Ben Zion Tavger
September 10, 2009
Ben Zion Tavger was born in the town of Borisov, White Russia, on August 5
th 1930. His family lived in Gorky (today Nizhny Novgorod).
From very early childhood he had an insatiable curiosity and so acquired considerable knowledge in different topics. His nickname was “knows-all”, and even his older brother, Shimon (who was killed in WWII) and his friends often turned to him with their questions. In rare instances would Ben Zion be seen losing a game of chess.
At the age of 14 years, Ben Zion took part in three simultaneous competitions – in physics, mathematics and chemistry, among the schoolboys of the entire Gorky region. In all three he won first place, and the only difficulty for him was to be present in three different halls at the same time.
In 1947 he was accepted at the Faculty of Physics and Technology in the Moscow University. Two of his teachers there, Landau and Kapitsa, were Nobel Prize winners.
In 1949 Ben Zion transferred to the Gorky University and in 1952 he graduated with honors. Till today, his fellow students remember him as the most outstanding and brilliant scholar.
Due to the rise of anti-Semitism in the last of Stalin`s years, Ben Zion was refused acceptance as a post-graduate student, a fact which subsequently made very problematic his involvement in science. Instead, he was sent to work in a far away Siberian military factory. His miraculous escape from there happened only due to his unique characteristic, which was the exceptional originality of his thinking. Ben Zion wrote a letter to a famous Soviet writer, Ilya Erenburg. Erenburg, in spite of being a Jew, was known as favored by Stalin himself and was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He answered the letter of this unknown young talented Jew, and with Erenburg`s help, Tavger began teaching in the Kaliningrad Pedagogical Institute. There he started – himself and without any suitable scientific surroundings – his researches in physics.
In 1954 Tavger discovered the Magnetic Symmetry phenomenon. This research was the basis of Tavger’s Doctorate dissertation (Ph.D.) which he defended in 1959 in the Moscow Pedagogical Institute.
In 1960 Tavger began to teach in the Gorky University. One of his students there, Prof. Igal Galili (today – Head of The Science Teaching Department in the Hebrew University) tells about him:
“In Gorky, Ben Zion immediately became the leading scientist and teacher, and an unquestioned authority in his department. His lectures in quantum physics were a real experience and quickly became a great attraction at the University. For many years after graduating, students would remember these lectures as fascinating and special. It was a great tribute to human intelligence and a rebellion against authoritarian approaches of all kinds. Tavger’s teaching, as if by magic, turned the most difficult problems related to the change in world conception, the switch from classical to modern physics, into natural, understandable and ‘friendly’. I’d like to elaborate on several prominent and important features that impressed me and others who met Ben Zion. He had a truly holistic personality. Physics, science, human rights, Jewish philosophy, the eternal problems of Jews – all these were inseparable in his personality. He could pass from one topic to another with ease and continuity. And to each, together with great enthusiasm, he applied his immense reasoning machinery, logic and style of thinking that drew no distinctions between the borders of different fields or levels of complexity. Each problem – no matter how difficult or unsolvable it looked to his partners in discussion – quickly became simple and solvable in an almost trivial way. People who studied or worked with Ben Zion had a feeling that difficult problems just didn’t exist. Be it in science, politics or personal relationships – everything was simple or at least understandable. It was no wonder that very quickly Ben Zion gathered around him a large group of scientists and friends, mainly Jews, who in a way viewed him as their scientific and spiritual leader.”
In 1961 Ben Zion began his underground Zionist activities. He organized a student group whose members read and passed on books and articles of Jabotinsky, arranged a Passover Seder, taught Judaism and Jewish history. The majority of this group eventually made Aliyah to Israel. The K.G.B. exposed Tavger’s underground group, and then began the chase after him and his students, which meant searches, investigations and arrests. Only Tavger’s unconventional behavior enabled him to outwit the omnipotent K.G.B., who was unsuccessful in their attempts to jail him. Ben Zion deceived them by pretending to be mentally ill, hiding in a mental hospital and from there disappeared into the Volga Forests and didn’t return home.
