Literatureרונה רמון

Rona Ramon

Rona Ramon was an Israeli public activist in education who founded the Ramon Foundation after the deaths of her husband, astronaut Ilan Ramon, and her son Assaf.

1964 to 2018Founding the Ramon FoundationIsrael's annual Space WeekIsrael Prize for Lifetime Achievement

Born: 16 April 1964, Kiryat Ono
Died: 17 December 2018, Israel
Occupation: writer
Education: Wingate Institute

Rona Ramon was born in 1964 in Kiryat Ono

Rona Ramon was born in Kiryat Ono on 16 April 1964 to Israel and Gila Bar-Siman-Tov. Her parents came from Turkey at age 15 with the Youth Aliyah. As a youth she was active in the Scouts.

She served in the army as a paramedic. She later earned a bachelor's degree from the Wingate Institute and a master's degree in holistic therapy from Lesley University.

She married Ilan Ramon in 1986, and they had 4 children. In 1998 the family moved to Houston as he prepared for the STS-107 mission. Ilan died in the Columbia disaster in 2003, and their son Assaf, a fighter pilot, was killed in a training accident in 2009.

She worked as a holistic therapist and gave lectures and workshops on coping with crisis. She founded the Ramon Foundation to support young Israelis and helped create Israel's annual Space Week and the Ilan Ramon International Space Conference.

In 2016 she moved to Ajami in Jaffa. She died of pancreatic cancer on 17 December 2018. In 2019 she was awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement.