UP FRONT

The Fear Of War Continues
To Haunt The Scud Victims

AMY.J. MEHLER

Staff Writer

S

trips of masking tape
stuck to the windows
in the sealed room of
Sharona and Moshe
Kotzen's Jerusalem apart-
ment long after the Gulf
War officially ended.
"No amount of cleaning,
rubbing or scraping took
that tape off," Sharona
Kotzen said. "You could see
it in everybody's cheder
atum, (sealed room)."
Not counting sets of gas
masks Israelis continue to
keep in their closets, tape is
one of the most visible
reminders of the war, Mrs.
Kotzen said.
Mrs. Kotzen, formerly
Sharona Koenigsberg of Oak
Park, approaches these
weeks, the one-year an-
niversary of 39 Scud missiles
crashing into Israel, with a
measure of anxiety. She's
jolted by sudden, loud noises.
She's stalked by the memory
of making enough formula
for her newborn son in case
she was injured in a Scud at-
tack.
"The war is over, but I
believe we could be attacked
again," Mrs. Kotzen said.
"Iraq and Syria have the
missile capability."
But the majority of Israelis
have put the Gulf War
behind them, according to

Phyllis Koenigsberg, who
spent six weeks of the Gulf
War with her daughter Sha-
rona in Israel.
"I am still haunted," she
said. "I found myself jump-
ing at the sound of a truck
backfiring on the street."
Mrs. Koenigsberg, back
from another trip to Israel,
said the sirens that were re-
cently triggered by Israel's
unprecedented, 19-inch
snowfall which paralyzed
most of Jerusalem and Tel

"The war may be
over, but I think it
could happen
again."

Sharona Kotzen

Aviv, threw most Israelis
into panic.
"There were wires which
short-circuited, tripping off
sirens all over the city," she
said. "People in the street
were visibly shaken."
Mrs. Koenigsberg felt she
was reliving the days spent
preparing for the outbreak of
war. "My grandson's brit
took place the same day
America bombed Iraq," she
said. "The whole time, all we
thought about was what we
were going to do when we
were attacked."
A Jan. 10 Israeli edition of
the Jerusalem Post Maga-
zine, which Mrs.

Koenigsberg brought home,
reported progress in apply-
ing the lessons of the Gulf
War to homefront
preparedness in future wars.
"One Year And 39 Scuds
Later," the Post's anniver-
sary edition revealed
goVernment plans to make
available new and improved
equipment, including gas
masks, by October 1992.
According to the Israeli
Defense Forces, miklaot
(bomb shelters) are out and
security rooms are in. As of
this month, every new home
built in Israel must. include a
security room, made with
walls of reinforced concrete.
In addition, a shmartif — a
new, protective plastic
jacket for infants — is to
replace the mamat (tent)
used last year to protects in-
fants and toddlers during
Scud attacks.
Spokesmen for the IDF
announced plans to establish
a Home Front Command, on
an equal footing with the
Northern, Central and
Southern commands. The
new Home Command would
cover the civilian popula-
tions of Haifa, Wadi Ara, the
entire coastal area,
Jerusalem, and as far south
as Lachish.
Newspapers also reported
government plans to install
the first of hundreds of new,
computerized sirens, capable

Remains of homes in Ramat Gan, a Tel Aviv suburb hit by an Iraqi Scud
missle.

of sending a wide variety of
sounds throughout the coun-
try.
Ben and Nomi Hoffman of
Jerusalem said the war
taught Israelis an important
lesson in humility. "We saw
that we weren't this in-
vulnerable people with an
army that could protect us
from anything the Arab
world had to send."
Nomi Platt Hoffman, a
former Detroiter, said the
war was a different kind of
war than any she and her
husband had experienced.
"The Gulf War was a war of
the unknown that most
Israelis were not

psychologically equipped to
handle."
The Hoffmans, who visited
family in Detroit before the
Gulf War, returned to Israel
the first night the country
was attacked. "We were
more worried being here
than being over there," said
Dr. and Mrs. Hoffman, now
in Detroit until September.
The Hoffmans and their 2-
year-old twins caught a taxi
to Jerusalem and went to
sleep at midnight. Around 2
a.m., the first sirens sound-
ed. "We were very scared in
the beginning, but after the
first few attacks, we realized
Jerusalem was safe," . said

ROUND UP

Tabloid Headlines
No Laughing Matter
In a saga fit for the super-
market tabloids, a Soviet
Jewish naval officer has
languished in a Vladivostok
prison since August 1990.
Originally charged with try-
ing to hijack his submarine
under orders from the Israel
intelligence agency, Mossad,
Major Simon Lifshits is now
expected to be charged with
robbery and rape.
Soviet newspaper accounts
about the case have been
monitored by the Union of
Councils for Soviet Jews and
the Soviet-American Bureau
on Human Rights.
A Kommersant newspaper
headline claimed Major Lif-
shits' commanding officer
admitted, "We committed
robbery because of poverty
and raped out of boredom."
The UCSJ Moscow bureau

has protested the "trial by
newspaper." It said Major
Lifshits was jailed after he
applied for permission to
emigrate to Israel while on
home leave in Russia.

Could The Food
Have Been Treife?
The Merkaz — the
Layman's Organization of
the Council of Orthodox
Rabbis of Greater Detroit —
has decided to cancel its an-
nual dinner "to concentrate
on projects that will better
serve the community."
The Merkaz is the
publisher of the
KosherGram newsletter,
which gives consumers up-
dates about products which
comply with kashrut regula-
tions and those which have
recently had their certifica-
tion removed.
Rabbis Dovid Simcha and

edited by Harold Attridge
and Gohei Hata.

Mordecai Wolmark of the
Mercaz sent a letter to
KosherGram recipients, re-
questing increased dona-
tions and memberships to
further the work of the
organization.
Persons interested in re-
ceiving the KosherGram or
contributing to Mercaz can
call the organization at 424-
8880.

People Of Book
In WSU Books
Wayne State University
Press has published its spr-
ing/summer 1992 catalog of
new books, and a surprising
number have a Jewish
theme.
Of 20 "new titles" given
full-page notices in the
catalog, five have a specific
Jewish theme or interest.
The five include:
United States Jewry, 1776-

Jewish farmers in Wisconsin, from
the WSU Press catalog.

1985, Volume IV by Jacob
Rader Marcus, Hebrew in
America, Perspectives and
Prospects edited by Alan
Mintz, Jewish Musical Tra-
ditions by Amnon Shiloah,
Who's the Boss in Israel?
Israel at the Polls, 1988-1989
edited by former Detroiter
Daniel J. Elazar and Shmuel
Sandler, and Eusebius,
Christianity, and Judaism

Shooting The Scuds
With Israel Bonds
State of Israel Bonds had
nearly $1 billion in
worldwide sales in 1991,
spurred on by Iraq's Scud
missile attacks on Israeli
cities last January and the
continuing aliyah of Soviet
Jews to Israel.
Sales of Israel Bonds to-
taled $931 million, some
$250 million more than the
previous record in 1990. An
emergency campaign after
the Scud attacks netted $131
million in Israel Bond sales
in just two weeks.
Michigan sales of Israel
Bonds in 1991 were
$18,344,758.

Compiled by
Alan Hitsky

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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