Science and religion haven't always enjoyed the most friendly of relationships. There are plenty of people out there who pit the two against each other.
But Professor Cyril Domb saw things differently. From an early age, Domb was convinced that religion and science were not incompatible, that progress in one didn't need to mean abandoning the other. Raised in a deeply devoted Orthodox Jewish family, Domb would never forget the lessons and values of scripture – even as he pushed the limits of theoretical physics later in life.
Born in London in 1920, Domb was educated in classical Jewish studies from a young age. Following the lead of his grandparents, deeply spiritual people in their own right, Domb would regularly attend Torah classes in a synagogue, internalizing the lessons he learned there.
Academically, Domb's education was not particularly privileged. An avid learner and autodidact, Domb attended Hackney Downs secondary school, an institution he would describe in interview as "not a 'fancy school'” unlike the prestigious private institutions some of his rivals were being groomed for scholarships to Cambridge or Oxford in. However, Domb excelled strongly enough in math and science to be offered a scholarship to the predominantly Catholic Pembroke College.
At Pembroke, the head tutor, a clergyman name Wynn, took Domb under his wing. Despite the slight friction of allowing an observant Jew into the college, Wynn encouraged Domb during his time there, prioritizing acceptance and education over form and adherence to strict social stratus. He even arranged for Domb to receive vegetarian meals so as not to conflict with his religious beliefs.
Domb graduated just in time for World War II. In 1941, he joined Admiralty Signal Establishment (ASE) and was assigned to practical engineering work alongside his friend and scientific peer, Fred Hoyle. However, their stint in practical engineering would be a short one, as in Domb's own words "since both of us were particularly inept with a soldering iron we were sent off to a hut on the outskirt of the ASE and told to concern ourselves with theoretical matters.”
A good thing too. While working on theory for the ASE, Domb and Hoyle accomplished a major breakthrough improving radar technology. At the time, radar systems could detect planes and give the station a direction bearing on the horizontal axis. This was good, but without knowing the altitude of the enemy, it wasn't always enough information for fighter pilots to successfully intercept Hitler’s incoming bombers. Domb solved the issue, providing the British forces, and the world, with the first three-dimensional radar positioning system, instantly improving the effectiveness of British anti-aircraft defense.
Such an accomplishment would already be a high-point in any career, but Domb wasn't finished yet. He became engrossed in statistical mechanics and theoretical physics. He'd take up a permanent chair in King's College and lead a successful lecturing tour in university halls around the world.
In the late 1940s, Domb would help found the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists. This organization was a community of intellectuals and academics that held to Jewish beliefs. It was a balm in the post-war trauma of WWII that ripped many Jewish lives apart and actively targeted Jewish luminaries. The group would become a meeting point of sorts, an intersection between faith and science not only of the Jewish tradition, but others as well.
Domb would continue his work, advocating for both science and religion throughout the years. Alongside Rabbi Aryeh Carmell, he would edit a collection of essays written by Jewish academics entitled Challenge. It was an effort to bridge the gap between spiritual and scientific views. In the foreword he wrote "The Torah Jew does not have to choose between science and Torah... He is confident that the age-old tradition of Torah has something of supreme value to say to our broken, fragmented and disillusioned world... Science as such presents no conflict with the Torah.”
In 1981, like so many other Jews affected by the diaspora before him, Domb would repatriate to Israel. There, he would serve as professor of physics at Bar-Ilan University while also publishing an academic journal, the Journal of Torah and Scholarship.
Domb would receive many accolades and awards throughout his career, including being inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1977, and the prestigious Max Born Prize by the German Physical Society and the British Institute of Physics in 1981. But his true impact will always live on through his students and peers who recognized him as an inspiration and figure of moral clarity in a increasingly confusing world.
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