Hillel at Hamilton College is launching the Jewish National Fund's (JNF) "100,000 Trees for Ilan Ramon" campaign, joining college students across the United States to help realize Israeli astonaut Ilan Ramon's vision of millions more trees planted in Israel in the coming year. In a televised press conference from space during the Columbia mission, Israel's first astronaut Ramon called upon '"every Jew in the world to plant at tree in Israel durign the coming year" and said that he would like to see at least 13 or 14 million more trees planted in Israel, exactly one year from now, on the anniversary of the launching."
In the aftermath of the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy JNF received an overwhelming number of inquiries as to how people can realize Col. Ramon's dream. JNF responded by coordinating a global effort to plant trees throughout Israel in honor of the seven Columbia astrobnauts who died. Targeting college students across the U.S., the "100,000 Trees for Ilan Ramon" campus campaign is an integral part of this effort.
The event will be launched at Hamilton College on Monday, Oct. 27, from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. with an information and sign-up table in Beinecke Village. Thos ewho wish to get invovled can call David Greenky at 569-5045 or e-mail dgreenky@hamilton.edu, or Rabbi Yaakov Rapoport, Jewish chaplain at Hamilton, at 727-0973, or e-mail rabbi@hamilton.edu.
