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ffiMBHI 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. ■ Tg y. 1 mmtmm LtJti Ji\iJ AU jvJh UhOEulA NcAHFAPEn FHUJtCr Vi A In LIBRARY sJNI Y Op JcUn’ol A ATHEN 5 UA JUoUE