media said urged the world to look beyond "the daily headlines" about the country’s death and destruction and became a symbol of "eternal all-American optimism", despite being handicapped after a near fatal horse riding accident.
The Israel News Agency (INA) recalled that Reeve visited Israel in July last year to appeal for urgent research to help those with spinal cord injuries in defiance of warnings from the United States State Department to avoid travel to the Jewish state.
"(The) warnings seriously hurt Israel’s economy, (but) Reeve’s visit had done more for Israel’s sagging and limited public relations efforts than one could imagine," INA commented.
"…To my great surprise, Israel is a warm and relaxed place. I didn’t fear coming here," the news agency quoted Reeve as saying at the time.
"The pictures we see in the media show terrible things happening here, terror attacks and casualties – the things that make headlines. What we don’t see is the normalcy, the day-to-day life, and this certainly needs to be shown to the world," he reportedly said.
DIFFERENT HERO
As a handicapped person, the former "Superman" Reeve became "another type of all-American hero, the favorite sort, the one that proves the ascendancy of the spirit of man over the body that tries to limit it," said the Haaretz newspaper in tribute to Reeve, who died Sunday, at age 52.
"He became a symbol of that eternal all-American optimism," Haaretz added. "At a commercial that aired during the Superbowl in January 2000, he was even seen getting out of his wheelchair and walking," the paper stressed.
The Jerusalem Post suggested he reflected that optimism and care last summer in Israel when he also "showed support for those disabled as a result of the ongoing violence" in Israel. During the visit he praised the dedication of Israeli scientists in their desire to serve humanity, and spoke of "the sense of urgency that informs their work," the daily said.
GLOBAL EFFORT
"I feel that progress both in rehabilitation/recovery and in medical research is a global effort," Reeve was quoted as saying during his visit. "No single effort can accomplish it alone, but Israel is one of the leaders in the world. I come to pay tribute to the work being done here."
In 1996, the wheelchair-bound actor moved an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films about social issues, Israeli media stressed.
"Hollywood needs to do more," he said at the 1996 Oscars. "Let’s continue to take risks. Let’s tackle the issues. In many ways our film community can do it better than anyone else. There is no challenge, artistic or otherwise, that we can’t meet."
Although he has been criticized within churches for his approval of embryonic stem cells research, Jewish commentators and evangelicals seem to agree there was at least a Biblical message in his Superman films. The Superman who ‘saved’ the world, was also a simple, somewhat chaotic, reporter.
"No, not even Lois Lane, the colleague who fell in love with Superman after taking a flight in space with him…saw Kent as anything but an amiable fellow reporter," said Haaretz.
"These two figures, the flying hero and the landlocked reporter, characterized the career of Christopher Reeve for many years. But life, or fate, widened the gap between these two figures even more, when on May 27, 1995, Reeve was injured while horse riding in Virginia and completely paralyzed."
His family was at his side when he made his final flight, Sunday.
