SPECIAL COMMENTARY
The Worm In The Apple
mental apple orchards, where non-pol-
n the Upper Galilee, high on the
luting "biological warfare" techniques
ridge above Kiryat Shemona,
are used to combat pests. My kids and
smack on the Lebanese border,
I sat on bales of hay as we listened to a
sits Kibbutz Menara, founded by
young
woman coyly describe the sex
a group of hardy pioneers in 1943.
life of the moths that attack
Before 1948, Menara was
apples. She told how natural
physically closer to Arab vil-
pheromones are used to
lages in Lebanon than to any
entrap the bugs before they
Jewish settlements in Pales-
can implant their larva —
tine, and the border was easi-
the "worms" we find in
ly crossed. Young kibbutzniks
apples — in Menara's
bought supplies from the
Granny Smiths.
Lebanese Arabs. There wasn't
Then we picked a few
enough water for showers, so
plastic
bagfuls of apples and
the kibbutzniks bathed at
were
taken
to the weighing
Kfar Giladi, a long and
station known as "Little
ST U ART
sweaty roundtrip hike that
Lebanon," a tiny piece of
SCHO FFMAN
defeated its own purpose.
turf that is officially part of
Spec ial to
Today, there's plenty of
Lebanon. Thanks to a "de
the Jew ish News
water at Menara, and a beau-
facto" border adjustment
tiful swimming pool.
years
ago, it is today just
A French-built cable car
barely
in
Israel,
a cutesy appendage of
connecting the kibbutz with Kiryat
Menara's tourist package.
Shemona is Israel's newest tourist
From behind blue wraparound sun-
attraction.
glasses,
a wiry kibbutznik I'll call Ofer
As I sat there suspended between
showed
us the terrain of the Lebanese
heaven and earth, enjoying the mar-
valley
below.
He cynically dubbed it
velous view, it was hard to avoid soul-
Israel's
"virtual
security zone."
ful, if banal, meditation on the precar-
"That's
where
the Hezbollah [the
iousness of life, especially considering
Islamic
fundamentalist
group] shell us
the border location.
from,"
he
said.
"They
lob
a Katyusha
We rode in a small tractor-drawn
rocket
over
Menara,
aimed
at the hill-
trailer to one of the kibbutz's experi-
side above Kiryat Shemona, designed
as a warning. Now everyone has to get
Stuart Schoffinan, associate editor of
into the shelters. Anyone who doesn't
the Jerusalem Report, writes a monthly
get in deserves to get hit. Just . kidding.
column for the Jewish News. He can be
Its just a game."
reached via e-mail at:
A few kilometers into the valley, a
steart@netvision.netil
I
large plume of white smoke drifted
into the hazy autumn sky. And what is
that? "That's us," said Ofer. "Earlier
today, we hit them back."
Was anybody hurt or killed in this
inning of the game? "Hard to say," he
replied.
We may or may
not be out of
Lebanon in a
year, but I do
know my son
will be a soldier
in eight years.
And now we were sitting, two vaca-
tioning families, at a long table on the
patio of the Grill Center Restaurant, a
spanking-new, hexagon-shaped shish
kebab joint on a dusty side street near
downtown Kiryat Shemona.
Founded in 1949, Kiryat Shemona
was named for eight men: Joseph
Trumpeldor and his companions. In
1920, they had battled the Arabs at
nearby Tel Hai.
My son, nearly 10, was telling us
about a trip made with a classmate.
Every year, that boy's father and his
army buddies take their kids on a
camping trip; this time my son went
along. My son was describing the mili-
tary exercises his friend's father had
put the boys through. It was fun, he
said, learning how to drop to the
ground, crawl for cover and lie in
ambush in star formation.
My boy walked away from the
table. One of our traveling compan-
ions, an Israeli army veteran, then
graphically told us about the terrible
night when he and his platoon had
ambushed enemy soldiers during the
Lebanon War. He was appalled: This
is what you teach boys of 10?
The waitress came; she was maybe
20 years old. Our friend suddenly
asked her: Do you feel you live on
thin ice? "Always," she said. "Every
two weeks, back into the shelters." Do
you think we should just pull out of
Lebanon because maybe if we did, he
said, the Katyushas would stop?
"I don't know," she said. "I feel for
the soldiers, I feel for the people in
this town. I don't know. I don't think
so. How was the food?"
Prime Minister Ehud Barak intends
for us to be out of Lebanon in a year's
time. Maybe we will be, maybe we
won't. But this I do know: In only
eight years, my son will be a soldier.
When I got back to Jerusalem from
the far north, I cut open one of the
apples, and found a worm in it. 17
LETTERS
lived in the Lodz Ghetto before my
deportation to Auschwitz.
I went to see the movie Jakob the
Liar last month ("Hope Amid
Despair," Sept. 24) because I wanted
to know that the events of my horrific
past were portrayed correctly, as they
happened. You can only imagine how
difficult it was for me to see this
movie.
I knew the radioman, Chaim
Widafsky (the character called Jakob
Heym in the movie, played by
Robin Williams), and I remember
that he was tortured by the Kripo
(the Nazi criminal police) for listen-
ing to a radio. I'm not sure if he
actually had a radio, but he was
accused of it and beaten severely. He
survived the beating; but when he
was summoned to the Kripo again,
he committed suicide in an out-
11/12
1999
36
house by drinking iodine to escape
the torture. This was how I remem-
bered it happening. The cruelty that
existed was unbelievable.
I remember the scene in the movie
where they loaded people to be sent to
Auschwitz. My mother, Bluma, and
my brother, Chaim, were picked up in
the streets and sent to Auschwitz by
train. I was already there and I never
saw my family again. I can name 95
people from my family murdered dur-
ing the war. I must live with this
memory every day.
In the movie, they showed how
starvation was done by a system. Peo-
ple who helped load people onto
trains bound for Auschwitz received
an extra bowl of watery soup. I did
not receive any extra food, and I was
starved daily. When liberated by the
British, I weighed 58 pounds.
The movie portrayed a rumor
about the Russians coming to free the
Jews from the ghetto. In reality, the
rumor spread one day in 1943; and
the Nazi guards began shooting the
Jews who had begun to gather. Many
survivors in Michigan still remember
this event.
I did not recognize the street names
or the scenery from the movie, but the
only fiction from the movie was the
Jews dancing, and the ending, when
he was shot.
I write with the hope that one
day all hatred will stop and the
world will exist in peace and harmo-
ny. Survivors must share our memo-
ries so that this history never repeats
itself — ever.
Ruth Lehman
Oak Park
Peace Process:
What Progress?
In response to letters to the editor in the
Oct. 29 issue, it is important to remain
cautious and realistic in evaluating
where the "peace process" has brought
Israel. One comment, for example, was
that "this is the exact moment to pro-
ceed to a comprehensive and complete
peace between Israel and all of its neigh-
bors."
As Jews, we all might wonder
whether this quote makes sense and
is grounded in compelling facts or
that it is only wishful thinking.
After six years of the Oslo agree-
ments, has the peace process been a
slippery slope of disappointed expec-
tations or have positive achievements
been accomplished that herald a