Rodgers Center screening an inspiring event

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPnBH3mo23k]Chapman University’s Rodgers Center hosted an inspiring evening Tuesday with its special screening of An Article of Hope and panel discussion in Memorial Hall attended by students, members of The 1939 Club, the film’s producers and numerous supporters of Chapman’s Holocaust education program.

The documentary relates the extraordinary story of Israel’s first astronaut, Col. Ilan Ramon, and a tiny Nazi-era Torah he carried to the heights of space on the ill-fated 2003 Columbia space shuttle. Attending the Memorial Hall screening were producer/director Dan Cohen and producer Christopher Cowen. At a reception before the film, Cohen said the screening at Chapman was particularly profound.

“This is by far the most important screening of this film we’ve done yet, because in the audience will be the students of this magnificent campus, sitting together with members of The 1939 Club.  The message is one you have all heard before, but it bears repeating often: All this is so we will never forget,” Cohen said.

After the screening, NASA astronaut Michael Massimino, Ph.D., a friend and colleague of Col. Ramon, joined the panel discussion live via video teleconference. The panel was moderated by Jennifer Keene, Ph.D., chair of the Department of History, and addressed audience questions ranging from how the Columbia crew developed such tight friendships to the best course of study for aspiring astronauts.