 2024, New Hampshire exported more than $184 million worth of manufacturing goods to Israel. Since 1996, New Hampshire’s exports to Israel have totaled more than $1.5 billion, and Israel now ranks as New Hampshire’s 9th leading trade partner. New Hampshire ranks 17th among all states in exports to Israel.

Additionally, in 2015, New Hampshire companies received nearly $1 million in foreign military financing (FMF) to provide materiel for the Israeli Defense Forces. Since 1996, New Hampshire companies have received nearly $166 million in FMF. These include L-3 Communications Corporation in Londonberry, Milpower Source, Inc. in Belmont, and Sponge-Jet Inc. in Portsmouth.

Israel is certainly a place where potential business and trade partners can be found. It can also be a source, however, for innovative programs and ideas for addressing problems facing the citizens of New Hampshire.

Israel has developed several pioneering education programs. For example, AICE introduced an innovative Israeli peer tutoring program to North Carolina that educators adapted for use in the United States. Now known as Reading Together, the program is used in 28 states. The program is designed to help students achieve reading fluency and is mostly used for children in second grade. The hope is that with its implementation, increasing numbers of students will perform at grade level or above.

New Hampshire has also received nearly $2 million worth of grants from binational U.S.-Israel foundations for joint research in science, agriculture, and the promotion of commercial ventures.

A variety of other exciting approaches to social problems like unemployment, environmental protection, and drug abuse have been successfully implemented in Israel and could be imported for the benefit of Americans.

The potential for greater cooperation with Israel for the benefit of New Hampshire is limited only by the imagination.

New Hampshire Firms Profit From Business With Israel

As the only country with free trade agreements with both the United States and the European community, Israel can act as a bridge for international trade between the United States and Europe. Moreover, because of the deep pool of talent, particularly in high-technology areas, Israel provides excellent investment opportunities. Some of the nation's largest companies, such as IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Intel, and McDonald’s, have found that it is indeed profitable to do business in Israel.

One good way to break into the Israeli market is through a joint venture with an Israeli company. Funding for such projects is available from the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD). The United States and Israel established BIRD in 1977 to fund joint U.S.-Israeli teams in the development and subsequent commercialization of innovative, nondefense technological products from which both the Israeli and American companies can expect to derive benefits commensurate with the investments and risks. Most grant recipients are small businesses involved with software, instrumentation, communications, medical devices, and semiconductors.

Since 1977, the Foundation has approved investments of more than $125 million in more than 1,000 projects in 36 states and the District of Columbia. Hundreds of companies, including AOL, GE, BP Solar, Texas Instruments, and Johnson & Johnson, have benefited from BIRD grants.

Dr. Eli Opper, the former Israeli chair of BIRD, has said that BIRD is a strong pillar of U.S.-Israel industrial cooperation and that the extreme success of BIRD has led Israel to adopt similar models of R&D with other countries.

New Hampshire companies have benefited from more than $1.4 million in BIRD grants. One of the grants supported Diamond Valley of Ramat Gan and Ion Beam Milling of Manchester for the development of heat spreaders for high-power applications.

In 2008, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries acquired New Hampshire-based Bentley Pharmaceuticals in a deal that Teva envisioned will help the Israeli company branch out even further into the U.S. and international markets. Bentley manufactures and markets some 130 generic and branded pharmaceutical products primarily to Spain, but also to other EU nations. The $360 million deal gives Teva greater access to the Spanish market.

Scientific Innovations

New Hampshire researchers are making scientific breakthroughs and developing cutting-edge technologies in joint projects with Israeli scientists thanks to support from the Binational Science Foundation (BSF). BSF was established in 1972 to promote scientific relations and cooperation between scientists from the United States and Israel. The fund supports collaborative research projects in a wide area of basic and applied scientific fields for peaceful and non-profit purposes.

