By Joe Spier
CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — It was 1944 in the Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen and a young Dutch boy, Yoachim Yosef was nearing his 13th birthday. Among the inmates was the former Chief Rabbi of Holland who prepared the boy for his bar mitzvah.
Each morning they would secretly study Torah on a miniature scroll the Rabbi had smuggled into the camp. On the morning of the bar mitzvah, the inmates gathered before dawn to hear Yosef read his Torah portion. That evening the Rabbi, who was certain he would perish in the camp, gave the small Torah to the boy. The Rabbi was killed two months later. Yosef survived and when he came to Israel, he brought the Torah scroll with him. Almost 60 years later, from the depths of the Holocaust, that tiny Torah scroll would end up in the vast expanse of outer space.
Ilan Wolferman was born on June 20, 1954 in Ramat Gan, the son of Eliezer Wolferman, who fled Germany in 1935 and fought in Israel’s War of Independence, and his wife Tova, an Auschwitz survivor, who arrived in Israel in 1949.
At age 16, a neighbor took Ilan for a ride in an airplane and he was hooked on flying. Two years later, Ilan was accepted into the Israel AirForce flight school and at age 20, he graduated as a fighter pilot, first in his class. Afterward, following the example of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion who urged Israeli soldiers to take a Hebrew name as he had done, Ilan changed his last name to the more hebraicized, Ramon.
Ilan Ramon, a natural pilot, first trained on and flew the A-4 Skyhawk ground-attack aircraft, then the Mirage interceptor and finally the F-16 Fighting Falcon multi-role jet fighter, one of the first Israelis to fly that aircraft.
On June 17, 1981, 8 F-16 Fighting Falcons, each with a payload of 2 unguided 2000-pound delay-action bombs took off from Israel’s Etzion Airbase and flew low over Jordan and Saudi Arabia in order to avoid radar detection. Approaching their target each aircraft jettisoned their external fuel tanks, climbed to 2,100 meters, and went into a 35-degree dive. Then at 1,100 meters, each released their bombs in pairs, all 16 weapons struck their target. As the anti-aircraft defenses opened fire, the squadron climbed to 12,200 meters and safely returned to Israel. Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor complex had been destroyed ending that nation’s nuclear ambitions. Occupying the last F-16 to drop its bombs was 27 year old, Ilan Ramon, the youngest of the pilots who had been selected for the flight. Ilan had volunteered to bring up the vulnerable rear of the formation, the most likely to draw Iraqi fire.
In 1983, Ilan took time off from the military to obtain a degree in electronics and computer engineering from Tel Aviv University where he met and married his wife, Rona Bar Simantov. They would have four children, Assaf, Tal, Yiftah and Noa. Ilan returned to the AirForce in 1988, serving as a deputy squadron commander and then squadron commander. In 1994, he was promoted to colonel and placed in charge of developing weapons systems for the entire IAF.
In December 1995, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Israeli President Shimon Peres announced that Israel would choose someone to become an astronaut in the U.S. space program. A year later, Ilan Ramon received a phone call, which would change his life. He had been selected to be Israel’s first astronaut. No one, other than Ilan, was surprised. He was the natural choice. In July 1998, Ilan, his wife Rona and their four children moved to Houston, Texas where, joining six American astronauts at the Johnson Space Center, he trained in every aspect of the Columbia space shuttle mission that was scheduled to launch in 2001. His children enrolled in a public school and the Ramon family joined a synagogue.
As the time for the launch of the space shuttle Columbia approached, Ilan aware that he represented the entire Jewish people and though not a religious person requested kosher food in space. Those meals were found at a company that sold certified kosher food in “thermo-stabilized” sealed pouches for campers.
Ilan also asked to be excused from work on Shabbat. But a day-night cycle in orbit is 90 minutes, and therefore Shabbat in space occurs every ten and one-half hours. It was a “Jerusalem we have a problem” dilemma and the predicament was laid before some of the world’s leading rabbinic authorities who ruled that Ilan could observe Shabbat in accordance with the place of his departure from earth, Cape Canaveral.
