Arutz-7's U.S. correspondent Eli Sechbach reported that the mood in the U.S. today is reminiscent of the day of the World Trade Center attack: "Sadness all around." Sechbach said that after he interviewed Ilan Ramon a few years ago, "I remember being so favorably impressed. He was a man without an ego, to whom it was very important that he could connect world Jewry and U.S. citizens via his work in space." Ramon said at the time that though he was not a religious Jew, he planned to represent all streams of Jewry during his trip. "He was a source of pride for all the Jewish communities here," Sechbach said, "and he visited many of them a few years ago. I remember him laughing and saying, 'I'm only 1.70 meters (5 ft. 8 in.), but soon I will be the 'tallest' Israeli in the world.'"
Arutz-7's Kobi Finkler reported other Jewish aspects of Ramon's flight into space:
"When he circled over Jerusalem, he emailed President Katzav that he recited the Shma Yisrael prayer. His friends say that he was always inspired by the Zionist dream. Eight months ago, he and the other astronauts were asked to make a list of personal items they would like to take into space. Ramon chose the following:
"Because his mother was a Holocaust survivor, he took along a drawing of Earth as it might look from the moon, drawn by a boy who died in Auschwitz shortly before the end of the war. As a representative of the State of Israel, he took along a Presidential pennant, as well as flags of the Israel Air Force, the two cities in which he lived - Be'er Sheva and Ramat Gan - and the high school in which he studied. He hung a mezuzah on one of the doors in the spacecraft; he took a silver 'hand' used for reading from the Torah; the world saw him proudly wave his Kiddush cup used on the Sabbath; and in his bag was a Book of Psalms. At every press conference he would proudly say, 'I am an emissary of Zionism and the Jewish People.'"
During a televised video conference with Prime Minister Sharon and other Israelis midway through the trip, Col. Ramon showed Israeli viewers the miniature Torah Scroll he took along with him. During the Holocaust, Holland's Chief Rabbi Dasberg brought the scroll with him to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There he met a boy, Yosef Yehoyachin, to whom he gave Bar Mitzvah lessons using that very Torah scroll - and then charged him with the mission of surviving and telling the story. Yehoyachin lived, arrived in Israel - and became the Israeli scientist who initiated the main experiment Col. Ramon carried out in space. He also gave Ramon that same miniature Torah Scroll to take with him into space - so that the story Rabbi Dasberg had left with him could be told around the world.
Arutz-7's Kobi Finkler reported other Jewish aspects of Ramon's flight into space:
"When he circled over Jerusalem, he emailed President Katzav that he recited the Shma Yisrael prayer. His friends say that he was always inspired by the Zionist dream. Eight months ago, he and the other astronauts were asked to make a list of personal items they would like to take into space. Ramon chose the following:
"Because his mother was a Holocaust survivor, he took along a drawing of Earth as it might look from the moon, drawn by a boy who died in Auschwitz shortly before the end of the war. As a representative of the State of Israel, he took along a Presidential pennant, as well as flags of the Israel Air Force, the two cities in which he lived - Be'er Sheva and Ramat Gan - and the high school in which he studied. He hung a mezuzah on one of the doors in the spacecraft; he took a silver 'hand' used for reading from the Torah; the world saw him proudly wave his Kiddush cup used on the Sabbath; and in his bag was a Book of Psalms. At every press conference he would proudly say, 'I am an emissary of Zionism and the Jewish People.'"
During a televised video conference with Prime Minister Sharon and other Israelis midway through the trip, Col. Ramon showed Israeli viewers the miniature Torah Scroll he took along with him. During the Holocaust, Holland's Chief Rabbi Dasberg brought the scroll with him to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There he met a boy, Yosef Yehoyachin, to whom he gave Bar Mitzvah lessons using that very Torah scroll - and then charged him with the mission of surviving and telling the story. Yehoyachin lived, arrived in Israel - and became the Israeli scientist who initiated the main experiment Col. Ramon carried out in space. He also gave Ramon that same miniature Torah Scroll to take with him into space - so that the story Rabbi Dasberg had left with him could be told around the world.