The K.G.B. was defeated, but in 1968 Tavger was expelled from the Gorky University and forbidden to teach in the entire region.
Ben Zion again successfully eluded the vigilance of the
K.G.B. and in an almost undercover mission, was installed as a senior researcher thousands of miles to the east, in the Institute of Semiconductors of the Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in the “science town” near Novosibirsk. It happened just several days before KGB representatives “visited” the place. Working there Tavger published many of his scientific papers.
In 1969 Tavger completed the dissertation for his Fourth degree – Doctor of Sciences, which was based on his second discovery – the theory of size-quantizing films – a research he had begun while staid in Gorky.
In Novosibirsk Tavger was again surrounded by a group of young Zionists who struggled for the right to make Aliyah to Israel. Once more he confronted the K.G.B. and led them to the conclusion that the best way to free themselves from Tavger was to let him leave the Soviet Union as quickly as possible. Thus Professor Tavger was the first scientist from Novosibirsk (and the first of such a status) who succeeded in obtaining permission to leave the Soviet Union. Only after this could other scientists followed in his footsteps.
In May of 1972 Tavger made Aliyah to Israel, arriving at the absorption center in Upper Nazareth. When the President of the Tel-Aviv University, Prof. Yuval Neeman, heard of the Aliyah of the internationally famous scientist, he invited Tavger to work at the Tel-Aviv University. It is interesting to note that physicists in the Western world who knew of Tavger’s researches were surprised to meet a young, agile man of 42 years. Twenty years after they had read his publications, they had to expect these to be the work of an old man, or even of one who was no longer alive…
Tavger worked in the Tel-Aviv University until 1974. Simultaneously, he worked unceasingly to establish a Science and Research Institute in Kiryat Arba. While in the Absorption Center, Tavger had heard of Kiryat Arba and had already decided that there was the best place for him to live. He believed it was very important to live in Hebron – the City of our Patriarchs – and to establish a Science Institute far from the noise of Tel-Aviv, in the quiet of the Judean Hills. He had an orderly list of new immigrant scientists who were very eager work in such an Institute. Every one supported Tavger’s plan, but the authorities refused to finance the project which was over the “Green Line”.
In 1974 Tavger left the Tel-Aviv University and came to live in Kiryat Arba. Very quickly he involved himself in the struggles of the Kiryat Arba residents. These include the wish of the residents to execute their right to return to Hebron, to oppose the desecration of Jewish sacred sites, and violation of the memory of the 1929 martyrs. At first, Tavger used conventional methods of oppositions. He wrote letters and protests, invited and received delegations of the Parliament members, attended meetings, initiated publication of letters from ex-Kiev citizens who had fought there against the violation of the memory of Baby-Yar martyrs. But all of the activities of Tavger didn’t bear fruit.
After burying the Nachshon family’s baby in the ancient cemetery of Hebron guards began to be sent to safeguard the cemetery. When this post was offered to the unemployed professor, Tavger gladly accepted it, as he thought that like his predecessors in this job he would be able, to learn Torah in peace, and even to deal with problems in Theoretical Physics. The scene of the desecrated graves changed all of his plans. He began to busy himself with cleaning up the cemetery, found broken pieces of the tombstones of the 1929 martyrs, and reconstructed the tombstone of the “Reishit Hochma” (Rabbi Eliyahu Davidash).
At the same time Tavger engaged in the struggle for the Cave of the Patriarchs and began the excavation of the Avraham Avinu synagogue. During all this time, Movement Restriction Orders were issued against him, he was arrested numerous times, and brought to trial. The climax was the trial that lasted twenty-one months in Beer-Sheba. The verdict in this case was a complete exoneration for Tavger and for Eliezer Broyer. This judgment in effect praised their dedication and strength of their spirit.
