The moon landing seen through the lens of time

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The first moon landing was a singular moment in history, and one that brought the country and world together, if only for a fleeting moment. If you were alive on July 20, 1969, you almost certainly remember where you were and how you felt when Apollo 11 touched down in the Sea of Tranquility.

To gain perspective as the landing’s 50th anniversary approaches, Jewish Rhode Island conducted email interviews with seven people about the watershed event and where we are a half-century later.  As you will see, those who witnessed Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” by and large were awestruck, while younger respondents take it all for granted. Their edited replies follow.


Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser, 56, of Temple Sinai in Cranston

 Reflections: Putting human beings on the moon and bringing them safely back to Earth was, in my mind, the greatest technological triumph in human history. I find it extraordinary that I got to watch it happen. Paradoxically, though, instead of making humanity feel bigger, it has made us feel smaller.

In the image of the Earth rising over the lunar horizon, we came to see that everything we know, everything we have experienced, everywhere we have been as a species has been limited to one rather small rock in the vastness of space. It has awakened our awareness that the universe is mysterious, awe-inspiring and magnificent beyond our ability to understand, and yet we are a part of it.

The great Jewish mystic Moses Cordovero anticipated this in the 16th century when he wrote: “You wonder, astonished: Who am I? I am a mustard seed in the middle of the sphere of the moon, which itself is a mustard seed within the next sphere …. Your awe is invigorated, the love in your soul expands.” 

Spiritual aspects: The moon landing certainly has spiritual lessons to teach us, if we will just open our minds and hearts to hear them. We can know with greater clarity than ever that all of humanity shares this bit of rock orbiting the sun. We can do so together, cooperatively, for our mutual benefit, or we can do so selfishly and antagonistically for our mutual destruction. Our survival as a species and as a planet depends on our ability to see our tiny world as our one shared home, and to see all of humanity as one family. 

Memories: I was 6 on July 16, 1969, when Apollo 11 lifted off the launch pad from the Kennedy Space Center. I remember the day with great detail. I was a complete science geek as a kid and I followed the mission step-by-step.

My parents, knowing my excitement, told me to go to our neighbor’s house to watch the launch because they had a big 22-inch color TV; we only had a small black and white. I don’t remember watching Armstrong and Aldrin first stepping onto the surface of the Sea of Tranquility five days later; it happened way past my bedtime. But I do remember seeing the images from the moon that arrived over the next few days.

In particular, I remember seeing the photo of Buzz Aldrin that Neil Armstrong took, in which you could see the reflection of one leg of the lunar module and the reflection of Armstrong taking the picture in Aldrin’s gold-tinted helmet. I could not help but see myself in that reflection as I, too, gazed at the sight of a human being on another world.

Future: Over the years of the Apollo program, I kept track of every landing. …. For me, and many people of my generation, there is a great disappointment that the American manned space program came to such an abrupt end with the cancellation of the Apollo program in 1972, when I was only 9. The subsequent Skylab, space shuttle and International Space Station programs never really seemed to live up to the ambition of Apollo or of its vision for the future of humanity in space. That may explain why we are so obsessed with fictional versions of space travel, like “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and their descendants on the small and large screen.

Stuart Skerker, 63, of Attleboro, a computer analyst

 Reflections: The moon landing did great things for humanity. Think about it: We had to develop from beyond the slide rule to the very compact computers to fit in spacecraft – and all of the [other] advances that were perfected to help put people into space and onto the moon. Science in the 10 years from the time [President John F.] Kennedy said we were going to the moon and the actual landing really accelerated.

Lessons: The universe has shrunk. Whoever thought anyone could reach the moon in less than a week?  When Israel launched its first moon craft, Beresheet, on Feb. 22, I became impatient and couldn’t wait for it to attempt its landing, which was April 11. [The journey] took more than a month. In my mind, a lunar launch and landing shouldn’t have taken more than a week. Talk about being spoiled.

Memories: I would have been around 13 and at summer camp in western Massachusetts. I recall the camp being ushered into the dining hall late at night with a couple of black-and-white TVs set up to broadcast the big event. They weren’t very big, and the picture was very grainy, and we weren’t sure what we were looking at. But it was exciting. We all had maps of the moon. We learned the major craters. And yes, we all dreamed about one day going to the moon and about going to Mars. Of course we are going to Mars, we thought; that’s why the movie “The Martian” was such a huge hit.

Charlotte Sheer, 68, of Plymouth, a retired educator and founder of the Holocaust Stamps Project at Foxboro Regional Charter School

Reflections: The courageous men and women astronauts, scientists and engineers committed to the pursuit of space-based goals have breathed a new kind of hope into humanity’s outlook for the future. The results of their work have redefined the universe from the unknown, frightening frontier I perceived as a child to an exciting learning laboratory.

Memories: I was an 18-year-old counselor at a Jewish overnight summer camp, watching the event on a black-and-white TV in a barn, surrounded by dozens of young campers who had limited, if any, knowledge about the significance of previous launches into space.

I had grown up surrounded by images of, and conversation about, America’s space race with Russia, and the success of the 1969 lunar mission began to open people’s minds to ideas of eventual colonization or commercial travel to places beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. But that summer, as I prepared to head off to college, I still found it hard to visualize such science-fiction-like activities in my lifetime.

