Citation: “For life-long devotion to the scientific freedom and human rights of scientists throughout the world and for compelling leadership in using science as a bridge to peace in the Middle East.”
Zafra is co-author with Morton Hoffman of the article “The Malta Conferences, Frontiers of Science: Research and Education in the Middle East” in this issue.
She also sent us a historic picture:
Lerman was a member of the Executive Committee of the Albert Einstein Peace Prize Foundation. She explains the background of the foundation and the circumstances in which the picture was taken: "The foundation worked towards normalization between Egypt and Israel after nothing was happening as a result of the 1979 Peace Treaty. One of our projects was to build an agricultural settlement like a Moshav in Israel, called 'Maryut Agroindustrial complex project; a regional project involving Egypt and Israel.'
Our second activity was to give a peace prize every year in a ceremony in Washington. In 1988, we gave it to Sakharov, which is when the picture was taken. Before the ceremony, I had the opportunity to discuss my human rights activities with him through an interpreter. He suggested that I take a crash course in Russian, which I did before going back to the Soviet Union to continue my work with dissidents."