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The couple was settling
down in Kansas City when
Galex began to say, "I'd
better go to Israel. It's time."
"On our first date, she told
me she intended to return to
the Middle East," Schechter
recalls.
They were married in
April 1985. That October,
they found themselves in an
apartment in the Negev
town of Arad, beginning the
year-long WUJS (World
Union of Jewish Students)
work-study program.
Its first six months are
devoted to Hebrew-language
and Judaic studies. But after
three months, Schechter
says he got the itch to work
again. He went to Jerusalem
and made the rounds of all
the news agencies. "No one
was looking for any help, un-
til I got to CNN," he says.
Schechter worked at the
CNN bureau free for two
weeks. At the end of the
fortnight he was offered the
position of bureau producer.
"One doesn't get visited
with that kind of luck very
often," Schechter says.
The couple rented an
apartment in Jerusalem's
stately Rehavia neighbor-
hood. Then Galex returned
to Arad to finish the Hebrew
course, "which is why she
speaks Hebrew better than I
do," Schechter says.
In 1986 Galex signed on as
assistant producer for CNN's
Jerusalem operations. It was
a dizzying time to be a jour-
nalist in Israel.
"It seemed like the United
States and Israel got into a
series of serious disputes
during that time," Schechter
says, and ticks off the
Pollard Affair, the beginn-
ings of Iran-Contra and the
controversy over Israel's use
of American cluster bombs.
Natan Sharansky was
released from a Soviet prison
and arrived in Israel during
Schechter's stay. The
Americans launched a bom-
bing raid of Tripoli, Libya.
And in the fall of 1986,
Schechter was one of 300
journalists covering a
meeting between Israel's
Shimon Peres and Egypt's
President Hosni Mubarak in
Galex's old stomping ground
of Cairo.
It was Schechter's first
time in Egypt, and the visit
allowed him to see first-hand
a little of his own family his-
tory.
He visited the old city,
known as Fostat, where the
ancient Ben Ezra synagogue
stands. In that synagogue,
Schechter's great-
grandfather, scholar and a
founder of Conservative
Judaism, Solomon
Schechter, had spent several
years at the turn of the cen-
tury, poring over papers in
the synagogue's genizah, or
repository. The genizah con-
tained fragments and papers
dating from the Middle
Ages. Solomon Schechter's
research threw light on the
life of Jewry of a thousand
years ago.
The papers Solomon
Schechter uncovered ranged
from philosophic works to
the notebook of a little boy.
"The machberet (notebook)
had the alef-bet on one side
and some doodling of his
house and his parents on the
other side. It shows that
Hebrew school has gotten no
more exciting in the last
thousand years," David
Schechter deadpans.
In May 1987, Schechter
and Galex returned to the
United States. Two months
later, Ted Turner snapped
the couple up and they came
to Atlanta.
Galex says she has "gotten
kind of passionate" about
"Future Watch," which
covers "anything that has to
do with the future. The show
is as expansive as our
imaginations," she says.
One of her favorite stories
was about a time capsule,
sealed in 1940 at Oglethorpe
University, and not to be
opened until the year 8113.
Included in the capsule were
recordings of Adolph Hitler
and Franklin Roosevelt, con-
temporary gadgets, pieces of
hashish and a machine to
teach English to those who
open the capsule.
"It wasn't assumed that
English would be spoken in
8113. What moved me was
they thought it was impor-
tant to preserve knowledge
and customs," Galex says.
From working on the
series, Galex says she now
believes anything is possi-
ble. Her orientation toward
the future has been
strengthened by the an-
ticipated birth of her and
Schechter's first child in
September.
Meanwhile, Schechter's
work keeps him thinking
about the present, or at least
as far into the future as the
next weekend's news
coverage.
And he reminisces about
his work in Israel. About the
time he waited outside the
Knesset men's room to ask
then-Defense Minister Yit-
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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