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A series of articles by Prof. Alex Gordon on the Jewish scientists who shaped science in the twentieth century
A series of articles by Prof. Alex Gordon presenting the stories of Jewish scientists, mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, doctors, inventors, and thinkers who worked in the twentieth century.
The articles deal with their discoveries and their impact on science and culture, but also with their personal lives, their Jewish identity, and their relationships with the societies and regimes within which they operated. Among the protagonists of the series are Nobel Prize winners alongside researchers whose important contributions have not always received the recognition they deserve.
The episodes are presented in series order, and each article includes links to the previous episode, the next episode, and the full episode list.
Chapter 33
From Freud's student to the thinker who linked sexual repression to authoritarianism: Prof. Alex Gordon examines Reich's ideas, his hopes for Marxism, and his attitude toward his Jewish identity
Chapter 32
A lecture he gave in London in 1931 changed the writing of the history of science; five years later, the Jewish physicist was arrested and executed.
Chapter 31
Nobel Prize winner who studied chlorophyll and developed filters for gas masks resigned in protest of anti-Semitism, but saw assimilation as a solution to the Jewish question
Chapter 30
Ernst Boris Chain, a Jewish scientist who fled Nazi Germany, was the central biochemical force in the team that transformed penicillin from an unstable laboratory discovery into a drug that transformed medicine and saved millions.
Chapter 29
Otto Stern turned atomic beams into powerful experimental tools, was involved in one of the seminal experiments of quantum theory, left Germany with the rise of the Nazis, and won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton.
Chapter 28
Two of the greatest scientists of the 20th century were close friends, even though one was a pacifist and opposed to nationalism while the other put science at the service of chemical warfare and the German Empire.
Chapter 27
The Jewish-French historian Marc Bloch revolutionized the study of history, fought in two world wars and joined the French underground against the Nazis. In June 1944 he was tortured and murdered by the Gestapo; in June 2026 he and his wife Simone were interred in the Pantheon in Paris
Chapter 26
A few weeks after the publication of the general theory of relativity, German-Jewish astronomer Karl Schwarzschild found the first exact solution to Einstein's equations. The solution, sent from the front lines of World War I, later laid the foundation for the mathematical description of black holes.
Chapter 25
Semyon Shubin graduated from university at the age of 19, made fundamental contributions to the physics of metals, and founded a school of theoretical physicists in the Urals. The Stalinist terror halted his scientific work and sent him to his death in a labor camp at the age of 30.
Chapter 24
One of the founders of modern topology was also a writer, poet, and philosopher who published under the name Paul Mongera. His life ranged between Germany's scientific and cultural elite and exclusion and persecution due to his Jewishness under the Nazi regime.
Chapter 23
Joseph Rapoport was a decorated combat officer and pioneering geneticist. After refusing to submit to the pseudoscientific teachings of Trofim Lysenko, he was expelled from the Communist Party and from his scientific work. Years later, he returned to research and was one of the founders of the field of chemical mutagenetics.
Chapter 22
My mother Noether transformed modern algebra and discovered the connection between symmetries and conservation laws, but for years she was denied a job because she was a woman. Her brother Fritz, an important mathematician in his own right, fled the Nazis to the Soviet Union and was murdered in Tihori…
Chapter 21
Jacques Hadamard was an extraordinary French mathematician who contributed to number theory, mathematical physics, and the study of mathematical thought. His life combined scientific achievements, family tragedies, and a deep commitment to justice and human rights.
Chapter 20
Ferdinand Julius Cohen, born into the Jewish community of Breslau in the 19th century, was a pioneer of modern microbiology. His studies of bacteria, spores, and sterile cultures helped lay the foundation for the work of Pasteur and Koch and the transition from hypotheses about spontaneous generation to scientific understanding…
Chapter 19
In an interview with Hidan, Prof. Alex Gordon explains the thinking behind his new book about Jewish scientists, writers, and composers, and how they tried to deal with the Jewish question in 19th and 20th century Europe, and what the connection is to October 7th.
Chapter 18
The life story of Zalman Waxman, who was born in a village in Ukraine, immigrated to the United States, studied soil microbiology at Rutgers University, and led to the discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis.
Chapter 17
The life story of Max Protz, the Jewish scientist who escaped from Nazi Austria, revolutionized the study of protein structure, and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for deciphering the structure of hemoglobin — alongside his engagement with moral questions about science, war, and the figure of Fritz Haber.
Chapter 16
How did exiled scientists from Europe accelerate the Manhattan Project, and why does the “father of the hydrogen bomb” remain a controversial figure to this day?
Chapter 15
The surprising life path of Ludwig Wittgenstein – a member of the wealthy Wittgenstein family from Vienna, a student at the Gymnasium in Linz alongside Hitler, an engineer influenced by Frege, a student and friend of Bertrand Russell, an officer on the fronts of World War I and the author of the "Logical-Philosophical Treatise", who became one of...
Chapter 14
From Richard Wagner's article (1850) and Wilhelm Marr's coining of the term "anti-Semitism" (1879), through Lennard and Stark's "German physics" and Bieberbach and Jansch's psychological engineering—to Hilbert's counter-reaction: "Mathematics has no races"
Chapter 13
From a Prussian boy to a doctor of mathematics and world chess champion for 27 years—the story of Emanuel Lasker, his complicated relationship with Einstein, the intellectual clashes surrounding the theory of relativity, and the shadow that Nazi anti-Semitism cast over the game of minds.
Chapter 12
The Jewish-Russian bacteriologist and immunologist who developed vaccines for cholera and tuberculosis, led the fight against epidemics in India, and worked to preserve Jewish identity (although he recommended that the yeshivots he donated to teach students practical subjects) alongside extensive philanthropy.
Chapter 11
After the American atomic bomb was revealed, Soviet scientist Yuli Khariton moved quickly to achieve deterrence parity for the Soviet Union. How did he become the classified face of the Soviet nuclear program, and what was the personal cost? Another chapter in the Jewish Scientists series…
Chapter 10
Jewish-German physicist, Nobel Prize winner, who helped develop chemical weapons in World War I – and resigned in protest against the Nazis and fought against the use of the atomic bomb
Chapter 9
Leon Blum's political journey: from Dreyfus sympathy to a unity prime minister in France
Chapter 8
In 1931, the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a decree banning philosophy and science that were not "party." The theory of relativity was among them. Semyon Bronstein-Semkovsky defended the theory of relativity and paid for it with his life.
Chapter 7
The father of mathematician Prof. Abraham Frankel foresaw the danger to Bavarian Jewry due to Jewish participation in the leadership of the communist republic – and from there began Frankel's path towards Zionism and the Hebrew University.
Chapter 6
Matvey Bronstein was one of the first scientists to study quantum theory. Being an expert in many fields of physics and knowing many languages did not help him when he was executed in 1939 by the Soviet authorities.
Chapter 5
The actions of mathematician Emil Julius Gumbel, who used statistics to prove the large number of political murders, exposed the discrimination in the German legal system after World War I, and he was persecuted by the Nazis for…
Chapter 4
Leopold Infeld's life journey: from the Krakow ghetto through collaboration with Einstein to protests against anti-Semitism and censorship in Poland
Chapter 3
Paul Ehrlich, Nobel Prize, chemotherapy, syphilis, immunology, magic bullet, Judaism and science, medical history, pharmacology, Hebrew University
Chapter 2
To what extent did Jewish refugee scientists contribute to the creation of the atomic bomb? And how close did Nazi scientists in Germany come to creating such a bomb? Professor Alex Gordon from the Department of Mathematical Sciences – Physics and Computer Science at Oranim College Oranim College explains, and discusses the versions…
Chapter 1
The author is Professor Alex Gordon, Oranim College. He talks about the anti-Semitism that accompanied the famous Jewish researchers, about Einstein's recommendation for Rosen to work in Kiev, about Podolsky's dual loyalty, about Professor Lev Strom who was executed near...
