posted 11-20-2019 04:00 PM               

Postage stamps feature first Torah in space, support documentary

A new set of Israeli postage stamps celebrates both the first Torah to be flown in space and the astronaut who read from it more than 20 years ago. More than just commemoratives, the stamps support the completion of a documentary film that aims to share the story of the "Space Torah" with a wide audience for the first time.

Jeffrey Hoffman, who on his first spaceflight in 1985 became the first American Jewish man to enter Earth orbit, took the Torah with him on his fifth and last space shuttle mission in 1996. Both he and the holy scroll are depicted on the new stamp sheets, which are now available from the filmmakers behind the still-to-be-titled Space Torah documentary.