Bulb to light all Ramat Gan
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A corresponding article in the Hebrew Wikipedia may contain information and sources useful in building this article. (December 2008) Click [show] on the right for instructions.
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The bulb to light all Ramat Gan (Hebrew: נורה שתאיר את כל רמת גן, Nura she-tair et kol Ramat Gan) was a political misstep in Israel of the 1980s. It took this humorous form within the collective memory of the Israeli public.
On June 28, 1981, the eve of elections to the tenth Knesset, Yaakov Meridor gave an interview to radio networks. He was one of the top candidates on the party list of Likud. He announced that a scientist working with him had invented an improvement in energy production on a chemical basis, with extraordinary efficiency and yield. As an illustration of the nature of the invention, "a global revolution that is yet to be grasped", he told to an interviewer, "It's as if you took an ordinary household light bulb and, with this lamp, you illuminated the entire city of Ramat Gan."
In March 1982, while serving as Minister of Economics and Inter-ministerial Coordination, Meridor gave publicity to the invention in a special television broadcast. For a few days he captured the top newspaper headlines. When the press found out that the mysterious inventor was Danny Berman, a 47 year old con-man and convicted felon, the minister was held up to ridicule, and the incident was mockingly recalled for years afterward.
[edit] References
- Much of the content of this article was translated from the article הנורה שתאיר את כל רמת גן (The bulb to light all Ramat Gan) in the Hebrew-language Wikipedia, acknowledged here under terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Retrieved January 30, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Dan Yachin, "The 80s: Launching companies despite the crisis". Globes Online: Israel's Business Arena, May 3, 2001. Retrieved January 30, 2006.
