The Jewish world is amused and charmed by the impending blast-off of Tel Aviv-based designer Laura Cowan's space-themed mezuzot, but these certainly won't be the first pieces of Judaica
to rocket to the moon. Here are five Jewish astronauts who reached for
the stars and brought their dreidels along for the ride.
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Gregory Chamitoff:
He's the astronaut behind the Laura Cowan story that has everyone all
starry-eyed. He'll be taking a couple of Cowan's rocket-inspired
mezuzot with him when he leaves for the International Space Station in
May. |
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Jeffrey Hoffman: This dedicated Jewish spaceman has carried various Judaic objects on his missions. He's especially notorious for bringing a Torah into space for the first time ever during his 1996 mission aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. The sacred scroll was wrapped in his grandfather's tallit katan. |
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David Wolf: With a number of shuttle flights and a four-month layover at the Russian space station Mir under his belt, Jewish astronaut David Wolf says that his first spacewalk was a religious experience. Other religious experiences he's had in space? Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and Hanukka, for which he brought a menorah that he couldn't light due to fire hazards, and a dreidel that he estimates spun "about 25,000 miles." |
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Ilan Ramon: Famous for having been the first Israeli astronaut, Ramon was also the first to request kosher food in space, and to request input from rabbis on
observing Shabbat while in orbit. In addition to a kiddush cup, he carried a pencil sketch drawn by 14-year-old Peter Ginz, who died in Auschwitz, along with him on the Space Shuttle Columbia. The sketch was titled "Moon Landscape," and was the Yad Vashem collection. Ramon perished along with the entire crew of Columbia upon re-entry in 2003. |
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Garrett E. Reisman: In a tribute to Ilan Ramon, Reisman brought a memento from Ramon's widow on his first trip to space aboard Endeavour. |
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Anonymous
jews in space
um...you didn't mention judith resnik who flew on the shuttle in 1984 and died in the Challenger explosion in '86
Helen Jupiter
This is a list
of Jewish astronauts who brought Judaica with them into space. I couldn't find any documentation of Resnik having done that. Can you?
Member of the M...
Thanks Helen
Thanks for the summary! I'd never paid attention to Judaica in space
before owning a Judaica store. I linked to this article from
ModernTribe. We sell one of the two mezuzot going in May.
-- Jennie
Helen Jupiter
Sup Jennie!
Nice to see you on the Jewce! ModernTribe rocks.
Anonymous
just saw that
you have Laura Cowans' seder plate on the Jewcy store site - but not the mezzuzah. Is Jewcy planning on carrying more of her stuff. Also loved the 'chest' clocks and key hangers - so funny.
Anonymous
jews in space
I meant she WAS the judaica. I know she hated being called the first Jewish astronaut...cause it technically wasn't true ( A Soviet cosmonaut was).
I did write about the shuttle program for the CBS Evening News..among other subjects.. for many years..including the Challenger disaster..and you're right...in all of the personal stuff retrieved after the shuttle exploded and in the writings about what they took with them, I did not read about anything specifically that resnik took up with her that would qualify as judaica. She did take a ring and a locket for relatives, but don't know if they had any religious significance.
I guess it just struck me as odd that the judaica was more important than the jew.
no disrespect intended.. I enjoyed your article very much.
Helen Jupiter
Yep
At some point in the (hopefully near) future, we'll have more of Laura's stuff in the Jewcy shop.
And Anon 7:11, thanks for clarifying. :-)
Yaakov
Jews in space
Helen,
Interesting post. Did you contact any of the Jewish astronauts who were not listed to see whether they had brought judaica with them? Boris Volynov, the first Jew in space is still alive. I wonder if he brought anything with him. If he did, he likely wouldn't have publicized that.
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