Israeli Leaders Turn Heavenward, Speak To Ilan Ramon In Space on Columbia
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Education Minister Limor Livnat spoke with Israel's first astronaut, Col. Ilan Ramon, on a video hook-up late this afternoon as he was circling the Earth for approximately the 80th time since ascending into space five days ago. All three of them expressed great excitement at the opportunity to communicate in this manner.
Subject: Israeli Leaders Turn Heavenward, Speak To Ilan Ramon In Space on Columbia
Permission granted to Arthur - N1ORC to reprint the following:
Subject: Israeli Leaders Turn Heavenward, Speak To Ilan Ramon In Space on Columbia
Reprinted from the Israel National News Arutz Sheva
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Education Minister Limor Livnat spoke with Israel's first astronaut, Col. Ilan Ramon, on a video hook-up late this afternoon as he was circling the Earth for approximately the 80th time since ascending into space five days ago. All three of them expressed great excitement at the opportunity to communicate in this manner.
Ramon told the Prime Minister that he has the opportunity to see how fragile the atmosphere surrounding and protecting the earth really is, and that it must be protected. Livnat asked about the Jewish artifacts Ramon brought with him into space, and the astronaut held up one of them: a miniature Torah scroll from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Prof. Yosef Yehoyachin, an Israeli scientist who initiated the main experiment Ramon is carrying out in space, studied for and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in the concentration camp using that same scroll. The Chief Rabbi of Holland at the time, Rabbi Dasberg, who was with Yosef in the concentration camp, gave him the Torah, only a few inches tall, and charged him with the mission of surviving and telling the story. Ramon said, "I brought with me items that express the religious-historic Jewish tradition," and that the little Torah scroll in particular "shows the ability of the Jewish people to survive and make it through even the darkest of times, and to always look forward."
Both Sharon and Livnat invited the other astronauts to visit Israel; mission commander Rick Husband said that if "all Israelis are as nice as Ilan and his family are, then I know we can expect a very warm welcome when the time comes." Students from Jerusalem and Prof. Yuval Ne'eman, the father of Israel's space program, also spoke with Ramon during the nationally-televised event. Ramon concluded by inviting every Jew around the world to come and plant a tree in Israel during the coming year.