Professor Herman Branover, 94, OBM

By COLlive reporter

Professor Herman (Yirmiyahu) Branover, a world-renowned pioneering scientist, devoted Chossid, and tireless advocate for Jewish life behind the Iron Curtain, passed away on Monday, 17 Iyar, 5786.

He was 94.

Born in 1931 in Riga, Latvia, Branover was raised in an atheist Jewish environment under Soviet rule. His early years were marked by hardship, including the loss of his father during World War II, while he and his siblings fled with his mother and survived in Russia. Despite these challenges, he rose to prominence as a brilliant physicist, earning advanced degrees and gaining worldwide recognition as a pioneer in the field of magnetohydrodynamics, a highly specialized area of energy research.

While building a successful scientific career, Branover began a personal search for meaning, questioning the foundations of atheism and materialism. Secretly studying Hebrew and Jewish texts under dangerous conditions, he and his wife, Fania became connected to Chabad Chassidus and committed themselves to Torah and mitzvos. At great personal risk, he taught Jewish thought to others and became a key figure in the underground Jewish revival movement across the Soviet Union.

For 15 years, Branover struggled to leave the USSR as a Refusenik. After applying for an exit visa, he was dismissed from his academic post and barred from continuing his research, forced to support himself through menial work. Despite arrests, interrogations, and constant harassment by the KGB, he continued his efforts to strengthen Jewish identity. When he was finally granted permission to leave in 1972, he had already become fully observant.

After settling in Eretz Yisroel, Branover resumed his scientific work and quickly became an internationally sought-after lecturer, speaking not only on physics but on the harmony between science and Torah. His lectures drew wide audiences eager to hear how a leading scientist reconciled modern research with emunah.

His close connection with the Rebbe guided many pivotal moments in his life. In one well-known episode, following the Rebbe’s advice to attend a scientific convention he had initially declined, Branover secured critical support that led to the establishment of a major research laboratory in Beer Sheva and decades of groundbreaking work funded by international grants. In another instance, the Rebbe identified a discrepancy in Branover’s complex calculations—an error that took months for his research team to uncover.

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Beyond his scientific achievements, Branover dedicated himself to strengthening Jewish life worldwide. He founded technological initiatives in Eretz Yisroel, including SATEC, aimed at providing employment for highly skilled immigrants from the former Soviet Union, in line with the Rebbe’s vision of the coming wave of aliyah.

He also led major educational and publishing efforts, including supervising the Encyclopedia of Russian Jewry and heading the SHAMIR Association, which supported religious professionals and immigrants with job placement and Jewish education. Under his leadership, institutions and programs were established across the former Soviet Union, including schools, conferences, and initiatives to reconnect Russian-speaking Jews with their heritage.

Branover was also entrusted with sensitive missions by the Rebbe, including relaying messages to Jewish activists in the Soviet Union during a time of great uncertainty. He later recounted the Rebbe’s precise prediction of the sweeping changes that would come with the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and the mass emigration of Soviet Jewry—developments that would soon unfold before the world.

Throughout his life, Professor Branover embodied a rare synthesis of scientific brilliance and deep faith, using his talents to illuminate both worlds while inspiring countless individuals to reconnect with Yiddishkeit. He was a soft-spoken, gentle, kind-hearted, and loving father and grandfather to his children and grandchildren.

He is survived by his son R’ Daniel Branover of Crown Heights, and grandchildren.

He was predeceased by his wife, Fania Branover OBM, who passed away 2 Shvat 5772.

The Levaya will be passing by 770 Eastern Parkway at 6:30 PM today, Monday. The Levaya will continue in Jerusalem tomorrow, Tuesday.

Baruch Dayan Ha’emes.