Since its inception, and in today’s value, BSF has awarded over $700 million to more than 5,000 research projects involving thousands of scientists from more than 400 U.S. institutions located in 46 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Many of these projects have led to important scientific, medical, and technological breakthroughs with wide-ranging practical applications.

BSF-sponsored studies are highly successful in achieving their two main goals: strengthening the U.S.-Israel partnership through science and promoting world-class scientific research for the benefit of the two countries and all mankind. The BSF grants help extend research resources to achieve milestones that might not otherwise be attainable; introduce novel approaches and techniques to lead American researchers in new directions; confirm, clarify, and intensify research projects; and provide unmatched access to Israeli equipment, facilities and research results that help speed American scientific advances. BSF has documented no less than 75 new discoveries made possible by its research grants and counts 37 Nobel Prize, and 19 Lasker Medical Award laureates among its joint partners.

Dartmouth and the University of New Hampshire have received more than $330,000 in BSF grants.

Professor Andrew Leber of the University of New Hampshire was awarded a large, three-year BSF grant in 2009 to collaborate with a team of scientists in Israel led by Dr. Dominique Lamy from Tel Aviv University. Professor Leber and Lamy have been friends and working together on various projects since the late 1990s, and the BSF grant has allowed them even greater time to continue their cooperative research. For this project, the research teams will be conducting a wide array of experiments to learn more about how recent experience influences visual perception.

Overall, Dr. Leber has worked with the BSF in the past and gives the foundation raving reviews. “I will say that the BSF is an excellent institution,” Dr. Leber said, “providing a funding mechanism that facilitates quality collaborations between U.S. and Israeli scientists.”

Agriculture Benefits.

In 1978, the United States and Israel jointly created the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD) to help fund programs between U.S. and Israeli scientists for mutually beneficial, mission-oriented, strategic, and applied research into agricultural problems. Since its inception, BARD has awarded more than $130 million to U.S. institutions for 1,352 joint projects. A 40-year review in 2019 involving 20 case studies estimated the foundation’s contribution to the U.S. economy at $2.7 billion. BARD research has resulted in the adoption of approximately 200 new agricultural practices, around 40 commercial engagements, and approximately 100 patents and breeding rights licenses.

Most BARD projects focus on either increasing agricultural productivity, plant, and animal health, or food quality and safety and have been influential in creating new technologies in drip irrigation, pesticides, fish farming, livestock, poultry, disease control, and farm equipment. BARD funds projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia, and administers collaborative efforts between Australia, Canada, and Israel as well. It is difficult to break down the impact on a state-by-state basis, but overall, BARD-sponsored research has generated sales of more than $500 million, tax revenues of more than $100 million, and created more than 5,000 American jobs.

The University of New Hampshire has received grants worth more than $160,000.

Other Cooperative Programs

In response to the devastating forest fire in the Carmel region of Israel that raged for five days in December 2010 and killed close to 40 people, residents of New Hampshire donated close to $10,000 for relief efforts. The New Hampshire Jewish community has been a sister city with the Hof Ha-Carmel region, which sustained the most damage during the fire, and the community leaders were both eager and willing to help in any way they could to get the forests replanted and the buildings rebuilt.

On April 12, 1995, Stephen Merrill, the governor of New Hampshire, officially declared Lake Winnipesaukee to be the Sister Lake of Israel’s Sea of Galilee. The project grew to incorporate the promotion of Arab-Israeli coexistence and various educational exchanges.

Sister Cities

None.

UJA Partnership 2000 Communities

NEW HAMPSHIRE	ISRAEL
New Hampshire Jewish Community	Hof Ha-Carmel

State Contacts

Hillel Campus Profiles

Jewish Federation Greater Manchester
698 Beech St
Manchester, NH 03104-3626

Sources: World Institute for Strategic Economic Research.
Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD).
United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD).
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF).
Rick Green, “Sununu signs an exec order against business with Israel's boycotters,” Keene Sentinel, (July 6, 2023).

State-to-State Cooperation: New Hampshire and Israel