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A photograph of Liviu Librescu being displayed at the Polytechnic University in Bucharest on Tuesday. (Reuters)
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Last update - 19:00 17/04/2007
Israeli lecturer died shielding Virginia Tech students from gunman
By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Students of an Israeli lecturer who died in the Monday massacre at a Vriginia Tech said he saved the lives of several students by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman before he was fatally shot, his son said Tuesday.

The massacre, in which a gunman killed 33 people at the university before committing suicide, was the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

Students of Liviu Librescu, 76, an engineering science and mathematics lecturer in at Virginia Tech for 20 years, sent e-mails to his wife, Marlena, telling of how he blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said the son, Joe.

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"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

Librescu, who also taught courses in Tel Aviv University, was respected in his field, his son said. "His work was his life in a sense," Joe Librescu said. "That was a good place for him to practice his research."

"He himself was killed but thanks to him his students stayed alive," an Israeli student who survived the massacre told Army Radio on Tuesday.

Joe Librescu told Channel 10 television that his father, who survived the Holocaust, "had tried to block the door... lock it. That's all we know at the moment."

"All his life was university study," he continued. "From this perpective I can see him doing anything."

He said that he and his brother had both studied at Virginia Tech. "This is the last place that you could imagine something like this happening."

Librescu, 76 at the time of his death, had known tragedy since childhood.

When Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany in World War II, the young Librescu was interned in a labor camp, and then sent along with his family and thousands of other Jews to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were killed by the collaborationist regime during the war.

Librescu later found work at a government aerospace company. But his career was stymied in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist regime, his son said, and he was later fired when he requested permission to move to Israel.

In 1977, according to his son, Israel's then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened to get the family an emigration permit, and they left for Israel in 1978.

Librescu left Israel for Virginia in 1985 for a sabbatical year, but eventually made the move permanent, said Joe Librescu, who himself studied at Virginia Tech from 1989 to 1994.

In Romania, the academic community also was mourning Librescu's death.

"It is a great loss," said Ecaterina Andronescu, rector of the Polytechnic University in Bucharest, where Librescu graduated in mechanics and aviation construction in 1953. The university declared Tuesday a day of mourning in honour of Librescu.

"We have immense consideration for the way he reacted and defended his students with his life," Andronescu said.

Librescu also received a Ph.D from the Bucharest-based Academy of Sciences in 1969, and received an honorary degree with the Polytechnic University in 2000.

At the Polytechnic University, his picture was put on a table and a candle was lit, and people lay flowers. "We remember him as a great specialist in aeronautics. He left behind hundreds of prestigious papers, said one of the professors," Nicolae Serban Tomescu.

