Holocaust Survivor Slaughtered On Yom Hashoah
Title
Holocaust Survivor Slaughtered On Yom Hashoah
Description
The Jewish community mourns with Virginia Tech.
<i>-- Daniel Loeb</i>
The deadliest campus shooting in the history of the US occurred on Monday, April 16 at Virginia Tech. The tragic shootings at Virginia Tech happened on the day Jews all over the world observe Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and which is marked in Israel with two minutes of silence, prayer and reflection.
The United States Congress has called for a minute of silence on Friday, April 20 at noon, to remember Monday's victims, as well as the millions of other men and women around the world who have died at the hands of armed madmen and criminals.
Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and injured 29 more before taking his own life.
Ironically, one of the Virginia Tech victims, aeronautics professor Liviu Librescu, was a survivor of the Holocaust. He died while barricading his classroom against the gunman, saving the lives of several of his students through his sacrifice on Yom Hashoah.
Librescu, born in 1930 in Ploiesti, Romania, survived the Holocaust in the ghetto of Focsani while his father was interned in the Transnistria labor camp. After the war, he studied Aerospace Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and Fluid Mechanics at the Academia de Stiinte din Romania.
He distinguished himself as a researcher at the Institute of Applied Mechanics, Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerospace Constructions of Academy of Science of Romania. However, then Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu did not allow him to emigrate to Israel, however, until Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened on Prof. Librescu's behalf in 1978.
After making aliyah, Librescu served as a Professor of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University. In 1985, he joined the faculty at Virginia Tech where he distinguished himself as the Virginia Tech professor with the greatest number of publications.
At age 76, Professor Librescu held the door of his classroom shut so that Cho Seung-hui could not enter before his students escaped through the windows. Cho shot Liviu Librescu through the door mortally wounding this Professor considered a hero by his students.
Professor Librescu was <a href="http://www.pjvoice.com/v23/23001vatech.aspx">commended posthumously</a> by the President of Romania with the Star of Romania Order in the grade of Great Cross, "as a token of high appreciation for the entire scientific and universitarian activity, as well as for his heroic acts during the tragic events of April 16th 2007 in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus, when professor Librescu saved his students' lives at the cost of his own".
Rabbi Yossel Kranz announced that the new Chabad House at Virginia Tech will be named for Professor Liviu Librescu. "Professor Librescu's final act of heroism will be eternally memorialized in the life-affirming activities of the new center," said Rabbi Kranz. The professor's widow Mrs. Marilena Librescu and their sons Ari and Joe shared with Rabbi Kranz their wishes that Librescu House serve as a home of healing, joy and spiritual fulfillment to Virginia Tech's Jewish students.
--
© 2007. Permission is hereby granted to redistribute this issue of The Philadelphia Jewish Voice or (unless specified otherwise) any of the articles therein in their full original form provided these same rights are conveyed to the reader and subscription information to The Philadelphia Jewish Voice is provided. Subscribers should be directed to <a href="http://www.pjvoice.com/Subscribe.htm">http://www.pjvoice.com/Subscribe.htm</a>.
Original Source: The Philadelphia Jewish Voice
<a href="http://www.pjvoice.com/v23/23001vatech.aspx">http://www.pjvoice.com/v23/23001vatech.aspx</a>
<i>-- Daniel Loeb</i>
The deadliest campus shooting in the history of the US occurred on Monday, April 16 at Virginia Tech. The tragic shootings at Virginia Tech happened on the day Jews all over the world observe Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and which is marked in Israel with two minutes of silence, prayer and reflection.
The United States Congress has called for a minute of silence on Friday, April 20 at noon, to remember Monday's victims, as well as the millions of other men and women around the world who have died at the hands of armed madmen and criminals.
Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and injured 29 more before taking his own life.
Ironically, one of the Virginia Tech victims, aeronautics professor Liviu Librescu, was a survivor of the Holocaust. He died while barricading his classroom against the gunman, saving the lives of several of his students through his sacrifice on Yom Hashoah.
Librescu, born in 1930 in Ploiesti, Romania, survived the Holocaust in the ghetto of Focsani while his father was interned in the Transnistria labor camp. After the war, he studied Aerospace Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and Fluid Mechanics at the Academia de Stiinte din Romania.
He distinguished himself as a researcher at the Institute of Applied Mechanics, Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerospace Constructions of Academy of Science of Romania. However, then Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu did not allow him to emigrate to Israel, however, until Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened on Prof. Librescu's behalf in 1978.
After making aliyah, Librescu served as a Professor of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University. In 1985, he joined the faculty at Virginia Tech where he distinguished himself as the Virginia Tech professor with the greatest number of publications.
At age 76, Professor Librescu held the door of his classroom shut so that Cho Seung-hui could not enter before his students escaped through the windows. Cho shot Liviu Librescu through the door mortally wounding this Professor considered a hero by his students.
Professor Librescu was <a href="http://www.pjvoice.com/v23/23001vatech.aspx">commended posthumously</a> by the President of Romania with the Star of Romania Order in the grade of Great Cross, "as a token of high appreciation for the entire scientific and universitarian activity, as well as for his heroic acts during the tragic events of April 16th 2007 in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus, when professor Librescu saved his students' lives at the cost of his own".
Rabbi Yossel Kranz announced that the new Chabad House at Virginia Tech will be named for Professor Liviu Librescu. "Professor Librescu's final act of heroism will be eternally memorialized in the life-affirming activities of the new center," said Rabbi Kranz. The professor's widow Mrs. Marilena Librescu and their sons Ari and Joe shared with Rabbi Kranz their wishes that Librescu House serve as a home of healing, joy and spiritual fulfillment to Virginia Tech's Jewish students.
--
© 2007. Permission is hereby granted to redistribute this issue of The Philadelphia Jewish Voice or (unless specified otherwise) any of the articles therein in their full original form provided these same rights are conveyed to the reader and subscription information to The Philadelphia Jewish Voice is provided. Subscribers should be directed to <a href="http://www.pjvoice.com/Subscribe.htm">http://www.pjvoice.com/Subscribe.htm</a>.
Original Source: The Philadelphia Jewish Voice
<a href="http://www.pjvoice.com/v23/23001vatech.aspx">http://www.pjvoice.com/v23/23001vatech.aspx</a>
Creator
Daniel E. Loeb / The Philadelphia Jewish Voice
Date
2007-07-01
Contributor
Adriana Seagle
Rights
Daniel E.Loeb (daniel.loeb@verizon.net)
Language
eng
Citation
Daniel E. Loeb / The Philadelphia Jewish Voice, “Holocaust Survivor Slaughtered On Yom Hashoah,” The April 16 Archive, accessed November 23, 2024, https://april16archive.org/items/show/639.