Space

On his shuttle flight, Dr. Wolf brought a
microfilm of the Torah, a shofar and a Torah
pointer, which he donated to his Indianapolis
synagogue. These, he said, "have orbited the
earth 226 times and traveled 6 million
miles."
udy Resnik called her father Abba legal secretary. She also
Resnik got her doctor-
and her grandmother Bubbie. Her had a younger brother,
Also on Dr. Wolfs flight was Dr. Martin
ate in electrical engineer-
Fettinan, a Colorado veterinarian. The flight
grandfather was a rabbi; her Charles.
ing at the University of
marked the first time in NASA's history that
father, an optometrist, trained as
Ms. Resnik showed a
Maryland in 1977. She
two Jews had flown aboard a shuttle.
a cantor.
propensity for math and
worked as a biomedical
Although Dr. Fetluian works for Colorado
She went to Sunday School and had science at a young age. In
engineer at the National
State University, he was on contract to
her bat mitzvah and confirmation at a yearbook photo of the
Institutes of Health and
NASA for the mission. A 38-year-old Brook-
Temple Beth El in Akron, Ohio. In 1984, math club, she's the only
lyn, N.Y., native, he was raised in an
in product development
before
her first flight in space, the syn- girl among 14 boys. She
Orthodox home.
with Xerox Corp. before
agogue's Rabbi Abraham Feffer recited scored a perfect 800 on
"I believe in God," he said, "but people are
being selected as an as-
to her the traditional Jewish blessing both the math and verbal
always disappointed to hear I didn't have
tronaut in 1978. Chosen
before travel: "May you go in peace. May sections of the SATs.
a great religious experience in orbit."
from more than 8,000 as-
you come in peace."
The vet, who took a friend's mezuzah into
She graduated from
tronauts, she said at the
space with him, monitored the health of the
But Judy Resnik didn't want to be Akron's Firestone High Judy Resnik simply wanted
time:
"This is the first
animals in orbit and helped perform gravity
known as "the Jewish astronaut." Un- School in 1966. Her par- to do her job and fulfill her dream semester since I was four
experiments on the astronauts.
comfortable with public appearances ents had divorced a year of becoming an astronaut.
that I haven't been in
"I enjoyed it immensely," said Dr.
but determined to travel in space, she before and her mother re-
school."
Fetiman. "It puts things into perspective.
wanted simply to do her job and fulfill tamed custody of the children. But just
Whatever God is is a lot bigger than us. I
Although Resnik and Sally Ride
her dream of becoming an astronaut.
before she entered college, Ms. Resnik joined the astronaut program at the
can't accept the world having developed with-
She died on Jan. 28, 1986, in the ex- successfully petitioned the court to give same time, NASA decided to make Sal-
out a higher order. That's what God is, that
plosion of the shuttle Challenger.
unknown origin."
her father custody of herself.
ly Ride the first woman astronaut be-
As a child, her extended family gath-
Jay Apt, who has flown on three shuttles,
Courted by many colleges, she chose cause Ms. Ride seemed to handle the
doesn't believe in God.
ered each Friday night in Cleveland to Carnegie-Mellon University in Pitts- press attention better.
"According to physics theory," he said, 'the
welcome Shabbat. The meal was always burgh. She graduated in 1970 with a
She flew on the first flight of the or-
formation of life was liable to be quite an
the same, according to "Judith Resnik: bachelor's degree in electrical engineer- biter Discovery on Aug. 30, 1984. A wide-
accident. My attitude toward any larger force
Challenger Astronaut," by Joanne E. ing.
ly publicized photo shows Ms Resnik,
that helped shape the cosmos hasn't
Bernstein
and Rose Blue with Alan Jay
In 1970, Resnik married a Jewish wearing a polo shirt and shorts, demon-
changed."
Gerber: gefilte fish, chicken soup and man she had met in college, Michael strating the lack of gravity in the cabin,
Mr. Apt grew up in Pittsburgh, where he
chicken
with roasted potatoes.
Oldak. The couple took engineering jobs her dark, curly hair floating above her.
and his family attended the Reform Rodef
Her father, Marvin, was an op- with RCA in Moorestown, N.J. But in In front of the closed- circuit TV camera,
Shalom Congregation and he was president
tometrist; her mother, Sarah, a former 1975, they separated, and later divorced. she wrote the message "Hi Dad."
of his temple youth group. He attended some
Hillel activities at Harvard, but calls him-
self "not a very spiritual person."
"The strength of Judaism is that it's a good
basis for interpersonal ethics," he said.
`That's important for a large project like the
space program. Your life depends on other
people in the cockpit."
Mr. Apt said he hasn't joined a synagogue
in Houston, where the space program is
based, because there is no Reform congre-
gation nearby. But Mr. Hoffman, who has
orbited on four space flights, has been a
board member for three years in his Houston
congregation, the Conservative Brith
Shalom.
As a youth, Mr. Hoffman, 50, attended a
Reform temple, the Jewish Community Cen-
ter of White Plains, N.Y. He was bar mitz-
vah and confirmed there and taught in the
Sunday school as an 11th- and 12th-grader.
After graduating from Amherst College,
he received a doctorate in astrophysics from
Harvard in 1971.
In 1985, while preparing for his first space
flight, he consulted with his rabbi at the time,
Arnold Stiebel of Shaar Hashalom syna-
gogue in Houston.
'It occurred to me that I should take some-
thing for our synagogue," Mr. Hoffman said.
Rabbi Stiebel put him in touch with several
Jewish artists, who gave him mezuzahs and
a pair of atarot, or sashes with Hebrew
writing that are worn on the neck of the
tallis.
Mr. Hoffman packed them into a cigarette
carton for the space journey, but he was un-
able to take them out during the Discovery
Astronaut Hoffman displays tools used on space walks.

The First Jewish Astronaut

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