Overview
- Branover died Monday at 94, according to community reports that also outlined a funeral route passing 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn and continuing in Jerusalem, and he is survived by his son Rabbi Daniel Branover and grandchildren.
- He earned global recognition in magnetohydrodynamics, the study of how electricity and magnetism act on conducting fluids, and he founded a research center and international lab at Ben-Gurion University in Be’er Sheva.
- In the Soviet Union he became a prominent refusenik, lost his academic post, endured KGB harassment and arrests, and was permitted to emigrate in 1972.
- Guided by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he worked to unite science with Torah, founding the B’Or HaTorah journal and delivering widely attended lectures on faith and physics.
- He built institutions that served Russian-speaking Jews, leading SHAMIR’s publishing and education work and creating SATEC to provide skilled jobs for immigrant scientists and engineers.