Memorial symposium for Harry Radzyner with guests from Israel

With a memorial symposium, faculty members and companions remembered Harry Radzyner - Radzyner had died on 11 October 2020 at the age of 87. He was one of the great supporters of the Faculty of Law at Heinrich Heine University.

Radzyner, who as a Jew was persecuted by the National Socialists and who survived the concentration camps Auschwitz, Stutthoff and Theresienstadt, had been particularly committed to an exchange between HHU and Israel. He played a significant role in establishing Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel - the law school of this university near Tel Aviv is named after Radzyner. So it was a special honour for the faculty that several professors from the partner university had travelled to the memorial symposium. HHU Rector Prof. Dr. Anja Steinbeck welcomed the Dean of the Harry Radzyner Law School, Professor Lior Zemer, and his colleagues Assaf Jacob and Guy Seidman. Both have been associated with the Düsseldorf Law School for a long time. For Heinrich Heine University, for which Rector Steinbeck and the Vice-Rectors Martin Mauve and Stefan Marschall had come, and for the Law Faculty, the event on 7 July 2022 in the Haus der Universität was an opportunity to remember a generous sponsor and valuable advisor.

Radzyner had supported Heinrich Heine University many times with his Brückenschlag Foundation, among other things by funding the Institute for Medical Law and by establishing an exchange between the young law faculties of Herzliya and Düsseldorf. Dean Katharina Lugani recalled the history of this exchange: Already in the first faculty council meeting of the Düsseldorf law faculty in 1994, it was decided to cooperate with the IDC Herzliya (as the later Reichman University was then called). Since then, countless encounters have been made possible. Students Nadia Aglan and Kolja Adam reported on the most recent exchange in May 2022. They had worked together with students from the Harry Radzyner Law School for a week in a joint seminar and travelled through the country. Via zoom, they went live to Israel, where their seminar partners Raz Bouzaglo and Noya Shelkovitz greeted Düsseldorf.

Lior Zemer spoke on behalf of the Israeli delegation and emphasised the will to further expand the cooperation and to maintain it in the future. With personal words, Professor Dirk Olzen remembered his long-time friend and companion Harry Radzyner. Radzyner had gone to the USA after liberation and studied engineering in New York. On a trip to Europe he met his future wife Micheline - he moved with her to Düsseldorf, where he worked successfully as a jeweller and she as a doctor. Later he took up a second residence in Mallorca, where his wife lives today. Unfortunately, she could not come to Düsseldorf.

The academic lecture of the memorial symposium was given by Prof. Dr. Rupprecht Podszun, who spoke about the relationship between law and sustainability - this was also the topic of the recent joint seminar. Podszun, who holds a chair in competition law, called for a radical rethinking of legal instruments in the face of the climate catastrophe.  So far, the order has only succeeded with difficulty in integrating sustainability goals without a break. But this is possible, Podszun said, because law itself is an institution of sustainability. "Let us try to maintain trust in the legal order also for the younger generation, who are rightly very concerned about the future of the planet," was a central demand.

The event was musically accompanied by the Düsseldorf jazz trio Whales & Tales. Afterwards, there was a reception for the numerous guests, including many students. "Harry would have liked this evening very much," said Dirk Olzen - a nice compliment for the organisers Prof. Dr. Christian Kersting and staff member Robert Billerbeck.