100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. These materials may be under copyright. If you decide to use any of these materials, you are responsible for making your own legal assessment and securing any necessary permission. If you have questions about the collection, please contact the Bentley Historical Library at bentley.ref@umich.edu

January 03, 2003 - Image 5

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2003-01-03

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

Masking The Danger

a

as mask use is an unlikely topic in an ulpan
class where newcomers to Israel learn to read
and speak Hebrew. But that's what Nancy
Lipsey, a former Jewish professional in Detroit
and Atlanta, learned about one day last week at the
absorption center where she lives and studies.
Each day, her ulpan teacher, Miriam Deutsch, reviews
the Hebrew version of words.in the news — from
"desalinization" and "territories" to "suspicious object"
and "terrorist" — to help the class understand what's
printed or broadcast in the Jewish state.
The guest instructor who explained the
gas mask, Tanya, was from the Home
Front Command, created after the Gulf
War of 1991 to serve Israeli civilians in
wartime. Lipsey likens the Command to
the Department of Homeland Security
here in America. More than 690 Israelis
have died in Palestinian terror and vio-
ROBERT A. lence since the latest intifada (uprising)
began 27 months ago.
SKLAR
Tanya had come to Lipsey's class at the
Editor
International Center for Hebrew and
Jewish Studies, part of the World Union of Jewish
Students Institute, to teach how to enter a sealed room,
don a gas mask and inject atropine, a nerve gas antidote.
The independently run Institute is in the Judean desert
town Arad.
The Jerusalem Post regularly carries stories that
tell of the Home Front Command's positive
effect. "There also are articles pleading with the
public not to panic, assuring us that Israel is
ready to deal with the threat of war with Iraq,"
Lipsey wrote to me in another exclusive e-mail
essay from Arad.
Her insightful essay arrived within hours after
two Palestinians disguised as Israeli soldiers
Nancy
breached the West Bank settlement of Otniel on
Dec. 27 and sprayed gunfire on Jewish seminary
students gathered for Shabbat dinner. Four Israelis
were slain and eight others were wounded.
The juxtaposition of the gunplay and the e-mail rein-
forced, at least for me, why Israelis can never, not for an -
instant, let down their guard against an enemy who
would settle for nothing less than expelling them forever
from the Mideast, our ancestral homeland.

Gas masks in the Jewish state were improved after two
Israelis died in 1991 when they forgot to pull the filter
plug that lets air flow inward. Now, the filter won't attach
unless the plug is pulled, according to Lipsey.
The improved eyeholes are now "made from a special
unbreakable plastic that won't fog up," she added.
Tanya went on to describe the kinds of biological and
chemical agents that could be used in an attack against
Israel. An injection of atropine, I learned from Lipsey,
would stop the shaking and pressure on your chest caused
by a nerve gas.
"The atropine injections have a flexible needle to allow
you to hook the used syringe on your shirt so the doctors
can see how many injections you have head," she wrote.
As 60 Institute students looked on, Tanya calmly told
how to beat a common biological burn agent, in liquid or
aerosol form but still called mustard gas because of its
yellow hue. Long clothing and a gas mask comprise the
best defense against this burn agent, but flour is effective
in absorbing it for safe disposal, Lipsey related.

Warning Signals

Lipsey ran the Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit's Annual Book Fair from 1995 to
1998 and is the former Southeast Region director for
Women's American ORT. She arrived in Israel last June
for a year of study. Non-citizens — students, tourists, for-
eign workers, year-round residents — are lowest
in the order of who gets a government-issued per-
sonal protection kit.
The phased dispersal of the kits is intended to
maintain a relative calm.
"Warning levels aren't publicly announced but I
knew the situation was changing three weeks ago
when gas masks were being rented to foreign
workers," Lipsey wrote. Two weeks ago, the
Home Front Command reported that school
Lipsey
administrators would start instructing students in
use of a gas mask. Last week, the Home Front
Command opened Pr-otective Kit Distribution Centers
for citizens on Fridays, generally a day when government
offices are closed as Shabbat nears.
"One of the final stages in this warning system," Lipsey
wrote, "will be when everyone is told to carry their pro-
tective kits with them at all times."
Until her turn comes for a government issue, Lipsey has
the option to buy a mask at a local military surplus shop for
Boxed To Help
about $150. Arad is a remote target in the event of an Iraqi
attack, but Lipsey is confident her Institute family would
Tanya, a young Israel Defense Forces soldier assigned to
get her a mask if missiles started hurtling toward Israel.
the Home Front Command in Beersheva (last names of
Students who are new citizens were much more atten-
soldiers cannot be made public), grabbed Lipsey's atten-
tive to Tanya. "For them," Lipsey wrote, "Israel is home,
tion when she began to describe the contents of a person-
and the procedures being discussed might be put into
al protection kit — a thick cardboard box about the size
practice next month or in five years."
of a shoebox with a black carrying strap.
When Tayna left, Lipsey and her classmates returned to
(new
dim
chadashim
Only Institute students who are
their regular studies. There was no discussion about gas
immigrants to Israel) have been issued a kit. It's illegal to
mask use or the prospect of war. Instead, the students
open the kit unless directed to do so by the Home Front
considered other life experiences also integral to grasping
Command. So the contents — gas mask, filter, atropine
the nuances of Hebrew.
injection, instruction booklet — had been a mystery to
As Lipsey put it: "We will continue to learn the words
Lipsey.
of
war and terror, but thankfully in Israel, we also learn
Tanya showed the class how to fit the mask to your face
the words for job interview, relationships, getting along,
and attach the filter. She also showed how to drink with
forecast and peace agreement." ❑
the mask on.

TENDER

271 WEST MAPLE
DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM
248.258.0212

Monday-Saturday 10-6
Thursday 10-9
Sunday 12-5

Open a T E N DER Charge Today

1/ 3

2003

670560

5

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan