Education Minister Naftali Bennett announces that the winner of this year’s Israel Prize for lifetime achievement is Rona Ramon, who died last December at the age of 54 after a battle with cancer.
Rona Ramon, who died on December 17, 2018. She was the widow of first Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in a fatal accident aboard the space shuttle Columbia on May 9, 2013, and the mother of IAF pilot Asaf Ramon, who died in a crash during a training flight in September 2009. (Flash90)
Ramon, a practitioner of holistic medicine, had been a public figure since her husband — Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon — became Israel’s first person in space, when he blasted off aboard the Columbia in 2003, and then perished when the shuttle broke up upon re-entry, weeks later.
In 2009, she also buried her eldest son, Capt. Asaf Ramon, who was killed when his F-16 warplane crashed during a routine training flight.
Ramon started the Ramon Foundation, which promoted academic and social leadership among Israeli youth.
“Rona Ramon is an Israeli hero full of giving and light,” Bennett says. “Despite losing two of those dearest to her, Rona chose life and devoted her life to working for society.
“Rona, Ilan and Asaf will be remembered by the nation as three beloved heroes who gave the State of Israel everything they had to give.”
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Tuesday, April 2, 2019
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