Slain Israeli Professor Saved Students In Virginia Massacre,Combined News Sources

Among the 32 fatalities in Monday's massacre at Virginia Polytechnic Institute was Liviu Librescu, a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor and professor in the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department.

Librescu, 76, who made aliyah to Israel in 1978, was killed on Yom Hashoah, the international day of remembrance for victims of the Holocaust.

Librescu came to Virginia on sabbatical in 1986 and decided to make it his home, according to news reports.

Librescu was killed at Norris Hall, which houses the engineering department, during the second of two shooting incidents on April 16.

A student of Librescu's, Alec Calhoun, told the Associated Press that before he jumped out of a second-floor window he saw Librescu attempting to block the classroom door.

"He blocked the door with his body so the killer wouldn't be able to get into the class," another student said. "He got shot through the door."

The massacre, the largest in American history on a college campus, occurred at a school with a small Jewish student population: 1,400 in a total of 29,000, according to Hillel, The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

As of Tuesday morning, the only report of Jewish students among the dead or wounded was one who was hospitalized with a broken ankle.

A source at the Israeli Embassy in Washington said that Librescu, a noted research scientist, had been prevented from emigrating by Romania's communist government. An appeal from Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Romania's president paved the way for Librescu and his wife, Marlena, to move to Israel in 1978.

Law enforcement officers confer outside a building on the Virginia Tech campus where a gunman shot dozens of people before killing himself.

"I understand from friends that my father was a hero," one of Librescu's two sons, Joe, told Ynetnews. "In fact, by blocking the door with his body, he saved all the students who were in the classroom."

Described as a brilliant scientist, Librescu didn't have a driver's license because he was too busy for anything but teaching. "He never paid attention to luxuries," said Tel Aviv University professor Jacob Aboudi. "He cared about the students."

Asael Arad, an Israeli student who visited Librescu's widow after the tragedy, told Israel Army Radio that Mrs. librescu had been receiving e-mails from students who credited her husband with saving their lives.

"I lost my best friend," she said. "He was a great person who loved teaching more than anything."

Mrs. Librescu added that she'd been told her husband was injured in the shooting. "I looked for him in the hospitals all day but I didn't find him," she said.

(JTA, Ynetnews, INN)

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