Ben Zion Tavger (russian: Бенцион Аронович Тавгер, he, בן ציון טבגר), August 5, 1930 (

Barysaw Barysaw ( be, Барысаў, ) or Borisov (russian: Борисов, ) is a city in Belarus near the Berezina River in the Minsk Region 74 km north-east from Minsk. Its population is around 145,000. History Barysaw is first mentioned in t ...

) - July 22, 1983, was a physicist and an activist for the renewed Jewish community of

Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...

Early years

Tavger was born in 1930 in the city of

(now in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

). His family then moved to Gorky (

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

) in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. He studied physics at

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

and at the University of Gorky, graduating in 1952. In 1961 Tavger began underground Zionist activities, organizing a group of students who studied

Zeev Jabotinsky Ze'ev Jabotinsky ( he, זְאֵב זַ׳בּוֹטִינְסְקִי, ''Ze'ev Zhabotinski'';, ''Wolf Zhabotinski'' 17 October 1880 – 3 August 1940), born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky, was a Russian Jewish Revisionist Zionist leade ...

's books and articles and prepared for immigration to Israel. In 1968, Tavger was expelled from the University of Gorky and deprived of teaching privileges throughout the region. He was subsequently accepted as a senior researcher at the

Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the Siberian Branch of the RAS (russian: Институт физики полупроводников имени А. В. Ржанова СО РАН) is a research institute in Akademgorodok of Novosib ...

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...

. Here he again led a group of young Zionists.

Immigration to Israel

In May 1972, Tavger immigrated to Israel, arriving at

Nazareth Illit Nof HaGalil ( he, נוֹף הַגָּלִיל, lit. ''View of Galilee''; ar, نوف هچليل) is a city in the Northern District of Israel with a population of . Nof HaGalil was founded in 1957 as Nazareth Illit ( he, נָצְרַת עִלִ� ...

absorption center.

Yuval Ne'eman Yuval Ne'eman ( he, יובל נאמן, 14 May 1925 – 26 April 2006) was an Israeli theoretical physicist, military scientist, and politician. He was Minister of Science and Development in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was the President o ...

, then president of Tel Aviv University, invited to work at the university. Tavger worked at Tel Aviv University until 1974, at the same time trying to set up a science and research institute located in

Kiryat Arba :''This article is mainly about the modern Israeli settlement, not the biblical town'' Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba ( he, קִרְיַת־אַרְבַּע, , Town of the Four) is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the south ...

, near

Hebron

In 1974, Tavger left Tel Aviv University and moved to Kiryat Arba. Soon he began to take part in the restoration efforts of historic sites in nearby Hebron. In 1975, a four-month-old baby, Avraham Nachson, who had died of

Sudden infant death syndrome Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden unexplained death of a child of less than one year of age. Diagnosis requires that the death remain unexplained even after a thorough autopsy and detailed death scene investigation. SIDS usuall ...

, was buried in the old Jewish cemetery in Hebron. Residents of Kiryat Arba began to arrange guard duty at the grave due to frequent vandalizing and Tavger volunteered. He began cleaning and restoring the cemetery and the nearby

Tomb of Jesse and Ruth , alternate_name = Mashhad al-Arba’in (Sanctuary of the Forty), later D(a)ir al-Arba'in (Mosque of the Forty itnesses , image = Tomb of Ruth and Jesse Hevron 06.jpg , alt= , caption= , map_type= , map_alt= , map_size = 220 , ...

. Tavger was involved in identifying Jewish sites in Hebron destroyed during the Jordanian era, such as cleaning and excavation at the site of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue which had been torn down and its remains used as an animal pen for sheep and goats.

Later years

From 1975, Tavger taught at the

Jerusalem College of Technology The Jerusalem College of Technology - Lev Academic Center (JCT; he, המרכז האקדמי לב) is a private college in Israel, recognized by the Council for Higher Education, which specializes in providing high-level science and technology ed ...

, where he established a laboratory with Naftali Eisenberg. Tavger died on July 22, 1983, and is survived by a wife and five sons. The area next to the Avraham Avinu Synagogue in Hebron is called "Kiryat Ben-Zion" in his memory. The street leading to the synagogue was also named after him.

Scientific publications

Magnetic symmetry

*B. Tavger and V. Zaitsev, JETP (Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics), Vol. 30, p. 564 (1956) *B. Tavger. JETP, Vol. 35, p. 467 (1958) *B. Tavger, Crystallography, Vol. 3, p. 339 (1958) *B. Tavger, Crystallography, Vol. 3, p. 342 (1958) *B. Tavger, Crystallography, Vol. 5, p. 667 (1960) *B. Tavger, Proceedings of Kaliningrad Pedagogical Inst. Vol. 2 (1956) *B. Tavger, Phys. Lett. A, Vol. 116(3), p. 123-124 (1986)

Spatial quantization

*B. Tavger, JETP, Vol. 48, p. 185 (1965) *B. Tavger and V. Kogan, Phys. Lett. Vol. 19, p. 353 (1965) *B. Tavger and M. Yerukhimov, JETP, Vol. 51, p. 528 (1966) *B. Tavger and V. Kresin, Phys. Lett. Vol. 20, p. 595 (1966) *B. Tavger and V. Kresin, JETP, Vol. 47, p. 2318 (1966) *B. Tavger and V. Demikhovsky, Soviet Physics - "Successes of Physical Sciences", Vol. 96, p. 61 (1968) *B. Tavger and V. Sokolov, Soviet Physics, Solid State, Vol. 10 N6, p. 1412 (1968) *B. Tavger and I. Goldfarb (Galili), Soviet Physics, Solid State, Vol. 11, p. 1231 (1969) *B. Tavger and V. Margulis, JETP, Vol. 31, N2, p. 340 (1970) *B. Tavger, V. Molin et al., JETP Letters, Vol. 14, p. 215 (1971) *B. Tavger, M. Blokh, E. Fishman, Soviet Physics of Metal and Metallography, Vol. 33. N6, p. 1137 (1972)

External links

Articles in the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics

My Hebron by Ben-Zion Tavger - English edition
* Hebrew Wikipedia page * Russian Wikipedia page

References

{{authority control Jews and Judaism in Hebron 1930 births 1983 deaths People from Barysaw Israeli settlers Israeli physicists 20th-century Israeli Jews Belarusian Jews Belarusian Zionists Belarusian emigrants to Israel Moscow State University alumni Soviet emigrants to Israel Soviet Jews Soviet physicists Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Soviet people of Israeli descent Belarusian people of Israeli descent