Image via Jewish Museum Milwaukee
Jews In Space
Space Station Detail - 'Amazing Stories', Vol 2, No. 7, Oct. 1927
“We’re made of stardust. We are the way the cosmos can know itself,” said Carl Sagan in his acclaimed 1980 series “Cosmos.” It’s the opening scene in a seven-minute video compilation of Jewish contributions to pop culture, screening at the new exhibition at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee. “Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit” is an entertaining, wide-ranging survey of the profound involvement of Jews in imagining and understanding our place in the universe.
The cosmic orientation starts with, as the Jewish Museum’s curator Molly Dubin says, “the lunar calendar, based on the cycles of the moon, which determines when Jewish holidays fall. From antiquity, Jews have looked to the skies for observations central to Jewish practice.”
If Carl Sagan seemed to echo Baruch Spinoza in his thoughts about the cosmos revealing itself through us, the Talmudic scholars were looking for the divine in the cosmos centuries earlier. The timeline for “Jews in Space” begins BCE and extends through the present with many stops on the way, including the German Jew Wilhelm Beer who published the first map of the lunar surface—in 1837. Einstein’s space-time continuum gets a nod, as do a cast of astronauts and cosmonauts and science-fiction authors such as Robert Block and Isaac Asimov.
Science-fiction as its known today is said to begin with Hugo Gernsback, a Jewish immigrant to the U.S., who published the first magazine dedicated to the genre in the 1920s. Sci-fi was spoofed by Mel Brooks (some hilarious clips from his films are included in that seven-minute video) but not before it went boldly to new places in “Star Trek.” William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are Jewish and Nimoy’s Vulcan hand gesture, Live Long and Prosper, derived from childhood memories of a blessing given in his synagogue.
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Image via Jewish Museum Milwaukee
Jews In Space
Geography Illustrated in Relation to Natural Science Guidebook for Teachers - Vilna, 1922
“Jews in Space” includes everything from 17th century Hebrew astronomy tomes to copies of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and autographed “Star Trek” memorabilia. A video panel documents Hannukah with astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, the first American Jew in space, demonstrating a dreidel spinning in zero gravity.
For some, the centerpiece will be the innovative GeoDome Portal, a virtual reality environment developed by the Milwaukee-based Elumenati, whose keyboard gives the viewer many options, including close encounters with the planets of our solar system and satellite photos of ongoing events on Earth such as hurricanes and other storm systems.
Press another key on the GeoDome Portal and up comes a video by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who dreamed of space since she was age five after watching the Apollo landing. She’s now with the Artemis Project, waiting for her chance to walk on the moon. Press another and watch a mini-documentary on Jeffrey Hoffman, including 1950s childhood memories of playing “space raiders,” footage of him walking in space to repair the Hubel Telescope and his thoughts about bringing the Torah, which came from heaven, back into the heavens as he lifted into space.
“Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit” runs Oct. 28 through Feb. 5 at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee. There will be several special events, including Milwaukee film historian Patrick McGilligan’s talk on “The Comedic Cosmos of Mel Brooks” (Dec. 1) and a screening of Brooks’ Spaceballs (Dec. 25). For more information, visit the Jewish Museum Milwaukee website.
