Why I do want to come to live in Israel
In the beginning of 1990's, when most of my relatives moved from the former Soviet Union to the United States, Europe, or Israel, I chose to stay in Moscow, Russia to continue my mathematical studies and research in the city where I grew up and where my mathematical taste has originally formed. Later I spent many years in the U.S. and Europe doing my Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies (I also spent a month in Weizmann Institute as a postdoc in 2002), and then again in Moscow, where I did the bulk of my research work (I wrote and published more than 1000 pages of mathematical books, papers, and preprints in homological algebra during the last 7-8 years).
The world is going through difficult times now. Starting in this Spring, I realized that being in my home country with my people is more important for me now than, say, staying in a familiar academic environment. Israel is the country of my people; it is also one of the very few countries in the world nowadays thinking of whose government's policies, taken by and large, makes me feel proud, rather than deeply ashamed. This time is the time for me to come home.
I believe that I will be able to do something meaningful and useful in Israel and for Israel, as I always tried to do in all the places wherever I lived throughout my life. What kind of job I will be eventually doing here, I do not know; I just hope and want it to be meaningful and useful both in my eyes and for the country.
Currently, after a 3-month visitor position in Ben Gurion University, I have an appointment for a 6-month visiting professor position at the Technion starting from October 1.
Leonid Positelski
September 9, 2014
(На месте меня попросили дописать к этому пару строк, фиксирующих на бумаге то, что говорилось устно раньше, что мы расстались с женой год назад и только формально развод еще не оформлен, в связи с чем они с дочкой и остаются в Москве.)
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