Ben Zion Tavger (, ; August 5, 1930 (

Barysaw Barysaw or Borisov (, ; , ) is a city in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Barysaw District. It is located on the Berezina, Berezina River and north-east from the capital Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 1 ...

) - July 22, 1983), was a physicist and an activist for the Israeli settlers in

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

Early years

Tavger was born in 1930 in the city of

(now in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

). His family then moved to Gorky (

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

) in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. He studied physics at

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

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 (born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky; 17 October 1880 – 3 August 1940) was a Russian-born author, poet, orator, soldier, and founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in Od ...

'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 in

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

. 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 is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel with a population of . Nof HaGalil was founded in 1957 as Nazareth Illit (; ), it was planned as a Jewish town overlooking the city of Nazareth and the Jezreel V ...

absorption center.

Yuval Ne'eman Yuval Ne'eman (; 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 of Tel Aviv University ...

, 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 Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba () is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the southern Israeli-occupied West Bank. Founded in 1968, in it had a population of . The international community considers Israeli settlements in the ...

, 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), sometimes known as cot death or crib death, 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 ...

, 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 The tomb of Jesse and Ruth () is an ancient tomb with a small Jewish synagogue, located within the ruin of Deir Al Arba'een in the Tel Rumeida section of Hebron. According to Jewish tradition, the tomb of Jesse and Ruth is a sacred site. T ...

. 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; ) is a private college in Israel, recognized by the Council for Higher Education, which specializes in providing high-level science and technology education to the Jewish community. ...

, where he established a laboratory with Naftali Eisenberg. Tavger died on July 22, 1983. 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)

References

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External links

Articles in the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics

My Hebron by Ben-Zion Tavger - English edition
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 Jewish physicists Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Soviet people of Israeli descent Belarusian people of Israeli descent Burials at Old Jewish cemetery in Hebron