Dr. Zohar Guri, founder and editor of the youth science magazine "Rosh Gadol" has passed away

Gori initiated the establishment of the monthly in 1998 and combined it with activities in the schools, to make sure that indeed science reaches every corner - even in the periphery and fought for every issue until her last day

Yesterday, Dr. Zohar Guri, who was the high priestess of science communication for the last two decades of her life, passed away. The journal she founded and edited for almost 20 years - Rosh Godol is an example and a model of how a media outlet should look, not yellow, not "what the audience wants" but quality - in simple language without compromising on scientific accuracy, at a time when the media in Israel deteriorated, and science became them For "another option", she went against the flow.

As she wrote herself, she saw a mission in making science accessible - and the journal was not a project in itself but part of a larger system of general scientific enrichment. Many children owe their knowledge of various fields of science to her. Each sheet was a gem.

In 2009 we jointly shared an award for a unique contribution to the popularization of science In the second science communication conference. The reasons for the award committee read: "Dr. Zohar Guri is the founder and editor of "Rosh Gadol", a science magazine for young people, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this month. She managed to harness dozens of scientists and researchers to share their knowledge with the young readership, organized science events, scientific literacy projects, and national competitions such as the national Ilan Ramon Astronomy and Space Quiz. Dr. Gori is an example of volunteerism and dedication to bringing children, youth and the whole community closer to science and technology issues."

Zohar came up to speak on behalf of the winners and, among other things, complimented the Hadaan site and told how articles on a certain topic were used by the participants in one of the competitions she held, and since then I learned for the first time that schools use materials from the Hadaan site.

Dr. Guri wrote about her life's work on the Haifa University website, On the occasion of an event commemorating the centenary of Jules Verne's death, in 2005:
"The uniqueness of Rosh Godol is in the initiatives it develops that place the journal as part of a general scientific enrichment system", in addition to its regular appearance (10 booklets a year). For example, the Rosh Gdol initiative was born for a science stamp drawing competition (2001) held in collaboration with the Stamp Service and the Ministries of Education and Science. As part of it, thousands of pictures were drawn, exhibitions were held in the schools, the students voted, a professional committee examined and the stamp service chose. Another initiative of the monthly team was on the subject of promoting interest in space exploration, which resulted in cooperation with NASA, the Israeli Space Agency and the Radio Amateurs Association. The culmination of the project was students calling the International Space Station via amateur radio and a conversation with astronaut Dr. Peggy Whitson - the station's science officer at the time. Another project in collaboration with NASA was "The physics of toys - Newton in space" as well as other initiatives such as "Scientific literacy", "Science comes to the community" and more."

"In 2005, the monthly announced a competition for writing short science stories based on future developments and discoveries, from the imagination of the creators, shared by Rosh Godol and the Association for Excellence in Education. The project was launched as an initiative in memory of Jules Verne, the father of futuristic science fiction. In this project as well, the rationale that opens diverse avenues of connection and rapprochement with the various fields of science is expressed."
"This interactive nature is unique to Big Head and it brings to expression the purpose of its production, which is to arouse curiosity and interest in science among children and youth. The concept is that it is not enough to mail the material to the target audience, but additional means must be employed to bring the younger generation closer to the wonders of the modern world and the multitude of fields of knowledge developed in it."

In recent years, she encountered difficulties in obtaining funding to print the sheets but did not give up until the last moment. We had the opportunity to talk about these (shared) difficulties, about the common goal of making science accessible to the public, each in his own way, we hope that there will be continuations of her life's work.
Her funeral will take place today, 3/9/15 at the cemetery in Kibbutz Gesher in the Jordan Valley

R.I.P