Happy Passover from Technion President Peretz Lavie.

HAPPY PASSOVER 2011 FROM ALL THE TECHNION FAMILY!

Passover 2011 Message from Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie.

“Only when we have the courage to regard ourselves as a nation, only when we respect ourselves, can we win the respect of others; or rather, the respect of others will then come of itself.”

Technion founding father Albert Einstein, 1931.

Welcome to the April 2011 Passover issue of TechnionLIVE. At Technion, we are deeply aware of the central themes of freedom and national realization embedded within the Passover story. We were slaves in Egypt. We could have continued that way for generations, but there was a critical shift in attitude. We stopped seeing ourselves as the “problem”, and we became the solution. We took responsibility for our position, individually and as a whole, and we took an unconditional movement into our own integrity. Together, the entire Jewish workforce of Egypt got up and left. The reward for this act of responsibility and unity was great: it initiated a process in which we were to receive the land of Israel.

At the opening of the last century, we were again scattered around the planet, enduring antisemitism, persecution, and exclusion. We could complain and mourn injustice, or we could take responsibility. Embedded in the vision of Theodore Herzl was a movement into vision, responsibility and application in which freedom will always be the outcome.

The inspired question then, as ever, was: “How do we do it?” How do we build a nation from nothing? Jews were barred from technical universities and professions, and there just wasn’t the skilled manpower to begin laying the foundations of an independent state. Back then, we took responsibility, and the answer was a technical university in Haifa. 99 years ago, in 1912, the first cornerstone was laid. Nearly 100 years later, millions of people in Israel and across the world feel the reward of this freedom.

Gathering to lay the 1st cornerstone of the Technion, 1912.

This is the spirit of Technion. We don’t see problems, we see opportunities. We take responsibility for real concerns, and stone by stone, we build the basis of our freedom.

One person who for many of us, really embodied this wisdom, was the great philanthropist and unshakeable friend of the State of Israel and the Technion Henry Taub, who sadly passed away on April 1st, 2011. A giant of his generation, Henry left his imprint on every aspect of Technion life and shaped the building of its campus. We have lost a true and beloved friend.

The past month has revealed many global challenges. In Japan, nature has shown us how truly powerful it is, unfortunately, with devastating effects. One of our former students of physics from Japan, Shumon Mor, wrote to us of the “nightmare” happening in his country. We send our sincere hopes that recovery will come swiftly and as painlessly as possible. We also thoroughly believe and trust in the ability of our Japanese colleagues to find even smarter ways to rebuild their nation, and to meet the challenge of finding ways to heal the wounds, creating a Japan that will be stronger than ever before.

Events in Japan highlight the energy choices facing nations today. The depletion of fossil fuels brings a serious risk of war, terrorism and poverty. Events in Japan have shown that the nuclear power alternative has grave drawbacks. New energy sources – such as wind, solar, hydrogen and biofuels – need researching, improving and developing in order to power tomorrow’s world. We also need to research smarter, cleaner and more efficient ways to use conventional energy sources, including oil, coal, and Israel’s newfound gas resources. Also here, in the establishment of the multidisciplinary Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP) we took a critical step of responsibility and vision, through which we will gain our freedom in the future.

Following events in Japan, an understandable response is to ask: “Could it happen in Israel?” The answer, unfortunately, from a top Technion disaster expert Prof. Avi Kirshenbaum, is: “Yes, it could.” It is our task as scientists to come with the simulations, crisis research, building codes, sensors, and systems that will make the difference should Israel ever face a similar challenge as its friend, Japan.

Across Technion, spring is in the air and the green spaces have become a forest of spring flowers. The Zielony Graduate Student Village is getting its final touches, as it will soon become a thriving community of top graduate researchers, their partners and young children. Some of them will be pursuing advanced multidisciplinary degrees in Nanotechnology or Energy Science. These are the graduates with the spirit of responsibility and freedom that have made Israel great, some of whom you can read about at TechnionLIVE.

We sincerely wish you all a Happy Passover, and that you will feel your strength and unity with the whole Technion Family. Together, we take responsibility for our shared future, and together, we celebrate in freedom.