Moshe Ben Sira

Moshe Ben Sira was born in 1927 in Tel Aviv

Moshe Ben Sira was born in Tel Aviv in 1927 and grew up there. He was the eldest son of engineer Yaakov Ben Sira and Haya, née Horowitz. He graduated from the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv.

In 1945 he volunteered for the Palmach. He began his studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1947 and fought in the Jerusalem area during the War of Independence.

He started working as an assistant at the Technion in Haifa in 1954 and completed a doctorate in 1960. He became deputy dean of the Technion's physics faculty and helped found its semiconductor laboratory. He published research in international journals and took part in international conferences.

Before the Six-Day War he was called up for reserve duty. He was killed on the first day of the war while serving in an artillery battalion on the northern front, and was buried in the military cemetery in Haifa. He left his wife Rachel and 3 children. The Technion physics faculty named its library after him and holds a yearly symposium in his memory.