Tiny Torah Returned to Owner After Shuttle Trip

The tiny Torah's most recent journey took it to inner space in September aboard the shuttle Atlantis. It was carried by astronaut Steve MacLean in honor of Col. Ilan Ramon, who perished aboard Columbia in 2003, at the request of Ramon's widow, Rona.

Delivered safely back to Earth Sept. 21, 2006, the professor's scroll will be presented back to Fenichel, a Holocaust survivor, in a Tuesday, Dec. 5, ceremony at Hebrew Union College. Rona Ramon and Steve MacLean will make the presentation.

The scroll and its story, says Fenichel, are hopeful and far-reaching in scope. Given to Fenichel by elderly relatives who escaped from Nazi Germany, the Torah's origins are unknown. Its cross-cultural mission, however, is clear.

"With a Christian taking it up on the Atlantis and participating in this spiritual activity, I'm hopeful that it symbolizes a promise for a new beginning, or at least a shining example of respect between cultures and religions," Fenichel said.

The Torah's trip into space also symbolizes an almost eerie set of parallels linking Fenichel to the man who gave Ilan Ramon a miniature Torah he carried aboard Columbia, and also to the Ramon family.

Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, was the son of a Holocaust survivor. He took with him on the ill-fated Columbia a miniature Torah that had survived Bergen Belsen concentration camp in the possession of a Dutch Jewish boy. That boy, Joachim Joseph, studied for his bar mitzvah with Rabbi Simon Dasberg, chief rabbi of Holland, while at Bergen Belsen.

Dasberg gave a small Torah scroll to Joseph, who in turn would become an astrophysicist better known as "Yoya," and serve as a mentor to Ilan Ramon. Joseph, of Tel-Aviv University, initiated the main experiment Ramon was to work on in space, and gave him the small Torah to take on his journey.

At the same time that Joseph studied for his bar mitzvah at the concentration camp, 6-year-old Henry Fenichel and his mother, Paula, of Holland, were also prisoners at Bergen Belsen. Fenichel later was moved to Palestine with his mother. He eventually wound up in the United States with family, arriving in New York in 1953 on the maiden voyage of the Andrea Doria. He earned his PhD in physics at Rutgers University and taught at UC from 1964 until 2003.

Earlier this year, Fenichel, who often speaks with children about his experiences, participated in a videoconference dialogue between children in Cincinnati and in Netanya, Israel – the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati's Partnership City. Two of those participating were Rona Ramon and Joachim Joseph. Ramon was very moved by Fenichel's story, and later asked the professor to allow his Torah to be carried into space. Also moved was Atlantis astronaut Steve MacLean, the second Canadian to walk in space.

"He knew enough about it to say this is remarkable, and that he wanted to include the Torah in what he requested to take up with him," said Racelle Weiman, founding director of The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education.

Sara Weiss, acting director of the center, said Fenichel's story, and its global ties, has "inspired so many local individuals."

"We expect a packed house of people waiting to hear this moving story and the story of the Torah's return," she said.

That, Fenichel said, "was the original plan of the rabbi in the concentration camp."

"When he knew he wouldn't survive, he hoped that the boy, and the little symbolic Torah, would tell the story," Fenichel said. "When I was asked to do this, I agreed – if for no other reason than it helps Rona Ramon bring a certain chapter in her life to some closure."

The story also has meaning for those who look for absolutes in religion and/or science --physicists included.

"Being scientists, we always think there are scientific answers and solutions," said Fenichel.
"There are always certain unanswered questions, though, that leave questions in our minds. In this situation, there were secular scientists involved in this project. Yet the Torah sort of represents the survival of the Jewish people, the ability to rise from the depths of despair in the Holocaust and reach for the stars."

Details on Tuesday's ceremony