| Ze’ev Lev זאב לב |
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|---|---|
| Born | 26 April 1922 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 3 October 2004 (aged 82) Israel |
| Citizenship | Israeli |
| Notable awards | Israel Prize (1962) |
Ze'ev Lev (26 April 1922 - 3 October 2004), (Hebrew: זאב לב), an Israeli physicist, Torah scholar, and founder of the Jerusalem College of Technology, was named William Low when born in Vienna. After being educated in Europe, Canada and the U.S., and having lost his parents and sister in the Holocaust, he became one of Israel’s leading scientists and educators.
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Lev was born into a Chassidic family that moved from Vienna to Berlin in 1934. At the age of 16, he was able to leave Germany in order to study at the Gateshead Yeshiva in England, thereby avoiding the fate of all other members of his immediate family.
Having decided to enter the academic world rather than become a rabbi like his grandfather, he obtained a scholarship to Queen's University in Ontario, Canada and graduated with honors. He then received his master’s degree and doctorate at Columbia University in New York City, where he studied with Nobel Prize laureate Isidor Isaac Rabi.
With his wife, Dvora Lederer, he moved to Israel in 1950, adopting his grandfather’s name, Ze'ev, and changing his last name to Lev. This name, like the Germanic version Low, indicated he was a descendent of the tribe of Levi.
Lev took a position as a lecturer in paramagnetic resonance at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He became a worldwide expert in this field, and his research led to the development of microwave and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices.
Later in the 1960s, Lev decided there was a need for a college in Jerusalem that combined scientific study with the study of the Torah. Despite initial resistance from some rabbis and educators, the institution he started with seven students in 1969 grew to have an enrollment of more than 2,000, becoming one of Israel’s four accredited engineering schools.
Lev led the development of the Jerusalem College of Technology for ten years, and afterwards continued to do research and academic work. His scientific articles covered subjects including atomic physics and shock waves, and he also wrote about science in relation to the Torah.
The Jerusalem College of Technology has developed special programs for high school students, members of the Israel Defense Forces, ultra-Orthodox women, and members of the Ethiopian immigrant community. Many of its alumni have joined Israeli high-tech firms.
Lev had five children, and after the death of his first wife, he married Sarah Katzburg. In his later years he also devoted himself to compiling a family tree of the Low family. It started with his great-grandfather’s life in Poland during the early 19th century and has grown to include approximately 1,000 descendents.