The reality of the life of an Israeli resident is saturated with thousands of significant news events, but only a few of them are burned into the memory.
February 1, 2003, Saturday, at four in the afternoon, we were burned at a moment that accompanies many Israelis to this day.
Lieutenant Colonel Ilan Ramon, a fighter pilot in the Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut, was about to return to Earth with his crew members of the space shuttle "Columbia", after a 16-day journey in space.
At four in the afternoon, the reporters reported that contact with the ferry was lost.
Only a quarter of an hour remained until the long-awaited landing and the moments of joy began to turn into worry.
In a short time the magnitude of the disaster became clear;
The space shuttle disintegrated upon entering the atmosphere.
The shock was great.
The celebratory broadcast turned into a live broadcast of the footage of the spaceship crashing as it leaves behind smoke trails.
The first launch into space of an Israeli astronaut caused great excitement in Israel.
The excitement grew as the space shuttle launch date approached.
This got to the point where Eliezer Wolferman, Ilan Ramon's father, addressed the Israeli media on the day of take-off and asked to "show a little more modesty".
The request was excessive for the Israeli media and also for many citizens who feel a special closeness to Israeli heroes, a sort of part of a large family.
Thus, for example, on the first pages of the Maariv newspaper, the publicist Avraham Tirosh wrote: "We are not ashamed, our hearts beat hard with Ilan Ramon, when he flew through fire and smoke with his friends on the ferry and we are proud of him. It is impossible to remain indifferent in the presence of an Israeli who has the great right to secede So from everything that happens here, to float there in another world, like one of the angels (...) So fly Ramon, cut the sky, hover above it."
Twenty years since the Columbia space shuttle crash and the death of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut February 1, 2022 (without)
Ramon in the simulator, December 1, 2002 (photo: official website, NASA)
Ramon and his family - his wife, Rona and the children - Asaf, Yiftah, Tal and Noa stayed in the United States for about four years, for the purpose of training for the space flight.
As the day of departure approached, Israel followed the preparations with great interest.
The interviews with Ramon endeared him to the Israeli public.
He maintained modesty and businesslikeness and also displayed a sense of humor.
In an interview in English, he stated that when the word "astronaut" is said in Israel, it means a person who is "unconnected".
For the flight, Ramon took with him various objects of symbolic meaning, which also caused a feeling of identification with the first Israeli astronaut.
Among other things, Ramon took with him national and IDF symbols, including the flags of Israel and the Air Force, the Miracle of the President, and more. As the son of a Holocaust survivor and a father who escaped from Nazi Germany, other items he took with him that caused excitement in Israel were those that commemorate the Holocaust - he took with him a copy of the painting "Earth from the Moon " - a painting painted in the Terezin concentration camp by the boy Peter Ginz and a small Torah scroll that he received from Holocaust survivor Professor Yehoyach Yosef, who received it in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In addition, he took with him Jewish symbols including mezuzahs and a dollar that he received from the Rebbe's emissary from Lubavitch.
On January 16, 2003, 17:39 Israel time, "Columbia" took off.
Alongside his family and close friends, senior Air Force officials, representatives of the Israeli Space Agency and Israel's ambassador to the United States watched the launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After takeoff, the family members who remained on the ground were given letters left by their loved ones.
"That's when I burst into tears," said Rona Ramon at the time.
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Ilan Ramon's funeral, February 10, 2003 (Photo: Government Press Office, Avi Ohion)
During the 16 days in space the public followed with great interest after the many reports.
I remember a conversation that Ramon had with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Minister of Education and Science, Limor Livnat.
Ramon told them about the experience of floating in space and described what Israel looks like from a height of hundreds of kilometers above the ground.
"The Land of Israel looks the same from here as it does on the map: small but lovely. We have a wonderful people, and it is very important to preserve the heritage," said Ramon.
Ramon delivered other messages, including messages to his loved ones;
"I can't wait until I see you. A big hug to Rona and the kids," was one of his messages.
One day Rona sent a song back to her partner.
It was a poem by Rachel the poetess "Zemar Noga" to the tune of Shmulik Kraus.
76 years earlier, Rachel Blovstein wrote the song in a small, shabby attic in a house in Tel Aviv, when she was sick and lonely, five years before she died and she was only 41 years old. She probably wrote the song for her lover.
Nearly eighty years after it was written by the famous poetess and 36 years after it was composed, another layer has now been added to the song;
Anticipation of meeting and "meeting paths".
At that moment, the poet's words about the "parting ways forever" were pushed to the sidelines.
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Press clippings about the launch and crash of the Columbia ferry, February 2, 2003 (Photo: Maariv)
On Saturday, February 1, 2003, anticipation and excitement gave way to shock and then to grief.
The disaster hit many people and the atmosphere throughout the country was difficult.
Nine days later the coffin arrived in Israel.
"Ramon embodies Israel as we want to see it," said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the airport.
From there the Ark continued north, to the Jezreel Valley.
Ramon's funeral was held a day later.
It was a modest funeral and it was held in the cemetery of Moshav Nahalel, near the Ramat-David air force base, where Ramon commanded a squadron of 16-F aircraft.
"Ilan, like Moses, failed to enter the Promised Land," said the bereaved father, Eliezer Wolferman.
The eldest son, Assaf, said Kaddish.
Now another layer has been added to the song "Zemar Noga" and it has taken on a particularly painful meaning:
Hear my voice, my distant one,
hear my voice, where are you - a
voice calling loudly, a voice weeping for my
blood and above the prescribed time a blessing?
This spice is many and there are many ways in it.
Meet for a while, part forever.
A man who seeks, however weak his legs,
will not be able to find what he has lost.
The last days of my life are almost at hand,
the day of tears of parting is almost at hand,
I will wait for you until my life is extinguished,
like Rachel's eyes for her aunt.
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