You are surely aware of the tragic shooting that occurred at the Virginia Tech campus. One of the victims was a Jewish professor. Liviu Librescu–a 75-year old Romanian-Israeli survivor of the Holocaust–used his body to block the classroom door and enable others to escape, sacrificing his life for those of his students.
Liviu Librescu was among the thirty-two people who were murdered in the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007. He was killed during a class in the Norris Hall Engineering Building by a student (Cho Seung-hui, 23). Librescu held the door of his classroom shut while Cho was attempting to enter it; although he was shot through the door, he was able to prevent the gunman from entering the classroom until his students had escaped through the windows.
A number of Librescu‘s students have called him a Hero because of his actions, with one student, Asael Arad, saying that all the professor’s students “Lived Because of Him”. Librescu’s son, Joe, said he had received e-mails from several students who said he had saved their lives and regarded him as a hero whilst many newspapers also reported him as the hero of the massacre. His death came on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day, also known as Holocaust Memorial Day. Librescu is survived by his wife, Marilena (née Semian), and his sons Joseph and Lionel. According to the family wishes, the body will be flown to Israel, where he will be buried.
Librescu Family Condolence Page
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Yom HaShoah Website from the Israeli Knesset
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Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority
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Rest in Peace Mr Librescu!
Professor Liviu–Levi ben Isidore–and his wife Marlina emigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 and had been living in the U.S. for 22 years.
“May you be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.”
Liviu Librescu (August 18, 1930 — April 16, 2007) was a Romanian-born Israeli professor, whose most recent position was Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech, Virginia, USA. His major research fields were aeroelasticity and unsteady aerodynamics. He was shot and killed in the Virginia Tech massacre while holding off the gunman at his lecture hall entrance so his students could escape.
Liviu Librescu was born in 1930 to a Jewish family in the city of PloieÅŸti, Romania. During World War II, his family was interned in a labor camp in Transnistria and then transferred to the ghetto of FocÅŸani. He survived the Holocaust to become an accomplished scientist in Romania.
Librescu studied Aerospace Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, graduating in 1952 and continuing with a master at the same university. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics in 1969 at the Academia de Ştiinţe din România.
From 1953 to 1975 he worked as a researcher at Institute of Applied Mechanics, Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerospace Constructions of Academy of Science of Romania.
Under the Romanian communist regime at the time, he was unable to move to Israel. Eventually, the government permitted him to leave, but only after a direct request was made by the Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin to President of Romania Nicolae CeauÅŸescu.
Librescu emigrated to Israel in 1978. From 1979 to 1986 he was Professor of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University.
From 1985 until his death, he served as Professor at Virginia Tech. Librescu received many academic honors during his work at Virginia Tech, serving as chair or invited as a keynote speaker of several International Congresses on Thermal Stresses and receiving several honorary degrees. He was elected member of the Academy of Sciences of the Shipbuilding of Ukraine and Foreign Fellow of the Academy of Engineering of Armenia. He served as a member on the editorial board of seven scientific journals and was invited as a guest editor of special issues of five other journals. According to his wife, no other Virginia Tech professor has ever published more articles than Librescu.
This post was written by bullets on April 22, 2007
