The Center for Jewish History Hosts JEWS IN SPACE: Members Of The Tribe In Orbit

Jewish astronauts orbiting the earth face a particularly vexing question on Friday nights: how do you celebrate Shabbat at sundown when the sun rises and sets approximately every hour? What about eating matzo in microgravity during the holiday of Passover? Or taking a Torah into space? "Crumbs would fly around the shuttle," Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman realized, so he left the matzo at home. But after consulting his rabbi, Hoffman, NASA's first Jewish male astronaut, did bring a tiny Torah and read from the Book of Genesis while passing over Jerusalem. Sharing these and other stories from orbit, Dr. Hoffman will talk about his fascinating career and unusual Jewish journey in a program designed for space enthusiasts of all ages. Hosted by the Center for Jewish History and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research on May 7th at 6:30 pm, the program is presented in conjunction with their current exhibition, Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit. Dr. Valerie Neal, Curator and Chair of the Space History Department at the Smithsonian Institution, will be joining Dr. Hoffman to introduce the program and provide the history of Jewish astronauts.

About the Exhibition Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit

From gazing up to the heavens in ancient times, to soaring up in modern times, Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit features a stellar array of rare artifacts from 18th-century Hebrew astronomy texts, to the yad, mezuzah, and tiny travel Torah that astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman carried into space. Starting in biblical times when early calendars were based on the cycles of the moon, the exhibit highlights Jewish scholars who wrote about astronomy and science in Hebrew, Yiddish, and German; Nobel prize-winning Jewish physicists Albert A. Michelson and Albert Einstein; and the Jewish men and women, astronauts and cosmonauts who bravely soared into the heavens. The exhibition also features the immense contributions of Jewish writers, filmmakers, and entertainers like Hugo Gernsback, a Jewish immigrant widely known as the Father of Science Fiction; Star Wars actors Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner; filmmakers Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey), Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), and of course, Mel Brooks, whose parody film trailer, Jews in Space, inspired the title of this exhibition.

About the Speakers:

Jeffrey Alan Hoffman, Ph.D., was NASA's first Jewish male astronaut, and has been to space five times. A professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, Hoffman's space missions have included repairing the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, when the orbiting telescope's flawed optical system was corrected. Over the course of his five missions he has logged more than 1,211 hours and 21.5 million miles in space. Born on November 2, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York, Hoffman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in astronomy from Amherst College in 1966, a Masters Degree in materials science from Rice University in 1988, and a Doctor of Philosophy in astrophysics from Harvard University in 1971.

Dr. Valerie Neal has been a space history curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum since 1989 and is current chair of the Space History Department. Her research, exhibition, and collection responsibilities focus on human spaceflight in the Space Shuttle era and beyond. Author of numerous books on space flight and science, Dr. Neal has curated three major exhibitions on space exploration and eight Smithsonian Channel documentaries. Before joining the Smithsonian, Dr. Neal spent a decade in Huntsville, Alabama, writing for NASA. She also participated in underwater astronaut crew training activities and worked in mission support on four Shuttle missions. Dr. Neal has taught at the University of Minnesota, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Vanderbilt University, and Georgetown University.

Tickets: $15 general admission; $10 CJH/YIVO members at www.yivo.org/jews-in-Orbit

To learn more about the Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit Exhibit: https://www.cjh.org/jewsinspace/

"Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit" and related programming is financially supported by the generosity of Lisa and Joshua Greer, Kepco, Inc. & the Kupferberg Foundation.

About the Center for Jewish History

The Center for Jewish History in New York City illuminates history, culture, and heritage. The Center provides a collaborative home for five partner organizations: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

The partners' archives comprise the world's largest and most comprehensive archive of the modern Jewish experience outside of Israel. The collections span a thousand years, with more than 5 miles of archival documents (in dozens of languages and alphabet systems), more than 500,000 volumes, as well as thousands of artworks, textiles, ritual objects, recordings, films, and photographs.

The Center's experts are leaders in unlocking archival material for a wide audience through the latest practices in digitization, library science, and public education. As one of the world's foremost research institutions, the Center offers fellowships, a wide array of exhibitions, symposia, conferences and lectures. The Center is a Smithsonian Affiliate, and is a partner of the Google Cultural Institute.

The Center for Jewish History is home to the Lillian Goldman Reading Room, Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute, the David Berg Rare Book Room and the Collection Management & Conservation Wing. Public programs create opportunities for diverse audiences to explore the rich historical and cultural material that lives within the Center's walls.

About YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our global outreach and enable us to share our vast resources. The YIVO Archives contains more than 23 million original items and YIVO's Library has over 400,000 volumes-the single largest resource for such study in the world. www.yivo.org