a working detonator.
Roberts had to track down his subject,
who changed his name after leaving prison
in 1960, and paid him to do the inter-
views. The author believes that these
more recent conversations are more like-
ly to be truthful because Greenglass
casts himself in a negative light.
"The Rosenberg case taught me how
little people can have an impact on the
world stage," says Roberts, comparing
the impact of the Rosenbergs to the
impact of today's terrorists. "I think
that by looking [at these people] as
individuals and trying to understand
what motivates them, we've got a bet-
ter idea of what's on their mind, what
they may be up to and how to forestall
future [harmful] incidents."
As Roberts did his research, he found
increasing amounts of evidence that Ethel
was not a spy as she was charged.
Investigators used her as leverage
to try to get her husband to talk
about the spy ring that was feared
to be penetrating the highest lev-
els of American military and
industrial intelligence.
"There was no question that
the Rosenbergs felt they were
victims of anti-Semitism," says
Roberts, who found that study-
ing the case made him more
sensitive to his own Judaism.
"They were not looked upon as
Americans who had betrayed
their country but as Jews who had
betrayed their country."
Roberts' next project has a broader
outlook. Building on Who We Are, his
profile based on the 1990 census, the
new book is titled Who We Are Now.
— Suzanne Chessler
Sam Roberts speaks 6.30 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 14, at the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield.
`The Letters Of
Jonathan Netanyahu'
I
ddo Netanyahu is touring the
country with two books about
his late brother Jonathan (Yoni
in Hebrew), who became an
Israeli hero for leading the 1976 mis-
sion to rescue Jewish hostages in a
hijacked plane flown to Entebbe.
The first book, The Letters of
Jonathan Netanyahu (Gefen; $21.95),
presents the personal side of this mili-
tary commando, shown through his
correspondence as a sensitive, obser-
vant and expressive writer.
The second, Yoni's Last Battle (Gefen;
$21.95), just being released, describes
the dramatic mission from the point
of view of those serving with Yoni,
who became a casualty at age 30 while
fighting international terrorists taking
over an Air France plane.
"Compiling the letters was emotional,
but doing the research about the rescue
was very straightforward," says Iddo
Netanyahu, who was trained as a medical
doctor but chose to move into a writing
career. "The letters were saved by family
and friends, and I think they were kept
in part because of their quality."
For example, a letter written in
1964 to a 12-year-old Iddo, six years
younger than Jonathan, reads: "Just as
Father offers me advice, let me suggest
something to you — learning is
important above all else.
"The desire to study and acquire
knowledge, to solve problems, to read
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The idea to compile the letters came
after Israeli newspapers interviewed the
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paper asked for more. Reader interest
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includes an introduction by Yoni's
other brother, Benjamin, the former
Israeli prime minister.
"So many of these letters have spe-
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Iddo Netanyahu, who began writing
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Iddo decided to write about Entebbe to
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— Suzanne Chessler
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