Now: When I look up into the night sky, the moon looks a little different to me, ever since the day I watched the first human beings bounce-walk on its surface.

Erez Kaganovitz, 36, an Israeli photographer-journalist and founder of the Humans of Tel Aviv photo project

Reflections: The fact that humanity actually managed to send a spacecraft to the moon changed the way we perceived our human boundaries. After that, the phrase “The sky’s the limit” got a whole different meaning. Literally.

Lessons: The moon landing showed us what imagination combined with resilience can actually achieve. It made us more spiritual, not in the religious way, but rather more open-minded to what the future might hold for us. Who knows? Maybe 100 years from now, humans would be able not only to visit but to live on the other side of the moon. 

Future: I hope that the next frontier in space exploration will be to find proof that we are not alone in this universe. That would be mind-blowing. If that comes along, I hope that the “newcomers” will come in peace and that we could learn from them if “42” is the real answer “to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” [From “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” by Douglas Adams].


Rabbi Leora Abelson, 33, of Congregation Agudas Achim, in Attleboro, who shared the questions with Jewish millennials in their mid-30s at a Shavuot lunch.

Reflections: Several of us have noticed a generational gap – people who were old enough during the first moon landing seem to have experienced it as a life-changing moment. Those of us who were not yet alive simply do not have a strong emotional attachment to that historic event. Our relationship to – and perception of – space exploration is still significant and spiritual, but we didn’t experience a radical shift in perspective; rather, the ability to travel in space, to observe Earth from space, and to have a conception of how tiny the Earth is relative to the cosmos, has always been a part of our world view.

Spiritual aspects: I don’t think the moon landing made us more spiritual beings, but I certainly think it had a spiritual impact on people who experienced it, and I think the questions of why and how humans explore space contains profound spiritual themes.

Future: On one level, I think space exploration is an expression of the human desire to know ourselves and the world, a beautiful expression of curiosity and imagination, like molecular science and evolutionary biology, as well as art and religion. On the other hand, I think space exploration is an expression of a human desire for control and power.

Historically, when “exploration” of other parts of the world has been tied with state power, it has resulted in colonialism – catastrophic damage to the people and cultures who were either the object of exploration or simply in its way. Moreover, humans have treated Earth so badly that it seems clear to me that we aren’t ready to responsibly explore other parts of the solar system.

The folks I had lunch with are concerned about a number of things, including militarism. It’s hard to imagine that space exploration won’t justify increased militarism and provide new opportunities for ever more destructive technology of war and privatization; they will try to make a profit off of space. We are also concerned about the ways space is already being used for surveillance.

I hope that space exploration can help us appreciate how beautiful and precious Earth is while giving us an important perspective about our place in the cosmos.


Lawrence Goodman, 48, Rhode Island playwright

Reflections: Perhaps because I was not old enough to witness it on TV, I am somewhat skeptical about the moon landing. It was part of a long-term effort to put human beings into space that proved costly, provided little scientific information and was extremely dangerous and even fatal. Satellites, probes and telescopes have been far more scientifically beneficial and cost much less.

The moon landing was primarily a TV event. It shouldn’t be necessary to inspire a daily sense of awe and amazement.

Future: I think space exploration by humans should come second to scientific investigation. I mean, look what we’ve done to our planet. We should have humility and caution about venturing beyond Earth. 

Lessons: I can stand and look up at the stars and feel wonder. I can read a Wikipedia article about quantum mechanics and marvel at how the universe works at the subatomic level.

Jeffrey Martin, 69, Roger Williams University theater professor and director

Memories: The moon landing had very little immediate effect on my life. At the time I was 19. Having just completed my freshman year, I was spending the summer working seven days a week as a technician and crew member at the Tufts Summer Theatre. We were aware of the landing, but we didn’t have a television readily available in the dorm. I don’t remember watching it, as we were probably working.

Reflections: [The moon landing] was an example of where nationalism and national competition led to a positive outcome, but also where its success was short-lived because it was largely driven by national competition, which waned shortly after.

The scientific and human and national achievement was extraordinary, but was undercut by the use of former Nazi scientists at the heart of the missile program and neglect for praise for any who did not fit our white, male, Protestant projection of American identity.

From a religious perspective, it was another step away from a view of the Earth and human action as the center of cosmic meaning. Human aspiration and action seems smaller and smaller as a result of this growing awareness.

In retrospect, it was also important as one further step in altering our sense of our place in the universe: a fragile planet in the vastness of space. Rather than emphasizing the limitlessness of human potential and possibility, this awareness has highlighted limits of human ability and the consequences of human action and hubris.

Future: Space was a continuation of the American idea of limitless frontier that has driven American history and shaped our identity. What we have learned is that we need to be stewards as much as explorers. We now live in an age of limits rather than of endless expansion. In this, Rachel Carson [author of “Silent Spring”] was as important as Neil Armstrong, and the most important image from space was that of the Earth as one small orb in a vast universe, fragile and vulnerable.   

In my fields, we have seen science fiction replace the western as a genre which has captured the imagination, and where morality and political issues are played out in a metaphoric landscape.

LARRY KESSLER (lkessler1@comcast.net) is a freelance writer based in North Attleboro.    

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