Sam Neaman – In Memoriam

Founder: Samuel (Sam) Neaman

"I was born in Rosh-Pina in 1913 as the firstborn of my parents, Esther and Pinchas Neaman. My mother was also born in Rosh-Pina and my father was a pioneer who came to Israel with the Second Aliyah. My wanderings began when I was three years old." This is how Samuel (Sam) began his autobiographic story in the book Israel in and Out, published by the Ministry of Defense.

The book portrays the life story of Sam Neaman, describing his wanderings from Palestine to Lebanon, Syria, France and back to Israel - to the battlefield of the Second World War in the Middle East and Europe. During the war he served as a commander of one of the units of the British Army, attaining the military rank of major. Upon his release from the army, in Britain, when he asked to return to Israel and join the struggle for establishing the State of Israel, he was ordered by the state leadership to raise funds for the future state and so he went to South America and the United States.

During his wanderings, Sam Neaman never forgot his homeland, to which he felt strongly attached. His love for the land of Israel and the state of Israel motivated him to establish the institute for policy research, the "Samuel Neaman Institute", in the Technion, which would become a non-profit research center, with the goal of transferring academic knowledge, from the vast store accumulated in the State's academic institutions, to practical routes concerned with delineating a national policy, thus connecting research and the academy with national decision makers.

Samuel Neaman died on November 13, 2002, at the age of 89. To the last, he stayed involved in the Institute's activities, contributing significantly through his ideas and bestowing his vision. He left behind him a life work that continues to breathe and live, and to stimulate Israel's leading researchers and its decision makers.

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