Hundreds of children and their parents got the opportunity this weekend to stargaze through a telescope that was constructed especially for physicist Albert Einstein.
The event was organized by the Hebrew University's Authority for Community and Youth, which is sponsored by the European Union.
The telescope, which was recently rediscovered in the university's basement, was dedicated in a special ceremony at the Safra Campus in Givat Ram. According to Prof. Hanoch Gutfreund, the telescope was constructed by amateur astronomer Tzvi Gizri, who painstakingly polished lenses taken from German tanks for the purpose. His idea was to realize the biblical prophecy "They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks" (Isaiah 2:4).
Gizri presented Einstein with the telescope in 1954, and Einstein later gave it to the Ben Shemen Youth Village, for the kids there to use. According to Dr. Deborah Lang of Hebrew University's Program for Science-Oriented Youth, the telescope was rediscovered by her predecessor, Dr. Eshel Ofir.
Ofir pored through archives and found a photograph of Einstein with a telescope, and began searching for the telescope. He found it in a storage room in the Givat Ram campus. It has since been renovated and is now fit for use.