Self-sacrificing professor at Virginia Tech
By Kimberly Winston
It was in Liviu Librescu's nature to stand up to brutality.
Last April, this quiet 76-year-old college professor, a Holocaust survivor who defied Communism, threw his body between his students and a gunman blasting his way through the halls of Virginia Tech. All but one of the students escaped through the classroom windows and survived. Professor Librescu was shot and killed, one of 33 murdered that terrible day.
He is nominated as Beliefnet's Most Inspiring Person of the Year for showing supreme unselfishness in the face of great personal danger.
"Liviu was a believer in Maimonides's principle that 'God is the only one we may serve and praise, there are no intermediaries between us and God," says Marilena Librescu, his widow. "His spirituality emerged from how he saw the significance of life. He always struggled to be the best one can be."
Dr. Librescu was no stranger to struggle. Born in Romania in 1930, Librescu was imprisoned in a labor camp during World War II and then sent to a ghetto with his family and thousands of other Jews. According to a 2004 Romanian government report, as many as 380,000 Jews were killed by Romania's Nazi-allied regime.
Dr. Librescu survived the war, but found himself trapped behind the Iron Curtain of Romania’s post-war Communist regime. He studied engineering and science and eventually became one of the country's foremost aerospace engineers. But in the 1970s, as he rose to prominence in his field, he refused to declare allegiance to Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator. He asked to emigrate to Israel, which cost him his job and brought years of uncertainty and persecution by the Romanian government. In 1978, with the help of Menachem Begin, Israel’s Prime Minister, he and his family were finally allowed to go to Israel.
In Israel, Dr. Librescu took a position at Tel Aviv University. In 1984, he went on sabbatical to Virginia Tech and never left. He and Marlena moved to Blacksburg, Va., to build a new life.
That life came to an abrupt end on April 16, 2007, when Cho Seung-Hui, a troubled 23-year-old English major, barricaded the doors of Norris Hall where Dr. Librescu was lecturing. When the shooting began, students said Dr. Librescu remained calm and went to the door, barricading it with his body. He told students to open the windows, remove the screens, and jump to safety. One of the last students out of the room recalled looking over his shoulder to see Dr. Librescu still braced against the door.
Friends and colleagues at Virgina Tech say Dr. Librescu's actions will outlive the terror of that day. "He was a man of great honor and tremendous integrity," says Dr. Ishwar Puri, head of the Department of Engineering, Science, and Mechanics at Virginia Tech and a colleague of Dr. Librescu. "I am left with a sense of awe. He has become an example for all of us."
译文:
弗吉尼亚理工大学牺牲自我的教授——列维•利布雷斯库教授
勇敢的抵抗残酷行为是列维•利布雷斯库教授的天性。
列维•利布雷斯库教授不赞成共产主义，是大屠杀的生还者。上个4月，一个枪手在弗吉尼亚大厅里肆虐乱开枪。这位沉默的76岁大学教授用身体堵在了枪手和他学生之间。除了一个学生，其他的学生都顺利从窗口逃生。列维•利布雷斯库教授遭射击死亡，是那骇人的一天中33位死者之一。
在个人危难前，他大公无私，因此被提名为Beliefnet网站年度最佳励志人选。
“列维•利布雷斯库信奉迈蒙尼德原则，即‘上帝是我们唯一可以服侍和歌颂的人，上帝与我们之间没有中间人。’”他的妻子玛丽莉娜说道，“他的精神源自他对生命的重视。他总努力成为最好的。”
列维•利布雷斯库教授习惯了艰难。他出生于1930年的罗马尼亚，二战期间被囚禁于劳改营，之后他和家人以及数千犹太人一起被送到犹太人区。据一份2004年的罗马尼亚政府报告，当时与纳粹联盟的罗马尼亚政府杀害的犹太人达38万。
列维•利布雷斯库教授从二战中生还，却发现自己陷于罗马尼亚战后共产主义政府的铁幕之中。他学习科学和工程学，最终成为全国最重要的航空航天工程师之一。但是，在二十世纪七十年代，他在他的研究领域成名后，拒绝效忠罗马尼亚独裁者尼古拉•齐奥塞斯库。他要求移民以色列，这使得他丢了工作，接下来的数年亦不安定，遭受罗马尼亚政府迫害。1978年，在以色列总理梅纳赫姆-贝京的帮助下，他和家人最终得以移民以色列。
在以色列时，列维•利布雷斯库教授在特拉维夫大学任教。1984年，他周期性的到弗吉尼亚理工大学教学，从未离开。他和玛丽莉娜搬到弗吉尼亚黑堡市，开始了新的生活。
在2007年4月16日，这样的生活突然中止了。赵承熙(Cho Seung-Hui)，一个23岁的英语专业学生，生活缭乱的他堵住了诺里斯教学楼大门，当时列维•利布雷斯库教授在教学楼里授课。学生们说，枪杀开始时，列维•利布雷斯库教授保持冷静，到门前用身体堵住枪眼。他让学生打开窗户，移除玻璃后逃离。最后一个逃离的学生回忆道，他回头看到列维•利布雷斯库教授仍紧紧挡在门前。
弗吉尼亚理工大学列维•利布雷斯库教授的朋友和同事说，他的行为在那恐怖的一天结束后仍会为世人所纪念。“他讲信义，为人正直。”普利说道。普利是弗吉尼亚理工大学工程系主任，列维•利布雷斯库教授的同事，他继续说道，“我对他感到敬畏。他是我们所有人的榜样。”