Remarks by Dr. Michael Rich at dedication of JBR Telescope
Distinguished guests, ladies, gentlemen, and staff of the Wise
Observatory
I am deeply honored and grateful to be able to be here at Wise
Observatory in Israel to dedicate the Jay Baum Rich telescope to the
memory of my late father. I would first like to thank the Shara family
and Ezra Drucker, without whose critical contribution, this project
would not have been possible. And I would like to thank Dr. Noah
Brosch both for hosting me here in Israel, and for his tireless effort and
dedication without which this project could not have been brought to
reality.
Jay Baum Rich was born in 1896 into a world lit by gaslights and moved
by horses. He lived long enough to fly on jets and see every one of the
moon landings that themselves now are almost fading from memory.
Sadly, he also experienced anti-semitism in a real, personal way. Chased
in his childhood by tough gangs in Saginaw, Michigan, he ran past the
alter of the church to gain critical seconds and thus avoid a beating. He
told me many times that hotels would refuse him saying “no Jews” and
he said that given all he had lived through, he could not bring my
brother and I to grow up in the faith. Dad’s father, Israel Rich, was from
Budapest, Hungary. I never asked what happened to our family from
Hungary. Thankfully, we live in a far better age. But just as we should
not let the achievement of the moon landings fade from memory,
neither should we ignore the scourge of anti-semitism that threatens to
return to Europe and even to the United States. How easy it could be
for a new generation to forget why Israel is here.
My father and I visited Israel in 1972, before the Yom Kippur war. We
were even able to visit Jericho at the time. I still have a strong memory
of that visit, today. One vision I have burned in my memory was that it
was easy to see the borders. Israel had planted trees everywhere, while
the land outside the border was barren. I am here to dedicate this
telescope to my father’s memory because, without his unflinching
devotion to my welfare and his dedication as a parent, I would have
been unable to accomplish anything- neither my career in science, nor
my family. He was a man of energy, determination, and resilience, love
of art, music, and knowledge, who overcame more than one financial
collapse and rebuilt, an inspiration that helps me persevere today. So I
am here to leave my father’s name in this sacred land, at this sacred
place, and to offer my deepest gratitude.
This telescope that we dedicate today has a special history, in that Jim
Riffle originated the idea for its design while working for one of my
Ph.D. students- Edgar Smith. Edgar pursued his Ph.D. in his mid-fifties
at Columbia University, having been a successful businessman. He
funded a 50-inch telescope purposed for high resolution imaging that
has been repurposed as the sky transparency monitor at LSST, and
Riffle noticed a number of design features that enabled him to launch a
commercial product. The 18-inch telescope at Wise Observatory was
also the result of that effort. There are only two others like the 28-inch
worldwide; one of which is at the Polaris Observatory Association that
was my boyhood astronomy club. Punching far above their weight,
these telescopes place the CCD camera at prime focus, attaining a wide
field of view and minimal loss of light. In 5 minutes, I can take a deeper
image with the C28 than was obtained using photographic the plates I
measured in 1979 for Allan Sandage, taken at the Hale 200-inch
telescope.
However, this 28-inch telescope is what we call in the parlance a “small”
telescope. Indeed it is; there are now 16 telescopes worldwide of 6m
aperture or greater. Yet even so, small telescopes are burgeoning in
their influence and contribution. From the discovery of transiting
exoplanets, to the intricacies of microlensing light curves, to the imaging
of the wispiest outskirts of galaxies, to the explosions of distant
supernovae and gamma ray bursts, telescopes of this aperture are
rocking our subject today, limited only by the imagination and ability of
the astronomers who use them. And I can think of no community of
astronomers brighter and better poised to take advantage of this
telescope than this community here, in Israel.
Yet there is nothing wrong with dreaming bigger dreams. Twenty years
ago, while at Columbia, I sought our department’s entry into a large
telescope project and briefly pursued the idea of an 8m peace
observatory in the Sinai. Although the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
will soon drown the world in a firehose of deep multiband imagery,
there is a real lack of serious plans for dedicated large scale
spectroscopy. A dedicated 6-8m telescope that includes both high and
medium resolution spectroscopy of 4 to 10,000 objects simultaneously
would have huge world impact and could be rapidly implemented. Such
a facility might cost of order $100-$200M but would propel its host
countries to the forefront of world observational astronomy. Or Israel
might undertake to join the European Southern Observatory, giving
access to great facilities like VLT, E-ELT, and ALMA. Can such funding
be found, and would it be worth it? Consider for a moment the impact
of the Hubble Space Telescope’s soft power in advancing the image of
the United States. Or the impact of my Ph.D. student, Neil Tyson.
Astronomy has a huge worldwide draw and is loved by virtually
everyone.
In a world where perceived image has a force that is
comparable to that of military strength, a commitment to astronomy
does count for something even in the sense of national security.
I hope to work hard to make this dream happen in the next few years,
but even if it does not, I believe that the Jay Baum Rich telescope in the
hands of the brilliant community of Israel’s astronomers will light up
the world with discoveries and new knowledge. And while our
generation, like Moses, may not be able to enter the promised land of a
large telescope in Israel, I have confidence that the young people whose
careers begin here at Wise Observatory, will indeed reach their dreams.
Thank you and L’Chaim