Israel closer to 2nd moon mission

SpaceIL is raising funds for its next mission, which will send spacecraft to either side of the Moon plus an orbiter to enable remote experiments.

Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c
Published July 14, 2021

From the moment Israel’s Beresheet unmanned lunar lander arrived on the Moon with a disappointing crash in April 2019, project leaders and backers pledged to try again.

Now the Beresheet 2 mission is getting closer to reality, as SpaceIL has raised $70 million from entrepreneurs and philanthropists including Patrick and Lina Drahi of the Drahi Foundation, Morris Kahn of the Kahn Foundation, the Moshal Space Foundation and Entrée Capital Partners.

Projected to launch in 2024, the Beresheet 2 mission is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $100 million.

Leaders and funders of SpaceIL. Photo by Sivan Farag

This time, the plan is to develop not one spacecraft but two ultralight lunar landers – one to land on each side of the Moon — and an orbiter that will circle the Moon for several years and will be used to conduct scientific experiments and educational activities with students from Israel and around the world.

“I plan to do everything that is within my power to take Israel back to the Moon, this time for a historic double landing,” said Kahn, who was named chairman of SpaceIL’s board of directors.

“I am grateful to our donors, who believe in the power of the Beresheet 2 mission to inspire a whole generation of students and dreamers, and for their faith in the ability of SpaceIL to accomplish and complete this challenging mission, which will place Israel at the front row of global deep-space technology,” said SpaceIL CEO Shimon Sarid.

latkes

Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s ‘lower guilt’ latkes

By Gabrielle Birkner | December 8, 2022 | 0 Comments

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz — South Florida congresswoman, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, mother of three school-age children — is also, apparently, something of maven in the kitchen. Wasserman Schultz (aka @cleancookingcongresswoman) maintains an Instagram account devoted to her culinary adventures, and was tweeting over the weekend about, what else, latkes. Getting latkes…

9 things you probably didn’t know about Yom Kippur

By By MJL Staff, My Jewish Learning via JTA | October 3, 2022 | 0 Comments

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, starts at sundown on Tuesday, October. 4. Traditionally one of the most somber days on the Jewish calendar, it’s known for fasting and repentance — not to mention killer caffeine withdrawal headaches. However, the holiday has some lesser-known associations as well. 1. The word “scapegoat” originates in an…

Babe Ruth in 1921. Photo: George Grantham Bain. Image from Library of Congress/Creative Commons

Babe Ruth and the Holocaust

By By Rafael Medoff, JNS.org | September 21, 2022 | 0 Comments

Babe Ruth is remembered for his home runs on the field and his hot dog binges and other peccadilloes off the field. But as the American public is about to discover, there was another Babe Ruth—one who went to bat for women and minorities, including the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust. Throughout the spring…

Shelley Dean (left) leads a Rhythm ‘N’ Ruach class at the Saul Brodsky Jewish Community Library before COVID. Now all classes are virtual.

Rhythm ‘n’ Ruach ready to rock in 2021 with new programs for kids

By Jordan Palmer and Ellen Futterman | January 27, 2021 | 0 Comments

For the unfamiliar, Rhythm ‘n’ Ruach (pronounced ROO-ak) engages children from newborn to age 5 and their caretakers through Jewish music and movement. Ruach means “wind” in Hebrew, and with that Shelley Dean of St. Louis, created the parent-child Jewish music program back in 2011. “The secret sauce of Rhythm ‘n’ Ruach is the Jewish element,” Dean said….

Stacey Newman

Jewish St. Louisans were early pioneers in fight for reproductive rights

By STACEY NEWMAN | October 10, 2019 | 0 Comments

During the High Holidays, we look to Judaism for inspiration, from the Torah, ancient prayers and from our congregations. We look for guidance and answers from our faith or to at least point us in the right direction. In our quest for social justice, we strive not to forget or repeat atrocities and repression of…

Stacey Newman

Furious about gun violence? Let your voice be heard

By Stacey Newman | August 8, 2019 | 0 Comments

Furious about people getting shot and killed? There is only one solution: Speak up to make your position on gun violence known to legislators. Contact every person in elected office who refuses to consider any safety proposal designed to save lives, even those supported by almost 90 percent of Missourians. I spent nine years in…

Above: American soldiers wade from Coast Guard landing barge toward the beach at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Photo: Robert F. Sargent/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

D-Day plus 79 years: Pivotal battle helped save the West, world Jewry

By ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus | June 2, 2019 | 0 Comments

June 6, 2023, will mark the 79th anniversary of D-Day, the Normandy invasion that dealt a fatal blow to the evil, genocidal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, saved Western civilization and arguably the Jews of the entire world. On June 5, 1944, after a break in the weather, General Dwight David Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander,…

Rabbi Dale Schreiber

Seeking our divine purpose during Omer

By Rabbi Dale Schreiber | May 23, 2019 | 0 Comments

Week by week, we engage with Torah, looking through the symbolism of its language. We read and try to assimilate those rituals and rules designed for a life we have never experienced. From the very beginning, God is speaking the world into existence in a mere seven days. The morning liturgy has a beautiful prayer,…

Stacey Newman

Women will not forget on next election day

By Stacey Newman | May 23, 2019 | 0 Comments

Not to be outdone in the fervent race to the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade, Missouri’s Republican-controlled legislature giddily passed its extreme abortion ban, HB 126, on the final day of the session. Once signed into law, Missouri will join Alabama, Georgia and six other states in mandating government-forced pregnancy. This widespread mania…

Stacey Newman

Another session, another bid to ban abortion in Missouri

By STACEY NEWMAN | February 7, 2019 | 0 Comments

“Would you accompany me, Missouri legislator whom I don’t know, to my OB-GYN’s office?” no woman in our state has ever asked. In all of my reproductive care appointments since I was 18 years old, from contraception and family planning, from well-woman exams, cancer screenings and treatment, through pregnancy and delivery to hormonal menopause care,…