Professor Yirmeyahu (Herman) Branover has achieved world-wide renown as an authority on magneto-hydrodynamics. Research in this area of alternative energy technology is carried out by a very limited number of highly trained professionals. Raised in the then Soviet Union, Professor Branover’s published research had won him an international reputation in this field in the ‘60s.

Along with his work on hydrodynamics, Professor Branover has a dynamic Jewish heart. He applied for an emigration visa to Israel, knowing that it would mark the end of his professional career in the Soviet Union. He was dismissed from his post at the Academy of Sciences in Riga and prevented from continuing his research.

During this time, he was exposed to the Torah and mitzvos by members of the Lubavitch chassidic underground. When he was finally allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel in 1972, he was already fully observant.

After making aliyah, Professor Branover was in constant demand as a lecturer, but not only in his profession. He was frequently invited to lecture on science and Torah. Campus audiences around the globe were extremely interested to hear an internationally renowned scientist reconcile his belief in the Torah with the supposed conflicts emerging from modern science.

“In the winter of 1973,” relates Professor Branover, “I was on a lecture tour in the United States. Towards the end of the two-month tour, Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, one of the leading shluchim, requested that I add the University of Pennsylvania to my itinerary. My wife and I were both weary from the constant travel, but our commitment to spread Torah motivated us to agree.

“Shortly before the scheduled date, I was privileged to visit the Rebbe at yechidus (a private meeting). Among other matters, I mentioned the trip to Philadelphia. The Rebbe inquired about the details of the program and commented: ‘During your stay in Philadelphia, do not forget to introduce yourself to a local professor who has an interest in your field.’

“The Rebbe’s statement baffled me. I was well acquainted with the names of the American scientists involved in magneto-hydrodynamics and I knew the universities with which they were associated. I was certain that no Philadelphian was familiar with my field.

“I made the trip to Philadelphia following the busy schedule of lectures. On the morning of my arrival, when Rabbi Shemtov met me at the train station, I spoke about my encounter with the Rebbe. I mentioned the Rebbe’s strange remark and added that it appeared to be an error.

“'The Rebbe does not make mistakes,’ Rabbi Shemtov said emphatically. ‘Allow me to assist you in locating the scientist.’

“Rabbi Shemtov convinced me to visit Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania and to check the faculties of these institutions. After many hours of searching, we were introduced to Professor Hsuan Yeh. It was a refreshing change of pace to engage in a sophisticated discussion with a person who was clearly knowledgeable in magneto-hydrodynamics.

“As we concluded our conversation, Professor Yeh said: ‘In six weeks there will be a Magneto-Hydrodynamic Energy Convention at Stanford University in California. Although the program is already finalized, I will insist that your name be added to the list of lecturers. A colleague who has arrived so recently from Russia should be given the opportunity to present his thoughts.’

“I looked at him in surprise. ‘Didn’t you just say that the program was finalized?’

“Professor Yeh added with a smile, ‘You see, I am on the program committee.’

“I appreciated the Professor’s offer, and yet I graciously declined, explaining that both my wife and I were anxious to return to our home in Israel. The trip had already been extended more than we would have liked.

“I returned to New York and we prepared to return home. Just before leaving, I wrote the Rebbe a report of our trip to Philadelphia, mentioning my encounter with Professor Yeh. Once again, the Rebbe made an unexpected statement. He advised me to reschedule my plans and to accept the invitation, for the convention presented an important opportunity.

“My wife and I were taken by surprise by the Rebbe’s response. Despite the need to rearrange our plans, we were acquainted enough with the Rebbe to value his advice. I called Professor Yeh, who was happy to arrange for me to deliver a lecture.

“The significance of my participation at the convention became clear very rapidly. I met two representatives of the Office of Naval Research in Virginia who had read about my work, and who were prepared to finance further research. They added, ‘We understand that you want to establish your laboratory in Israel, and we are willing to provide you with funds for your work there.’

“As a result, I set up a laboratory in Beer Sheva, which has gained worldwide recognition for its magneto-hydrodynamics research. My contract with the Office of Naval Research has been renewed six times since that original grant. I could not have imagined at that point how valuable and far-reaching the Rebbe’s advice had been.

“This year, 1993, marks twenty years since the Stanford convention. My project has just been awarded a 15-million dollar grant by the United States government to further research and development of this energy technology.”

Professor Branover frequently briefs the Rebbe on his various research projects. In one report, he presented a very sophisticated study built upon extensive calculations that had been prepared by computer. As he reviewed the details, the Rebbe remarked: “Two numbers here are inconsistent.”

Professor Branover was stunned. “But all the calculations were done by computer and the program used is based on our most advanced theory.”

The Rebbe smiled. “With all due respect to the experts, you will see that there is an error.”

In the preparation of the calculations, an incongruity indeed had appeared. It took Professor Branover’s research team six months to locate it.

Once, before Professor Branover was scheduled to address a conference of Jewish scientists, the Rebbe told him: “You have an important message to communicate. Tell your colleagues that as a scholar of solar energy you encourage every Jew to emulate the sun.

“Why is this star of such great importance? There are larger heavenly bodies, indeed, many which dwarf the sun in size. What is unique about the sun? It provides light and generates heat.

“There are other heavenly phenomena called black holes. These are also powerful sources of energy, but in this instance, the energy is directed inward. The black holes pull everything, even the energy they emit, to themselves.

“The sun, by contrast, generously gives of itself to the entire planetary system. So, too, a Jew must radiate Ahavas Yisrael love for a fellow Jew. After all, if the sun was only capable of heating its own mass, who would have paid any attention to it?”

Professor Branover also is active in developing programs of Jewish education and professional training for Jews in the former Soviet Union and for Russian immigrants to Eretz Yisrael. In the course of these activities, he has been chosen by the Rebbe for several missions.

“In the spring of 1985, I received word from the Rebbe’s office that the Rebbe requested to speak to me,” relates Professor Branover. “Of course, I arrived at “770” as soon as I could. The Rebbe greeted me and informed me of his desire that I relay his forthcoming message to various persons in Russia. Not in my wildest dreams was I prepared for the content of the message.

“The Rebbe unraveled before me the precise details of the unbelievable change that was going to take place in Russia. With Mikhail Gorbachev’s ascent to power, a new era of openness and freedom would begin, the Rebbe prophesied. Waves of Russian Jews would immigrate to Eretz Yisrael. Two years afterwards, in expectation of this wave of immigration, the Rebbe initiated the plan to build a special housing project in Jerusalem for the new immigrants.

“To say that I was stunned is quite an understatement. If I had heard these words from anyone but the Rebbe, I would have dismissed them as fantasy. As such, I was neither surprised nor offended when various people in Russia whom I contacted by phone were skeptical. ‘Are you sure this is exactly what the Rebbe said?’ they asked again and again. And, may I add, these people were not unfamiliar with the Rebbe. Quite the contrary, these were his own people who were directing the Lubavitch underground activities in Russia. It was simply that the Rebbe’s prediction seemed so far-fetched.”

“In the spring of 1985, newspapers such as the New York Times and the New York Post had published front-page articles predicting that Gorbachev’s government would follow a Communist hard line. This was felt even more powerfully by people who were living in the then Soviet Union.

“When I related the response from Russia to the Rebbe, he requested that I contact them once again, assuring them that these changes would indeed take place.

“The realization of the Rebbe’s words is now history. In 1992, when Mikhail Gorbachev visited Israel, I was introduced to him, and I told him and his wife Rayisa what the Rebbe had said seven years earlier. Gorbachev was stunned. ‘When I assumed power in 1987, I myself had no concrete plan for the future. I would like to meet this man who knew so much about the direction which my country and I would follow.’”