Belgium Honors Israeli Physicist
Belgium will bestow its highest civilian honor on Daniel Zajfman, an Israeli physicist and president of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Zajfman, who was born in Brussels and immigrated to Israel in 1979, will receive the title of Commander of the Order of Leopold on Nov. 4 in a small ceremony at the Embassy of Belgium in Tel Aviv for his efforts to advance science, according to the Belgian Royal House.
Zajfman told JTA he was “deeply honored” to receive the title of commander, the third highest of the order’s five classes. The two top classes are reserved for the king and public servants.
The Forum of Jewish Organizations, which represents Flemish Jews, congratulated Zajfman, saying it is an honor “which he has most certainly deserves.”
His research in part has focused on the formation of complex molecules in outer space. He gained an undergraduate degree in physics from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in 1983 and then a Ph.D. in atomic physics from the institution in 1989.
In 2003, he arrived at the Weizmann Institute as an associate professor and three years later was named the institution’s president.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO