Ze'ev Lev (1922–2004)

Ze'ev Lev was born in Vienna in 1922 into a Hasidic family that subsequently relocated to Berlin.[1] In 1938, at the age of sixteen, he left Germany for England to study at the Gateshead Yeshiva as the Nazi threat intensified.[1] His parents and sister perished in the Holocaust.[1]

Lev went on to receive a scholarship to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, graduating with honors.[1] He then pursued advanced studies at Columbia University, where he studied with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Isidor (Israel) Isaac Rabi, and earned his doctorate in 1950.[2][1] During his academic career he also worked at the University of Chicago and MIT.[3] That same year, he immigrated to Israel with his wife, Dvora, adopting his grandfather's first name, Ze'ev, and changing his surname to Lev.[1]

Lev joined the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was appointed professor of experimental physics there in 1961.[2] He was elected president of the Physical Society of Israel in 1960.[2] By 1965, a research effort that he said had begun as a "modest centre" in 1957 had grown into a full microwave section in the university's Department of Experimental Physics, with Lev at its head.[3]

His primary research area was paramagnetic resonance, concerning the energy levels of weakly magnetic ions and their behavior at low temperatures. Lev said he chose the field because he believed he could "ask some significant questions and possibly, with luck, get some valuable answers."[3] Following a research stay at Oxford, he published a paper on europium and was reported as the first scientist to note its nuclear effects in paramagnetic resonance.[3]

In 1957, the United States and the Soviet Union recognized the possible importance of paramagnetic resonance for microwave oscillators and amplifiers. Defense departments became interested, Lev received larger research grants from the United States government, and international competition increased substantially.[3] Lev nevertheless assessed his group's position confidently: "We're still ahead and can hold our own."[3]

His laboratory also carried out laser research, growing artificial rubies and sapphires in a furnace that reached 2,500°C and produced crystals roughly three inches long over eight to ten hours.[3] Rubies for laser use could be manufactured locally at a cost of $150, and the department was working toward producing white and blue sapphires.[3]

In collaboration with Dr. Y. Palti, Lev developed an optical-fiber light guide approximately half a meter long for directing intense laser beams during treatment of detached retinas, making it easier for ophthalmologists to position the beam precisely.[3] Lev, Palti, and Dr. Sahor also conducted early-stage experiments — then using rabbits and frogs — on the application of laser beams in brain surgery.[3]

Over the course of his career, Lev published nearly 200 papers spanning solid-state physics, laser physics, shockwaves, and microwaves, as well as the 1960 book Paramagnetic Resonance in Solids.[2] A later profile credited his research with contributing to the development of microwave and magnetic resonance imaging devices.[1] He was also a member of the New York Academy of Science.[3]

Lev received the Israel Prize in exact sciences in 1962.[2][3] Three years later, in 1965, he was awarded the Rothschild Prize for physical sciences.[2][3]

Alongside his scientific career, Lev was a strictly observant Jew and a profound Talmudist.[2] He channeled both identities into institutional work aimed at finding "scientific halakhic solutions" to problems arising from modern society and Jewish religious life, particularly the challenge of Sabbath observance in an industrial society.[2]

To that end, he founded the Institute of Science and Halakhah and served as its first president.[2] The institute collected rabbinical responsa concerning modern technological and agricultural problems, and Lev himself published two books of responsa.[2] One technological-halakhic institute initiated and established by Lev developed solutions for Shabbat and festival observance; Israeli hospitals used such developments, and Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center made extensive use of the institute's inventions.[4]

In 1969, Lev identified a need for an institution that would combine advanced scientific training with advanced Torah study.[1] Despite initial resistance from rabbis and educators, the college he started began with about a dozen students in a small apartment in the Bayit Vagan neighborhood of Jerusalem.[1] The institution grew into the Jerusalem College of Technology, an accredited college designed to train yeshivah students as engineers for Israeli industry, with a faculty that included both technology professors and yeshivah teachers.[2] Lev served as its first president and rector and led the college for a decade; it is known as "Machon Lev" in his honor.[2][1]

Lev also engaged with emerging questions about technology and religious law. He proposed improving Torah-scroll production by photographing an error-free scroll and optically projecting its verified text onto the parchment to be written on — a possible tool for reducing scribal mistakes rather than an established practice.[5] He was also consulted during discussions of whether sensor technology might eventually enable weekday-like activities on Shabbat, although the cited account does not specify his position.[5]

Ze'ev Lev died in 2004.[2][1] His legacy rests on two connected lines of work: experimental physics and institutions that joined technical education with Orthodox Jewish life. The Jerusalem College of Technology was established to train yeshivah students as engineers and bring them into Israel's economic and industrial life while combining technology faculty with yeshivah teachers.[2]

The technological-halakhic institute initiated by Lev produced solutions used in Israeli hospitals, including inventions extensively used at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.[4] His scientific publications covered solid-state and laser physics, shockwaves, and microwaves, while a later profile credited his research with contributing to microwave and MRI devices.[2][1]

Several secondary sources present conflicting details about Lev's biography. A 2024 opinion article states that Lev was a professor at Columbia University in 1967 and moved to Israel after the Six-Day War.[6] By contrast, both a 1965 News From Israel profile and a 2025 Jerusalem Post profile place his immigration to Israel in 1950; the 1965 account also describes his Hebrew University research center as established by 1957.[1][3]

The 2025 profile identifies Isidor Rabi as Lev's Columbia mentor, while the 1965 account says he studied microwave spectroscopy there under C. H. Townes.[1][3] The accounts may describe different aspects of his Columbia studies, but the available sources do not resolve the difference.