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The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry • Since 1925
VoL LX1I Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, January 31, 1986 No. 5
1
NASA disaster
Judith Resnick one of seven space shuttle victim
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (JTA)
—The explosion of the space shuttle
Challenger about a minute after
launching here Tuesday took the
lives of all seven aboard, including
Dr. Judith Resnick, the first Jewish
woman astronaut.
The victims of the worst disaster
in the history of the American
space program were U.S. Navy
Commander Francis Scobee, com
mander of the shuttle; Michael
Smith, pilot; Ellison Onizuka, Ron
McNair and Resnick, all mission
specialists; and Greg Jarvis, a
specialist of the Hughes Aircraft
Company.
In addition, there was one civilian
passenger, Christa McAuliffe, a
New Hampshire public school teacher
who was to have broadcast two 15-
minute lessons to school children
all over the IJ.S. and Canada while
the Challenger was in orbit.
The 100-ton, multi-million dollar
spacecraft lifted off at 1 1:38 a.m.
Tuesday in what officials of the
National Aeronautics and Space
Agency (NASA) said wasa“perfect
launch.” About a minute later it
burst into a fireball and smoking
debris plunged into the Atlantic
about nine miies down range.
In June 1984, Resnick, then 35,
became the second woman to go
into space. She and five male crew
members of the Orbiter Discovery
were on a seven-day scientific mission.
Born in Cleveland, she grew up in
Akron, Ohio, and earned a bachelor’s
degree in electrical engineering at
Carnegie-Mellon University in 1970.
She was subsequently employed as
a design engineer by RCA and in
that capacity worked on several
NASA projects.
From 1974-77 Resnick was a
biomedical engineer and staff fellow
in the Laboratory of Neurophysiology
at the National Institute of Health
in Bethesda, Md. In 1977 she received
a doctorate in electrical engineering
from the University of Maryland.
Before her selection by NASA
for space flight training in 1978,
she was a senior systems engineer
in product development with the
Xerox Corporation at El Segundo,
Calif. After completing her year's
training as an astronaut, she worked
on projects related to development
of Orbiter Discovery.
Resnick’s paternal grandparents
came from Kiev. They left Russia
in the late 1920s and settled in
Palestine beforecomingtothe United
States. Her father attended a yeshiva
in Palestine.
Her family moved to Cleveland
where her grandfather, Jacob, was
a shochet, and her grandmother,
Anna, worked for Jewish organiza
tions. Her father. Dr. Marvin Resnick,
was active in many Jewish causes.
Resnick attended Hebrew school
in Cleveland and became a bat
mitzva there.
The disaster that overtook space
shuttle Challenger followed a series
of cancelled launchings due partly
to technical problems and partly to
weather conditions. There were no
immediate indications as to what
cause# the spacecraft to explode.
Astronaut Judith Resnick: April 5, 1949-January 28. 1986.
Face-to-face
Atlantans gain ‘special spirit’ on mission to Israel
Panim El Panim, a community
wide mission to Israel, has infused
Atlanta with a special Jewish spirit
and camaraderie. The trip, sponsored
by the Atlanta Jewish Federation
in cooperation with Atlanta's syna
gogues, brought 185 people “face
to face" with the people and land of
Israel. It was the largest UJA mission
to Israel from a single community.
The group was diverse, made up
of men and women of all ages and
from all sectors of the community.
It included first time travelers to
Israel as well as repeat visitors. But
everyone on the mission shared the
same desire to travel to Israel, and
all came away with a renewed
understanding of the country.
The trip got off to an exciting
start with a very special reunion
between the mission participants
and some 160 Atlantans and other
Georgians living or studying in
Israel. Old friendships were renewed,
and new ones started, deepening
the bond between the two communi
ties. David Geffen, a former Atlantan,
helped organize the reception.
Another highlight of the mission
was a visit to Yehud, Atlanta’s
Project Renewal sister city. Mission
participants had the opportunity
to meet with the residents of Yehud
and to experience the close friendship
which exists between Yehud and
Atlanta. They also saw' some of the
program and buildings which now
No, it wasn’t a wedding. Gerald Cohen, Federation president, celebrates the conclusion of successful Panim-EI-
Panim Mission at the farewell dinner. For more photographs of the mission, see pages 12 and 13.
exist in Yehud, thanks to Project school classroom was dedicated to and a Pedagogic Center to Jack
Renewal. During the visit a pre- Harvey and Betty Ann Jacobson, and Phyllis Freedman, for their
contributions to Project Renewal.
Helen Cavalier was honored for
her efforts on behalf of Yehud in
the annual Walk for Israel, with
the dedication of a garden in her
name. The group was officially
welcomed to Yehud by the city’s
mayor, and was greeted by Thomas
Pickring,the U.S. ambassador to
Israel.
A wall of honor was dedicated
listing the names of all individuals
who have made a contribution of
SI,000 or more to Project Renewal.
The mission included visits to a
Youth Aliyah center, an Ethiopian
absorption center, an airforce base,
a kibbutz. Yad Va Shem, Massada,
the Dead Sea, and the military
cemetery at Mt. Herzl. Rabbi Arnold
Goodman and Rabbi Alvin Sugarman
also took interested individuals to
Conservative and Reform movement
settlements in Israel.
The size and nature of the mission
enabled participants to learn more
about Atlanta’s Jewish community
as well as Israeli society. They
demonstrated their commitment to
their community on the mission
with an 83 percent increase in
pledges to the 1986 Federation
Campaign. All have come back
excited about participating in this
year’s Federation Campaign, and
eager to become more involved in
local Jewish organizations.
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