64
Friday. December 19, 1980 . wimm° T t
xaffiffealmv-
1 Iffe
An Israeli Monitors the World's Communications
shipped to Iraq through a
Jordanian port.
Gurdus listens not only
TEL AVIV — Michael
to local stations in var-
Gurdus must be one of the
ious countries; he also
best listeners in the world.
tunes into air and sea
In fact, he is paid to listen.
traffic — and to military
For Gurdus, who lives
communications.
and works in a small Tel
Gurdus has been plugged
Aviv apartment, is em-
into this international
ployed by Kol Yisrael (The
communications network
Voice of Israel) to monitor
since he was a child.
the -air waves of the world.
His father, an originator
And proof that Gurdus is a
of this form of journalism,
good listener is regularly
insured that son Michael
provided in the news scoops
was weaned on teleprinters
that are broadcast on Is-
and radios.
rael's radio and television
Nathan Gurdus was born
networks.
in Berlin and became in-
It was Gurdus who first
volved in radio monitoring
learned that an Air France
in the 1920s as a contributor
plane had been hijacked to
to German newspapers. He
Entebbe. It was Gurdus who
later moved to Warsaw,
broke the news in 1970 that
where he supplied news to
the Russians had started a
the London Daily Express,
massive airlift to Egypt.
and in 1939 came to Israel,
And it was Gurdus who,
covering World War II by
possibly before President
MICHAEL GURDUS
radio for the Hebrew-
Carter, knew that the U.S.
language newspaper
attempt to rescue the hos- Gurdus for making the re-
Haaretz.
tages in Iran had ended in scue possible.
Michael entered the
Gurdus
starts
his
day
at
catastrophe.
monitoring field profes-
But the most exciting 5:30 a.m., often remaining
story occurred several at the controls until well sionally in 1970 at the age
years ago during the war after midnight. His only of 25. And he has never
found his work boring.
in Cyprus. From his hid- breaks come with the
ing place on the island of stream of phone calls from Through his unequalled
Paphis, the beleaguered news organizations "connections," he is
Archbishop Makarios, throughout the world — privy to the most impor-
tant news — as it hap-
using a small, amateur Australia, Britain, France,
pens.
transmitter, broadcast a the U.S. — all seeking the
The whole world is in-
plea for help. None of the latest information on world
terested in what I know," he
sophisticated military lis- events.
said. "It's exciting to be
And Gurdus usually has
tening devices through-
out the world picked up news for them. In October, aware that sometimes,
when there is a major story
he was probably better in-
the call. Gurdus did.
He immediately released formed about the Iran-Iraq in the wind, all the news in
the world comes from me."
the story, enabling the war than anyone else in the
Gurdus has even set up
British to mount a rescue world: It was Gurdus' report
operation and save the Cyp- 'that was quoted by media his own _system of censor-
riot president's life. throughout the world that ship. When the West Ger-
Makarios later thanked Soviet arms were being mans dispatched a crack
By DAVID JOROFF
World Zionist
Press Service
anti-terrorist unit to
Mogadishu in 1977 to re-
scue hijacked hostages on a
Lufthansa plane, only Gur-
dus knew about it.
He reported the story to
Kol Yisrael, but suggested
that it not be released as it
might jeopardize the rescue
mission. He was overruled
and the story went on the
air before the mission was
complete.
even
Fortunately,
though the German gov-
ernment was shocked by
the premature revelation
of the mission, every-
thing went according to
plan and the mission was
successful.
From then on, however,
Gurdus adopted a firm rule:
"Whenever I am in posses-
sion of information- which
might endanger human life,
I simply do not report it."
So, when he.learned that
six Amerian C-130s had
taken off from Egypt on the
abortive Iran rescue mis-
sion, he was silent. And
when he was among the
only people to know that the
helicopters on that mission
had run into trouble in the
desert, he maintained his si-
lence.
Gurdus is certain that if
he had broken the story, the
consequences would have
been disastrous for the
American soldiers par-
ticipating in the operation
— and he is probably right.
"The Russians may
have known — I'm sure
they did," says Gurdus.
"But I'm sure the Ira-
nians didn't know be-
cause they're so confused
anyhow."
As much as Gurdus
enjoys listening to his
radios, there are several
stations he does not enjoy.
Radio Iran and Radio Iraq,
for example, "tell such stag-
gering lies that it's simply a
waste of time listening to
them for information." -
But he listens to them
anyway, and for good rea-
son.
During our conversation,
we could hear the sirens in
Teheran signaling an air
raid. We could even hear
bombs exploding. But Radio
Iran, to which we were
tuned, simply ignored the
attack and continued to
broadcast messages of sup-
port to the local citizens.
Only two days later did Iran
acknowledge that the at-
tack had occurred.
Gurdus believes that
the, most reliable radio
stations for international
news are the BBC,
France Inter, the Voice of
America ('for news, uk
for politics") and Kol
rael.
As for television, Gurdus
is not limited to the single
Israeli channel that all Is-
raelis receive and to the
Jordanian channels, which
some Israelis receive.
He also picks up — quite
clearly thanks to an in
cate system of antennae
his roof — the channels of
Lebanon, Syria, Egypt,
Turkey and Greece. Occa-
sionally, he even manages
to tune in to Switzerland
and Germany.
Yugoslav Jews Number 15 000
,
NEW YORK (ZINS) —
When the fighting ceased in
1945, the once large and
rich pre-World War II
Jewish community of
Yugoslavia (75,000 Jews in
117 communities) had
shrunk to 15,000 persons.
Of these, 8,000 emigrated to
Israel in the years 1948-
1950, and today there re-
main about 7,000.
