Moshe was born in 1939 in Czernowitz (then Romania, today Ukraine). He emigrated to Israel in 1948, went to High School in Haifa and then studied for his BSc and MSc degrees at the Technion. For his PhD, he studied at the Weizmann Institute (advisor: C. Levinson) and he obtained it in 1965. Moshe joined the Department in 1967 after a postdoctoral stay at Columbia University and Rockefeller University. He got tenure in 1972, was promoted to Professor in 1977 and retired in 2004.
Moshe had a very wide and deep knowledge of High Energy Physics in all its theoretical as well as phenomenological aspects. This allowed him to make lasting contributions to many of its subfields. He started with significant contributions to the understanding of higher symmetries of the hadronic spectroscopy.
The quest for understanding chiral symmetry breaking led Moshe to in-depth studies of the connection between “current” and “constituent” quarks. Multiparticle hadronic reactions and bounds one can prove for them were studied by Moshe in a series of papers establishing a series of impressive exact results.
Moshe had an impressive general view of all of Theoretical Physics allowing him to contribute significantly to other topics outside his strict field of speciality. His papers (in collaboration with R. Hornreich and S. Shtrikman) on “Cholesteric Liquid Crystals” represent a significant contribution to the theory of phase transitions for a particularly intriguing universality class.
Another general theoretical topic which received Moshe’s attention was the theory of solitons: in particular his papers (in collaboration with S. Shtrikman) on “Skyrmion Crystals” were path breaking.
Moshe‘s deep knowledge of Physics and his critical ability were a unique asset for the Department. Members of the Department at all academic levels and ages would consult Moshe about their projects: his knowledge, insights and wide experience contributed significantly to raising the intellectual standards of the Department.
Moshe passed away in 2010 and was survived by his wife Tirza, a daughter and a son.