Yuval Ne’eman

We deeply mourn the loss of this soldier, scientist and statesman. An unwavering supporter of an undivided Land of Israel, Neeman was a founder of the Techiya Party and served as minister of science and technology in the government of Yitzhak Shamir. Opposing Shamir’s agreement, under U.S. pressure, to negotiate with the Arabs in Madrid, Techiya left the government. Ne’eman argued for remaining and turned out to be right, for in bringing the government down, Techiya paved the way for Labor’s victory and Oslo.

Ne’eman was best known as a scientist. In the 1960s, independently from Murray Gel-Mann (who received a Nobel Prize for this work) he developed the “Eightfold Way” of classifying elementary particles (the quark model). Among his many awards were the Israel Prize (1969) in exact sciences and the Einstein Medal for his contributions to physics.

Ne’eman balanced an academic career with one in public service. He founded Tel Aviv University’s physics department, served as director of its Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies, and became President of the University. He also served as Chief Scientist in the Defense Ministry from 1974-76, vice-Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and in 1983 founded the Israeli Space Agency.

As a soldier, Ne’eman served with distinction in Israel’s War of Independence, becoming operations officer of the elite Givati brigade during the war. AFSI founder Erich Isaac served under him and remembers Ne’eman’s lectures, during lulls in the fighting, on the “red shift” (evidence for expansion of the universe).

After the war, Ne’eman’s family expected him to remain in the family pump business (started in Haifa by his grandfather in 1900) where he showed his talents by designing three new pump models. But Ne’eman longed to study physics and after the 1956 war, while serving as Israel’s military attaché in England, he enrolled in the Imperial College in London.

Ne’eman represented Israel at her very best: personally modest, a brilliant scientist, a committed Zionist, he differed from the vast run of academics – and alas, Israeli politicians -- in his political astuteness, his understanding that Israel could not survive through appeasement but must assert and maintain her legitimate claims.

Sister Rose Thering

Sister Rose Thering, for many years a professor of Jewish-Christian studies at Seton Hall University, was a true friend of Israel, symbolizing her dual love of Catholicism and Judaism by wearing her trademark crucifix inside a Star of David. She led innumerable trips to Israel, to European concentration camps, to refuseniks in the then Soviet Union and worked tirelessly in interfaith programs on behalf of Jewish-Christian relations. Her doctoral dissertation is credited with helping to persuade the Vatican to issue its 1965 document Nostra Aetate, bringing to an end the blaming of the Jews collectively for the death of Jesus. More recently she was influential in making study of the Holocaust mandatory in New Jersey public schools.

Barbara Roth

AFSI mourns the loss of this long time member and supporter in its New York City chapter.