The largest Jewish com-
munities are in Belgrade
(over 1,600), Zagreb (about
1,400) and Sarajevo (1,100).
The rest of the communities
are very small, only five or
six having more than 100
members.
Jewish life is centered in
the Jewish communities
which carry out all Jewish
activities: kindergarten,
youth club, cultural and
religious activity, com-
munal and social work, old
age homes, Hevra Kadisha,
the care of cemeteries and
monuments.
The central organization
is the Federation of Jewish
Communities of Yugos-
lavia, which every year
convenes a conference of all
communities to pass deci-
sions on questions of policy
and finance. The federation
is an affiliate of the World
Jewish Congress.
'Like Everybody Else' Focuses on Adolescence, Today's Society
new genre of children's
books has evolved. Barbara
Girion, in her latest novel,
(Editor's note: Mrs. "Like Everybody Else,"
Hochman is currently a (Charles Scribner's sons),
graduate student in clini- focuses on the specific an-
cal social work at the xieties of a 12-year-old girl
University of Michigan. growing up in a middle class
She taught at U-M in suburb.
That Samantha Gold is
1968.)
The question Who am I?" a Jewish child is what
lies at the very core of the captures our special at-
struggle of adolescence. tention. For Samantha,
This transitional process, family life has always
the traversing of childhood been- a little different
to adulthood, provides the than that of her friends.
groundwork for the solidifi- Sam's mother is a famous
author of children's
cation of one's identity.
For today's adolescent, stories, so absorbed in
this inner turmoil is com- her writing that the roles
pounded by the outer tur- of mother and daughter
moil of a society in the proc- have been veritably re-
ess of change. Families are versed. It is Sam who
divided by divorce; mothers worries about the nutri-
no longer remain in the tional value of their me-
home; sex roles overlap and als, prepares a snack for
blur as traditional norms her mother after school,
fall away, and the child is and keeps the household
thrust into a maelstrom of running on a fairly
smooth schedule.
choices.
It is only when her
Understanding the need
to address these issues, a mother writes a best-selling
Reviewed by
SHARON PANUSH
HOCHMAN
book for adults that understand the right to much control on the part of
Samantha's life begins fal- "do your own thing" so the main character dilutes
ling apart. As if the pres- long as one acts with a the impact for the reader.
A lesser but essential
sures of adjusting to junior firm set of values and
high school, preparing for convictions. This step in criticism is the danger of
Bat Mitzva, and coping with her personal growth and stereotypes. Girion has
her emerging sexuality development strengthens drawn two types of
mothers — the "career
were not enough, Sam has the entire family unit.
Barbara Girion has writ- woman" and the
the additional burden of the
attention created by her ten "Like Everybody Else" "housewife." Samantha's
mother's controversial in a first-person narrative. mother writes books to
She is an engaging storytel- the exclusion of anything
novel.
Longing to be "like ler and creates a likeable, else. Her inadequacy in
everybody else," Sam re- sprightly personality in her the home 7C without ex-
sents the publicity imposed 12-year-old heroine. And ception. Mrs. Gold is the
upon her and her family. -heroine Samantha Gold is, classic food burner,
Forced to examine their re- for she approaches her con- paper plate user and all
lationship to one another, flicts with a sense of balance around domestic incom-
the farriily unit survives the and ego-strength to be petent. Above involve-
ment in the mundane
envied by most adults.
crisis.
tasks of carpools and
Sam works through her
Ironically, the strength of cooking, she is the
own struggle with the help
of her rabbi. Wisely, he her character proves to be epitome of ego-centricity.
In contrast, Samantha's
leads her in writing her Bat the weakest element of the
Mitzva speech to biblical book. Central to the story is best friend, Sue Ellen Be-
sources that provide valu- the conflict between mother rger, lives in a home where
bedspreads match curtains,
able insights into her prob- and daughter.
The reality of a relation- cups match saucers and
lems.
Samantha emerges ship in which a child is cookies come one way —
from this crisis with a scheduled for attention be- homemade. Mrs. Berger,
stronger sense of her own tween the hours of three and also president of the PTA,
identity. She begins to five, plays an obvious hasn't a moment for herself.
It is only towards the end
second fiddle to her
mother's first string, and of the story that Girion
comments, "If I have to act hints at the greater com-
like I'm 35, it's because plexity in these women and
Mom acts like she's five," at their uncertainties. It is
cries for a stronger reper- unrealistic and unfair to
toire of emotional acting- paint today's young Jewish
out. Where are the angry mother so one-
outbursts, the storms of dimensionally.
The contemporary Jewish
adolescence that would
make this novel more woman is a juggler of many
psychologically sound? So roles and is more likely at-
tempting to integrate her
commitment and concern
for her family with her de-
sire to develop her own
potential. A 10-year-old
Jewish girl, likely to read
this book, would find a bet-
ter model in a woman with
the creativity to weave var-
ied threads into the fabric of
her life.
Barbara Girion is best
with her portrayal of the
rabbi. Rather than the
stereotyped image of a
man out of touch with the
problems of adolescence,
Rabbi Sharfer is shown
to be both empathic and
constructive in his rela-
tionship with Samantha.
He is a figure of alterna-
tive support and comfort
— a positive identifica-
tion for the Jewish ad--411%
lescent in search of roe
models. His example is
not lost on the young
reader.
The author brings much
of her own life to her writ-
ing. A young mother of
three children and a former
teacher, Girion has a
natural feel for today's
youth. With an easy, fluid
style of writing, she wades
into the turbulence of con-
temporary adolescence.
Perhaps in her next book,
she will use her talent and
courageously plunge into
deeper waters.
•