Librescu, who specialized in composite structures and aeroelasticity, published extensively and received numerous awards for his work. He also received several NASA grants and also taught courses at the University La Sapienza of Rome, Italy.
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  1.   Americans need an armed militia 20:41  |  Clickfool 16/04/07
  2.   Horrible! I`m so sorry for the families 20:50  |  Yonatan 16/04/07
  3.   Must get the snide comments in first! 21:09  |  Sean 16/04/07
  4.   what happened to American civility? 21:23  |  European 16/04/07
  5.   To European, do not lecture about civility 21:41  |  Matt 16/04/07
  6.   Just another NRA Hero 21:49  |  Mark Lincoln 16/04/07
  7.   For Sean # 3 21:53  |  Clickfool 16/04/07
  8.   NRA wins again 21:56  |  Shelley 16/04/07
  9.   #3 - Clickfool lacks humanity... 22:00  |  Eric 16/04/07
  10.   undercover israeli maybe????????? 22:09  |  seth 16/04/07
  11.   For Terrornator # 7 22:24  |  Clickfool 16/04/07
  12.   get a clue clickfool,you can`t blame this on the nra 22:28  |  terornator 16/04/07
  13.   what`s happening in america. 22:32  |  maria 16/04/07
  14.   To 6 and 9 22:33  |  Bill Hutchinson 16/04/07
  15.   Clickfool apt name 22:38  |  Dave 16/04/07
  16.   TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN 22:38  |  BILL 16/04/07
  17.   All terrorists are rascals. Condolences to families. 22:40  |  Vittorio 16/04/07
  18.   My condolences to the victims 22:49  |  Arabian 16/04/07
  19.   to clickfool on post # 1 you were making a fu88ing joke dickwad 23:03  |  terrornator 16/04/07
  20.   A "gun-free zone" 23:05  |  steve 16/04/07
  21.   to maria,what the hell does witches and harry potter have to do 23:06  |  terrornator 16/04/07
  22.   Clickfool #12 - I Can. Word by Word. Verbatim 23:07  |  Dick Hertz 16/04/07
  23.   Mass murder in America 23:08  |  Jewish prince 16/04/07
  24.   #13 Guns In America 23:08  |  Steve 16/04/07
  25.   to arabian,thank you,we appreciate your words 23:09  |  terrornator 16/04/07
  26.   Clicky 23:12  |  ODP 16/04/07
  27.   To You British 23:17  |  Howard 16/04/07
  28.   32 dead and 27 wounded, 4 critically 23:22  |  Lynn 16/04/07
  29.   Shooter at Virginia Tech 23:23  |  NDM 16/04/07
  30.   # 4 Euro-peon 23:24  |  Lynn 16/04/07
  31.   # 19 Arabian 23:25  |  Lynn 16/04/07
  32.   Mental illness 23:29  |  Red Dog 16/04/07
  33.   #8 23:30  |  bushie 16/04/07
  34.   to clickfool,everyone in here knows you were joking about this 23:31  |  terrornator 16/04/07
  35.   European #4 23:35  |  Sarah 16/04/07
  36.   Americans should demand and vote 00:12  |  Joseph E . 17/04/07
  37.   The Americans´ Constitutional Right to Carry Arms 00:15  |  Alicia 17/04/07
  38.   I PRAY ITS NOT A MUSLIM 00:19  |  Fearful Muslim 17/04/07
  39.   # 16 Dave 00:26  |  Mary 17/04/07
  40.   Fox News says there was a first shootin` and 2H later a 2nd shoot 00:28  |  Joseph E . 17/04/07
  41.   Guns don`t kill people... 00:35  |  Brendan 17/04/07
  42.   Thanks Arabian 00:36  |  Brendan 17/04/07
  43.   To Eurotrash everywhere 00:44  |  American 17/04/07
  44.   the victims and shooted 00:46  |  Ron 17/04/07
  45.   Only 2 options available now 00:48  |  Swiss (Dino) 17/04/07
  46.   #4 - Yur-A-Peon 00:51  |  Max Leygrume 17/04/07
  47.   Clickfool # 1 00:53  |  Twogunz 17/04/07
  48.   maria, an Asian racist like you, killed inocent students 00:54  |  Tamir Gaza 17/04/07
  49.   School shooting in Virginia 01:04  |  Nate Goldman 17/04/07
  50.   Decency? 01:15  |  JJ 17/04/07
  51.   Not enough gun control 01:16  |  Ofer 17/04/07
  52.   Alicia - the 2nd Amendment to the US constitution 01:38  |  Mark Lincoln 17/04/07
  53.   29 Dino - Gun Control 01:40  |  Mark of Lewiston 17/04/07
  54.   to alicia # 21talk about something you know 01:40  |  terrornator 17/04/07
  55.   This is true Nate Goldman 01:45  |  Mark Lincoln 17/04/07
  56.   to clickfool # 12 and # 1 your a lier clickfool,when you make a 01:45  |  terrornator 17/04/07
  57.   To "American" in Charleston, South Carolina 01:48  |  Mark Lincoln 17/04/07
  58.   To "American" in Charleston, South Carolina 01:48  |  Mark Lincoln 17/04/07
  59.   Alicia - On Constitutional Rights 01:50  |  Mark of Lewiston 17/04/07
  60.   NRA Freedom 01:58  |  W 17/04/07
  61.   # 22 Not a Muslim 02:00  |  Lynn 17/04/07
  62.   Arabian from Saudi 02:04  |  Lynn 17/04/07
  63.   civil american 02:10  |  matt 17/04/07
  64.   # 22 02:11  |  Armando vargas 17/04/07
  65.   The land of the free 02:15  |  Armando vargas 17/04/07
  66.   # 17 BILL 02:44  |  Swiss (Dino) 17/04/07
  67.   tamir gaza...whether in america or 03:00  |  maria 17/04/07
  68.   MY SINCERE CONDOLENCES 03:02  |  Federico Glez 17/04/07
  69.   TG #32 03:06  |  JJ 17/04/07
  70.   Are we really talking about gun control?? 03:15  |  Chris 17/04/07
  71.   america ----bring back 03:17  |  maria 17/04/07
  72.   When people ask me why I would travel to Israel, I tell them... 03:45  |  Mea 17/04/07
  73.   viirginea tech shooting 03:46  |  shaul 17/04/07
  74.   FOR CLICKFOOL 03:49  |  FOR CLICKFOOL 17/04/07
  75.   its our choice 04:22  |  sterling 17/04/07
  76.   Virginia Tech 04:38  |  john 17/04/07
  77.   It could, and does, happen anywhere. 04:42  |  Jack 17/04/07
  78.   #4 European and #39 Mea 04:52  |  Avi 17/04/07
  79.   Do not blame America 04:53  |  Ed 17/04/07
  80.   For Cickfool:#1 : UGH!!! 05:16  |  Star of David 17/04/07