Tavger published more than forty-five scientific papers, mostly in the field of Solid State Physics. His last research (which he was unable to complete) was published after his death, in June 1986, in one of the world’s most prestigious science journal, “Physics Letters”. About this article professor Yuval Neeman wrote: “It was very exciting to read a clear, scientific message, innovative and illuminating, as if Ben Zion Tavger is still with us, active and profound. The article is important and can lead to the discovery of interesting and useful experimentation. There is no doubt that if these experiments will demonstrated the Spontaneous Conductivity effect this will be a revelation on the level of the discovery of transistors or lasers” (08.17.1988).
From 1975 until his last day Tavger taught in the Jerusalem College of Technology, there he had setup his laboratory. He was a brilliant teacher.
Ben Zion Tavger loved the Land of Israel and traveled its length and breadth by foot. He contributed greatly to the Aliyah movement, gave lectures, led tours in Hebron, and also personally supported new immigrants.
Ben Zion Tavger was a devoted husband and father.
Professor Tavger learned Torah, began to keep the Mitzvoth and claimed that Torah and science are indivisible.
He was never sick, and had no need of a doctor until cancer overcame him at the end of his life. Ben Zion Tavger died on July 1983, the day after his 53rd birthday, when his youngest son was thirteen months old.
The area beside the Avraham Avinu synagogue is named “District Ben Zion” in his memory, and the memorial plaque on the entrance to the rebuilt synagogue commemorates this. The street leading to the synagogue is named after Ben Zion Tavger.
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Dedication of a Torah Scroll at the Avraham Avinu Synagogue
On the 18th of the Hebrew month of Iyar, 5741 – May 22, 1981, a ceremony was conducted in honor of the introduction of a Torah scroll to the Avraham Avinu Synagogue, in the heart of Hebron. For a long time before the anticipated event expectations had been mounting, mingled with a sense of apprehension. Nevertheless, relatively few people attended the ceremony because it had not been extensively publicized in advance.
I myself had also received news of the ceremony almost by accident. That week I had hardly spent time in Kiryat Arba, because I had been busy working in Jerusalem most of the time. Upon coming home, I saw a letter waiting for me, containing a personal invitation to the ceremony. This was two hours before it was about to begin, so I got ready and somehow, was able to arrive on time. But other people were less fortunate and missed the ceremony. Those who managed went down to Hebron to attend the ceremony, which was festively conducted, in a manner appropriate to the famous Synagogue.
While I was in the Synagogue, waiting for the Torah Scroll to be brought in, I looked around once again at the walls of the building. The Synagogue was now splendidly built, more or less approximating its original form, before the Arabs had destroyed it in the 1950s. There might have been a few minimal changes here or there, and perhaps not everything had been completed and it was still necessary to fix something or other, but on the whole, the Synagogue now looked beautiful, it appeared splendid. One could even say that it was impressive, though not very modern.
I let my eyes wander around the interior of the synagogue. I had time to think and recall its previous state, five or six years ago, and thought of the sequence of events that had transpired. When I first came here, the place had indeed gone by the name of “Avraham Avinu Synagogue”, but its name had seemed completely disconnected from its essence. Nothing about it had indicated that it was a synagogue. It had been used as a goat shed. On its eastern side there had been a familiar, or rather, a notorious structure – the public latrine – which had been erected for the use of those who frequented the adjacent Arab wholesale market, and the rest of the site was used as a garbage dump.
During the ceremony, more than a few people who had somehow managed to come from Kiryat Arba and from other places, came up to me and congratulated me, shaking my hand and wishing me “Mazal Tov!”. I received praise from people who were completely unknown to me and also, of course, from acquaintances, who congratulated me and commented on past events. I don't know why I didn't feel very comfortable. It might have been due to a sense of unease that took hold of me, in spite of the fact that I realized that my own actions had been decisive in this achievement, because until 1975 the site of the synagogue had been used as a goat shed, and all the efforts of so many people had not brought about a change in its status. To me it had seemed obvious that we had to dig and clear out the refuse and rubbish from the site, to reveal the splendor of the synagogue for all to see. I won't deny that I had played a major role, because I took an active part in initiating the work from the very beginning and in seeing it through to its completion. But still I felt a bit embarrassed, because I didn't always know how to reply to the congratulations and praise that was so profusely heaped upon me.
When an acquaintance began to congratulate me, I said the achievement was not mine alone, but rather belonged to all the Jews. He answered me simply: “Even though all the Children of Israel entered the Red Sea, the first one to do so was a single individual, Nachshon ben Aminadav – only after he jumped into the sea did the others follow him”. This man had not spoken because of a need to say something nice. Rather, his education since his youth had had been such that he always knew how to slip into his conversation an appropriate reference from our ancient sources.
Zvi Katzover also came up to me. Like the others, he congratulated me and began to talk of the past. He has an excellent memory and I felt his memory was plaguing him. Looking around, his gaze fell on the Chairman of the Religious Council of Kiryat Arba. He said: “Look, now they too are celebrating the Torah scroll, but at the time, when you began working, they only interfered with your work”.
When he said that, I recalled how they had threatened to stop paying my salary for my work as a guard in Hebron's Jewish cemetery, claiming the digging was interfering with my work, and therefore they said they would no longer pay me. In fact, this threat, if it can be called a threat, had led to a further development. When they realized that these threats had no impact on me, they simply decided to cancel the position of guard for the cemetery, thinking that this would be prevent me from coming to Hebron altogether.
In contrast to Zvi, I saw the events of the time in a different light. I thought the obstacles that had been placed in my course throughout the entire excavation period (and they were not all initiated by the Religious Council), were easier to overcome. These were nothing but a test of my perseverance, my resoluteness and my ability to carry out the project. If I had been deterred, if I had shown I was alarmed by the threats – that would have been a sign or an omen that the task was too big for me, that I would not be able to accomplish it and that I didn't have the strength to carry it out. And that would have meant that someone else must come to replace me. And the Synagogue would have had to wait still longer, as it had waited until now. Obviously, it would have been better if the members of the Religious Council had refrained from making those threats, if they had backed me up, taking up the work tools and starting to dig. Had this happened, then today's celebration would have taken place at an earlier date. And again, if the members of the Religious Council had done that, then today they would have been able to feel that they were not only the organizers of the celebration, but its guests of honor.
And so, the Torah scroll was brought to the Synagogue, the procession emerged from the market alleys. The mud that had stuck to the feet of the Torah bearers and those who accompanied them would later dirty the Synagogue floor. The two cantors, one Sephardic and the other Ashkenazi, passed the Torah from hand to hand, sang and expressed their devout joy.
Four residents of Kiryat Arba held poles with the “Chuppa”, canopy above the scroll. The procession gradually approached the Synagogue accompanied by dancing and singing. I was also drawn into the flurry, I was pulled and given one of the poles holding up the canopy and then I was given the scroll itself. Like the others, I sang and danced with supreme joy. After me, Zeev Hever, known as Zambish, and Rabbi Levinger and others, were given the scroll in their turn. We all finally entered the Synagogue. The Chairman of the Religious Council favored me with a special honor by bidding me to open the Holy Ark. With profound emotion welling up in me, I opened the doors of the Holy Ark, as the singing of the cantors and the congregation echoed in the air around us. When the prayer was over, traditional blessings were recited and I was also given the honor of closing the Ark.
The whisperings continued afterwards as well. A person came up to me and said: “What's this? They let you open the Holy Ark but Rabbi Levinger is given the honor of setting the Mezuzah!” No. Rabbi Levinger had not impeded the digging work. I was thinking almost aloud and stopped hearing the man next to me. To me, all this seemed trivial; it was unnecessary to talk about matters of honor. I had had more than enough of it.
In this sense, I must say that I have always been fortunate. Even in my scientific endeavors, I had never felt my name or my contribution had been disregarded, that my rights had not been acknowledged. I had never felt that someone was stealing my achievements and taking credit for something at my expense.
In any case, I felt very festive during the ceremony and was completely overcome by joy.
