Singing Engineering

At The Technion: In the summer of 1970, Abq Jew set out for the Land of Israel, to study at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. One of the premier tech schools in the world. In Haifa, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Abq Jew studied Civil Engineering. The lectures, workshops, and labs were entirely in Hebrew. So were some of the textbooks, although most were in English. 

And, at a time when Americans were studying in droves at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem - and at the University of Tel Aviv and the University of Haifa - there was only a really small bunch of us "Anglos" at the Technion.

We soon discovered exactly why that was: the Technion didn't give anyone a free ride. Studying in any program at the Technion was hard. Long hours in class, long hours doing "homework," long hours just thinking. Make or break.

It was a tough year. But Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel, two Jewish guys from Queens, got Abq Jew through it. Their album Bridge Over Troubled Water had come out in January 1970, and Abq Jew knew most of the songs by heart.

The Boxer, not from The Concert in Central Park on September 19, 1981

But from concerts at Madison Square Garden on October 29-30, 2009
And from the album Bridge Over Troubled Water, 1970

Now the years are rolling by me

They are rocking evenly

And I am older than I once was

And younger than I'll be

But that's not unusual

No, it isn't strange

After changes upon changes

We are more or less the same

After changes we are

More or less the same

In the clearing stands a boxer .....