In addition to the Israeli flag patch sewn onto his space suit, Ilan selected three items to take with him into space. A mezuzah fringed with bits of barbed wire, symbolizing the spiritual resistance within the confines of the Nazi concentration camps and ghettos. A small pencil sketch entitled “Moon Landscape” drawn by 14-year-old Petr Ginz who died in Auschwitz, which was the boy’s vision of earth as seen from the moon – the space journey fulfilling the dream of the boy some 58 years later. And the Torah scroll carried out of Bergen-Belson by the young Dutch boy, Yoachim Yosef now an atmospheric physicist in Israel and a mentor to Ilan.
By the respect he showed for the Jewish religion while in space and his decision to honour his Jewish heritage through the objects he took with him, Ilan Ramon became a true hero not only for the State of Israel but also for all the Jewish people.
After 18 delays, the Columbia with Ilan and six American astronauts on board launched into space on January 16, 2003. Millions in Israel watched the live broadcast with pride and happiness. Jews everywhere celebrated. Shortly after lift-off, a small piece of foam insulation broke off the external fuel tank striking the left wing. Mission Control Center was not concerned.
In space, Ilan Ramon made Kiddush on Shabbat and as the shuttle flew over Jerusalem, recited the “Shema Yisrael” prayer.
Completing a 16-day successful mission, on February 1 at 9 A.M., as Columbia was re-entering the atmosphere all communication was lost. Bright flashes and a loud boom followed the silence. Damage to the left wing caused by the foam strike allowed hot gasses to penetrate the wing structure breaking up the vehicle. Columbia disintegrated over Texas just minutes before landing. The debris was scattered over three states. At 2 P.M., President George W. Bush announced to the world, “The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors.” The body of Colonel Ilan Ramon was positively identified and his remains were flown to Israel for burial. He was 48 years old.
Assaf Ramon was 14 when his father Ilan died. Following in his father’s footsteps, six years after the Columbia tragedy, Assaf was accepted into the Israel AirForce fighter pilot school.
When Assaf was five, he told his kindergarten teacher that he was not sure whether he wanted to be a pilot or an artist. “Now I have given up on being an artist and am going to be a pilot,” Assaf commented as he entered the academy. He spoke of his love of flying and his deep desire to serve the nation. He also dreamed of the possibility of becoming an astronaut like his father.
In Israel, bereaved parents who have lost a loved one must sign a consent form for their children to serve in combat units. To fulfill her son’s wishes, Assaf’s mother, Rona signed the document.
In June 2009, Assaf completed the pilot’s course, receiving the “Sword of Honor” as the top cadet. Like his father, Assaf was class valedictorian. President Shimon Peres attended the graduation ceremony to personally pin the “flying wings” on Assaf. As he did so, Peres whispered the eternal biblical words from Genesis 22:12 “Lay not thine hand upon the lad.”
Later Assaf made plans with his girlfriend Adi to go to the Arad Festival on his next break.
On September 13, 2009, at 12:30 P.M., Assaf and his roommate took off from a Negev airfield, each flying F-16 Fighting Falcons, the same aircraft Assaf’s father flew on the Iraqi nuclear reactor strike. They were to practice high altitude mock aerial dogfight maneuvers. Flying over the southern Hevron Hills at approximately 700 kilometers an hour, the roommate lost sight of the other aircraft. Assaf’s plane began to dive towards the ground and all communication was lost. A huge ball of smoke was seen as the plane crashed into the ground and then fire erupted. Assaf was unable to eject and did not survive. He was 21 years old.
Eleven days after the space shuttle Columbia disaster, on February 11, 2003, Colonel Ilan Ramon was laid to rest in the Moshav Nahalal cemetery in the Jezreel Valley. Only family and friends attended the quiet funeral. Of Ilan Ramon, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said; “On his last mission he soared higher than any other Israeli and realized his dream”.
On September 14, 2009, Captain Assaf Ramon was laid to rest in the Nahalal cemetery beside his father. The casket was carried by six of his pilot friends behind whom walked his mother Rona, his brothers Tal and Yiftah and his sister Noa. Rona addressed her departed son; “I know your father is watching you now, holding you and loving you. To me you are king of the world.”
Assaf had always said that he wanted to be an astronaut like his father because “I believe that it will make me closer to him.” In the saddest of circumstances, buried alongside his father, Assaf’s wish came true.
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Spier is a retired lawyer with a keen interest in Jewish history. You may contact him via joe.spier@sdjewishworld.com