After the Torah scroll had been introduced, the official part of the event began. In other words, they began making speeches. I thought to myself that I had something to say. If they call me I will say a thing or two. But inside, I knew nobody would ask me to speak. It is not for me to speak, possibly, and I surely would never ask to be allowed to speak before an audience. There is something in Israel that reminds me of the customs of the Soviet Union. In every official event, all the speakers are well known in advance – by virtue of their jobs! This one represents a certain entity and that one has to speak on behalf of another entity. In Russia it had been the worker Ivanov or Petrova, the dairy-farmer. Here in Kiryat Arba it was always the same speaker, the Honorable Rabbi Levinger.
Thus it was today as well. The Chairman of the Religious Council announced the Director-General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, who would speak on behalf of the Government. It must be said in his favor that his words were brief. In fact, I don't know what he said, not because his speech was not good. No, I can't say that. It was simply the atmosphere. Everyone who attended the event was in excellent spirits. Finally, we were inaugurating the Synagogue and introducing a Torah scroll. The imagination of the audience wandered to legendary realms and their thoughts on this occasion were uncontrollable. They rose up and up, severing themselves from the reality on the ground. The public was not so attentive to the words of the distinguished Director-General.
What nevertheless remained inscribed in my memory and maybe it was also what others remembered from his words was the last sentence: he proclaimed the need to live side-by-side and in peaceful coexistence between the two peoples, Jews and Arabs, in Hebron. This also reminded me of other speeches that had been made by official speakers in the Soviet Union on festive occasions. There also, they always ended with a sentence emphasizing the need to live in mutual friendship among all the peoples.
Afterwards, as expected, Rabbi Levinger was called upon to speak. The Rabbi was very tired on that day. The previous night he had moved his family from Bet Hadassah, Hadassah building, to one of the renovated apartments in the Avraham Avinu compound. It might have been his fatigue or possibly it was the last sentence uttered by the honorable Executive Director, but it was clearly apparent that Rabbi Levinger felt something was incompatible with the festive nature of the moment.
Although the Rabbi began his speech in the customary manner, expressing thanks to the Almighty for having granted us life and having kept us and brought us to this moment at which the Synagogue had been re-inaugurated in the place where the Arabs had housed their goats, on the site where Arab marauders had carried out a pogrom on members of the Jewish community. But immediately after that, something happened to him. He lost his voice, which rose up and then pitched down, returned to him for a moment only to be lost once again. Rabbi Levinger began yelling: “I will say … No! It should not be said but I shall say it openly, before everyone”. The public felt he was struggling within himself, that he was not saying exactly what he had wanted to say. How come the Rabbi was saying that he would say what should not be said. Finally he indeed did say, or, more accurately, he yelled what he had wanted to say. It was about the Arabs. And this is what Rabbi Levinger said: “In fact, there had been two pogroms: in 1929 – when they had slaughtered many Jews and expelled those who survived the massacre, which led to the end of the Jewish Community of Hebron. The second pogrom was under Jewish rule, in 1980 – when Arab terrorists had murdered six men who were praying next to Bet Hadassah”. “The Arabs”, added Rabbi Levinger, “never confessed to the crime. Not a single Arab, not from among the rabble nor from among the distinguished leaders, or “dignitaries”, as we call them, not a single one of them had condemned the massacre. And neither did we repay them”, the Rabbi yelled and almost lost his voice. Afterwards, he raised his voice in a tremendous cry and said: “Kahane is right! Kahane is right!” Rabbi Levinger began to hit the table with his fist. The blows were strong and I was afraid the table was about to break. I don't know whether the audience heard his words attentively, but at any rate, they remained quiet. Was the audience still under the impression of the dedication ceremony for the Torah Scroll undoubtedly, they had listened to his words patiently and did not respond. I myself doubted whether this speech was appropriate for the event. Possibly the Rabbi was right, but that was irrelevant. Now it was the inauguration of the synagogue that was taking place, the introduction of the Torah Scroll, and we should distance ourselves from the negative things that had taken place there in the past. At least for now!
