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I'm sure most of you have heard of the spacecraft that Israel has launched last week to the moon, named Beresheet. What most of you have probably not heard about, is the story of one of the project leaders, the system engineering manager, Alex Friedman.
Alex was born in the Soviet Union, where it was forbidden to practice and spread Judaism. His father, a Chabad Chassid, was arrested shortly before he was born because of his Jewish activities, and spent seven years in Soviet prisons. Alex saw his father for the first time when he was in 1st grade. Practicing Judaism continued to be a challenge. He had to receive sick notes from doctors in order not to attend school on Shabbat.
He was a brilliant student, but as a Jew, he was not admitted to the prestigious Department of Physics. So he chose mathematics instead. Only after years of struggle, in 1970, did Alex Friedman’s family receive permission to emigrate to Israel, where Friedman joined the Israel Air Force, IAI, and Israel’s space industry.
In recent years, he has worked days and nights on the launching of the first Israeli spacecraft to the moon. “This is an inspiring event,″ he said recently. “For me, it is also the closing of a personal and national circle…″
“The boy from Russia who was not accepted to study physics because he was a Jew is now part of a team that is sending off a spacecraft containing a disk with the entire Hebrew Bible scanned onto it and an Israeli flag.″
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Mendel and Nehama Hendel