Selig Brodetsky

Blessed Brodetsky ( born February 10, 1888 in Olwiopol, now Ukraine, † May 20 1954 in London) was a British Professor of Mathematics, a member of the World Zionist Executive, Chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the second president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

He first grew up in the Ukraine, the family emigrated to London in 1894. He studied from 1905 at Trinity College, Cambridge. He had to study in Leipzig in 1914, and was there in the same year with Gustav Herglotz PhD ( The potential of a homogeneous convex body and the direct integration of the potential of an ellipsoid ) .. It was 1919 Lecturer at the University of Leeds. Five years later he was appointed professor. His research focus was on applied mathematics, mechanics of aircraft and history of mathematics. In 1949, he became the second president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was committed to the State of Israel and the people of the Jewish faith. He took part in the conference of Seelisberg in 1947.

Works

• Memoirs. From Ghetto to Israel, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1960
• The meaning of mathematics, London, E. Benn 1929
• Sir Isaac Newton. A brief account of his life and work, London, Methuen 1927
• A first course to Nomography, London, G. Bell and sons, 1925
• The mechanical principles of the airplane, London, J. & A. Churchill, 1921
• The potential of a homogeneous convex body, and direct integration of the potential of an ellipsoid. - Leipzig: Fock, 1914 (dissertation)