As I expected, I was not invited to speak. But the things I could have said to the audience filled my head. I would have said we were indeed experiencing a most festive moment. This place, where previously there had been a goat shed, which had symbolized our disgrace and humiliation, was magnificently renovated and the ancient synagogue was at its center. We can pray in it! This is not something insignificant! It is a great thing, but it is not the conclusive thing, at least not from my point of view. When I had begun to dig here I had not set a goal for myself only to renovate the synagogue and not even the entire Jewish Quarter. My aim had been to change the atmosphere that had enabled the entrenchment of a state of affairs wherein on the site where a synagogue had once been standing in full glory, suddenly three “magnificent” establishments are standing: a goat-shed, a public toilet facility and a garbage dump. According to documents, the functioning of the goat shed within the synagogue had been approved by the Israeli authorities. Someone had signed the leasing contract with the Arab who was using the structure to house his goats. Someone had signed and others had agreed to it, or had turned a blind eye, while on the other hand, there were Jews whose soul had desired to clean the Synagogue, to prepare it and restore its original function, and to turn it once again into a place of prayer.
How had this happened? How had such a disgraceful process come about? The Military Administration had been assigned to guard there. The goat-shed, the public toilet and the garbage dump were being guarded by soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces. The government had assigned guards to attack me, with the aim of perpetuating this terrible disgrace. Another thing, possibly even worse, because I find it hard to imagine anything worse, was the judicial persecution, the utilization of the force of the law against me and against others. How many times had they submitted indictments against me?! They had trumped up those indictments. And what were the charges? I am ashamed to say... Sometimes, the “facts” written in the indictment had actually been libelous and impertinent lies completely divorced from reality. Jews had lied with barefaced audacity in order to keep the goats in place of the Synagogue. Many times the trials had been held in military courts. There is no greater shame than to see a scene where the judges, the prosecutor and the witnesses are all wearing the uniform of the Israel Defense Forces, all joining hands to convict you in a field court, without your even having the right to appeal.
On the day of the inauguration of the Synagogue I was thinking: Where are all those people? Where are all those sinners? Are they all sitting now in jail, serving out their sentences for what they had done? Had they been appropriately punished? Or at least, from the public aspect, had even one journalist indicated that they should be prosecuted? No, nothing like that had happened! Nobody had even been reprimanded; nobody had been dismissed from their place of employment, although they had not always carried out their work properly. They had certainly not faithfully served the important interests of the Jewish people as they should have done. It was my opinion that as long as those people had not been punished, and there had not even been a public outcry against them and against their criminal actions, then there was no guarantee that in the future such disgraceful occurrences as had happened in Hebron would not be repeated. There was no guarantee that we would not again witness scenes in which Jews brought shame upon themselves, upon their people, by supporting the marauders. Possibly, some memory of this would remain. At any rate, it is hard for me to imagine that anyone would ever again entertain the idea of placing goats in any Jewish synagogue. But still there are other ways of disgracing the nation. In this sense, the atmosphere today, when compared to that which had prevailed in 1975 – is not any different. It is still necessary to make huge efforts to uproot from within ourselves this mentality of the Diaspora, this acceptance of the “Judenrein” attitude.
All these things passed through my mind, but I didn't say anything. Upon leaving the celebration I said to myself: maybe it is better that I did not make a speech. Instead of saying a few short words, as required by the protocol, it would be better to write down my thoughts, in a more serious manner and in a more organized way, in a deeper way. This would be my contribution to the solution of the difficult problem that had been occupying my mind: how to transform the atmosphere that allowed attitudes characterized by “Judenrein” and “Judenrat” to be tolerated among our people. In order to contribute to that I must make use of the great amount of material and experience I had accumulated in Hebron.
And indeed, I had frequently been asked by friends why I was not writing about the events in Hebron. After all, this is so important from the educational, historical aspect as well. In general, it is important to know the truth!
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