To establish the museum "The Jews in the World Science" - is an urgent task of Israel and of the world Jewry.
For some millenniums of their history the Jewish people made their gigantic contribution to the creation and development of the world civilization, formed many bases of material and intellectual culture of mankind. The Jewry were standing at the origin of the alphabetical script - the most important beginning of the written culture of the considerable part of the planet population. They created the Bible - the most real source of the monotheistic religion and the most ancient literature. The epochal achievements of science and technology, which transfigured the humanity, compelled the powerful forces of nature to serve them and they raised the level of the intellectual development of the human race - all this is on the account of the Jewry. This planetary role of the Jewish people had already been acknowledged long ago. As far back as 130 years ago a famous Russian art critic V.V.Stasov wrote in the magazine "The Jewish Library" : "The Jewish tribe is so talented, so bright that as soon as you take shackles off those people they immediately start racing with irrepressible force and they contribute fresh, passionate elements to the mass of the European genius, knowledge and creative activity. . .if there were no Jews in the world, if they were deleted from the world history (not only ancient, but modern too) - only the God knows to what percentage the general standard would have gone down, and the whole world would have had an absolutely another face." Now the persuasiveness of these words has increased even more. At our time the scientists - Jews are the powerful vanguard in the sphere of the world science and technology. The Jews play a great role in many kinds of art, in the social life as well. About 180 Jews were awarded the Nobel Prize - the highest and the most prestigious award in the world in the field of science, fiction, struggle for peace. It means that every fifth Nobel laureate is a Jew. Such is the quite fantastic proportion, it is certainly the most striking evidence of the exceptional significance of the Jewry in the history and the modern state of affairs in the world culture.
However, in spite of these obvious circumstances the great cultural achievements of the Jewish people are dramatically little-known to themselves. Not only common people but many intellectuals as well quite often have extremely remote ideas about these achievements and they often express a joyful surprise learning about these or those discoveries made by scientists - Jews.
True, do many people know about the existence of Alexander Freedman (1888 - 1925), a Russian physicist, who began a scientific dispute with A.Einstein himself and beat him and Einstein acknowledged it in public. A.Freedman is the founder of modern cosmology.
Who knows that Enriko Fermi (1901 - 1954) - a great physicist, who first accomplished the chain nuclear reaction and established the first nuclear reactor in 1942, head of the famous Manhattan project on the development of the atomic bomb - was the son of an Italian Jewish woman and, consequently, he was a Jew according to the Jewish religious laws.
And what does the name of Gregory Breit (1899 - 1981) tell us? But he - is the only scientist who bears such a responsibility before the mankind. This ?migr? from Russia proved that as a result of the thermonuclear reaction the atmosphere will not be burnt and the earth will survive.
And here is an Austrian Jew - Liza Meitner (1878 - 1968) who escaped from Nazi Germany.
At the beginning of 1940 she created the theory of atomic fission - the last great scientific accomplishment on the way to the use of the atomic energy. The American press called her - "the Jewish mother of the atomic bomb".
Who knows the names of three children - former prisoners of Getto and Nazi concentration camps who later became Nobel laureates?
And why was not Norbert Winner, the creator of cybernetics, given the Nobel Prize? Who can answer these questions? And such examples could be increased.
Unfortunately, all this is not happening by chance. At the beginning of the 20 - the century a well-known writer and specialist in folklore S.An-sky (1880 - 1920) wrote: " It can be boldly said that there is no such a people like Jews who spoke about themselves so much and who knew themselves so little ... we do not find Jews showing any serious interest to the Jewish culture, concern for its keeping and further development ... We haven't got not only academic editions but in many cases even full editions of our best authors, we haven't got the detailed biographies of them. We haven't got either a historic magazine, or memoirs, or significant monographs even about the most outstanding periods of our cultural and social life of the recent century."
Since that time much has changed, but many such drawbacks still continue to live. The information about achievements of scientists - Jews is certainly spreading over Israel. But it is absolutely insufficient and as a rule it is realized only from time to time, occasionally, quite often not professionally. The mass media do not pay sufficient attention to this subject matter, in some cases they publish historical and scientific materials very reluctantly, they have not got special sections, etc. The programs of schools and institutions of higher learning do not serve to this purpose. There is a great amount of museums in the country, but the majority of them are devoted to the problems of Holocaust, art, archaeology and anthropology, nature of Israel and so on. All this is certainly necessary : the role of these museums is great, they received the deserved recognition of the population of Israel. The National museum of science, planning and technology in Haifa is particularly important because here there are some exhibits which show the role of Jews in the development of science and technology. But it is utterly insufficient. There is not any Center in the country where to study and to spread information about the contribution of the scientists - Jews into the development of the world science and technology. Under such circumstances the idea of establishing in Israel a specialized museum "The Jews in the World Science" came to minds of the organizers of the World Congress of Jewish Scientists (E.Altshuler, V.Knizhnik, A.Chernyak and others). No country in the world has such an institution. Being a structural section of the WCJS this museum ( due to the materials and their significance it will embrace) is intended to go beyond the bounds of Israel and to become the World Center learning and spreading information about the contribution of the Jewry into the world science. As is known the Jewish museums exist in many countries, some of them approximately during a century. However, there is not a single one among them which would have been wholly devoted to revealing the activity of Jews in the world science and technology. Thus the idea of establishing the museum " The Jews in the World Science" in Israel is a pioneer though a little bit belated intention. It is natural and unquestionable that the museum must be placed in Israel. The location of such a museum will undoubtedly support the importance of the Jewish state as the greatest center which will represent the outstanding achievements of the Jewish intellect in the world science to the whole world. The project of this museum allows to place it among the memorial museums, but unlike the existing ones which are devoted to one personality, our museum is versatile. As a matter of fact it is a complex system of memorial museums. Certainly some difficulties arise and they demand special solutions.
It is necessary to work out and give grounds for the status of the museum, its distinctive features, structure, the main directions of its activity, etc. Careful researches will be needed, including methodological problems. Here some preliminary brief thoughts concerning these problems. The museum " The Jews in the World Science" is regarded to be a complex scientific and research, scientific and educational institution. It can also help to the educational activity. The main functions of the museum may be as follows: searching, completing, systematizing, keeping, studying and popularizing sources which show the role and significance of Jews - outstanding figures of world science and technology. The establishment of a wide panorama with attractive visual and other effects, influencing the visitors of the museum, will be the important result of this activity. Different kinds of sources: material, written, phono-sources, illustrative, audio-visual, telecasts, films and the like, which simultaneously influence sight and hearing, - all must be gathered here. In accordance with the activity of the museum the following functional sections should be formed in its structure : the section of funds which includes a functioning exhibition and the reserve( store) and regulates their coordination; the section of mass work intends to organize the museum's shows of exhibits, excursions, thematic moving exhibitions, special lessons at schools, etc. the section of scientific and research work whose task is to study sources coming to the museum, to instruct guides, to work out themes for excursions, to create new exhibitions based on made researches, to give expert advice, to initiate scientific contacts with other museums, etc. The special attention should be paid to the preparation of scientific and systematic publications. It is planned to publish "Notes" (memorandum) or "Works" of the museum and also information bulletins about the work of the museum and about its plans. Later on there may arise the question concerning the establishment of branches of the museums in Israel and abroad. It is planned that first the museum should be placed in the old building of Technion in Haifa.
