Israel Is Sending Holocaust Testimony And A Torah To The Moon

The Israeli space craft is set to launch on Thursday night. Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer December 19, 2018

In the beginning there was nothing, and darkness hung upon the face of the deep. In 2019, there will be many things: Books of science, technology, art, and literature, children’s artwork, the Declaration of Independence, a Torah, the testimony of a Holocaust survivor. And, courtesy of Israeli engineering and Jewish philanthropy, they’ll all be on the moon.

One small step for Israel, one giant step for… actually it’s a giant step, period.

Israel plans to launch a spacecraft — dubbed Beresheet, Genesis — to the moon in February. If it succeeds, it will be the first Israeli space mission ever. It will also make Israel only the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon.

True to Israeli culture’s fascination with tech and space-saving innovation — pun intended — the items and texts included in the spacecraft’s time capsule will be digitized on three discs that will hold hundreds of texts, including 27 dictionaries, each in a different language.

The mission, a collaboration between SpaceIL and the Israeli government’s space organization, is the product of a long dream: SpaceIL was launched in 2011 by three Israeli engineers as a response to the Google Lunar XPrize challenge, which called for non-governmental organizations to race to land on the moon. SpaceIL became a top five finalist, but the competition ended in March, 2018, without winners.

The engineers decided to forge forth nonetheless, with a partnership with the government and funding from major Jewish donors, including Morris Kahn, Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, Sami Sagol, Lynn Schusterman and more, the Times of Israel reports.

The craft will launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. If all goes according to plan it will orbit the earth three times, then orbit the moon two times, making a soft landing on the northern hemisphere of the moon after two or two-and-a-half months.

B’hatzlacha, Israel! Good luck.

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO