Star Walker of the Month
June, 2007

www.thestarwalkers.com

Liviu Librescu

1931– April 16, 2007

by: G . K. Holland

"My father blocked the doorway with his body

and asked the students to flee,"

-- Librescu's son, Joe Librescu

A Life of Hardship & Heroism

Liviu Librescu was born in 1930 to a Jewish family in the city of Ploieşti, Romania. He was also raised there. During the younger years of his incredible life he would witness his father, a lawyer, deported to a labor camp after the country came under the domination of Nazi Germany during World War II. After Liviu and his mother were forced to relocate with other Jews to the city of Foscani, fortunately the family was eventually reunited after the end of the war.

Most of us have heard of the Holocaust but most have no real idea of what it was like to have experienced it, let alone to have survived it. Liviu Librescu was such a person. To many the Holocaust may seem far moved and more of an ethnic issue, but pain is pain. So whether you’re Black American, Hispanic, Indian, Asian, or of Irish decent, if you’ve suffered pain in your life (and we all have of course), then you can relate if you choose to. According to a report compiled by the Romanian government in 2004, between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews were killed by Romania's Nazi-allied regime during the war.

Librescu endured, and survived severe personal persecution and yet went on to live a most successful, productive and accomplished life. Librescu was a well respected expert in his field of academics and had a reputation as a dedicated academic who lived to burn the midnight oil. "We used to work until 2 or 3 a.m., and then we would put things aside and talk," says Dr. Shalev, who heads an engineering firm in the Tel Aviv (Dr. Shaley did his PhD at Virginia Tech under Librescu). Librescu was known to be a very private man. He did not ask for pity or drop what he believed to be his issues upon others. He never talked about his experiences in the Holocaust. However close friends did say that he would talk about his hardship in Romania from time to time.

A Lesson of Bravery In The Face of Danger & Hatred

It seems quite prolific that the last moments of his life would involve him defending the freedom of others, the freedom of having the opportunity to live. Students tell of how Professor Librescu’s heroism gave them time to escape through the classroom windows. While others feared dearly for their life (approximately 20 students are said to have been in his class that day), he moved towards the door of his classroom, and blocked the entry of the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, a very troubled South Korean student. He embraced the looming danger and subsequently in that moment overcame it without a moment’s hesitation.

On Monday April 16^th he would not only teach his students a most valuable life lesson, as the nation and the world became aware of this tragic event, he would inadvertently teach the entire world. His selfless and courage act would give us cause to pause and acknowledge this great man. April 16 Yom HaShoa, is also the day in which Jews all over the world remember the horrors of the Holocaust.

An Even Higher Calling

“Never again,' we will never allow someone

to do something that we will not defend,"

His wife Marlena mourns in Brooklyn New York

Librescu became one of the best minds in the academic world. After getting a masters degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest in 1953 and a doctorate from the Institute of Fluid Mechanics at Romania's science academy, the scientist was employed by the country's leading aerospace manufacturer. His expertise was noticed by scientists at Israel's Technion Institute and Israel Aircraft Industries, who pressed then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to appeal to Ceausescu to approve the family's exit, which was ultimately granted in 1978. He eventually joined the faculty of Tel Aviv University in Israel, but it was on a sabbatical in Virginia where he and his wife discovered the community where he would thrive academically.

Somehow on that fatal day Librescu felt a higher calling and placed the life of others above his own. Had his experiences of living under one of the harshest communist regimes in Romania quietly built an insurmountable walking mountain made of indomitable spirit? Those who remember his canter and the way he carried himself on the Virginia Tech campus say he walked with the gait of a man far younger than his real age. Many add that he spoke straight forward and with a sound mind. How could so many years of oppression create such a formidable and persevering person? Librescu was like the rose that grew from the concrete. He was one of those individuals you wish you had the opportunity to have met, least his courage and inner strength somehow rub off on you.

Librescu’s actions will stand for a very, very long time. I have no doubt that he will become a kind of light house to many people. Only time will tell how his heroic choice will affect those he saved that day. It is hard to understand the will of fate and God’s great master plan, but I am convinced this tragic event will in some as yet to be revealed way, serve the greater good in multiple ways.

The Dead Know

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13

Why did he not choose to save himself? Many will ask that question even though they know his action of heroism was the higher and even better choice. Perhaps some ask that question because they know in their heart of hearts that they would have made a very different choice. Many live in only the shadows of their greater selves. But not Librescu, his courage will has risen above the shadows of common men and those with far less inner strength. For who knows the answers that many of the living ask? I say the dead know. And what wisdom have we all gained by Librescu’s lesson? The Book of Ecclesiastes tells us that wisdom is better than weapons of war. Perhaps the true gift of the lesson he leaves us with can only be consumed over time. The aftermath of the tragedy of April 16^th will continue to roll out for quite some time. The Book of Ecclesiastes 9: 5 reads: “For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing…” But I imagine that the dead know more than we can even imagine. Liviu Lebrescu knows why he did what he did, and I surmise that he is well at peace with it as God now embraces his humble spirit. Professor Librescu was laid to rest Friday morning in cemetery in Raanana, a suburb of Tel Aviv.

Professor Librescu - A True Star Walker

Liviu Librescu, we extend great sympathy to your wife Marlena and your entire surviving family. We also would like to personally thank you for your willing to give your life to save others in your choice of supreme selflessness due to reminding us the importance of courage in these modern times. May the grace of God embrace your spirit and hold you steadfast in your higher journey on the spiritual plane. You represent much of what Star Walker is all about. We extend to you an honorary 7^th Rank within the Star Walker Ken Ju Kai the warriors of good, the elite fighters of evil within the Star Walker Universe!  In the spirit of the Star Walker Ken Ju Kai, we here at Star Walker – can only hope to aspire to be the courageous God fearing man you were, because in our minds you are a Star Walker, and so you are remembered.

Commenteors – What other people have to say about this Star Walker of the Month, these commentaries are like comets and meteors, brief but prolific and enlightening – sure to leave a trail of insightfulness across your heart - what we call Commenteors.

To Star Walk – Click here and find the star of Liviu Lebrescu as he is forever remembered in the galaxy of the stars within the Star Walker Universe. View and watch the skies slowly fill in the coming months and years as the light of Star Walker, after Star Walker, after Star Walker fills the heavens. We do this as an interactive memorial and tribute to those who have through fate, destiny, and even under divine purpose, left the rest of us behind, as well as to those who are still with us.

Star Walker of the Month for July 2007 is?

Past Star Walkers of the Month:

May 2007 Watchman Nee

April 2007 Helen Hayes

March 2007 - Nelson Mandela

February 2007 - James Brown

January 2007 - Mother Teresa

December 2006 - Paul Allen Knopf

November 2006 - Princess Diana

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