A Modern Hero for Israel

By Kathy Bloomfield

On Thursday, January 16, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida to begin a two-week scientific mission. One of the seven crew members on board was Colonel Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut. Because of its uneventful mission (no space walks or dockings), the take-off warranted little more than a few sentences on American nightly news broadcasts. Unfortunately, two weeks later, there would be few people in America or in the world who were not aware of the Columbia, its brave crew members, and the mission’s tragic end.

Ilan Ramon was born on June 20, 1954. His mother is a Holocaust survivor and his father fought in Israel’s War of Independence. Husband to Rona Bar Simantov and father of four children, he was loved and highly regarded by most everyone who knew him. By all accounts he was exactly the right person to have been selected as Israel’s first astronaut.

Because he felt he was representing not only Israel, but the Jewish people as a whole, Ramon took Jewish symbols with him into space along with photos and letters from his family. As a child of a Holocaust survivor, he decided to bring a copy of a drawing, entitled Moon Landscape, by 14-year-old Petr Ginz who died in Auschwitz, as well as a mezuzah, a pocket-sized Torah scroll, a Kiddush cup (so that he could welcome the Sabbath during his shuttle mission), and an Israeli flag.

Each of four new books for children and young adults about Colonel Ramon share similarities—the facts are, after all, the facts.  Still, each tends to have a slightly different focus, and all four are valuable tributes to this Israeli hero. 

 

Journey of Hope
The Story of Ilan Ramon, Israel’s First Astronaut
By Alan D. Abbey
Illustrated with photographs.
54 pages. Gefen Publishing House. $10.
Ages 11 and older.

Published last May, this was the first book about Colonel Ramon to hit the shelves. It duly provides the basic outline of Ramon’s life, but concentrates primarily on Ramon's time with the Israeli Air Force, his training at NASA, his feelings about being Israel’s first astronaut, and his thoughts about space.

One piece of history exclusively covered here is Ramon’s participation in the 1981 Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad. According to retired Colonel Ze’ev Raz, the commander of that mission, "Ilan selected the attack route, and navigated and planned fuel consumption for the four-hour round-trip over hostile territory." Another strength in Allen Abbey's version of this story is the dramatic minute-by-minute account of the last moments of the shuttle’s flight. Transcripts of the Mission Control dialogue following the first sign of trouble had me holding my breath as I read.

Journey of Hope is an excellent choice for older readers interested in Ramon's training and experiences aboard the shuttle. The chapters are much longer than the other books reviewed here, and contain concepts more appropriate to upper middle school and older students.

 

ILAN RAMON
Israel's First Astronaut
By Tanya Lee Stone
Illustrated with photographs
48 pages. The Millbrook Press, Inc. $7.95.
Ages 9-12.

Tanya Lee Stone's biography is the book your children will likely find in their local or school library when they want to write a report about Colonel Ramon. The brief chapters contain the usual facts about Ramon and his life, and why and how he was chosen to be Israel’s first astronaut. Everyone but Ramon seemed to know that he was the best choice for the job: "'They came and tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I wanted to be an astronaut,' he said later. 'It came completely out of the blue. Of course, I did not refuse.'"

Stone documents Ramon's enthusiasm for the Space Technology and Research Students (STARS) program. He said about the program, “‘What is exciting about STARS is that the students are the one[s] who had the idea, planned the experiment, planned how it worked, participated in putting the hardware together, and of course analyze it post flight.’” Students from Australia, Lichtenstein, China, Japan, America, and Israel created experiments that traveled on the shuttle.

Sidebars about life in space—“What is a Space Shuttle,” “Astronaut Jobs,”  “Food in Space”—and a detailed “Science in Space” section round out this book. Younger children (second through fourth graders, for example), particularly those already interested in space travel and astronauts, will enjoy this title very much.

 

ILAN RAMON
Israel's Space Hero
By Barbara Sofer
Illustrated with black & white photographs.
60 pages. Kar-Ben Publishing. $16.95 hardcover, $6.95 paperback.
Ages 9-12

Barbara Sofer's Ilan Ramon is perhaps the best of the children's books on the topic, because of its focus on the astronaut's childhood. To prepare this excellent book, Sofer, author of Shalom, Haver and Kids Love Israel, Israel Loves Kids, carefully researched Ramon's life and talked with the people who knew him best.

We learn that Ilan went to Be’eri Elementary School in Beersheva, where his father worked at the Dimona nuclear plant. “His favorite subjects were Arithmetic and Nature, which included learning about science and hiking around Beersheva.” His Bar Mitzvah took place “in the happy days following the Six Day War. Everyone rejoiced and shared stories of the war. In particular they talked about the skill and daring of the fighter pilots.”

Years later, Ramon recalled: "'When I was a kid growing up, nobody in Israel ever dreamed of being an astronaut, because it wasn’t on the agenda…There were no Israeli astronauts. So I never thought I could become one. When I was selected, I really jumped almost to space. I was very excited.'"

Ramon desired to represent not only Israel but all of the Jewish people; as such he “decided he would eat only kosher food on the flight, even though he wasn’t an observant Jew. NASA found a food supplier who could package kosher food in bags suitable for preservation in space…On the space ship, the sun rises and sets every 90 minutes, so Ilan asked a rabbi when he should celebrate the weekly Sabbath. They agreed he would follow Cape Canaveral time.”

The book continues to describe the inspiration Ramon provided for Israeli and Jewish children, and the messages he sent from orbit: "Ilan called on every Jew in the world to plant a tree in the Land of Israel during the coming year. That would equal thirteen million trees!"

Overall, this is a wonderful tribute to Ilan Ramon and a very satisfying book for children aged nine to twelve.

 

KEEPING THE PROMISE
A Torah's Journey
By Tami Lehman-Wilzig
Illustrated by Craig Orback
32 pages. Kar-Ben Publishing. $16.95 hardcover, $6.95 paperback.
Ages 9-12

The Torah scroll Ilan Ramon brought to space had a story of its own, documented in Keeping the Promise by Tami Lehman-Wilzig.  So small it could fit inside a jacket pocket, the Torah had once belonged to Rabbi Simon Dasberg who lived in Groningen, Holland before WWII. Dasberg was deported to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp; there he noticed a young boy, about Bar Mitzvah age, in his barracks. Using the scroll, he taught this boy to read from the Torah so that he could celebrate his Bar Mitzvah properly. Along with other gifts the boy received—scraps of bread, sausage and chocolate—he was also given the Torah.  "Keep this little Torah scroll," the rabbi tells him, "And promise that you will tell the story."

Ramon heard this story from the boy himself, who had grown up to be a professor, Joachim Joseph, who worked on one of the experiments carried into space by the Columbia. Ramon asked if he might bring the Torah with him, as well.  Showing it to the world while in orbit, Ramon said, "This little Sefer Torah in particular shows the ability of the Jewish people to survive everything, even the darkest of times, and to always look forward with hope and faith for the future." Although the little Torah was never recovered after the Columbia tragedy, Professor Joseph believes he fulfilled Rabbi Dasberg’s request to tell the story of what the scroll and the Jewish people had endured during the Holocaust.

Keeping the Promise is a beautiful book with a beautiful message. The illustrations by Craig Orback convey the darkness of the times without being too depressing. Despite being a picture book, the story is a difficult and emotional one. I would not recommend it for very young children, but it would be appropriate to teach grade school children about the Holocaust.