Israel Technion Society Celebrates the Cornerstone Centennial of its Historic Building

200 members of the Israel Technion Society – graduates, government ministers, economy leaders and senior executives – convened on Sunday this week at the Rabin Center in Tel Aviv, for a special event held by the Israel Technion Society to commemorate the cornerstone centennial of the historic building at Hadar Hacarmel in Haifa.

Among the many guests at the event held at the Rabin Center in Tel Aviv were Supreme Court Judge Hanan Meltzer, Minister of Science and Technology Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz (former Dean of the Technion Department of Mathematics), Minister of Energy and Water Resources Uzi Landau (graduate of the Technion Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management), Prof. Moshe Arens, four Technion Presidents Emeriti – Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Horev, Prof. Zeev Tadmor,   Lt. Gen. (Res.) Amos Lapidot, Prof. Yitzhak Apeloig, and current Technion President  Prof. Peretz Lavie.

Amos Horev, Israel Technion Society Chairman for the last three decades, and his wife Shoshana welcomed the guests who enjoyed a creative supper prepared by three chefs – Zachi Bukshester, Eyal Lavi and Eran Zino – a tribute to three Nobel Laureates that the Technion has produced in the last seven years – Profs. Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover and Dan Shechtman.

Amos Horev spoke about the years preceding the laying of the cornerstone and said that the decision to establish a university in this remote corner of the Ottoman Empire was in effect made because the Jews were prevented from higher education in Europe (“Numerus Clausus”).

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie spoke about the Technion in the coming years, in Haifa and in New York, and said that it is fortunate for all of us that Hebrew prevailed in the language war that preceded the establishment of the Technion.

Research Professor Aaron Ciechanover advocated creativity and spoke of the birth of medications that save the lives of millions of people every year.

Technion students pleased the audience with music and singing.

Members of the Israel Technion Society in the distant past were also represented in the event. Dr. Micha Levin, grandson of Dr. Shmaryahu Levin who was one of the main founders of the Technion, arrived with his wife, granddaughter of Yechiel Chelnov, who officiated the cornerstone laying ceremony in April 1912, and said in his speech, which he made in German, that the Technikum will be “a peaceful workplace, one that will be a blessing to the country and to the entire nation, and that will benefit the entire population, both Jews and non-Jews”.

The first donation to the Technion, in the amount of 100,000 rubles, was made by a fund set up by Kalonimus Wissotzky. Mr. Shalom Seidler, a descendant of the Wissotzky family and currently Chairman of Wissotzky Tea, arrived at the event with a donation of a different kind – a gift from Wissotzky Tea to the guests, with its blessing.

Above: Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz (on the right) with Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie (on the left) and Dan Propper (in the middle). Photo: Technion Spokesman – Assaf Shilo / Israel Sun