The Gift of Ilan Ramon

By Sarah Bier
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
KOC Assistant Editor

In the wake of the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, the life of Ilan Ramon has received even more attention than before the disaster. As the first Israeli astronaut, Ramon saw himself as a symbol of the entire Jewish people and decided to observe Jewish traditions in space which he had previously never performed. These actions suddenly took on greater meaning for him; it was as though he was observing the rituals for the entire Jewish people and Israeli society. In addition to the rituals he performed, he took a small Torah, a mezuzah, an Israeli flag and Petr Ginz's "Moon Landscape" drawing with him. In this way, his actions in space united our fragmented Jewish community.

PHOTO: YAD VASHEM

As Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) approaches, I thought of Ginz's picture of the world as viewed from the moon. Ginz drew "Moon Landscape" while in the Theresienstadt ghetto and later died in Auschwitz at age 16. He portrays the moon with jagged spikes and hills in the foreground, while much of the Eastern hemisphere of the earth is visible in the distance, with Ginz's home country and prison--as well as Ramon's country--all visible from the moon.

Despite his horrible experiences, Ginz was able, perhaps forced, to look beyond the grisly present and hope for a future in which he might explore the world from which he was then barred. The landscape depicted shows none of the violence the world was experiencing at the time. The moon is quiet, with a harsh terrain, although Ginz is not directly threatened. In comparison to his reality, the earth looks peaceful from the distance. His life on Earth was so inexplicable that one could say it was "of another world."

This is exactly the view he gains in his drawing. Perhaps he feels the only way to see the earth's beauty is from the solitary environment of the moon. Maybe the only way to experience the earth is to be above it all, because the events here are so horrifying.

PHOTO: NASA

In a way, Ramon was fulfilling Ginz's yearning to be free to explore. Perhaps Ramon's choice of this drawing is symbolic of the freedom Jews can now enjoy. By taking the picture, Ramon was symbolically taking Ginz and all Holocaust victims and survivors with him. Ginz drew the picture out of longing and suffering and Ramon was the embodiment of Ginz's dreams and longing to be free. By observing kashrut and Shabbat, Ramon was taking observant Jews as well as secular Jews with him and was able to include our entire community.

I am always struck by the ability of those who lived in the concentration camps to maintain some semblance of hope and normalcy - and this picture furthers those feelings. It is a devastatingly sad parallel to imagine that the fiery end which destroyed the entire shuttle crew and Ginz's picture, ended similarly to Ginz's own life in the gas chambers and crematorium.

[Posted 3/27/03]