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Assaf Ramon
Ilan Ramon ( he, אילן רמון; , born Ilan Wolfferman ; June 20, 1954 – February 1, 2003) was an Israeli fighter pilot and later the first Israeli astronaut. Ramon was a Space Shuttle payload specialist of STS-107, the fatal mission of '' Columbia'', in which he and the six other crew members were killed when the spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry. At 48, he was the oldest member of the crew. Ramon is the only foreign recipient of the United States Congressional Space Medal of Honor, which he was awarded posthumously. Biography Born in Ramat Gan, Israel, to Tonya (1929–2003) and Eliezer Wolfferman (1923–2006), a family of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, he grew up in Beersheba. His father was from Germany, and his family fled Nazi persecution in 1935. His mother and grandmother were from Poland, and were Holocaust survivors, having been in Auschwitz. They emigrated to Israel in 1949. His first name, Ilan, means "tree" in Hebrew. Ilan Hebraizied his surname from Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Israeli Space Agency
The Israel Space Agency (ISA; he, סוכנות החלל הישראלית, ''Sokhnut heKhalal haYisraelit'') is a governmental body, a part of Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology, that coordinates all Israeli space research programs with scientific and commercial goals. The agency was founded by the theoretical physicist Yuval Ne'eman in 1983 to replace the National Committee for Space Research which was established in 1960 to set up the infrastructure required for space missions. The agency is currently headed by Chairperson Dan Blumberg and Director General . Today, Israel is the smallest country with indigenous launch capabilities, and is the smallest country to have a space program. History Space research in Israel has history dating to the late 1950s. NCSR and foreign reliance The Israeli Space Agency originated as a university-based research project from Tel Aviv University in the early 1960s. In 1960, the National Committee for Space Research (NCSR) was fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congressional Space Medal Of Honor
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor was authorized by the United States Congress in 1969 to recognize "any astronaut who in the performance of his or her duties has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and mankind". It is awarded by the President of the United States in Congress's name on recommendations from the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The award is a separate decoration from the Medal of Honor, which is a military award for extreme bravery and gallantry in combat. Although the Congressional Space Medal of Honor is a civilian award of the United States government, it is authorized as a non-military decoration for display on U.S. military uniforms because it is awarded by a federal agency. In such cases, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor is worn as a ribbon "immediately preceding the Prisoner of War Medal.". DoD policy specifically prohibits wear of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewish Agency For Israel
The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). The stated mission of the Agency is to "ensure that every Jewish person feels an unbreakable bond to one another and to Israel no matter where they live in the world, so that they can continue to play their critical role in our ongoing Jewish story." It is best-known as the primary organization fostering the immigration of Jews in diaspora to the Land of Israel (known as '' aliyah'') and overseeing their integration with the State of Israel. Since 1948, the Jewish Agency has brought 3 million immigrants to Israel, and offers them transitional housing in "absorption centers" throughout the country. The Jewish Agency played a central role in the fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and the Israeli Navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, Israeli security apparatus, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel. The IDF is headed by the Chief of the General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff, who is subordinate to the Ministry of Defense (Israel), Israeli Defense Minister. On the orders of David Ben-Gurion, the IDF was formed on 26 May 1948 and began to operate as a Conscription in Israel, conscript military, drawing its initial recruits from the already-existing paramilitaries of the Yishuv—namely Haganah, the Irgun, and Lehi (militant group), Lehi. Since its formation shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabra (person)
A sabra or tzabar ( he, צַבָּר, plural: ''tzabarim'') is an informal-turned-formal modern Hebrew term that defines any Jew born in Israel. The term came into widespread use in the 1930s to refer to a Jew who had been born in Palestine (including the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate of Palestine and Ottoman Palestine; ''cf. New Yishuv & Old Yishuv''), though it may have appeared earlier. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Israelis have used the word to refer to a Jew born anywhere in the Land of Israel (inclusive of the Israeli-occupied territories). The term alludes to a tenacious, thorny desert plant, known in English as Opuntia ficus-indica, prickly pear, with a thick skin that conceals a sweet, softer interior. The cactus National personification, is compared to Israeli Jews, who are supposedly tough on the outside, but delicate and sweet on the inside. In 2010, over 4,000,000 Israeli Jews (70%) were sabras, with an even greater percentage of Isra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hebraization Of Surnames
The Hebraization of surnames (also Hebraicization) ( he, עברות, ''Ivrut'', "Hebraization") is the act of adopting a Hebrew surname in exchange for a diaspora name. For many diaspora Jews who migrated to Israel, taking a Hebrew surname was a way to erase remnants of their diaspora experience and to assimilate into a new shared Jewish identity with Mizrahi Jews and Palestinian Jews (Jewish residents of Ottoman Syria and Mandatory Palestine) and later as Israeli Jews (Jewish citizens of the independent State of Israel). The name change typically did not apply to Mizrahi Jews, who came from neighboring countries like Iran, Iraq, and Egypt and usually kept their surnames. The phenomenon was especially common among Ashkenazi Jews, because many such families acquired permanent surnames (rather than patronyms) only when surnames were made compulsory by the November 12, 1787 decree by Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. Sephardi Jews from the Iberian peninsula often had hereditary famil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hebrew Language
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved throughout history as the main liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. Hebrew is the only Canaanite language still spoken today, and serves as the only truly successful example of a dead language that has been revived. It is also one of only two Northwest Semitic languages still in use, with the other being Aramaic. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as '' Lashon Hakodesh'' (, ) since an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aliyah
Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel. Traditionally described as "the act of going up" (towards the Jerusalem in Judaism, Jewish holy city of Jerusalem), moving to the Land of Israel or "making aliyah" is one of the most basic tenets of Zionism. The opposite action—emigration by Jews from the Land of Israel—is referred to in the Hebrew language as ''yerida'' (). The Law of Return that was passed by the Knesset, Israeli parliament in 1950 gives all diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity. For much of Jewish history, their history, most Jews have lived in the diaspora outside of the Land of Israel due to Jewish military history, various hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp (''Stammlager'') in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labor camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of subcamps. The camps became a major site of the Nazis' final solution to the Jewish question. After Germany sparked World War II by invading Poland in September 1939, the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) converted Auschwitz I, an army barracks, into a prisoner-of-war camp. The initial transport of political detainees to Auschwitz consisted almost solely of Poles for whom the camp was initially established. The bulk of inmates were Polish for the first two years. In May 1940, German criminals brought to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holocaust Survivors
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accepted definition of the term, and it has been applied variously to Jews who survived the war in German-occupied Europe or other Axis territories, as well as to those who fled to Allies (World War II), Allied and Neutral powers during World War II, neutral countries before or during the war. In some cases, non-Jews who also experienced collective persecution under the Nazi regime are also considered Holocaust survivors. The definition has evolved over time. Survivors of the Holocaust include those persecuted civilians who were still alive in the Nazi concentration camps, concentration camps when they were liberated at the end of the war, or those who had either Jewish partisans, survived as partisans or been hidden with the Righte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polish Jews
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy which ended after the Partitions of Poland in the 18th century. During World War II there was a nearly complete genocidal destruction of the Polish Jewish community by Nazi Germany and its collaborators of various nationalities, during the German occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945, called the Holocaust. Since the fall of communism in Poland, there has been a renewed interest in Jewish culture, featuring an annual Jewish Culture Festival, new study programs at Polish secondary schools and universities, and the opening of Warsaw's Museum of the History of Polish Jews. From the founding of the Kingdom of Poland in 1025 until the early years of the Polish–Lithuanian Comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the head of gove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
