Tag Archives: spy

Jews of the Week: Nathan Rosen & Brian Podolsky

Podolsky and Rosen

Nathan Rosen (1909-1995) was born in Brooklyn and studied at MIT during the Great Depression. While still young, he published several famous papers, including ‘The Neutron’, which predicted the structure of the nucleus a year before it was discovered. Between 1935 and 1945 he was Albert Einstein’s personal assistant at Princeton. Together, they discovered (mathematically) a “bridge” connecting distant areas of space – now called a wormhole. With Einstein’s encouragement, Rosen moved to the nascent State of Israel and joined Haifa’s Technion in 1953. He later served as President of Ben-Gurion University, founded the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Physical Society of Israel, and the International Society for General Relativity and Gravitation. Aside from all this, he is most famous for coming up with the well-known “EPR Paradox” together with Einstein and a fellow Jewish scientist named Podolsky (hence “EPR”).

Boris Yakovlevich Podolsky (1896-1966) was born in Russia to a poor Jewish family which immigrated to the U.S. in 1913. He served in the US Army and worked as an electrical engineer before returning to school and earning a PhD from Caltech. In 1933 he was given a fellowship at Princeton, which led to his collaboration with Einstein and Rosen on the EPR Paradox. Interestingly, some have suggested that Podolsky was a Soviet spy, codenamed “Quantum”, and helped the Soviets start their nuclear program during World War II. His major legacy, however, is in the great work he did on solving various complex physics problems of the day.

Words of the Week

Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.
– Albert Einstein

Jew of the Week: Eli Cohen

The Impossible Spy

Eli Cohen: Possibly the greatest spy of all time

Eliyahu Cohen (1924-1965) was born in Egypt to an immigrant family of Syrian Jews. In the 1950s, he became involved in Israeli espionage activities, including Operation Goshen, which smuggled over 10,000 Jews out of Egypt, saving them from violence and persecution. Shortly after arriving in Israel he was recruited by the Mossad to be an Israeli intelligence agent in Syria. A new identity was created for him: Kamel Amin Thaabet, a wealthy Syrian returning from Argentina. To create a convincing spy, Cohen actually lived in Argentina before being deployed to Syria In 1962. He quickly gained the trust of powerful people, making friends with generals and rising through the ranks of the ruling Baath party. Cohen toured Syria’s most sensitive military sites, secretly sending the information to Israel (which many believe was absolutely critical in Israel’s 1967 victory). Amazingly, Eli Cohen was nearly appointed Syria’s Deputy Minister of Defence, and at one point, was third in the line of succession to Syria’s presidency! Soviet agents uncovered Cohen’s identity in 1965. Without proper trial, he was publicly hanged to death, and the Syrians reburied him at least three times, fearing an Israeli operation to recover his body. To this day, the Syrians refuse to return his remains. Eli Cohen is considered one of the greatest intelligence agents of all time. His incredible story was captured in the film The Impossible Spy, and more recently in the hit Netflix mini-series The Spy.

Words of the Week

When God desired to create man, Truth said: “He should not be created, for he is full of lies.” Kindness said: “He should be created, for he is full of kindness.”
– Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 8:5

Jew of the Week: Abba Eban

The Zionist

Abba Eban

Aubrey Shlomo Meir Eban (1915-2002) Known as “Abba Eban”, this South African Jew was fluent in 10 languages, including Hebrew and Arabic, making him the ideal spy. As an intelligence officer, he rose to the rank of Major in the British Army, while also working diligently for the World Zionist Congress and being editor of the journal The Young Zionist. He worked at the UN for over a decade, where he was instrumental in passing Resolution 181 (the partition plan). Aside from this, he was ambassador to the US, deputy prime minister of Israel, minister of foreign affairs, education, culture and a long serving member of the Knesset. He wrote 9 books and received the Israel Prize.

Words of the Week

Marriage is giving it your all, but recognizing you are only half.
– Chassidic Sages