From the funeral ceremony for Yuval Naaman, Tel Aviv University, 27/4/2006
The words of his friend, his partner in the path, who can properly appreciate the scientific contribution of Yuval Naaman, Prof. Yehoshua Yurtner
Bumblebee. Honorable President.
It is a difficult day for the science system of the State of Israel, it is a sad day for the State of Israel. Yuval was a leader who established the standards of information, the methods of action to achieve the highest goals of the State of Israel. In Yuval we have always seen the person who symbolizes to all of us the unique contribution of an Israeli scientist to the State of Israel. But science is universal and Yuval understood this well and in this universal science Yuval's position was that of a leader.
About a month ago I sat with Yuval and we remembered our first meeting when Yuval started building Tel Aviv University and he asked me, a young scientist, to meet at the Chicago airport. He was passing by and I was on my way to Israel and then we talked about a vision. We talked about the vision of this university, which at the time was a sand hill with one building under construction, and we talked about the vision of science in the State of Israel. We talked about the future contributions to the country and it was amazing to see a man who had no limits and this vision, the national vision, the scientific vision, the vision to shape the image, level, values and future of the State of Israel. This is how we must remember Yuval.
Shame on Dabdin, but what Yuval left us will always accompany us.
Professor Mina Teicher, Director General of the Ministry of Science
The Naaman family, the president of the country, the minister of science, my honor. Professor Yuval Naman was a great scientist, a leader in all his endeavors, a teacher in his soul, an enriching colleague and a true friend. If we had only won one of these five entities we would have been judged but we have won all these entities in one person and now we have lost him. His vision encompassed the entire universe as already stated here. He was not a physicist or a mathematician. He was a scientist. In all his vision he saw everything in historical and future vision. He always helps to identify the goal and know how to reach it.
Yesterday an interview with him recorded six months ago was broadcast on television in which he divided his work into four: army, engineering, science and Zionist activism. I don't know how to separate all these actions that are integrated into each other, but it seems to me that in all of his beings, all conceptual scientific thinking, pioneering, flight, leadership, cultural transmission were integrated. He really enjoyed when he would explain and pass on his knowledge. Of course he couldn't do it all. Humanity and modesty.
For example in his establishment, when he established the Ministry of Science and Technology, and within it the Israel Space Agency. The flight in which he saw how the State of Israel should ministerially take care of its science and all its actions within the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the State of Israel, research and development in the periphery, the absorption of emerging scientists, the space agency, the directions he outlined. You can see his handiwork in the office everywhere. Every meeting with him, even if random or planned, at such an airport or at a yeshiva, was always encouraging, strengthening and enriching for the future. In the last meeting with him, a week ago, he had come to Jerusalem for a meeting on Israel-France relations, to which he also had a very broad contribution. The meeting took place in Jerusalem and as usual, his contribution was very substantial. When he left he said next week we will meet in Tel Aviv. I am very sorry that the meeting in Tel Aviv is like this. We did lose. On my behalf and on behalf of all the employees of the Ministry of Science and Technology, I share in the enormous loss of the family.
Prof. Major General in the Reserves, Yitzhak Ben Israel
Deborah, members of the Naaman family, Honorable President, my honor. For me personally, Yuval Na'im is actually a symbol of a generation that is disappearing. When I look back on my life, I think that everything I did was influenced in one way or another by symbols such as Yuval Na'am, and he is the main one, starting with the physics studies, the understanding that the security of the country is not a trivial thing and one should contribute to it, and ending with the occupation of space. Yuval Neman, who is known to everyone as the president of the university here and a great scientist, made contributions to the security of the country, some of which are not known at all. We all know that the State of Israel has a security theory based more or less on principles established in one way or another by David Ben-Gurion at the founding of the state. Few of us know that the documents are based on memos that were submitted to him from the IDF, Chief of Operations, Lt. Col. Yitzhak Rabin and were written in his handwriting, and two years ago I had the opportunity to talk about this with Yuval, by the head of a division and then the Chief of Planning in the Operations Division, Lt. Col. (So) Yuval Na'im. A large part of Israel's security concept to this day is based on the principles and ideas that that young lieutenant colonel then wrote and all kinds of things that were said here and today seem trivial to us, at the time there was a need for a very broad vision and evidence, the starting point can be attributed to Yuval and if there is a sentence he said repeat it And he said and he snorted in my memory: "Remember, all beginnings are small." We start small but eventually we get there. For me personally, certainly as someone who replaced him at the space agency, this is a tremendous loss. Just two days ago we gathered the same group that gathers to watch the launch of another Israeli satellite into space. As always I looked left and right to see Yuval. I always thought of sitting next to him, hearing another wise sentence or two from him and only then did I learn that he didn't come because he was hospitalized. All in all, I think that the nation of Israel lost one of its best sons today.
MK Benjamin Netanyahu
Dear President, Minister Brown, Mrs. Naaman and his family, friends and admirers of Yuval Naaman may his memory be blessed. The Jewish people have existed for about 3,000 years, of which, for almost all of these three thousand years, they have been absent from science. This is not what our people excelled at. He brought the moral theory. Science grew in Athens. In fact, until 150-200 years ago, our people did not make even a marginal contribution in this field. This changed when we left the ghettos and we can say that in the rise of our people here we did not renew science but created it and the contribution of Jews to the scientific professions - mathematics and physics is well known. It is impossible to describe modern physics without the great contribution of the Jews who probably had a tremendous latent ability embedded in them that was only released now. The importance of Yuval Naman to our national existence is that he translated the sciences, especially physics, into our existential power, to guarantee our existence. Today his vision, his vitality for our existence is completely clear. It is absolutely impossible to say that this contribution of his would have been made without him, I would say the opposite, that it is possible that without a faithful Jubilee, a foundational pillar in ensuring our existence and our future would not have existed. Such a contribution by Adam, among his many other contributions, should have put him in the order of the greats of the nation. He also has other contributions, but I am content with refining this contribution, because in the end it determines and will determine a lot for making the existence of the people of Israel in their land forever and ever. Of blessed memory.
