Benjamin Fain facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Benjamin Fain
Вениамин Файн |
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| Born | February 17, 1930 |
| Died | April 15, 2013 (aged 83) |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Alma mater | Gorky University |
| Occupation | Physicist, dissident, refusenik, author |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Tel Aviv University |
Benjamin Fain (Russian: Вениамин Моисеевич Файн, Hebrew: בנימין פיין) was an Israeli physicist and professor. He was also known as a former refusenik, which means he was a Soviet Jew who was denied permission to leave the Soviet Union and move to Israel. He was born on February 17, 1930, and passed away on April 15, 2013.
Life Story
Benjamin Fain was born in Kyiv, a city in Ukraine. His family was Jewish. His father was a mathematician who taught him to love science and feel proud of his Jewish heritage.
Benjamin was named after his grandfather. During World War II, his family had to move many times to stay safe. After the war, they settled in Dushanbe, where Benjamin finished school. He then went to study at the Moscow Institute of Energetics.
While in Moscow, he became very interested in his Jewish roots. He visited a synagogue and tried to learn Hebrew and Yiddish. He was also deeply inspired by the visit of Golda Meir, who was the first ambassador from Israel to the Soviet Union. In 1950, Fain transferred to the physics department at Gorky University. He graduated with top honors. One of his teachers was Vitaly Ginzburg, who later won a Nobel Prize.
Science and Activism
Fain had a very successful start to his science career. By 1965, he became a professor at his university. He wrote several science books that were translated into English and German. In 1966, he moved to Moscow and began working at the Institute of Solid State Physics.
Around 1972, Fain started to get involved in the Zionist movement. This movement supported the idea of a Jewish homeland in Israel. He joined a group of scientists who were also "refuseniks," meaning they were denied permission to leave the Soviet Union. He also took part in Samizdat, which was a way for people to secretly share banned writings.
In 1974, Fain officially asked for a visa to move to Israel. This made him a "refusenik." Because of his political activities, he lost his job.
Research on Soviet Jews
In 1976, Fain started a special study about Jewish people in the Soviet Union. He tried to organize a big meeting about this topic, but the KGB (the Soviet secret police) stopped it. The KGB watched him very closely after that. During this time, Fain also began to practice Judaism more seriously.
After facing arrests, searches, and questioning, and even going on a hunger strike, Fain finally made it to Israel in 1977.
In Israel, he continued his research on Jewish identity among Soviet Jews. He worked with an American sociologist named Mervin Verbit. They published their findings in 1984.
Life in Israel
Once in Israel, Benjamin Fain kept working to help Soviet Jews. He also continued his scientific research at Tel Aviv University. His work focused on areas like quantum electronics, lasers, and condensed matter.
After 1998, his interests shifted. He began to study the philosophy of science and Judaism, looking at how they connect. After he retired, Fain wrote his first book about philosophy called "Creation Ex Nihilo." In this book, he explored the relationship between religion and science. It was published in Hebrew, English, and Russian. The Russian version also included parts of his life story.
In 2008, Fain finished another book in Hebrew called "Law and Providence," which was published in English in 2011. In 2011, his third book, Hebrew: «דלות הכפירה» («Dalut Ha'kfira» («The Poverty of Secularism»), was also published.
Family
Benjamin Fain was a father to two sons and one daughter.
